Otázka: The Olympic Games
Jazyk: Angličtina
Přidal(a): Key
The Olympic games were founded in ancient Greece in about 776 BC in Olympia. They were held every four years in honor of Zeus. Only naked men could compete there. These games were banned by Emperor Theodosius I.
The modern OG were founded in France by baron Pierre de Cobertin to keep peace among naations. The first modern games were held in Athenes. At that time there were 14 countries competing, today we can see more than 200 of them.
The Olympic Games are seperated into summer and winter ones and take place every four years. The last summer ones took place in London in 2012 and the next ones will be held in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. The last winter ones were held in Vancouver in 2010 and the next ones will take place this year in Sochi.
The most famous symbols of the OG are the Olympic rings, also designed by Coubertin. They symbolize 5 continents. The yellow one is for Asia, the black one is for Africa, the blue one for Europe, the red one for America and the green one for Australia. Another symbol is the Olympic torch – the flame is kept during the games. This torch plays and important role in an opening ceremony which is held at the beginning of each games .At the end of the opening ceremony we can see the parade of nations. The official credo of the Olympic games ‚faster, higher, stronger‘ is a Latin expression and was also suggested by Coubertin. Another well-known credo is ‚The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle.
Generally, sport has a lot of problems and the Olympic Games are not an exception. Lot of athletes want to win all of the competitions and be the best and they start to take doping. The results of doping tests are known after the games have finished and then some athletes who cheated must give up their medal. The Olympic Games should be more about the humanity and a joy which competing brings us, yet there are people who didn’t understand the main purpose of this event.
In Czech Republic, we have a lot of famous medal winners. In the 20th century Věra Čáslavská who competed in gymnastics won unbelievable 7 gold medals. Another great athlete was Emil Zátopek. Our region has also very famous sportsman Jiří Raška who won a gold medal and in 1998 our ice-hockey team won the olympic ice-hockey tournament. In the 21st century there are also lots of successful czech atlhetes, such as Barbora Špotáková who competes in a javelinn throw, Martina Sáblíková who competes in speed skating and actually has won everything already, then Kateřina Neumannová, Jan Železný, Tomáš Dvořák, Roman Šebrle, Aleš Valenta and so on. The most popular athlete is probably Usain Bolt. He comes from Jamaica and he holds the record for the one hundred meters sprint.
