Tonight I, like many others around the world, will be watching the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games. The Olympics are such an amazing feat* of world unity and sportsmanship, it is hard to not get excited just thinking about it! I hope many of you will be able to enjoy these games, rooting for** athletes from your own country or just those athletes that you like the best for some reason. Many people like to root for an underdog*** as it is especially exciting to see the underdog win. Whoever you are rooting for I hope you enjoy the games, starting with the Opening Ceremony tonight.
Over the next few weeks I hope to do a number of posts looking at different aspects of the sports that are played in the Olympics and interesting vocabulary and facts related to these sports and the Olympic athletes. Today though, I have decided to start out with giving you just a little overview information about the Olympic Games in general.
• There are 204 countries competing in the 2012 Olympic games in London, England.
• The oldest person to qualify to compete in these games was a 71-year-old man from Japan. I wasn’t able to find out who the youngest person is to qualify for these Olympic games, so I guess we’ll all just have to watch and see. The youngest person to ever compete in the Olympic games was 10 years and 218 days old when he competed in the 1896 games.
• The United States will be sending 530 athletes to the 2012 Olympic Games. This includes 269 women and 261 men, who will compete in 25 different sports.
• There are a total of 26 different sports represented in the Olympic Games. These sports include: archery, badminton, basketball, beach volleyball, boxing, canoeing/kayaking, cycling, diving, equestrian, fencing, field hockey, gymnastics, handball, judo, modern pentathlon, rowing, sailing, shooting, soccer, swimming, synchronized swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, track and field, triathlon, volleyball, water polo, weightlifting, and wrestling.
Which of these is your favorite sport? Which of these sports would you like to know more about in terms of English vocabulary? Please feel free to leave a comment on this post to let me know if there is a subject related to the Olympics you would like me to address.
Let the games begin!
* feat = a great achievement
** to root for = to take sides or align oneself with something
*** underdog = the competitor least likely to win
Comments:
Alex:
I would like see some sports but for me the sport more interesting is soccer, because Mexico send a good team for this competence.
gabriele:
@Alex The soccer competition should be very exciting to watch this year. I will certainly be watching Mexico too as they do send such great players to the Olympic Games.
Yasser:
In fact I like cycling very much ,If you have more information about it it would be interesting.
gabriele:
@Yasser Yasser, I will try to include some information about cycling in one of my upcoming Olympic Games related posts. Thank you for your comment.
Chad le Clos Michael Phelps:
He is one of my favourite athletes in the world of sport today. What will his next move be ?