Sport is good for all
To begin a conversation about sport it isimportant to say some words about it’s history. And I’d like to tell you aboutOlympic Games. An athletic festival with competitions in music and poetry washeld every four years on the island of Peplos in Southern Greece. The periodbetween the games was called an Olympiad.
The games were held in honour of Zeus, theprinciple god of the Greeks, who according to the legend lived on Mount Olympus. The festival lasted five days and became a symbol of peace and friendshipbecause in keeping with the decree of that time no wars should be waged duringan Olympiad.
The athletes competed in running, boxing,wrestling, horse and chariot racing and the like. The winners were given laurelwreaths in the temple of Zeus.
And nowadays the Olympic Games have beenregularly held in different countries of the world and have become a wonderfultradition which helps to bring people closer together.
People all over the world are fond ofsport. Some people do morning exercises, train themselves in clubs and indifferent sections. There are many sport clubs that anyone can join. Lightathletics gives much opportunity to those who go in for it. It includes trackfield events: running, long-jumping, high jumping, and others. But there’re alot of people, who like sport too but they only watch sport games and listen tosport news. They prefer to read interesting stories about sportsmen. But theydon’t go in for sport.
Many children are fond of ball games:basketball, volleyball, football. They are so exiting. Children like to takepart in the competitions to see who is the quickest, the strongest, who canjump best, and who is the best swimmer or player. Pupils in different classeshold competitions in different kinds of sport. All the competitions and gamesare very popular with the pupils. A lot of fans always come to watch them.
But there’re some bad sides of sport. Sporttoday means big business for both players and sponsors. Sporting events likethe World Cup, which has a big TV audience, make huge amounts of money.Companies like Coca Cola and Adidas have paid a lot of money to sponsor a sportevents. They know that their names and logons at the sport stadiums andparticipants’ clothes. The high rewards have encouraged some sportsmen to takedrags to improve their performance.
As for me my favorite sport is swimming. It’sa wonderful sport. And It’s a good exercise too. It makes people strong andhealthy.
I think sport helps people to stay in agood shape, keeps them fit, healthy and makes them more organized and betterdisciplined in their daily activities.
Sports in Great Britain
National sports in Great Britain… It is a veryinteresting question, because many kinds of sport have taken the origin in England.
The Englishmen love sports, they are calledsports-lovers in spite of the fact that some of them neither play games noreven watch them. They only like to speak about sports.
Some kinds of sport are professional in England.
Many traditional sporting contests take place in England, for example, cricket. This game is associated with England. There are manycricket clubs in this country. English people like to play cricket. They thinkthat summer without cricket isn't summer. If you want to play cricket you mustwear white boots, a white shirt and white long trousers.
There are two teams. Each team has eleven players.Cricket is popular in boys' schools. Girls play cricket too.
Football has got a long history. Footballwas played by the whole village teams in the middle ages in England.
Now football is the most popular game in Britain. It is a team game. There are some amateur teams but most of the teams areprofessional ones in England. Professional football is a big business. Footballis played at schools too.
In rugby football you can see a ball, butit is not round. It is oval. This is a team game. There are fifteen players ineach team. It is a popular game in England. There are many amateur rug-byfootball teams in this country.
If we speak about football we can mentionan American football too. It is a game that is played between two teams ofplayers using an oval ball that can be handled or kicked. The captain of theteam must be the oldest or best player.
Table tennis or ping-pong originated in1880. But the British players are not lucky in tennis internationalchampionships. Many people like to play table tennis. This game is played bymen and women.
There are some tennis clubs in England, but if you play there it is necessary to pay money for it. Englishmen like playingtennis but many of them prefer to watch this game.
Wimbledonis the centre of lawn tennis. Some years ago Wimbledon was a village, now it is a part of London. The most important tennis competitiontakes place there every summer.
Englishmen pay much attention to swimming, rowing andwalking. The most famous boat race in England is between Oxford and Cambridge. It is usually held on the Thames River. A lot of people come to watch it.
There are some racing competitions in England. They are motor-car racing, dog-racing, donkey-racing, boat-racing, horse-racing.All kinds of racings are popular in England. It is interesting to see theegg-and-spoon race. The runner, who takes part in this competition, must carryan egg in a spoon. It is not allowed to drop the egg.
I must speak about the Highland Games in Scotland. All competitors wear Highland dress. There are such competitions as putting theweight, tossing the caber and others. The English are great lovers of sports.