Exploring Olympic Games
Hi, everyone! Recently, I’ve been exploring the official site of the Olympic Games, and I want to share some new things that I’ve learnt.
Of course, I knew a bit about the Games in general, but the first thing I wanted to know more about came to my mind once I entered the site — Mascots!
Going through the list of past and future mascots, I caught myself thinking that if there would not be signs with year, when they were created and used, I could definitely confuse all of them, because some of them look pretty modern, but turns out they were made in the 1970th.
For instance, try to guess, which of them was created in 2004, and which in 1972?
Actually, none of them were created in 2004. The one on the leftside, whos name is Izzy, was the mascot of 1996 Olympics Games. And the one on the reight side, Waldi, was created in 1972. Amazing, right?
Mascots were created as symbols of fortune. All of them personify something, and refer to something, and they actually have some background stories and descriptions. Here is the link, where you can find out all about them:
I was curious, who has the most gold medals, and it is an American swimmer Michael Phelps.
He has 23 gold medals! Each time when he participated in the Olympic Games, he won at least 4 gold medals!
He started swimming, when he was 7. At that time he was diagnosed with attention deficit and hyperactivity, so he started swimming just to control his energy. And eventually Michael managed to develop his skills to such level, that he was beating records in any age category he was.
In 2012 Michael announced that he finishes his sport career, but he could not leave swimming, and in April 2014 he started to prepare for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. Then he won 5 gold medals, but again announced his retirement. Since then, he didn’t participate in any Olympic Games. Still, we know that sometimes Michael brakes his promises…
Quiet an achievement, 23 gold medals. But I was impressed even more, when found out how huge the gap between Michael and the next gold medalist. The second place is taken by Larisa Latynina, she comes from Ukraine, USSR. Larisa has 9 gold medals. Of course, they cannot be compared, they’ve taken part in absolutely different games. I just wanted to draw your attention to the difference.
There are many other interesting things on the site, check it out: https://www.olympic.org/
That was all I had today for you. Thank you for reading. Stay tuned ;)
