Sports. The Olympic Games

Sport gives you a chance to acquire self-confidence and gives an increased sense of individuality. It can be unfair at times but it always helps you to overcome difficulties. Sport improves your outlook and gives you real pleasure. Professional athletes unlike the amateur ones represent their country and provide a role model for a healthy lifestyle.

The Goodwill Games have shown that a finely arranged sports event can unite youth from different countries, promote cooperation and peace. It is heartwarming sight when youth can meet, talk, make friends and demonstrate their commitment to peace. The main objective of the Games has been reached. The Goodwill Games is an event in the world of sport and also an important initiative in the field of politics. This multisport event has greatly contributed to peace. It has provided an example of improving relations between Russia and the USA and other nations. New ways of cooperation should be found. Athletes know one excellent way – Games like these. Sport is a fine foundation for broader contacts in all fields.

As for boxing, football, volleyball, basketball, track-and-field athletics gymnastics, wrestling, weight lifting, cycling, winter sports like skating, skiing, ice-hockey; aquatics like swimming, diving, yachting, boating; shooting, lawn tennis, archery, mountaineering, chess, draughts we witness high standards of skills of the athletes who hope for honors in fair competition. The planet’s people need the events of such a high level and so that they could be watched by hundreds of millions of TV viewers.

As regards my favourite sport, badminton, the competition standards and results are rather high. It’s important that the whole event is permeated by a genuine spirit of athletic rivalry. Each athlete tries to win but an atmosphere of cooperation and friendship prevails. I especially like the opening ceremonies of any sport event, the ideas are very often rather exciting. For example, the university stadium in Washington state is right on the ocean. And we can’t afford any delays in sport. We should work permanently. The motto in sport is: “From friendship in sport to peace on earth!” Everything is splendid in sport except injuries which at times can be even fatal. The motto of the Olympic Games “citius, altius, fortius” (Latin – faster, higher, braver) puts the emphasis on personal not team performance and achievement. Officially there are individual and team victors but no victor countries.

The Olympic Games were originally an ancient Greek religious festival in honour of Zeus, held in Olympia near Mount Olympus, the mythical home of gods. The initial date for the beginning of the Games was 776 B.C. They were held every four years, in the middle of the summer; the main condition of the festival was that there should be peace throughout Greece. The ceremony included contests in oratory, poetry, music, and art, as well as in athletic skills like wrestling, throwing the javelin, and running. The Olympic Games were an exclusively male festival, open to young men from all Greek cities. Women were not allowed to compete in the Olympic Games, or even attend or watch them, though there are legends of girls having done so in disguise. The victors were traditionally crowned with olive leaves rather than with gold medals. To be a victor in the classical Olympic Games was a great honour not only for the athlete but for his city.

Nowadays all over the world people of different ages are very fond of sports and games. Sport helps people to become strong and healthy, and makes them more organized and disciplined in their everyday life. We say: a healthy mind in a healthy body. Walking, jogging or swimming help us to feel and look better. May be exercise is more important than just a passive rest. In our country the most popular are football, volleyball, swimming, ice hockey, tennis, gymnastics, figure skating. We can choose sports and games for any season, for any taste. We can do sports at stadiums, sports grounds, skating rinks, skiing stations, football fields. Physical culture is a compulsory subject at schools and colleges. In our city there are many sport clubs and complexes.

As for me I went in for badminton. It kept me in a good form. I attended the badminton section twice a week, on Sunday and Wednesday. I had been playing badminton for three years and I liked it more and more. Sometimes we trained in a badminton court. Sport makes me forget about my problems and helps me to develop a deeper understanding of our beautiful planet. My fitness has increased and my weight has decreased. I’d been attending ball dances for ten years. Dancing is such a fascinating sort of recreation I must say. Waltz, tango, modern dances are rather tricky you know. I like to watch the pairs gracefully waltzing around, particularly I appreciate TV programmes showing the world dancing competitions. I watch dancing competitions and championships.

The British like sports very much, they say they are mad about sports. The most popular in Britain is football, just like in Russia. Besides cricket is very popular there. Football, or soccer, is a professional game. It was first played in Britain, and later people began to play football in other countries. There are many amateur football players in Britain who play the game on Saturday and Sunday afternoon from April till August. Amateur clubs often play against professionals. Almost every school and college has its own football team and every boy in Britain knows a lot about the game. He can tell you the names of the players, the most important teams, the results of many matches.

Rugby is another popular game in Britain. It is not very popular in Russia. I don’t know the rules of rugby. Cricket is a popular summer game. It is the English national game. The rules are very complicated. It is played on a village green field between two teams – the home team and the visitors who come from another village. Golf is a Scottish national game. Lawn tennis was also born in England. The most famous English championship is Wimbledon, which is held every year at the end of June. Besides, horse-racing, swimming, fox-hunting are popular in Great Britain.

Sports at my school. At our school physical training was a compulsory subject. We liked our lessons of physical training. We did different exercises, jumped with a skipping-rope, ran. In summer we played out-of-doors games on the sports ground, in winter we played indoor games in our school gym hall, skated at the skating-rink or skied in the park. We played volleyball and basketball. Many of my friends schoolmates go in for different kinds of sports: gymnastics, swimming, fencing, boxing, wrestling, ice-hockey, figure skating, football, basketball, cycling. We had different sports competitions at our school. The boys played football and the girls were fans or sometimes even participated in sporting event. Frankly speaking, in our class only a few attended sport sections, sport wasn’t so popular among my school-mates.

Sports in the USA. In the USA the most popular sports are football and baseball. Sport is also very popular in that country. Many Americans jog every day, play tennis or bridge, go on hunting.

Each Olympiad the size of the Olympic Games has been growing in the scale of competition, number of competitors, and size of the audience watching them – live or by television. When the first modern Games were held in Athens, the spectators numbered only thousands; today huge stadiums accommodate tens of thousands of spectators while television brings the scene directly to the homes of the whole world.

Famous people

(Russia, Britain, America)