Sport

Sports: physical activities that people do for exercise to keep fit or because they enjoy them. While some people do not hesitate and regularly put on clothes needed for sport, go to sports grounds, playing fields or leisure centres, others prefer watching and supporting their teams or favourites. When there is a big match on, fans usually sigh, applaud, cheer, shout, boo, swear or roar. Sport is a refreshing form of relaxation, which helps take off some weight. During sports events you can meet a lot of new people or friends and see how it feels to be a winner or loser. Millions of people like to attend matches, watch them on TV, and listen them on the radio and cross their fingers for their favourite team.
 
We can go swimming, skiing, riding, etc. but we can also do activities like aerobics, judo, karate and athletic sports such as the high jump. On the other hand we play games like tennis, football or golf. Games are usually forms of sport with rules.
 
Sports and games are indoor or outdoor. A typical indoor game is bowling in which you roll a ball towards a group of wooden objects trying to knock down as many of them as you can. Other popular indoor games are playing darts in which you throw an arrow at a round board with numbers on it or snooker or billiards in which you try to hit different coloured balls into pockets at the edges of a table using a long stick. Indoor sports like weight-lifting, aerobics or gymnastics are done in gyms/gymnasiums. A centre where people can do all kinds of different sports is called a leisure centre or a sports centre.
 
But most sports and almost all games can be done both indoors and outdoors. Meetings in all the track and field events (sprints, middle and long distance runs, hurdling, high and long jump, pole vault, shot put, javelin and discus throw) take place in summer stadium as well as in athletic halls. Also one of the healthiest sports, swimming, and figure skating do not actually demand a roofed room. Everybody can easily recognize winter sports, which can be done only on ice or snow. These are skating, skiing etc.
 
We usually exercise when we want our body to be healthy, to get rid of stress or to relax in an active way. Most of us are amateurs, doing sports for pleasure. Achieving excellent results, some people stop being amateurs and become professionals which means that they get paid to do a sport. They have to work very hard because they attend many competitions and the main goal is to win. While some sportsmen dream of winning the world championships or an Olympic medal, tennis players attend tournaments at Wimbledon or Flushing Meadow.
 
Fair play is controlled by referees (football, rugby, etc.) or umpires (tennis, cricket, etc.). Some players try to be winners by breaking the rules in a game which they are usually punished for. Some of them, mainly boys and men, use special drugs – steroids and stimulants. They help them build up their muscles and look good in bodybuilders’ competitions. But these drugs cause a lot of health problems – aggression, cancer, heart attack or infertility. All these drugs are prohibited in sport competitions and sportsmen are tested on them. A good performance is supposed to be rewarded by scoring points or goals.
 
The most popular game for men is football (AmE soccer) when eleven players (backs, half­backs and forwards) want to score or defend their goalkeeper. For many, football means rugby. An extraordinary thing happened at one rugby school in England when a sixteen-year old schoolboy simply picked up the football and started running with it during a football match. That is how the game of rugby started.
 
In our country has its traditions mostly football. You can find football stadium in almost every town or village. Another favourite sport in our country is ice hockey. In 2002 our national hockey team won the gold medal in World Championship.
 
The most important and the most famous sport event are Olympic games. First time they took place in 776BC in Olympia in ancient Greece. Hundred years ago Pierre de Coubertin renewed them and nowadays they take place every 4 years in summer and in winter.

And what about my experience with sports? When I was much younger, I learned swimming, cycling, skating... In school we have physical training lessons twice a week. There we practice almost all kinds of sport. We have very big gym, which is also very good equipped. In my free time I use to play volleyball with my friends or I go jogging in the evening and in winter I try to ski as often as possible.  I like to watch some sports on TV – e.g. ice-hockey matches, figure skating or athletics competitions.