The Olympic movement has four main sections.

First (and most important of all) there's the IOC, which governs Olympism in general.

Secondly come the NOCs – each of these controls Olympism in its own country.

Thirdly, every sport represented at the Summer and Winter Games has its own International Federation.

Finally, there are the OCOGs. One of these is elected in every Olympic city to organize the Games.

Key Data.

▪ The IOC was founded in Paris on 23 June 1894. Its headquarters are in the Swiss city of Lausanne.

▪ Its official languages are English and French

▪ All the money it makes is used to promote sport.

▪ It meets at least ones per year (and twice in the year of an Olympic Games).

▪ Its members come from five different continents – Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania. They choose Olympic cities six years in advance. Games are awarded to cities, not countries.

▪ Since 1894 there have been seven IOC presidents – Demetrius Vikelis (Greece), Baron Pierre de Coubertin (France), Comte Henry de Baillet-Latour (Belgium), J, Sigfrid Edström (Sweden), Avery Brundage (USA), Lord Killanin (Ireland) and Huan Antonio Samaranch (Spain). Now there is the eighth president of IOC - Jacque Rogue. 

▪ There are several IOC subcommittees. These study and discuss different Olympic issues, e.g. … sports medicine, finance, and the media.

▪ All the Olympic movement's rules are contained in a book called 'The Olympic Charter'.

▪ Since 1894 there have been several 'Congress' meetings of the whole Olympic movement (the IOC, IFs, NOGs, and OCOGs) to discuss the rules and future of Olympism.

▪ There's an Olympic Museum and Studies Centre in Lausanne. It contains … posters, paintings, films and sculptures.

▪ There are thirty different IFs (twenty-four for Summer sports, six for Winter sports). The IOC also recognises sixteen other federations, but their sports aren't yet included in the Olympic Games.

▪ The International Olympic Academy is a special centre at Olympia in Greece. People involved in sport go there every summer to study the Olympic movement's history, ideals and future.

▪ Each NOC is in charge of its own team at the Olympic Games and has responsibility for … sports equipment – transport – accommodation – insurance – the conduct of team members.

 

A world of winners – Olympic sport and the disabled

The IOC supports two important organisations that work with the disabled. 'Special Olympics' is for people with a mental handicap. 'Paralympics' is for people with a physical disability. Thirty-five years ago neither of them existed. Today, they're both a huge success and have proved something very important to the world … sport belongs to everyone.

 

The Special Olympics

"Skill – courage – sharing and joy". That's what the Special Olympics is all about. It's an international programme, which offers training and competition all year round (in 22 different sports) for children and adults with mental handicap.

Its aims? a) To help special athletes of all abilities become more fit, confident and positive.

          b) To bring the handicapped and non-handicapped worlds closer together.

Special Olympics was started by Eunice Kennedy Shriver (a member of America's famous Kennedy family) in 1963. That's when she held a summer camp for one hundred mentally handicapped children at her home in Maryland. The camp was an enormous success and led to others across the USA. Then, in July '68, the first International Special Olympics took place in Chicago. One thousand athletes from 26 American States and Canada competed in athletics and swimming events.

Since then there have been … ▪ eight International Summer Games (including the 1991 Games in Minneapolis St Paul) ▪ five Winter Games ▪ dozens of local, regional, national and continental (e.g. European) competitions.

But Special Olympics doesn't just focus on big events. Its work continues between Games as well – in fact, since 1968, over two million children and adults in 80 countries (including Russia and China) have taken part in Special Olympics programmes. Some are now involved in 'Unified Sports', too, where they play in the same teams as athletes without a handicap.

Supported … ▪ by royalty ▪ politicians ▪ athletes ▪ movie actors ▪ rock stars all over the world. Special Olympics has become a major sports organization in less that 30 years. That's a great achievement – but it's also just the beginning. After all, who knows what Special Olympians can achieve in the next 30 years?

 

The Paralympics

There have been ten 'Paralympics' (including the 1992 Games in Barcelona) since 1960. They were first held in Rome and at that time, only people with spinal injures took part. Now, though, athletes with other physical disabilities also compete. At Seoul, for example, 3,000 competitors from over 50 countries took part in 19 different sports. What kind of sports? Here's a brief guide to just four of them.

Basketball – The rules are exactly the same as in ordinary basketball, but competitors play in wheelchairs. Tennis – Another wheelchair event. In Paralympic tennis the ball can bounce twice before it's returned. Goal-ball – A sport for the blind. It's played with a ball, which contains a bell. Judo – Paralympic judo competitors are also blind. Different parts of the mat are hard and soft to tell them where are competition area stops. Other Paralympic events include … ▪ Archery ▪ Athletics ▪ Cycling ▪ Fencing ▪ Weight lifting ▪ Snooker ▪ Swimming ▪ Table Tennis ▪ Volleyball.

 

Problems

Every individual, family, community and nation has them. Well… so does the Olympic movement. Three major issues in particular have caused trouble at recent Games. In this report, the OGD explores their background and effects.

Olympism is a symbol of peace, harmony and friendship. During the ancient Games was always a truce[7] in any Greek war. Not any more. In the 20^th century, politics play an active and sometimes deadly role in the Olympic movement. Here are some examples:

▪ The 1916 Games were cancelled because of World War I.

▪ Adolf Hitler used Berlin's 1936 Olympics to promote the Nazi party.

▪ The 1940 and '44 Games were cancelled[8] because of World War II.

▪ South Africa suffered a long ban[9] from the Olympics, starting in 1964, because of its apartheid[10] system.

▪ Three American athletes gave 'Black Power' salutes during a medal ceremony at the '68 Mexico City Games.

▪ In 1972 Arab terrorists murdered eleven Israeli athletes at the Munich Games.

▪ Twenty Third World countries boycotted Montreal ('76) because New Zealand sent a rugby team to South Africa.

▪ Fifty non-Communist nations boycotted the Moscow Games in 1980 in protest at the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.

▪ Four years later, there was a boycott of the Los Angeles Games by almost the entire Communist world.

 

One reason for events like the ones above is Olympic sport's popularity. It's a focus for the entire world, and thanks to television, hundreds of millions of people watch every moment of it. What bigger stage (or audience) could there be for acts of terrorism or protest? And yet the Olympic Flame still burns. Political problems come and go but the Games continue, because that's what the vast majority of people want. AS ex-IOC president Lord Killanin once said:

 'The Olympic Games must not be used for political purposes… the Olympic Games are for the benefit of our children.'

 

Money.

There are no financial prizes at the Olympics, but money is still a major Olympic issue. There are two reasons for this. One is the huge cost of each modern Games. In the past, some cities have lost millions. Recently – thanks mainly to the sale of TV rights – that's changed. Even so, Olympic cities always have to spend huge sums before they earn anything back. This fact limits the number of places that can afford to hold the Games.

And there's the question of money and competitors. These days, many top athletes are professionals. Sport is their job and they're well paid. But at the Olympics everyone is supposed to be an amateur. Because of this, there are complex rules about athletes' earnings. It's OK for them to be paid at non-Olympic events, but they can't spend the money like a normal salary. Instead, they must put the money in a special fund and only use it for travel expenses and training costs. Some people think this is a clear, acceptable answer to the Olympic Games' 'amateurs only' rule, but to others it's ridiculous. In their view it's time for the IOC recognise modern realities. Many sportsmen and women in the 1990s are professionals. Why should that stop them competing at the world's number one spots festival?

 

Drugs

The third Olympic issue is drugs – but not the cocaine or heroin kind. These are different drugs which athletes use to make them stronger and faster. One of the biggest shocks of the '88 Games in Seoul came after the men's 100m final. Tests showed that the winner – Canada's Ben Johnson – had traces[11] of illegal drugs in his blood. As a result… ▪ he lost his gold medal ▪ he was sent home in disgrace ▪ he was banned from international athletics for two years.

Many people were deeply shocked by what Ben Johnson had done. One of them was American track-star Carl Lewis. Like most athletes he knew that international sport had a drug problem – but if Olympic heroes like Johnson were involved, it was obviously time to take serious action.

Since 1988, dozens of stars like Lewis and Sebastian Coe have taken part in anti-drugs campaigns. The results? ▪ More tests. ▪ Longer bans. ▪ Higher fines. Even so, the drugs problem still exists – nobody pretends it doesn't. But one fact has become very clear in the years since Seoul… the vast majority of Olympic athletes don'ttake drugs and oppose those who do. 

  

 

 

VII. Topic 'Geography'

We are starting the study of a rather interesting topic about the geography of our planet. And at the beginning let’s revise your school knowledge of the subject. Please, try to answer the following questions based on the school course of Geography.

1. Do we have four or five oceans on our planet? What are the names of the oceans?

2. What sea is situated below the sea level?

3. How many seas of what oceans wash our country?

4. What seas have 'colour' names? Where are they situated?

5. What is the warmest sea in the world?

6. How many continents are there on the planet? What are the names of the continents?

7. What are five largest countries in size?

8. What are five smallest countries in size?

9. What countries have English as the first language (as the native language)?

10. What other countries do people use English as a state language?

11. Where is Russian spoken besides the Russian Federation?

12. Where is French / Spanish / German spoken?

13. What language is spoken by the greatest number of people?

14. What is the longest river in the world?

15. What is the longest river in Europe / Asia / Africa / America / Australia?

16. What is the highest mountain in the world? Where is it situated?

17. Who was the first man mounted it? When was it?

18. What is the highest mountain in Russia?

19. What is the most famous volcano in the history of mankind?

20. What country occupies the whole continent?

21. What is the largest desert in the world?

22. Who discovered Antarctica? When?

23. Who discovered Australia? When?

24. Who made the first all-round voyages? When?

25. What countries are the members of the Council of Europe?

26. What mountain ranges situated in Russia can you name?

27. What European countries have monarchies?

28. Due to what is it possible to see roses and magnolias outdoors in Great Britain, though it is situated at the same latitude as Chelyabinsk?

29. What city is situated southerner – Madrid, Washington, Rome or Tashkent?

30. What symbols of nature can you name on the coat-of-arms of Russia, the United Kingdom, the USA, Canada, and Australia?

31. Some countries are mononational, the other ones are multinational. Can you give examples of countries of each type?

32. What countries have the most dynamically developing industries nowadays? How can you prove this?

33. Can you give examples of countries with a highly developed agriculture?

34. It’s noon in Yekaterinburg. What time is it in London and Washington, Washington and Canberra?