b484 olympic graded readers level 3 finalweb pdf 21025

www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglishwww.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish

Baron de Coubertin and the modern Olympics(CEFR B1 – 3,000 words)

By Barry Tomalin, British Council

English for the Games Readers Level 3

ii English for the Games Readers | Level 3

AcknowLEdGEmEnts

Programme manager Michael Houten, British Council

Project manager Paul Sweeney

series editors Suzanne Guerrero and Mandy Loader

All images © British Council

1English for the Games Readers | Level 3

contents

Before you start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1. Baron de Coubertin and the Olympics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2. The Summer Olympic Games gain momentum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3. The Winter Olympic Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

4. The values of the Olympic Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

5. The Paralympic Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

6. The Cultural Olympiad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

7. How to become an Olympic host city . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Vocabulary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

2 English for the Games Readers | Level 3

Answer the quiz questions.

what do you know about the modern olympic Games?

1. When was the first modern Olympics?

2. Where did it take place?

3. How often do the Summer Olympic Games occur?

4. The 2012 London Olympics will have 26 sports. How many Olympic sports can you name?

5. What are your favourite Olympic sports to watch? Do you play any of the sports?

scan the text to find the information. write the chapter number.

Information chapter

1. Mt. Vesuvius

2. Goalball

3. Tanni Grey-Thompson

4. How to become an Olympic host city

5. Rugby School

6. Winter Sports Week

Before you start

Find the

answers on

page 17!


Pierre Frédy Baron de Coubertin was born in 1863 in Paris, France and he died in 1937 at age 74 in Geneva, Switzerland. He was an educational reformer and an enthusiastic sportsman. He enjoyed fencing, boxing, rowing and horse riding. He is most famous for his role in the revival of the Olympic Games.

De Coubertin grew up in Normandy, France, the son of a French aristocratic family. He studied education, history and sociology. He was especially interested in the role of physical education and sport in schools. He believed that students needed sport as part of their education in order to succeed.

De Coubertin’s thought that the education in Ancient Greece was ideal. He believed that the Ancient Greeks had physical fitness and moral strength. He also believed physical fitness made society more democratic by bringing people from different social groups together.

The greatest inspiration behind de Coubertin was the athleticism and sportsmanship celebrated at Rugby School in England. Rugby School is famous, partly because that is where the sport of rugby was invented. De Coubertin read Tom Brown’s School Days, a novel about Rugby School during the time of Thomas Arnold, Headmaster between 1828 and 1842. Arnold was an educational reformer who believed strongly in the value of sport in society. His ideas inspired Coubertin, who visited the school a number of times during the 1880s and wrote about Arnold in his memoirs.

De Coubertin was also influenced by another Englishman: William Penney Brookes who organised a national Olympic Games in London in 1866, thirty years before de Coubertin’s international Olympics would occur in Greece.

The next few years play a crucial role in the development of world sports organisations, even before de Coubertin realised his dream of reviving the Greek Olympic games. After de Coubertin left England, he returned to France on a mission to introduce sport into French schools.

At first, his efforts were unsuccessful. In France, sport was seen as a distraction from education rather than a way to enhance it. However, de Coubertin did not give up. He gave talks and wrote articles about the importance of sport in education. In 1886, he started a group to promote physical education in French schools. This group later became part of the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques (USFSA), which introduced the slogan Faster, Higher, Stronger. The slogan was adopted as the Olympic motto in 1924. The French Athletic Society began organising championships with rugby and football. In 1904, important members of this group went on to form Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).

1. Baron de coubertin and the olympics

Baron de Coubertin


By 1892, USFSA had 7,000 members. In 1894, after much urging by de Coubertin, USFSA began to make preparations for an international Olympic Games. The first new Olympic Games would occur in Athens in 1896 with all amateur competitors. De Coubertin designed the programme of events. The Games would occur every four years. Winners would receive gold and silver medals.

In April, 1896, the world once again saw an Olympic competition. More than 80,000 people attended the Opening Ceremony. Athletes competed in gymnastics, wrestling, cycling, fencing, shooting, tennis, weightlifting and swimming. On April 10, 14,000 spectators watched and cheered as Spyridon Loues, a 25-year-old Greek athlete entered the Panathenaic Stadium to win the very first marathon. As he ran towards the finishing line, princes of the Greek royal family ran round the track with him. Baron Pierre de Coubertin achieved his dream to host the Olympic Games.

Baron de Coubertin continued to participate in the Olympic Games as Chairman of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) until 1924, and as President of the IOC until his death in 1937. He also won a Nobel Prize for literature in 1904, for his poem Olympic Ode. In honour of de Coubertin’s efforts, the IOC created the Pierre de Coubertin Medal in 1964. It is awarded to athletes who show outstanding sportsmanship and is considered a more noble achievement than a gold medal. Only a handful of athletes have won this award since its inception.


The 1896 Games were a huge success but the Olympic Games did not become an international tradition instantly. In fact, there were many difficulties and setbacks in the early Olympic Games, even as they grew in popularity.

Paris, 1900According to de Coubertin’s wishes, the Olympic Games should occur in a different city every four years. The 1900 Olympic Games were in Paris, France. Unfortunately, the Paris Olympics took place at the same time as a world fair called the Exhibition Universelle. This exhibition presented significant inventions such as the talking film, the diesel engine and the escalator. The Olympics did not receive much attention. However, athletes from 22 countries attended the competitions. The IOC added 13 new sports, including golf, rowing and water polo. Also, for the first time, women competed in the Olympic Games in golf and lawn tennis.

st. Louis, 1904Chicago was de Coubertin’s first choice for the 1904 Olympic Games, but US President Theodore Roosevelt persuaded him to change the location to St. Louis, Missouri. Once again, the Games competed with another event, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The expense of travel from Europe also created difficulties for athletes. There were a total of sixteen sports in the 1904 Olympic Games. Basketball and baseball were played as demonstration sports.

the Intercalated olympic Games – Athens, 1906After the challenges in the 1900 and 1904 Olympics, de Coubertin needed to improve the reputation of the Olympic Games. He held the Intercalated Olympic Games in Athens in 1906 to help revive the Olympic movement. For the first time, athletes participated as members of national teams. This was also the first competition with a closing ceremony.

London, 1908London hosted the 1908 Olympic Games. The Games were originally scheduled to take place in Rome. However, after Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 1906, Rome was unable to host the games and London was chosen as a new location. These Games featured 25 different sporting events and 22 participating countries. The most famous change that occurred in the 1908 Olympics was the change in the distance of the marathon. It was adjusted to 26 miles and 385 yards (42.195 km), which later became the standard distance of the marathon race.

2. the summer olympic Games gain momentum


stockholm, 1912The 1912 Olympic Games took place in Stockholm, Sweden. Athletes from 28 nations participated. Art competitions were introduced. Participants competed in architecture, literature, music, sculpture and painting. Art competitions were discontinued after 1948 because artists were considered professionals, not amateurs. One of the members of the 1912 US team was the future World War II general, George C. Patton. At that time, he was a lieutenant at West Point, a US military training college. He competed in the modern pentathlon.

Antwerp, 1920There were no Olympic Games in 1916 because of World War I. In 1920, the Games were hosted by Antwerp, Belgium. The Olympic Flag was flown for the first time. The Olympic symbol on the flag shows five linked rings. They represent five major world regions: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania.

Paris, 1924The Olympic Games were very popular by 1924. More than 3,000 athletes from 44 countries participated. The winter sports events were later referred to as the first Winter Olympics. Volleyball made its appearance as a demonstration sport. The 1981 film Chariots of Fire featured the 1924 Paris Olympics. Since these early years, through times of triumph and times of difficulty, the Olympic tradition has only grown stronger.

Early modern Olympian


The first Winter Olympic Games took place in Chamonix, France in 1924, as part of the 1924 Summer Olympic Games. It was not called the Winter Olympic Games at that time. It was called Winter Sports Week.

Amazingly, for the first Winter Olympic Games, there was no snow until the night before the start of the events. Then there was a snow storm. Snow covered the ice rink. Then it rained and turned the ice rink into a lake. Luckily, there was more cold weather and the competitions began on time.

The event was incredibly successful with more than 10,000 spectators. Sports included biathlon (at the time, called military patrol), bobsleighing (also called bobsledding), cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping and speed skating.

Nowadays, the Winter Olympics include alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, luge, short-track speed skating, skeleton, and snowboarding in addition to the nine original sports.

Ice Rink EventsCurling, ice hockey, speed skating and figure skating are all events that take place on an ice rink. Ice hockey is a team sport similar to football, where the players attempt to move a puck (in place of a ball) into a net. They can only touch the puck with their hockey sticks. Curling is a game where players try to move objects called stones into a target area. It is a game of precision and the only rink event that does not require ice skates. Speed skating and figure skating are perhaps the most familiar of these sports. There are various speed

skating competitions, which are races on ice. Figure skating is skating combined with music, dance and acrobatics like jumps and rotations.

ski Events Biathlon, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing, ski jumping and the Nordic combined are ski events. Cross-country skiing is an endurance race similar to the marathon in running, but the

3. the winter olympic Games

A slalom event


distances vary according to the event. Alpine skiing refers to steep downhill competitions. A popular alpine skiing event is the slalom where skiers must navigate many turns. Biathlon is a combination of cross-country skiing and shooting. Nordic combined is a competition with cross-country skiing and ski jumping. Ski jumping involves skiing down a ramp and flying through the air. Freestyle skiing is similar. In freestyle skiing, the athlete performs acrobatic tricks. Snowboarding competitions are similar to skiing competitions, but athletes ride a snowboard instead of a pair of skis. There is a giant slalom event, a snowboard cross event (downhill with obstacles), and a half-pipe event where players do tricks.

sleigh EventsOlympic sleigh events include bobsleighing, luge and skeleton. The main difference is the type of equipment and the position of the participants. In bobsleighing, a team of two or four competitors rides a bobsleigh down a slide called a bobsleigh run. They ride in a sitting position and can reach speeds of 90 miles per hour (145 km per hour). For luge, one or two athletes lie feet-first on a small flat sleigh. Luge can be very dangerous. In 2010, an Olympic athlete died after a fatal collision. Skeleton is similar to luge except that participants ride in a head-first position.

The bobsleigh team


The Olympic values are the most important aspect of the Olympic Games. They were, in fact, the driving force behind the existence of the new Games. The Olympics occur today because de Coubertin believed that athletes developed values through sport. De Coubertin is quoted as saying, ‘The important thing in the Olympics is not winning but taking part. The essential thing in life is not winning but fighting well.’ There are three core Olympic values: excellence, respect and friendship.

ExcellenceThis means always do your best in sport and in life. You participate and do the best you can.

Respect You respect yourself and others. You respect your body and your health. You respect the world around you.

Friendship You build friendships with your teammates and with fellow athletes from around the world. However, it is also important to remember the Olympic motto, Faster, Higher, Stronger. This means you try always to be better than before to be the best in the world.

4. the values of the olympic Games


The Olympic spirit and dedication to athletic ability spreads far and wide. The Paralympic Games is an Olympic sport competition for athletes with disabilities. The name literally means parallel Olympics. The Paralympics has its own organising committee, International Paralympic Committee (IPC), and its own Paralympic symbol and flag. The IOC and the IPC have arranged for the Paralympic Games to occur every four years in the same city as the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.

The first official Paralympic Games took place in Rome in 1960. It was based on previous events for injured war veterans, which were first held in the UK. Since then, the Paralympics has grown to include athletes with a range of backgrounds and disabilities. The emphasis in the Paralympic Games, has always been on the talents and achievements of the participants and not their disabilities.

Paralympic sportsThe Paralympic Games have many of the same sports as in Olympic events, specially adapted to athletes with disabilities. In addition, the Paralympics include some sports which do not take place in the Olympic Games. In the 2012 Olympic Games, there are 20 Paralympic sports: archery, athletics, boccia, cycling (road and track), equestrian events, football (5-a-side and 7-a-side), goalball (a game similar to football, for the visually-impaired), judo, powerlifting, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, volleyball, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair fencing, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair tennis.

For the Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi, Russia, in 2014, athletes will participate in biathlon, bobsleigh, wheelchair curling, figure skating, luge, skeleton, speed skating and short-track speed skating, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing, Nordic combined, snowboarding, and ice sledge hockey.

5. the Paralympic Games

Tanni Grey-Thompson racing in a wheelchair


The Paralympic Games highlight four values: courage, determination, inspiration and equality.

courage You have the courage to participate in spite of challenges and difficulties.

determinationYou have the determination to finish the race or the competition and to be the best athlete you can be.

InspirationYour achievements can inspire others to face challenges and do their best. You can be inspired by others’ achievements.

EqualityEveryone has an equal opportunity. Everyone is important. Everyone can achieve great things.

The Paralympic Games has its own Olympic heroes, such as Oscar Pistorius from South Africa and Tanni Grey-Thompson from the UK. You can read about them in book 2 of this series, Heroes.

A boccia player in action


The Ancient Greek Olympics was a celebration of the beauty of the human body and of sport. In Ancient Greece, there was art and sport. Phidias built a temple of Zeus at Olympia around 500 BCE and the stadium had many Greek sculptures. You can see the celebration of Olympic sport in Greek vases and statues.

De Coubertin believed it was important to link art and sport. For a period of time, as designed by de Coubertin, the Olympic Games had art competitions in addition to sport events. Nowadays, art and culture are not included as medal events but they are incorporated into many Olympic traditions. Architecture is one example of this. For the 2008 Olympics, the Olympic Stadium in Beijing was designed by the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. The Aquatics Centre for the London Olympics in 2012 was designed by the Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid.

In addition, designers make badges to commemorate the Olympic Games. The first badges were made for the 1896 Athens Games. The 2012 badge shows the five Olympic boroughs. These parts of London are the centre of the Games.

A special feature of the Winter Olympic Games is the Winter Olympics poster. The first one was in Chamonix in France in 1926 and every host town makes its own poster for the Winter Olympics. Special postage stamps and coins are issued to celebrate the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Another major artistic feature of the Olympic Games is the lighting of the Olympic Flame at the beginning of the games. The Olympic torch is specially designed for each Games. It is lit in Olympia in Greece and carried by hand from Greece, around the host country and to the Olympic host city. This happened for the first time in the Berlin Olympics in Germany in 1936. One of the most dramatic scenes took place in Barcelona in Spain in 1992. Paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo shot a flaming arrow through the night sky to light the Olympic Flame. In Britain for 2012 there was a competition to find 800 people to carry the Olympic torch around Britain before the London Games.

6. the cultural olympiad


Opening ceremony in Beijing 2008

This leads up to the biggest artistic display of the Games: the Opening Ceremony. This is the point at which the world enters and concludes the Games, and is an important way for the host country to present its culture. The Opening Ceremony is a theatrical extravaganza that takes place in the Olympic Stadium and has thousands of performers. Music is also an integral part of the Olympic Games. Famous composers like John Williams (also the composer for Superman, Harry Potter and Star Wars) have been called to compose majestic themes for Olympic Games.


The International Olympic Committee selects the host city for the Olympic Games seven years before the Games take place. When a city applies to host the Olympic Games, it becomes an applicant city. For 2012, there were nine applicants: Havana, Istanbul, Leipzig, Rio, Madrid, New York, Moscow, Paris and London. Each applicant writes a presentation about their city and the IOC visits each applicant city. Then they vote for a list of candidates. These become the candidate cities. The five candidate cities for 2012 were Madrid, New York, Moscow, Paris and London.

Each of the candidate cities presents their application to the IOC at a special international meeting. The IOC votes for the two final candidates and the host city is the one that gets the most votes. In 2005, the two final candidates were Paris and London. London won by four votes to become the host city for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Rio de Janeiro in Brazil was also an applicant city but it didn’t succeed in 2012. However, it succeeded in 2016. Rio will be the host city of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2016.

7. How to become an olympic host city

London in 2012

Rio in 2016

London and Rio


1. mark the correct column(s).

Event summer olympics

winter olympics

Paralympics

1. Boccia

2. Athens, 1896

3. Paris, 1924

4. Skeleton

5. Goalball

6. Curling

7. London 2012

2. Read and write the correct words in the space.

the track the finishing line a ramp

the net an ice rink downhill

1. You skate on this: .

2. This structure makes skiers fly through the air: .

3. You are going to the bottom of a mountain: .

4. Many races take place on this: .

5. You cross this first to get a gold medal: .

6. Some sports award points when a ball or puck enters this: .

Activities

Find the

answers on

page 18!


3. match the sports and the equipment.

1. Biathlon a. running shoes

2. Curling b. music

3. Ice Hockey c. a rifle

4. Figure Skating d. a sleigh

5. Luge e. a stone

6. Marathon f. a puck

4. Read and choose the best option.

1. The Olympic torch in Olympia, Greece.

a. is lit b. is lighted c. was lighted d. lighted

2. The length of the marathon to 26 miles and 385 yards.

a. is adjusted b. are adjust c. is adjusting d. was adjusted

3. The first Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France.

a. is holding b. are hold c. were held d. are being held

4. The Olympic flag for the first time in Antwerp in 1920.

a. is flew b. was flown c. are flying d. has flown

5. The Pierre de Coubertin Medal only to the most

noble athletes.

a. award b. are awarded c. awards d. is awarded

6. London to be the 2012 Olympic host city in 2005.

a. was selected b. is selected c. are selected d. were selected


Before you start (page 2)

Answer the quiz questions.1. 1896

2. Athens, Greece

3. every four years

4. archery; athletics; badminton; basketball; beach; volleyball; ; boxing; canoe-slalom; canoe-sprint; cycling-BMX; cycling-mountain bike; cycling-road; cycling-track; diving; equestrian-dressage; equestrian-eventing; equestrian-jumping; fencing; football; gymnastics-artistic; gymnastics-rhythmic; gymnastics-trampoline; handball; hockey; judo; modern pentathlon; rowing; sailing; shooting; swimming; synchronised swimming; table tennis; taekwondo; tennis; triathlon; volleyball; water polo; weightlifting; wrestling

5. Answers will vary

scan the text to find the information. write the chapter number.1. Chapter 2

2. Chapter 5

3. Chapter 5

4. Chapter 7

5. Chapter 1

6. Chapter 3

Answers


Activities (page 15)

1. mark the correct columns.

Event summer olympics

winter olympics

Paralympics

1. Boccia ✔

2. Athens, 1896 ✔

3. Chamonix, 1924 ✔ ✔

4. Skeleton ✔

5. Goalball ✔

6. Curling ✔

7. London 2012 ✔

2. Read and write the correct word.1. an ice rink; 2. a ramp; 3. downhill; 4. the track;

5. the finishing line; 6. the net

3. match the sports and the equipment.1. c; 2. e; 3. f; 4. b; 5. d; 6. a

4. Read and choose the best option.1. a; 2. d; 3. c; 4. b; 5. d; 6. a


achievement success in something

acrobatic tricks difficult gymnastic manoeuvres

amateur an athlete who earns no money from sport

architect an artist who designs buildings

aristocratic an important family in the country by tradition

athlete a person who practises a sport with great effort

badge an object that attaches to clothing that shows a symbol or message

commemorate to create an object as a memorial to an event

competitor an athlete who participates in a competition

composer an artist who writes music

democratic a political system where everyone is equal

disability a physical or mental condition which means someone can’t use parts of their brain or body in the same way as most people because of injury or disease

downhill going down a mountain

finishing line the line marking the end of a race

flag the cloth symbol of a country or organisation

headmaster the head teacher of a school

hockey stick a long instrument used in field hockey and ice hockey

host city a city where the Olympic Games take place

ice rink a court or playing field covered in smooth ice

Vocabulary


injured with a problem in the body caused by an accident

military related to soldiers or armed forces

physical education education in sport and exercise

physical fitness the body in ideal condition

postage stamp a small label that proves payment of postage

professional a person who receives money for an activity (sport, art)

reformer a person who wants to change things

reputation common beliefs and opinions about something

sleigh a flat motorless vehicle for sliding on snow or ice

snowboard a board for riding over the snow in a standing position

race a speed competition

target a round shape to shoot or hit with another object

theatrical extravaganza

a large dramatic presentation

torch fire carried on a stick to give light

track a racing path

visually-impaired describes a person who cannot see

vote on something to calculate the most popular option in a group

war veteran a person who was a soldier in a war

wheelchair a chair with wheels for a person who cannot walk

© British council 2012 Brand and Design / B484The British Council creates international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and builds trust between them worldwide.

A registered charity: 209131 (England and Wales) SC037733 (Scotland).

English for the Games Readers Level 3

Baron de Coubertin and the modern Olympics(CEFR B1 – 3,000 words)

By Barry Tomalin, British Council

www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish

What do you know about the modern Olympic Games? Why did Baron de Coubertin design and launch the first new Olympic Games in Athens in 1896? When were the first Winter Olympic Games? What are the values of the Olympic Games? What is the history of the Paralympic Games and what is the Cultural Olympiad? All this, and more, is to be found in the third book in the English for the Games Readers series.

b484 olympic graded readers level 3 finalweb pdf 21025

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