RETRO SPORTS RETRO SPORTS RETRO SPORTS

Jazzercise, bowling and roller derby. These sports were loved by so many in the past that they earned themselves the title “retro.” The word retro, meaning “... the styles and… the fashions of the past” according to Merriam Webster, could not be a better description of these sports. Though they were more popular in the ‘70s and ‘80s than they are now, they are fighting their way back into the daily routines of the public and opening new doors to other modern sports.

Jazzercise was founded by Judi Sheppard Missett in 1969. Missett was a former dance instructor who found that normal dance classes were harder than most people could withstand. With this newly acquired knowledge, she invented the beloved “sport”, Jazzercise. Missett combined moves from cardio workouts, dance classes, HIIT training, kickboxing and yoga to make the perfect blend of exercise and fun that was available to all. The idea soon caught on and became a major trend in the ‘70s and ‘80s. USA Today even called it “the original dance party workout.”

With the rise of Jazzercise came the rise of women searching for a way to feel comfortable in their skin and boost their fitness. Jazzercise became an outlet for those women because of the feel-good environment and the low equipment demand. To participate in a Jazzercise class, one only needs a resistance band and a set of small dumbbells. Because of its energy, Jazzercise is still practiced today, sometimes even from the comfort of one’s own home!

Another ancient yet beloved sport is bowling. Bowling originated in Germany around 300 A.D. as a religious practice that involved rolling stones at clubs to ask forgiveness for an individual’s sins. As time passed, it gained popularity and spread all over the world. In 1336, King Edward III banned bowling because it was preventing his soldiers from focusing on their training. Eventually, bowling made it to America where people took an instant liking to it and threw themselves headfirst into the world of professional bowling. Professional bowling consists of the top bowlers from around the world competing in tournaments to win prize money that could be up to 250 thousand dollars or higher! All of this led to the creation of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), the organization that coordinates and regulates bowling tournaments around the world.

Bowling, though less popular than it was in the 1960s and 1970s, is still very well-known. Professional tournaments are still going on worldwide, courtesy of the PBA, but the most common players today are families. Bowling is a sport where people can chat and enjoy quality time together, which is why it is most currently used as a bonding activity. Whether kids, adults, friends or family, bowling allows others to enjoy the company of those they love with a fun, undemanding game on the side.

Lastly, one of the most “retro” sports is Roller Derby. Roller derbies, though possibly unfamiliar to modern-day Americans, had a huge popularity surge in the ‘50s and ‘70s. Roller derby is a sport where two teams compete, with roller skates, to see who can win the most points by taking multiple laps around a track.

Roller derby was invented in 1935 by a former walkathon participant named Leo Seltzer. He decided that he wanted to add a flair to the walkathons by making the athletes wear roller skates. It may sound simple, but it is a very complicated sport. Each on-track team consists of one jammer, whose job is to pass opposing players and not get caught in the group of skaters. There are also four blockers, who are supposed to prevent the other team’s jammer from passing them. To make things more complicated, all skaters may not use their heads, elbows, forearms, knees, lower legs, feet or head to make contact with another skater. Yet as complicated as this sport may be, it has brought individuals from around the globe together to enjoy a show of pure athleticism. These three sports are just a sample of the numerous “retro” sports that have impacted millions. While Judi Missett was founding Jazzercise, bowling was becoming more family oriented. And while bowling was becoming more inclusive, roller derbies promoted the trend of in-line skating, which is still a favored pastime today. All in all, these sports, no matter how complicated or old they may seem, still play a part in many modern lives today.

In 1996, Atlanta hosted the Centennial Summer Olympic Games, and since then, the city’s population has doubled in size. Within that 27-year period, census data shows that migration to Atlanta has vastly increased, with more than three million people having moved to the Empire State of the South and fifty thousand more each year since. Atlanta wanted to have downtown be the focal point of attention because they had been trying to expand infrastructure, transportation and entertainment for a long time. They saw the Olympics as a perfect opportunity to be in the spotlight because it justified significant expansions. The Olympics, being the single largest event in the city’s history, helped establish Atlanta as the business and sports capital of the Southeast that we all know and love today.

The announcement of the Olympic Games being hosted in Atlanta back in 1990 launched a more than one billion dollar campaign of construction projects, from Olympic venues to housing for the athletes. Some of the most prominent leg-