Sports and Games

Sports and games are activities that are well known for everybody of us. People started to do sports and play games many years ago, but the biggest boom was in 20th century. With coming of new technologies people got new possibilities and new ideas how to spend their spare time for pleasure. People do the sports because they want to keep fit, build their muscles and make their body better for look. It is also very good (the best) kind of relaxation. It helps to keep our mental health in order. The majority of people do the sports as a hobby but some people do the sport as a job. We can practise outdoor or indoor sports, water sports, summer sports or winter sports...
Outdoor sports are golf, skiing (cross-country, down-hill, slalom, ski-jump), climbing, marathon-running, orienteering, hiking, tourism, mountaineering, horse riding, rallies etc.
Indoor sports include table-tennis, gymnastic, chess... However there are also sports which could be played both inside and outside such as tennis, ball games (basketball, volleyball), ice-hockey etc.
Water sports are swimming, water-skiing, diving (fin swimming [ploutvové plavání]), water polo, yachting, canoeing or rowing (veslování).
We can also divided sports according to the season they are practised:
Summer sports: swimming, ball games (football, cricket, golf...), athletics (sprint, high jump, long jump, javelin throw, ball throw etc.)
Winter sports: all sports connected with snow; skiing, biathlon, skating, snowboarding, speed skating, ice-hockey, competitive figure skating (single skating, pairs or ice-dancing).
In our country is the most favourite sport football. In almost every village or town we can find a football pit and almost every village or town has its own football team. Some cities have more than one team (for example Prague). Even it is exactly 12 years from our historical success in Nagano when we won a gold medal on Olympic Games ice hockey is still very popular sport. But in general - Czech ice hockey team is more successful than Czech football which is known for its bribe scandal and for its slowly decreasing level of playing. In our town we have very successful swimmers from fin swimming team “Čochtan” which is one of the best here in Czech Republic. So the swimming is popular in our town. Of course football is very popular too; it is played by little boys, teenagers even adults; but is not as successful as our swimming. I have to mention speed skating because our town was original home of Martina Sáblíková - leading woman of the world rankings. Especially after Olympic Games in Vancouver where she won two gold and one bronze medal she became extremely popular everywhere. Her big boom caused that speed skating is becoming more and more popular in Czech Republic. The last very popular sport in our country is skiing. Our representatives such as Lukáš Bauer, Martin Koukal, Jiří Magál or Martin Jakš were very active recently when on Olympic Games in Vancouver together won relay (štafeta) four times ten kilometres.
Our sportsmen can take part in many sport events all over the world. For example Lukáš Bauer was successful Tour de ski in season 2009/2010 when he beat Finnish Norwegian Petter Northug. Tour de Ski is a cross-country skiing event held annually (každoročně) since 2007 in Central Europe, modeled on the Tour de France of cycling. Races have been held in the Czech Republic,Germany, Italy over eight days. The prize money for the event amounted to 750,000 Swiss francs (which is more than 13 millions Czech crowns!!) Men's and women's events were held together on the same days.
Wimbledon is a suburb (předměstí) in south west London, part of the London Borough of Merton. For most of the past one hundred years, Wimbledon has been internationally known as the home of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships.
National Hockey League is the most famous ice hockey league in the world in which take part teams from USA and Canada. Those teams are the best in the world. The main trophy is Stanley cup.

The Olympic Games are the most important and the most famous – they are held every 4 years, they have their summer and winter parts which change once every 2 years. First were held in 776 before Christ in Greece, but in the year 393 Anno Domini were cancelled by roman emperor Theodosius. The modern era of Olympic Games started in 1896 in Athens with help of Baron Pierre de Coubertin which founded the International Olympic Committee in 1894. Later in 1924 were Olympics divided to winter games and summer games. Nowadays the Olympic Games are a major international event, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions.
My favourite sport is swimming because in my opinion is the most healthy sport and personally I enjoy it very much. It is not much expensive (for an amateur) - all you need is a swimming suit. The professionals like Michael Phelps wear special swimming costumes that help them to be quicker and more hydrodynamic. When you have your swimming costume you can go to the swimming pool. I’m able to get there for free because I have insurance (pojištění) Metal Alliance which fully covers fee for entering to the pool. Others will have to pay about 30 Czech crowns.