奧運(yùn)會項目Q&A:體操
Gymnastics is very popular all over the world. You have probably seen it on television. Have you ever tried it? Would you like to? Find out about the three different types of gymnastics at the Olympics. How are the events different for men and women??
Part 1: Rules
There are three different events in the Olympic gymnastics programme: artistic, rhythmic and trampoline.
Artistic
?There are three different competitions: team, individual all-around and single events.
?In the team finals gymnasts compete in national teams.
?Both men and women compete on the vault and floor exercises.
?Women also compete on the balance beam and uneven bars.
?Men also compete on the horizontal bar, parallel bars, pommel horse and rings.
?In the all-around finals, the gymnasts are individual competitors and compete on all apparatus.
?In the event finals, the top eight gymnasts on each apparatus compete for medals.
?Judges give scores in two categories: technical and artistic aspects.
Rhythmic
?This is a women-only event. Gymnasts perform on a floor area with a rope, hoop, ball, clubs or ribbon accompanied by music.
?There are individual and team events.
?Scores are given in three categories: difficulty, artistry and execution.
Trampoline
?Gymnasts perform a series of short routines, which contain a variety of twists, bounces and somersaults.
?Scores are given in three categories: difficulty, execution and flight time.
?To compete in the 2012 Olympics, gymnasts must have been born before January 1, 1997.?
Part 2: Q&A
I’m not feeling very well today.
You must be out of tune. Try doing some exercise.
Excuse me?
The Ancient Greeks believed that the mind and body could only be in tune if a person did both intellectual and physical exercise. Plato, Aristotle and Homer all encouraged gymnastic exercise.
Did they invent gymnastics?
I don’t know but I’m sure they thought about it!
If gymnastics isn’t what I do in the gym, what is it?
Gymnastics as we know it developed in Germany and Czechoslovakia at the start of the 19th century. The German Friedrich Ludwig Jahn is known as the father of gymnastics and he invented some of the apparatus still used today.
Appa-what?
Apparatus. It means equipment. There is a lot of apparatus in gymnastics. Something to do with the fact that there are a lot of different events.
I heard about events where the men climb ropes and swing clubs.
Ah, not any more. That was a long time ago. Nowadays the apparatus includes the parallel bars, the vault, the rings, the balance beam, the pommel horse...
“pommel horsePommel horse”? Never mind. Did Ludwig Jahn compete at the Olympic Games?
No. He died about 50 years before the modern Olympics began.
When did the first women’s event start?
Actually as far back as 1928.
Some of the most famous gymnasts are women, I think.
That’s right, and very young too. Nadia Comaneci and Nellie Kim both got perfect 10 scores at the 1976 Games when they were 14, but nowadays gymnasts have to be 16 to compete at the Olympics.
By the way, do you know the origin of the word ‘gymnastics’?
It comes from the Greek word for ‘naked’, and early gymnasts used to perform without any clothes on.
Really? That was the Summer Olympics and not the Winter Olympics then?
Ha! Ha!
體操:
體操(gymnastics)一詞源于古希臘語,意為裸體技藝,與當(dāng)時裸體操練有關(guān)。體操運(yùn)動歷史悠久,分布廣泛,長期以來是人們鍛煉身心的重要方式?,F(xiàn)代競技體操始于18世紀(jì)的歐洲,有德國體操和瑞典體操兩大流派。奧運(yùn)會體操比賽共包括3個分項,16個小項。3個分項為競技體操、蹦床和藝術(shù)體操。其中競技體操項目包括男子:自由體操、鞍馬、吊環(huán)、跳馬、雙杠、單杠、全能;女子:跳馬、高低杠、平衡木、自由體操、全能。蹦床項目包括男子和女子個人決賽。藝術(shù)體操包括集體和個人全能。?
[Key Words]
gymnastics 體操
artistic 競技體操:vault 跳馬? floor exercises 自由體操? balance beam 平衡木? uneven bars 高低杠? horizontal bar 單杠? parallel bars 雙杠? pommel horse鞍馬? rings 吊環(huán)
rhythmic 藝術(shù)體操:rope 繩? hoop 圈? ball 球? clubs 棒? ribbon 帶(五種常見器械)
trampoline 蹦床:twists 扭轉(zhuǎn)? bounces 彈跳? somersaults 空翻(常見動作)
team events 團(tuán)體賽? individual events 個人賽? individual all-around 個人全能? individual single events 個人單項