Hi there. My name is Emma. Thank you for clicking. Today's lesson is on vocabulary for the Olympics.
So the Olympics happen every four years. The Summer Olympics happen every four years, and
the Winter Olympics happen every two years. So they're things that happen quite regularly,
and as a result, this vocabulary is pretty important to know if you want to talk about
the Olympics. So let's get started. So first of all, the first vocabulary we're going to
learn today are the people of the Olympics. So the first word I have here, and all of
these are nouns, the first word I have here is "athlete". So who are the athletes? The
athletes are the people who play the sports or who enter the tournaments. So for example,
David Beckham, he is an example of an athlete. Michael Jordan, Luis Suarez, Yao Ming, there
are hundreds of athletes I could give examples of. So these are the athletes.
The next word is "coach". Who are the coaches? They're almost like the bosses of the athletes.
So if there's a team, the coach is the person who decides who's playing, who's going to
sit out, the coach decides how the team will win or how the athlete will win the sport.
So the coach often tries to motivate athletes to do better, and their main goal is to help
the team win through strategies and game plan.
Next we have the "trainer". So the trainer is a little different than the coach. They
work with the athlete to get them into top physical shape. So the athletes are nice,
strong, able to run long distances, able to compete well. So the trainer focuses on the
athlete's body and getting it up to speed.
Next we have the word "referee", also known as "the ref". So the referee or the ref is
the person who usually has a whistle, and they make sure that the athletes follow the
rules. If the athlete doesn't follow the rules, they blow their whistle and usually give some
sort of penalty. So this is the referee.
The next word we have, "judge". Now a lot of people, they think "judge in sports". Well,
a judge is a person who usually gives marks in certain events. So you don't find a judge
in all events, but you do find judges in figure skating, boxing, in these types of events
where they usually hold up a sign with points on it. So ten points, for example.
Finally we have the word "spectator". So who are the spectators? The spectators are the
people who watch the event. So if you've ever gone to a soccer game, a baseball game, to
the Olympics maybe, and you've watched people play a sport, you are the spectator. So usually
during the Olympics, there are thousands and thousands of spectators, people watching the
sports.
Actually, I'm going to add one more word here. "Fan". So fans are -- they're usually a type
of spectator. They're people who really love a certain team or a certain player. So are
you fans of any athletes? Are any of you out there huge David Beckham fans or big Michael
Jordan fans, Yao Ming? Let me know if you're a fan of any athletes.
Okay, so next we are going to look at places and things of the Olympics.
So here are some of the places of the Olympics. You will hear them constantly talked about
in the news, if you're reading up on the Olympics. These are really good words to know. So these
are all nouns as well, so keep that in mind.
So the first word we have is "the venue". So "venue", what's a venue? It's a very simple
word which means a place where an event is held. So we don't just use it for sports,
we also use it for concerts, for any type of event. We talk about the venue, where the
event is going to take place.
So there are different types of venues at the Olympics. So "venue" is almost like the
umbrella term. The rest of the words are underneath "venue". So there are all types of venues.
So the first word we have is "stadium". So a stadium is a circular building or an oval
shaped building that has a lot of seats, usually thousands of seats, and this is where you
sit and you watch different sports take place or concerts. So in general, I'm not that great
of a drawer, but I'll just try to... So you notice it's oval shaped, and inside the stadium
there would be thousands of seats. And of course, the closer you are to the floor, the
better. There are some seats near the top, these aren't really that good to have, you
can't really see anything. Sometimes we actually call this the "nosebleed section".
So stadiums are often without roofs, so oftentimes you can see the sky when you're in a stadium.
Now an arena is very similar to a stadium. Often the word "arena" and "stadium" are used
interchangeably. So you can say "stadium" or "arena", they usually mean the same thing,
although sometimes, some people say that an arena has a roof and so it's completely indoors,
whereas a stadium is outdoors. Although, again, this depends, usually they're used interchangeably.
So again, you could use "stadium" or "arena" to describe this type of building.
The next word we have is "swimming pool". A lot of you probably know this word already.
It's a venue for the Olympics. A lot of sports are water sports and they take place at the
swimming pool. Finally, we have the word "track". So what is a track? Well, it's also this shape,
and people either run on the track, so they run around. Other sports take place there
too. With horses, for example, we have the race track where the horses run around the
track, or sometimes we have car racing on a track. All of these use the same word, "track".
Now let's look at some objects of the Olympics. First of all, we have the torch. This is almost
the symbol of the Olympics. What is a torch? I don't know if you can tell what this is,
but this is supposed to be fire, and this is supposed to be like a stick. The torch
is the object that Olympians hold. Usually, the torch is taken through many different
countries throughout the year. People run with the torch from one country to another
country to another country. Here's an example of what a torch would look like.
The next word we have is "the medal". Now, this is the goal of all the Olympians. They
want to win a medal. What color do the medals come in? The best one is gold, so you can
be a gold medalist. That's what we call somebody who wins a medal, a medalist. If you come
in second, you would be a silver medalist, and you would win the silver medal. For third
place, it's bronze. Bronze is the third place, and you would be a bronze medalist if you
won third place.
Next we have the word "podium". The podium is this thing these little people are standing
on. Imagine them as Olympians. I know they're kind of skinny for Olympians. Usually, the
person who wins the gold would be at the top of this part of the podium. Silver or second
place is here, and third place is here. This whole thing with the three levels is the podium.
After somebody wins an event, they get to go on the podium, smile for the cameras, wave
to everyone, and get awarded with a medal.
Now let's look at some of the common sports of the Olympics. Let's get started on some
of the common sports of the Olympics. The first one we have here is "weightlifting".
What is weightlifting? I have here what are called "barbells". It's when both men and
women lift very heavy weights, and whoever lifts the heaviest amount of weights wins
the competition. That's weightlifting. Usually, the people in weightlifting, they have these
huge muscles.
The second sport we're going to talk about is "wrestling". I don't know if you can really
understand this picture too well. I tried. This is a mat. On this mat, there are two
people who are wrestling, which means it's a form of fighting. The point of wrestling
is to try to get your opponent on the ground. I think their shoulders are supposed to touch
the ground. It's a form of fighting that you often see in the Olympics.
In the Olympics, it's different from WWE wrestling. It's very different. This is Olympic wrestling.
The third one is "archery". Here we have the bow, and here we have the arrow. It's where
you shoot an arrow from a bow. That's archery.
Our next sport is "boxing". Here I have a boxing glove. This is a type of fighting where people box.
After that, "gymnastics". I've drawn here -- there are different forms of gymnastics.
There are many different types of gymnastics. Here's an example. We have this beam, and
we have somebody who's doing a cartwheel or a flip on this beam.
Here we also have the bars, where this person is probably going to do some flips up to here,
maybe do some more flips, and then they land. These are just two examples of gymnastics.
There are many different types.
"Hurdles". "Hurdles" are when somebody runs, and there's an obstacle in the way. It usually
looks like this, and somebody has to jump over it, run a little more, jump, run, jump,
run, jump. We also use the word "hurdles" not only when we're talking about the Olympics,
but we use it as a synonym for obstacles. For example, "I've faced many hurdles in my
life." This is a way this is not only Olympic vocabulary.
The next sport is "pole vault". This is actually my favorite Olympic sport, just because I've
seen people do it. It's such an interesting one for me, where you have a long stick, and
you run with the stick, you shove the stick into the ground, and you flip over a very
high bar. If I could choose any Olympic sport to compete in, it would be "pole vault".
Next, we have "relay". This is where you have a team of runners, and each one has something
called a "baton". It's bigger than this, but they hold it behind their back. This is sort
of awkward to do. Somebody comes running, hands them the baton, and then they run with
the baton, and then they run it to the next person who runs with the baton. It's a type
of race where you have multiple people in the race on your team.
Finally, we have "the discus". The discus, this is a circular-shaped object, and it's
thrown. It's a very heavy object that's thrown. Of course, there are many more Olympic sports
on this list. This is just some of the common summer Olympic sports we have and events.
I hope that you found this video interesting, and hopefully you've learned some vocabulary
from it. I hope you're watching the upcoming Olympics. If you would like to practice some
of this vocabulary, I invite you to come visit our site at www.engvid.com. We have a quiz
there where you can definitely see if you've gotten a full understanding of these words.
Until next time, take care.