ContentsContents 4 Going for Gold 6 Soccer 10 Basketball 14 Tennis 18 Table Tennis 20 Field Hockey 24 Volleyball 26 Beach Volleyball 28 Gold Medal Greats 30 Glossary 31 Books and Web Sites 32 Index
Going for Gold The Olympics is the greatest sports show on Earth More than 10,000 athletes or Olympians flock to one country where they live in an Olympic village and compete against each other during 17 days of unforgettable action The top performers win an Olympic gold silver or bronze medal for finishing in the top three of their event The women’s beach volleyball medal winners wave to the crowd at the 2008 Olympics In the center are gold medalists Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor from the United States Modern Games The modern Olympic Games began in 1896 in Athens They revived the sports contests held by the ancient Greeks at Olympia from 776 BC Today the Olympics are held during the summer every four years The host city and nation welcome thousands of spectators while hundreds of millions more watch on television Ball Sports Boom The 1896 Olympics included just one ball sport men’s tennis The winner John Pius Boland was in Greece on vacation and only decided to take part in the tennis competition at the last minute Today more than a thousand athletes take part in a range of ball sports both individually and on teams in every Olympics 4
5 China’s table tennis legend Zhang Yining triumphed in the women’s singles at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics and the team events winning the maximum possible four gold medals Zhang was ranked number one in the world from 2003 to 2010 Superstar In or Out Some ball sports that were once part of the Olympics are no longer played at the games They include cricket lacrosse croquet and polo on horseback Baseball and softball were played until 2008 but they will not be part of the 2012 or 2016 games Two ball sports The Beijing National Stadium was used for the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony athletic events and soccer finals Argentina’s Lionel Messi right runs with the ball during the final of the men’s soccer competition against Nigeria at the 2008 games will rejoin the Olympics in 2016 golf for top professionals and a form of rugby union called rugby sevens this is a seven-a-side version of the sport The teams play on the full-sized rugby pitch which is usually used by 15-player teams FEATS AND RECORDS Did you know that the U S is the reigning Olympic rugby union champion They won the competition in 1924 the last time it was held France won silver and Romania won bronze
