The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Saints compete in the National Football League as a member of the league's National Football Conference South division; the team was founded by John W. Mecom Jr. David Dixon, the city of New Orleans on November 1, 1966; the Saints began play in Tulane Stadium in 1967 where they remained until the 1974 NFL season, when they moved to the new Louisiana Superdome. The name "Saints" is an allusion to November 1 being All Saints' Day in the Catholic faith. New Orleans has a large Catholic population, the spiritual "When the Saints Go Marching In" is associated with New Orleans and is sung by fans at games; the team's primary colors are old gold and black. For most of their first 20 years, the Saints were competitive, only getting to.500 twice. In 1987, they finished 12–3—their first-ever winning season—and qualified for the NFL playoffs for the first time in franchise history, but lost to the Minnesota Vikings 44–10.

The next season in 1988 ended with a 10 -- 6 record. Following the 2000 regular season, the Saints defeated the defending Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams 31–28 to notch their first-ever playoff win. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the Gulf Coast region; the Superdome was used as temporary shelter for displaced residents. The stadium suffered damage from the hurricane; the Saints were forced to play their first scheduled home game against the New York Giants at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. During the season, it was rumored that Saints' owner Tom Benson might deem the Superdome unusable and seek to void his contract and relocate the team to San Antonio, where he had business interests. However, the Superdome was repaired and renovated in time for the 2006 season at an estimated cost of US$185 million; the New Orleans Saints' first post-Katrina home game was an charged Monday Night Football game versus their division rival, the Atlanta Falcons. The Saints, under rookie head coach Sean Payton and new quarterback Drew Brees, defeated the Falcons 23–3, went on to notch the second playoff win in franchise history.

The 2009 season was a historic one for the Saints. Winning a franchise-record 13 games, they qualified for Super Bowl XLIV and defeated the AFC champion Indianapolis Colts 31–17. To date, it is the only Super Bowl championship that they have won, as it is the only Super Bowl the Saints have appeared in, they join the New York Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the only three NFL teams to win their lone Super Bowl appearance. In 53 seasons, the Saints' record was 384–450–5 overall, 375–438–5 in the regular season and 9–12 in the playoffs. First the brainchild of local sports entrepreneur Dave Dixon, who built the Louisiana Superdome and founded the USFL, the Saints were secretly born in a backroom deal brought about by U. S. Congressman Hale Boggs, U. S. Senator Russell Long, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle; the NFL needed congressional approval of the proposed AFL–NFL merger. Dixon and a local civic group had been seeking an NFL franchise for over five years and had hosted record crowds for NFL exhibition games.

To seal the merger, Rozelle arrived in New Orleans within a week, announced on November 1, 1966, that the NFL had awarded the city of New Orleans an NFL franchise. The team was named for the great jazz song most identified with New Orleans – "When the Saints Go Marching In", it was no coincidence that the franchise's official birth was announced on November 1, the Catholic All Saints' Day; when the deal was reached a week earlier, Dixon suggested to Rozelle that the announcement be delayed until then. Dixon told an interviewer that he cleared the name with New Orleans' Archbishop Philip M. Hannan: "He thought it would be a good idea, he had an idea the team was going to need all the help it could get."Boggs' Congressional committee in turn approved the NFL merger. John W. Mecom Jr. a young oilman from Houston, became the team's first majority stockholder. The team's colors and gold, symbolized both Mecom's and New Orleans' strong ties to the oil industry. Trumpeter Al Hirt was part owner of the team, his rendition of "When the Saints Go Marching In" was made the official fight song.

The inaugural game in 1967 on September 17 started with a 94-yard opening kickoff return for a touchdown by John Gilliam, but the Saints lost that game 27–13 to the Los Angeles Rams at Tulane Stadium, with over 80,000 in attendance. It was one of the few highlights of a 3–11 season, which set an NFL record for most wins by an expansion team. For most of their first 20 years, the Saints were the definition of NFL futility, they did not finish as high as second in their division until 1979. The 1979 and 1983 teams were the only ones to finish at.500 until 1987. One of the franchise's early bright moments came on November 8, 1970, when Tom Dempsey kicked an NFL record-breaking 63-yard field goal at Tulane Stadium to defeat the Detroit Lions 19–17 in the final seconds of the game. Dempsey's record was not broken until 2013 by Matt Prater of the Denver Broncos, who kicked one yard farther. In 1980, the Saints lost their first 14 games, prompting local sportscaster Bernard "Buddy D" Diliberto to advise Saints

Oleg Nikolayevich Tsvetkovskiy is an Uzbek former swimmer, who specialized in sprint and middle-distance freestyle events. He represented Uzbekistan in two editions of the Olympic Games, since the nation's breakup from the Soviet Union. Tsvetkovskiy made his official debut at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, he failed to reach the top 16 final in the 100 m freestyle, finishing forty-eighth in a time of 52.39. A member of the Uzbek team, he placed seventeenth in the 4×100 m freestyle relay, twelfth in the 4×200 m freestyle relay. At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Tsvetkovskiy competed only in two swimming events, he eclipsed a FINA B-cut of 1:55.29 from the Asian Championships in South Korea. On the first day of the Games, he teamed up with Ravil Nachaev, Petr Vasiliev, Oleg Pukhnatiy in the 4×100 m freestyle relay. Although he swam the second leg in heat one, his team had been disqualified due to an early relay takeoff by Pukhnatiy; the following day, in the 200 m freestyle, Tsvetkovskiy placed forty-fourth on the morning prelims.

He edged out Egypt's Mahmoud El-Wany to lead the first heat by 0.26 of a second in a lifetime best of 1:54.93

Marion Lee "Mickey" Thompson was an American auto racing builder and promoter. A hot rodder since his youth, Thompson pursued land speed records in his late 20s and early 30s, he achieved international fame in 1960, when he became the first American to break the 400-mph barrier, driving his Challenger 1 to a one-way top speed of 406.60 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats and surpassing John Cobb's one-way world record mark of 402 mph. Thompson turned to racing, winning many track and dragster championships. In the 1960s, he entered cars at the Indianapolis 500, he formed off-road racing sanctioning bodies SCORE International and Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group. In 1988, Thompson and his wife Trudy were mysteriously gunned down at their home in Bradbury, California; the crime remained unsolved until 2007, when a former business partner was convicted of having orchestrated the murders. Thompson was born in California. In his early 20s, he worked as a pressman for the Los Angeles Times while pursuing a lifelong love of hot rodding.

He became involved in the new sport of drag racing. Tireless and innovative, he found success as a championship driver and instinctive automotive technician. Over the course of his career, Thompson set more speed and endurance records than any other man in automotive history, he is credited with designing and building the first slingshot dragster, in 1954, moving the seat behind the rear axle to improve traction when existing racing tires proved unable to handle the output of powerful custom engines. This car, the Panorama City Special, debuted at the first NHRA U. S. Nationals at the Great Bend Municipal Airport in Great Bend, Kansas, in 1955; the car ran a best speed of 151.26 mph. A change so momentous would not happen again until Don Garlits introduced the rear-engined digger in 1971. Thompson was noted for being the first manager of Lions Drag Strip in Wilmington, California, in 1955. Thompson collaborated with Fritz Voight on a 1958 twin-engined dragster; this car achieved a best speed of 294.117 mph.

It provided lessons applied to Challenger I. Determined to set a new land speed record, Thompson achieved fame when he drove his four-engined Challenger 1 at better than 400 mph in 1960 at the Bonneville Salt Flats, becoming the first American to break that barrier. In 1962, Thompson entered three John Crosthwaite-designed cars in the Indianapolis 500. Unusually, they used a stock V8 Buick engine, it was in the rear unlike the front-engined, race-tuned, Offenhauser-powered cars used by most competitors, it was the first stock engine to be raced at Indy since 1946. Thompson's crew, led by Fritz Voigt, was young and hard working. Working 12 - to 14-hour days, the car was built in 120 days. For the race, the engine had to be detuned because they were concerned it would not last the distance. Despite being more than 70 bhp down on the other cars, Dan Gurney qualified eighth and was in ninth place until a leaking oil seal seized the gearbox and ended his race on lap 94, he was placed 20th out of 33.

The team won the Mechanical Achievement Award for original design and accomplishment. Thompson's promotional skills pleased the sponsors with the publicity generated that year. For the 1963 Indianapolis 500, Crosthwaite designed the innovative Harvey Aluminium Special "roller skate car" with the then-pioneering 12 in diameter wheels with smaller-profile racing tires, 7 in wide at the front and 9 in rear. Thompson took five cars to Indianapolis - two of the previous year's design with Chevrolet V8 engines and three roller skate cars. One of the new cars, the Harvey Titanium Special, featured a lightweight titanium chassis. Al Miller raced one of the modified 1962 cars to ninth place despite only qualifying in 31st position. Duane Carter qualified one of the roller skate cars 15th, but was only placed 23rd after an engine failure on the 100th lap; the small tire sizes and low car weights caused complaints among the old hands and owners, so for future races, cars were restricted to minimum tire sizes and minimum car weights.1962 Formula One World Champion Graham Hill tested one of the roller skate cars at Indianapolis in 1963, but refused to race it, citing its poor handling.

The recent ruling required 15-in wheels. Thompson commented: "The car wouldn't handle", adding, "There was too much body roll due to the high center of gravity."In 1963, Thompson traveled to England, where along with Dante Duce, he demonstrated his Ford-powered top fuel Harvey Aluminum Special dragster at the Brighton Speed Trials. It was displayed at the Racing Car Show in London in January 1964. Thompson brought three modified 12-inch-tired cars to the 1964 Indianapolis 500, but new rules required him to use 15-in tires; the Allstate sponsored team used Ford engines. The chassis had to be altered to accommodate the larger Ford engines. Two of them qualified for the race; the car No. 84 began the month with Masten Gregory as the driver, but Eddie Johnson in car No. 84 qualified 24th and finished 26th. Dave MacDonald in car No. 83 died in a fiery crash on the second lap. Thompson went back to Indy in 1965, but failed to qualify in an attempt with a front-engined roadster, he tried again in 1967 and 1968, again failing to qualify either year.

The 1967 attempt used a unique all-wheel drive rear-engined design that steered both front and rear wheels, but Gary Congdon was unable to qualify any of the three cars. In 1965, Thompson published Challenger: Mickey Thompson'