SPORTS. OLYMPIC GAMES. ATHLETES IN THE WORKS OF DOCUMENTARY AND FICTION BY FOREIGN WRITERS

Опубликовано Тараева Раиса Султановна вкл 24.12.2013 - 13:58

Автор:

Гаджиева Аида

III городской конкурс юных исследователей на английском языке

THE WORLD IS IN FRONT OF US

Title of work:SPORTS. OLYMPIC GAMES. ATHLETES IN THE WORKS OF DOCUMENTARY AND FICTION BY FOREIGN WRITERS

PREPARED BY THE STUDENT

OF FORM 9B

AIDA GADZHIEVA

SCHOOL NO11

SUPERVISOR- R.S.TARAEVA

VLADIKAVKAZ, 2013

Contents

1. Introduction

2. The main part

a) the history of the Olympics

b) the modern Olympics

c) the table of the Olympic Games host cities

d) Susan Graham talks about the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games

e) an interview “Shoot for the Moon”

f) Lachlan Jones

g) international tennis star Maria Sharapova

h) new IOC President named as Thomas Bach

i) two-times Olympic champions Nina Ponamareva and Arkady Vorobiev became “Legends”

3.Conclusion. Opinions about Olympic Games

A sound mind in a sound body

As we know, sport is one of those things that make our lives really worth living. In one way or another, every one is involved in sports whether they play or watch it, or just know someone who does either. Although a lot of people seem to be interested in sports, not all of them consider it useful.

There are so many kinds of sports, such as cycling, swimming, gymnastics, boxing, skating, skiing, rowing, yachting and many more in which anyone can take an active part or just be a devoted fan.

My favorite kind of sport is tennis. I’ve been playing it since I was eleven years old, and the more I play it the more I like it. There is a good tennis court not far from my house and whenever I have a chance I go there with a friend of mine.

Sport plays an important role in our life. Some historians think that sports first appeared as a repetition of typical movements of a workman or a soldier performed to refine practical skills. Some tribes of Native Americans played a game which was alike football, but it had a religious meaning. The winning team had to be executed as the one that had pleased the gods of the tribe.

It is true that the Olympic Games have a very long history. European traditions started in Ancient Greece with the Olympic Games. They were started as All-Greece holidays and contest to honour Zeus in 776BC. Every fourth year for life days all Greek athletes gathered in the city of the Olympia. All wars had to be stopped. Every city sent its athletes to Olympia, and the winner returned to his native city through a break in the city wall because people believed that the winner had been chosen by the gods. The Olympic Games included running, wrestling, boxing, horseracing, pentathlon and chariot races. The games were stopped in 394 AD when Olympia was destroyed by two strong earthquakes. So the tradition lasted for more than 400 years. The present Olympic Games were started in 1896. The founder of the modern Olympics is Pierre de Coubertin. As in the past, the Olympic Games of the present take place every 4 years in summer. But there are the so-called «white Olympics»in winter and Paralympics for disabled people. Since 1896 Olympics have been held in Britain 3 times in London (1908,1948), in the USA 5 times :in St.Louis(1904),in Los Angeles (1932,1984) and in Atlanta(1996). Olympics were also held in Russia in Moscow(1980).

The headquarter of the International Olympic Committee are in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The President of the IOS is Thomas Bach of Germany. The Olympic motto is’ Faster, Higher, Stronger’. The Olympic symbol is five interlocking circles coloured blue, yellow, black, green, and red on a white black ground, representing the five continents. At least one of these colours appears in the national flag of every country.

It is generally agreed today that the Olympic Games are now commercialized and there is greed and drug abuse. However, it is a competition in which every country in the world takes part.

Every four years, for a brief moment, we see these countries come together in peace and friendship. We feel hope again for the future of mankind.

Our sportsmen also participate in the Olympic Games and always win a lot of gold, silver and bronze medals. Russia joined the Olympic movement in 1952. In 1980 Moscow hosted the Twenty- Second Olympics Games.

Summer and Winter Games held separately. There are always several cities wishing to host the Games. The most suitable is selected by the International Committee. After that the city of the games start preparations for the competitions, constructs new sports facilities, stadiums, hotels, press centres. Thousands of athletes, journalists and guests come to the Games, and it takes great efforts to arrange everything. There is always an interesting cultural programme of concerts, exhibitions, festivals, etc., for each Games.

Now the Olympic games include many sports- swimming, diving, running, sport walking and many others. Perhaps , the main difference between the ancient and modern Olympics is that for the ancient Greeks the Games were a way of saluting their gods, when the modern Games are a manner of saluting the athletic talents of people of all nations. The original Olympics included competitions in music, oratory, and theatre perfomances as well. The Modern Games haven’t got them, but they represent a lot more sports than before. The earliest record of the Olympic Games goes back to 776 BC. According to the earliest records, only one athletic event was held in the ancient Olympics- a footrace of about 183 metres , or the length of the stadium. A cook , Coroibus of Elis, was the first recorded winner. Only men were allowed to compete or watch the game. When the powerful, warlike Spartans began to compete, they changed the programme of the Games.

The winners of the Games were highly praised and honoured for their results. Beginning in 1924 Winter Olympics were included. They were held in the same year as the summer Games , but starting in 1994,the winter Games are held two years after the Summer Games .The Olympics are governed by the International Olympic Committee(IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Susan Graham talks about the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games

Sydney, Australia’s oldest and largest city, will be the host for the Games of the 27^th Olympiad.

The Games will be held over 17 days from the Opening Ceremony on Friday, 15 September 2000 to the Closing Ceremony on Sunday, 1 October.

It will be the second time that Australia has hosted the Game. In 1956 the Games were held in Melbourne, capital of the state of Victoria. They became known as the friendly Games.

Australia has enjoyed a long connection with the Olympics. It took part in the 1896 Games in Athens and is one of the only few countries to have attended every one since. It is also a consistent medal winner-27^atthe Barcelona Games in 1922 and 41 in Atlanta in 1996. In 1956 Australia finished third in the overall and medal counts.

The Sydney 2000 Games- and the Paralympics Games for disabled athletes to follow enjoy wide community support. Ninety percent of Australians favoured Syndney’s bid for the Games and more than 100,000 volunteers offered their services at that time.

Political, corporate and community groups, Aboriginal communities, environmental organizations and school children gave Sydney’s bid their

enthusiastic backing and continue to do so.

The following statistics indicate the task facing Sydney:

About 200 countries are expected to participate.

There will be 10,000 athletes and 5,000 officials.

3.5billion television viewers will watch the Games around the world.

40,000 volunteers will assist in the staging of the Games.

15,000 members of the media will cover the event.

There are 27 sports on the program for the 2000 Olympic Games ranging from Archery to Weightlifting. Triathlon and Taekwondo will be contested in Sydney for the first time at any Olympic Games. There are a number of popular sports in Australia such as Australian Rules Football,Rugby League and Cricket which are not Olympic sports and which will not be included in the program because they are not played in a sufficient number of countries.

The 2000 Olympic Games will focus on two primary zones- Sydney Olympic Park and the Sydney Harbour Zone- only 14 km apart and connected by road, rail and water transport services.

Only shooting, canoeing, rowing, mountain bike and equestrian events will be held away from these two zones.

Sydney Olympic Park at Homebush is being built on former industrial land, the rehabilitation of which is seen as a major environmental triumph for Sydney. It will be the site of the Olympic Stadium, which will be first to house all 10,000 Olympic athletes and 5,000 team officials at the one site.

In keeping with Sydney’s commitment to the environment in the building of the venues and the staging of the Games, the Athletes’ Village will set a benchmark for future construction. Features will include passive solar design, solar street lighting, use of recyclable and recycled building products wherever possible, the recycling of waste water and maximum use of public transport facilities. Importantly, it will give Olympic athletes the feeling of “family” in accordance with the Olympic ideals of “building a peaceful and better world through sport”.

All of Sydney’s citizens will benefit from the lasting legacy of the Games with world class sporting facilities.

The 2000 Olympic will be held one year before the centenary of the declaration of Australian federation, when the six separate colonies united to form a single nation.

A series of festivals in the years leading up to the Games will tell the story of Australia’s multicultural development.

The Cultural Olympiad will start in 1997 with the Festival of the Dreaming, a celebration of the world’s indigenous cultures, especially those Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.

In the following year the theme will be A Sea Change, celebrating the contribution of exploration and immigration.

In 1999 Australia will take its culture to the international community with a program called Reaching the World when Australia’s artist and performers will acquaint other nations with the richness and diversity of Australia’s cultural heritage.

In 2000, in the four months leading up to the Games, the Harbour of Life Festival will present to visitors to Sydney new works, exhibitions and performances by leading Australian and international artists.

SHOOT FOR THE MOON

By Eva Kaminker from South Brunswick , NJ

Jean Driscoll is a wheelchair racer who was born with a condition known as “spina bifida” ,which means her spinal cord did not develop properly.

E.K.: Do people treat you differently because you use a wheelchair?

J.D.: Sometimes. Some people think that because I use a wheelchair, my brain doesn’t work well. They don’t understand that having a disability is just a characteristic, like having brown eyes or blond hair.

E.K.: How did you get started in wheelchair sports?

J.D.: When I was 15 years old, I met a guy who played wheelchair soccer. I started playing wheelchair softball, basketball, tennis and racquetball.

E.K.: How much do you train?

J.D.:I train two to five hours per day, six days a week. I lift weights three to four times a week and push 130 to 150 miles a week.

E.K.:In which events will you be competing in the 1996 Summer Olympics and the Paralympics?

J.D.: In the Olympics , I’ll compete in the 800-meter event. In the Paralympics, I’ll race in the 1,500-meter, 5,000-meter,10,000-meter and the marathon.

E.K.: what message would you like to tell?

J.D.: People think that if you’re successful, you were born that way. But that’s not the way it is. My message is: Dream big and work hard! If you shoot for the moon, even if you don’t make it, you will still land among the stars!

LACHLAN JONES

The birth of a father’s first child is full of expectation. He may want a son and get a daughter; he may want an artist and get a truck driver; or he may want a gold medalist and get a child with cerebral palsy.

In March 1977 Greg Jones’ life changed forever- he was confronted with one of the greatest of life’s challenges. His son was born blind and with cerebral palsy. His name is Lachlan.

At age ten Lachlan’s father took him on a fun run. This fun run turned into the pursuit of a dream, a dream to be the best.

Today Lachlan is a Gold Medallist Paralympian. He won the medal at Atlantic Paralympics. He holds all world records from 100 metres through to 800 metres in Wheelchair Track competition and is the Australian Powerlift Champion in the 52 kg Division.

At the age of 19 years Lachlan has the ability and attitude to create a long-term future for himself in sports and will be competing as often as possible in Australia. He wishes to pursue a career in the fitness sport industry and will begin studying the appropriate courses next year. Lachlan has appeared on television nationally and locally in Melbourne representing the disabled in sport and recreation. He is keenly interested in the development of sport and facilities for the disabled. He would like to become a gym instructor for disabled athletes. He is looking forward to these new opportunities as well as the 2000 Olympic in Sydney.

Melbourne wheelchair racer Lachlan Jones set a world record in the men’s 100-metre sprint yesterday and became a Paralympic champion.

Jones, who has cerebral palsy, said he was not nervous, although his father, Greg Jones, said he was personally shaking.

“No!” said Jones. “It’s just another race to me. I was saying that to myself. That got me through.”

His plan, he said, was to go as fast as he could , right from the start.

Compared with other races, he said, the Paralympics was fairly easy, because he didn’t have to turn any corners.

Jones said he won the medal for a teacher at his school.

Also in track and field yesterday, Katrina Webb, who also has cerebral palsy, won a silver medal in the long jump.

“I gave it everything because I knew if I didn’t wouldn’t have a chance of getting the gold. I didn’t get the gold but I did my personal best, and I got a silver medal.”

Webb said that she had been training for the long jump for just four months.

Two days into the Paralympics, Australia is leading the medal count with seven gold medals.

INTERNATIONAL TENNIS STAR MARIA SHARAPOVA TO JOIN NBC OLYMPICS IN SOCHI

Four-Time Grand Slam Singles Champion & Olympic Silver Medalist Learned to Play Tennis in her Hometown of Sochi

STAMFORD, Conn. – November 13, 2013 – Tennis champion Maria Sharapova, winner of four Grand Slam singles crowns and a silver medal for Russia in women’s singles at the 2012 London Olympics, will join NBC Olympics for its Winter Games coverage in Sochi, Russia, it was announced today.

Sharapova, the flag bearer for her native Russia at the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony, will serve as a correspondent offering insight and commentary on Russia’s first Winter Olympics.

“Maria transcends sports as one of the world’s most recognizable stars,” said Jim Bell, Executive Producer of NBC Olympics. “Growing up in Sochi until she was six years old and with family and friends still living in the area, Maria will offer a unique and personal perspective on a place she knows so well.”

Currently the fourth-ranked women’s tennis player in the world, Sharapova is one of 10 women to achieve a “Career Grand Slam” winning singles titles at Wimbledon (2004), U.S. Open (2006), Australian Open (2008) and French Open (2012). She has won 29 Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) singles titles, appeared in eight Grand Slam finals, and held the No. 1 World ranking five times. In June 2011, Sharapova was recognized as one of the “30 Legends of Women’s Tennis: Past, Present and Future” by Time magazine.

From 2005-2011, Maria was annually named one of the 100 most powerful celebrities in Forbes’ “Celebrity 100.”

THE OLYMPICS BEGIN FEB. 6, 2014

With more Winter Olympic events than ever before, competition for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games from Sochi, Russia, will begin one day prior to the Opening Ceremony. As a result, NBC will begin its primetime coverage of the 2014 Sochi Olympics on Thursday, Feb. 6, one night before the broadcast network provides its traditional primetime coverage of the Opening Ceremony on Friday, Feb. 7. This marks the first time NBC will air Olympic primetime coverage before the Opening Ceremony. The primetime broadcast on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2014, is scheduled to include competition in snowboard slopestyle (men’s and women’s), in which two-time gold medalist Shaun White is expected to compete in the slopestyle’s Olympic debut; team figure skating, which is also in the Olympics for the first time; and women’s freestyle moguls.

New IOC President Named As Thomas Bach

The favourite to succeed Jacques Rogge was elected after a secret ballot in Buenos Aires on Tuesday afternoon. By Paul Kelso, Sports Correspondent

Thomas Bach, a German former Olympic fencing champion, has been elected president of the International Olympic Committee, replacing Jacques Rogge in the most powerful job in world sport.

Bach, 59, long-standing favourite to succeed Rogge, received the support of a majority of IOC members in a secret ballot in Buenos Aires on Tuesday afternoon.

He becomes the ninth President of the body that, through its oversight of the summer and winter Olympics, has huge influence over the funding and administration of professional sport around the world.

Those sports thrive on uncertainty, but in electing Bach the IOC membership has again demonstrated that it does not like surprises.

The 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires has been billed as “the most important for a generation”, with decisions on the 2020 host city, which sports would be included in those games, and the identity of the man who will lead the organisation.

On all three issues, the members have opted for the safest option. Tokyo will host a summer Olympics featuring wrestling, re-admitted after initially being dropped, and in all likelihood Bach will be in charge come the opening ceremony.

Elected to the IOC in 1991 he set his sights on succeeding Rogge at least a decade ago, and has been encouraged in his ambition by his predecessor, and many others in the Olympic movement who recognise in him one of their own.

Bach has been schooled not just as an Olympian, but also in the sports business that boomed alongside the commercial growth of the five-ring circus.

A gold medallist in the team foil at the 1976 Olympics, he is a qualified lawyer and spent much of his career working for Adidas, the sportswear firm that in the eighties and nineties developed close ties with the senior powerbrokers in world sport.

Those years served him well as he moved into sports administration, becoming head of the German Olympic Sports Federation, an organisation to which all German sports clubs are affiliated, giving it a remarkable 27 million members.

His campaign has been low-key and benefitted from the overt support of Sheikh Ahmad Al-Sabah of Kuwait, president of the Association of National Olympic Committees and a man who appears to carry a bloc of votes with him.

Bach has also overcome allegations in a documentary screened in Germany that he cheated during his competitive career, and was involved in paying inducements to athletes during his time at Adidas. Bach’s spokesman described the claims as “nonsense”.

Winning the presidency may prove the easy part. The challenges for him and the Olympic movement are numerous and begin immediately.

There are fewer than 150 days to the Sochi Winter Games, and Bach will have to get to grips with the controversy over Russia’s new legislation on homosexuality, which campaigners and some athletes believe is homophobic.

Add corruption, environmental and climatic concerns – snow can be an elusive commodity in Sochi – and Bach’s first games could be fraught.

Neither will Rio 2016 be a stroll on the beach. There are growing concerns about the city’s preparedness, but more corrosive is the huge public opposition to the Games, given voice by the million-strong marches across Brazil earlier this summer.

Bach will need to ensure his executive has a grip of the technicalities, and help the Brazilian authorities try and turn public opinion if the Games are to meet expectations.

Ensuring that future Olympics do not similarly strain the goodwill of host populations, and remain affordable, is a challenge that could determine the long-term health of the Olympic movement.

The last decade has been a golden one for the Games, with successful editions in Beijing, Vancouver and London swelling IOC reserves, but the financial crisis has changed the climate.

Where the IOC could once rely on cities to fall over themselves in the rush to write a blank cheque, the future looks less certain. Tokyo faced just two rivals in Istanbul and Madrid, with Madrid dropping out and Baku and Doha ejected earlier in the process.

If developed cities are to continue to bid, the Games will need to become cheaper to stage and offer more to their hosts than a three-week party.

On the field doping remains a scourge for all sport but the Olympic disciplines in particular. Many “minor” sports flourish under the Olympic umbrella, but public trust in the major draws such as athletics, swimming and gymnastics is crucial to the health of all.

Recent revelations have strained that trust yet again.

It is a full in-try but Bach has the experience and goodwill within the Olympic movement to make it happen. What direction he chooses remains to be seen.

SPORT POLITICS. Two-times Olympic champions Nina Ponomareva and Arkady Vorobiev became “Legends”

On January 31 the first in this year meeting of the Outstanding Sport Achievements Academy “Glory” Council members took place in Moscow. In the meeting the nominees for the National Sport Award “Glory”-2006 were determined. In the press-service of the Russian Federal Physical Culture and Sport Agency (Rossport) the sports news agency “All Sport” was told that the two-times Olympic champion, the first person in the USSR to achieve a gold Olympic medal, track-and-field athlete Nina Ponomareva and the two-times Olympic weightlifting champion Arkady Vorobiev became laureates in the “Legend” nomination.

“The members of the Council made a change in the “Legend” nomination – to choose laureates for the male and female “legend” separately – after the proposal made by the head of Rossport Vyacheslav Fetisov, - the press-service specified. – And in the award of 2006 the laureates are the two-times track-and-field Olympic champion (in the years 1952 and 1960), the first person in the USSR to achieve a gold Olympic medal, athlete Nina Apollonovna Ponomareva and the two-times Olympic weightlifting champion (in the years 1956 and 1960) Arkady Nikitich Vorobiev.”

The press-service also announced that the members of the Council determined the nominees for the rest traditional categories: “Sportsman of the year”, “Sportswoman of the year”, “Woman team of the year”, “Man team of the year”, “Coach of the year”, “Discovery of the year”, “For will-to-win spirit”, “Fair play” and “Overcoming”. The names of the winners will be announced when the academicians – more than 300 persons – fill the secret voting forms and send them to the Academy secretary. And the members of the Council will determine the laureates in the “Memory” nomination on the eve of the solemn presentation of the “Glory” award ceremony that will take place on April 26 at the Russian Army Central Academic Theater.

Opinions about Olympic games

A new post-Games review was published over this weekend, which for the first time sees the government considering and attacking the impact of funding.

The report indicates that as an inspiration the games was a huge success, and its narrative is one that wants to build out from this. This strategy has to use a volunteering legacy to achieve this, and the report highlights we could miss the boat on this. However it does not suggest how this should be done, other than to refer the matter to the Cabinet Office to make up its own mind. Again this is another blank space in policy, and the narrative is still that grassroots sports should come at no cost. I believe it needs funding in order for people to understand it as part of their lives.

One good point in the report on funding was that it will probably see the National Lottery get more of a voice on its own funding. It highlights the fact that much of the National Lottery funding in the build-up to the games was out of its control. I think this is a victory for people looking to attract sports funding, and will be beneficial for people who feel sports funding has too much red-tape.

Measuring success

A key measure was sports participation, and this has been amended from a previous measure of participation three times a week to a new measure of once a week. I am dubious about this, as I think it’s a far too simple measure, and I believe a measure that shows progress from once a week participation to three times a week would be much more beneficial.

On the whole I welcome this report, and it has started to shape the way I think the Liberal Democrats should campaign on this. I’d like to see us campaign for more detailed measures of success in sports funding, and ways to promote understanding of this in the media. I’d also like to see more funding available for volunteering in grassroots sports, with perhaps benefits for the volunteers’ employability, such as gaining relevant qualifications that employers will value.