Sports born in Britain, and two great stadiums

Sport matters a lot in many British people's lives. Several sports that are now played all over the world first took their modern form in Britain: cricket, football, lawn tennis, golf and rugby.

Big matches and events often take place in large stadiums. Two of the best known are London's Wembley Stadium and the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, the Welsh capital. If you want to get active yourself, local councils and private companies run all kinds of places to do it: swimming pools, gyms, tennis courts, football pitches and even dry ski slopes (slopes covered with an artificial surface, so you can ski without snow).

Today's Wembley Stadium opened in 2007 on the site of the old 1923 stadium, and it has about 90,000 seats. The white arch over its roof is 134 metres high and can be seen from many parts of London. One of the designers was the architect Norman Foster, who also appears in the story "Architecture: from Norman castles to the gothic revival".