Sports and games

People all over the world are very fond of sports and games.

Summer outdoor sports are swimming, boating, yachting, cycling and many other sports. Football, the most popular outdoor game, is played in all the countries of the world. A lot of people go in for volleyball, basketball, tennis, badminton golf, cricket and baseball.

The other favourite sports are athletics, gymnastics, calisthenics, track and field events, boxing and wrestling, shooting, hunting.

The most popular outdoor winter sports are hockey, skating, figure-skating, skiing, ski-jumping and tobogganing.

Among the most popular indoor games we can name table tennis billiards, chess and draughts.

There are also many indoor swimming pools, which makes swimming possible all the year round.

Sport in the usa

Sports and games are so popular in the USA that high schools have coaches as faculty members, and school teams compete with each other.

Baseball is the most popular game in the US. It is played in spring and summer by schools, colleges and professional teams.

Football is the most popular game in the autumn. In American football the rules differ from soccer (international football). The teams wear special clothing and helmets as in hockey.

Basketball is very popular game too, especially in high schools

The game of golf is very popular with wealthy people.

Swimming is popular in summer. In winter many people living in the North of the country go in for ice-skating and skiing.

Many Americans jog every day, or play tennis two or three times a week. Americans like to watch hockey matches, wrestling, boxing and horse racing.

FANS

Many people are professional sportsmen but millions of people don’t take part in contests and prefer watching sporting events. They are called sport-fans. They watch sport matches at the stadiums and support their team by cheering, or they sit and watch them on TV.

TENNIS AND TABLE TENNIS

Tennis is a game played between two players or pairs of players who hit a ball to and fro with rackets over a net on a court of grass.

Table tennis is a game played between two players or pairs of players on a table with small bats and a light hollow ball. Table tennis was first invented in England in about 1880. But it is the Chinese who win almost every title now.

THE OLYMPIC GAMES

The Olympics are the symbol of peace and unity.

Long ago ancient Greeks often waged wars. The ruler of a small state, Elis, wanted to live in peace with all his neighbours. He organized athletic games in 776 B.C. in Olympia. All wars were stopped during these games.

The Olympic Games in Greece were held every four years in honour of Zeus, the supreme god of Greek religion. They were held for over 1.000 years.

All athletes took the Olympic Oath and promised to compete honestly. Only men competed and they wore no clothes. Women were not allowed even to watch the competitions at the stadium under the fear of death penalty.

The main sports in the original Olympic Games were running, long jumps, wrestling, throwing the discus and the javelin. Later fist fighting (boxing) and chariot races were also included in the Games. Winners were called "olympionics", they were awarded olive wreaths and cups of olive oil for winning the first place in sports competitions.

A lighted torch was brought all the way from Greece, carried by a relay of runners, in order to light the Olympic Flame which bums all through the Games.

The Olympic Games were accompanied by arts festivals. Poets recited their poems, singers sang hymns, dancers danced and orators pronounced speeches.

The long-distance race was called the Marathon. In the year 490 BC the Greeks defeated a powerful Persian army at the village of Marathon about 40 kilometres from Athens. A soldier ran all the way and brought news of the victory to Athens. Then he fell and died.

Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin revived the ancient Greek tradition. He created the International Olympic Committee and the first modern Olympiad took place in Athens in 1896. One important rule of the Olympic Games is that the competitors must be amateurs.

The famous flag of the IOC shows five rings of different colours (the five continents).

Since then the Olympic Games have been held every four years (every leap year). There were no games during the two world wars. The Winter Olympic Games first took place in 1924.

The 22nd Olympic Games were held in 1980 in Moscow.