The NYC Ticker-Tape Parade Belongs To The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Now But before the USWNT came along, the celebration had a long (and weird) history.

A ticker-tape parade through lower Manhattan is pretty much the quintessential homecoming for American heroes. So it’s fitting that the conquering U.S. women’s soccer team — which won the World Cup on Sunday — will get its second parade in four years down New York City’s “Canyon of Heroes” on Wednesday morning. That’s an appropriate honor after one of the most dominating performances we’ve ever seen in all of sports history.

Today’s ticker-tape parades in NYC go almost exclusively to teams like the one Megan Rapinoe led to championship glory. Including the past two parades, both earned by the women’s soccer players, sports heroes have gotten 11 of the past 12 parades in New York over a span of 25 years. (The only exception was in 1998, when 77-year-old John Glenn and the rest of the space shuttle Discovery crew were honored.) But that wasn’t always the case. Although about 18 percent of the 196 NYC ticker-tape parades in Wikipedia’s database have commemorated sports accomplishments over the years, that ranks a distant third behind parades thrown for important heads of state (38 percent) and military figures (20 percent). Before sports went on its recent tear, it made up only 13 percent of ticker-tape parades, or roughly the same share as went to famous (nonastronaut) adventurers such as pilot Amelia Earhart and explorer Richard Byrd.

Here’s a look at all 196 New York ticker-tape parades in our data set, broken down by year and type:

When we plot out the whole history of these parades, a few things jump out:

Megan Rapinoe gives passionate speech at World Cup parade in New York City