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Championship, which was first held that year, its specific goal was to get the sport on the Olympic agenda..The ITU took just five years to accomplish its aim..The sport was awarded full medal status at the 1994 IOC Congress in Paris and scheduled to make its debut at Sydney 2000..

Game On: Triathlon Basics

Swimming

Olympic triathlon races begin with the competitors

diving en masse off a pontoon or on-shore launching platform. . During the swimming section, athletes may use any stroke they like but it will be headline news if anyone opts for other than front crawl..They can take a breather by treading water, floating or holding on to a marker buoy but it’s a bad sign if they do.. Swimming caps must be worn at all times.. If the water temperature exceeds 20°C the wearing of wetsuits is forbidden; if it is below 14°C they are mandatory..

Cycling

After emerging from the water, athletes enter the

first transition zone, where they remove their wetsuits and put on their cycling shoes, which may be placed on their bicycles in advance.. Before removing their bikes from the racks, they must put on cycling helmets and fasten them properly.. Failure to do so leads to disqualification, as does removing a helmet at any point before racking the bike in the second transition zone, unless stationary and doing something desperate like repairing a puncture..

Running

Athletes must dismount when they reach a line just

ahead of the second transition zone.. Here they will find their running shoes placed as close to their personal racks as possible.. Having racked their bikes, removed their helmets and changed their footwear (in that order), they can set off..

Pacing

Be aware that athletes will be pacing themselves until

the final stages of race: if they cycle like a time-trialler they’re not going to make it to the finish line..

Sighting

In the swimming section, watch out for competitors

‘sighting’..This is where they raise their heads above water to look for course markers, using modified strokes that allow them to do so with minimal expenditure of energy and loss of speed..

Drafting

In the swimming section, and still more during the

cycling, look out for athletes drafting – slipstreaming the competitors just ahead of them..

Transitioning

Pay close attention to transitions. Top triathletes

can perform them very smoothly but they can also come a cropper.. Many a triathlon has been lost by a tangle with a wetsuit or the clumsy placement of a bicycle in its rack..

Triathlon Goes to the Olympics

The inaugural Olympic triathlons were held in the

photogenic environs of the Sydney Opera House. .The women went first, with Switzerland’s Brigitte McMahon pipping the local favourite Michellie Jones in a sprint finish..The men’s champion was Simon Whitfield of Canada..

At Athens in 2004, the women’s race again went to an athlete with a British-sounding name from an alpine nation..Austria’s Kate Allen had been in 28th place after the cycling and her victory was a dramatic illustration of the importance of keeping something

TRIATHLETES EMERGING FROM THE Waves At Athens 2004

in reserve for the 10km run. .The men’s title was won by New Zealand’s Hamish Carter, who finished just under eight seconds ahead of his compatriot Bevan Docherty..

The reigning women’s Olympic champion, Australia’s Emma Snowsill, won the Beijing event by an astounding margin of 66 seconds..Victory in the men’s race went to the German champion Jan Frodeno, who passed Whitfield in the last 100 metres, leaving hot favourite Javier Gómez in fourth..The event – due to Whitfield’s presence – attracted Canada’s biggest television audience of the Games..

Why Watch Volleyball?

Volleyball has a split personality. Its indoor version,

with six-a-side teams, began as a wholesome sporting recrea-

tion for paunchy Massachusetts Christian businessmen and

until very recently revelled in its honourable amateurism.. Beach volleyball is, by contrast, a hedonistic, flamboyant and acrobatic variant, born on the beaches of Hawaii and California.. It spent its early years in the company of beauty pageants, and entered the world of globalisedTV sport as a fiesta of hot bodies, tiny swimsuits and garish commercialism..

In reaction, indoor volleyball is now trying to sex itself up, introducing new rules and skimpier outfits to make the game faster and more television-friendly, while beach volleyball finds itself battling the constant accusation that it is not a serious sport.. Neither version should worry: both are intensely athletic, tactically sophisticated and absorbingly competitive..

The Story of Volleyball

Like basketball, its muscular Christian cousin, volley-

ball began life as a project for YMCA physical educators in Massachusetts. . Basketball, first codified in 1891 by James Naismith at the Springfield YMCA, was designed to provide recreation in the organisation’s underused gyms.. But not everyone could cope with the game’s physicality, least of all the kind of slow-moving businessmen that came to William G.. Morgan’s classes in Holyoke..

Morgan experimented with a number of options for a new sport played with bare hands and a ball.. He liked the idea of a court divided by a high net, as in badminton, and after experimenting with a basketball (too heavy) and a basketball bladder (too light) he got the sports goods manufacturer Spalding to create a ball that was just right.. Basic rules for batting the ball back and forth were drawn up, and a demonstration game of what was initially known as Mintonette was played at the YMCA conference of

1895..A member of that first audience, Professor Alfred T.. Halstead, suggested that the sport be known as volleyball..

In 1897 the rules were refined, and subsequently, through the YMCA’s network of gyms, the sport spread to countries such as Canada, Cuba, Japan, Mexico, South America, China and India. . The game really took off in the Philippines, where players were the first to perfect the attacking set-and-spike routine, which they showcased at the 1913 Far Eastern Games..

In America itself the game became a craze, as colleges and the army introduced the sport into the curriculum..The US Overseas Expeditionary Force, stationed in Europe after the First World War, distributed 160,000 volleyballs to the public and played the game in front of huge crowds at the 1919 Inter-Allied Games in Paris

– a mini-Olympics for the allied armies.. Steadily spreading into Central and Eastern Europe, volleyball became a popular minority sport in the inter-war era.. Its rise continued after the SecondWorld War and in 1947 an international governing body, the FIVB, was founded..The first volleyball World Championships were held in Prague in 1949..

The precise origins of beach volleyball are disputed: some say it originated with surfers on Waikiki Beach near Honolulu, in the 1910s; others trace it to Santa Monica, California, in the following decade.. Either way, it was only a matter of time before volleyball hit the beach: playing on sand, the most arduous aspects of the game – falling and rolling on the court – became part of the fun.. Southern California was the place where the sport really stuck and evolved into its established two-a-side format.. Initially played on family outings, beach volleyball grew more popular through the 1930s as Californians flocked to the shore for exercise and fun..The scene became big enough to support organised tournaments after the Second World War and Pepsi, alert to the game’s close association with beach culture, started sponsoring it in 1948..

For the next two decades beach volleyball hovered between sport and showbiz. . Proper competitions were organised in California but they were invariably paired with beauty pageants, bathing-suit contests and musical entertainments. . Marilyn

it out of play or into the net.. Players may use any part of their bodies above the waist to hit the ball, but may not hold it..Any individual may touch the ball only once before it goes back over the net, but the team as a whole is allowed three hits before the ball is returned..

Dig, Set, Spike!

play begins with a serve from the back line. The

receiving side will look to dig the ball (cushion and control it with their forearms), then play a set up, putting the ball into a position where it can be struck hard and downwards over the net

– a shot known as the spike..Whenever possible a team will try to block the ball as soon as it comes over the net so it drops straight back the other side and is hard to return.. Players must not touch the net at any time..

Serving Up

Service rotates among the players of the team, each

player continuing to serve until their team loses the point.. Each

time the side wins back the serve the players rotate clockwise around the court, consequently the best defensive players must sometimes play attack and vice versa.. Serves may be underarm or overarm, but at Olympic level most players will throw the ball high, leap and attempt an overarm jump serve..

The Special One

The libero is a specialised position. The player must

wear different kit from the rest of the team, can play only in the back row, and is not allowed to serve or spike the ball..The libero is usually a defensive specialist, who receives serve and cushions attacks from the back of the court

Points, Set, Match.

Points are scored on every rally, with the winner of

the point taking the next serve.. Sets are won by the first team to 25, provided they are 2 points clear.. If they aren’t, play continues until one side pulls 2 points ahead.. Matches are the best of five sets..The fifth set is played to 15 points..

Substitutions

Substitutions can be made at the start of a set or

during a time out..A maximum of six changes can be made per set.. Each team has twelve members..

Beach Volleyball

The beach rules are the same as for indoor volleyball

except that the game is played two-a-side, with no fixed player positions and no substitutions. .The court is fractionally smaller and is played on sand which must be at least 40cm deep; the ball is slightly bigger and pumped to a lower pressure; a block counts as one of the three hits; and games are the best of three sets – in the first two the winner is the first to reach 21 by 2 clear points (or to pull 2 points ahead), while in the third set it is the first to reach 15..

Service with a Smile

look out for top-spin serves, which are hit with the

wrist and drop sharply once they cross the net, and floats, in which the ball is given no spin and has a very unpredictable flight..

Defensive Tactics

Although teams usually place three players at the back

of the court to receive serve, they sometimes use just two, leaving the third player free to occupy a better position for setting the ball..

Many teams will gamble on where a return is going to cross the net..Team members will jump high at the net before the ball is released by the opposition..When it works the effect is devastating.. Watch for blockers who reach over the net to play the ball sharply down, thus instantly turning defence into attack..

Attacking Tactics

Look for the tandem attack, where two players ap-

proach the ball at the net simultaneously, forcing defenders to choose which of the two to block and giving the attackers the