HAM@NAZ

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Olympic Facts

The five rings of the Olympic flag symbolize Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Americas and are said to be ‘linked together in friendship.’ At least one of the rings’ colors – blue, black, green, yellow, and red – appear on every national flag of the world.

The early Olympic Games were celebrated as a religious festival from 776 B.C. until 393 A.D., when the games were banned for being a pagan festival (the Olympics celebrated the Greek god Zeus). In 1894, a French educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin, proposed a revival of the ancient tradition, and thus the modern-day Olympic Summer Games were born.

In the first modern Olympics, Athens 1896, first place winners were awarded silver medals and olive branches. Second place contestants were awarded bronze medals and third place finishers left empty handed.

First place winners in the 1900 Paris Olympics received paintings instead of gold medals because they were considered to be more valuable.

The first Olympic city to award Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals was St. Louis in 1904.

Every two years the Olympic flame is lit at Olympia, Greece by women clad in traditional Greek clothing. Lit through use concave mirror and the sun’s rays, the flame then begins a journey from Greece to the host nation where it is paraded around for months until the opening ceremonies.

Women were not allowed to participate in the first modern Olympics, but they were soon added to the competition for the 1900 Paris games.

Three continents – Africa, South America, and Antarctica – have never hosted an Olympics.

Summer Olympic Sports:

archery, badminton, basketball, beach volleyball, boxing, canoe / kayak, cycling, diving, equestrian, fencing, field hockey, gymnastics, handball, judo, modern pentathlon (shooting, fencing, swimming, show jumping, and running), mountain biking, rowing, sailing, shooting, soccer, swimming, synchronized swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, track and field, triathlon (swimming, biking, running), volleyball, water polo, weightlifting, and wrestling.

Winter Olympic Sports:

alpine skiing, biathlon (cross-country skiing and target shooting), bobsled, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hocky, luge, Nordic combined (ski jumping and cross-country skiing), skeleton, ski jumping, snowboarding, and speed skating.

Baseball Game

We went to do the Rochester Wings and the Syracuse Chiefs baseball game with all the students from NAZ.
It was my first time in a baseball stadium ever! Actually my first time watching a baseball game.

To tell the truth the game was kind of boring.

I didn't like baseball that much, and I don't think it's as half fun as soccer or basketball.

However, I enjoyed the environment there, with all the music and funny stuff shown on big screens or in the field between inns.
And also all the food there.

Seneca Park Zoo

Seneca Park Zoo was a nice place that we spent one friday morning in.

The zoo was nice and big. not that big really, it was a medium sized zoo with a couple of animals of each animal or specie.

We learned lots of new zoology related words,, mainly because of the 3 papers filled up with questions that the teachers required each of us to walk around and try to figure it out and answer by reading the signs all over the zoo, and by asking the folks working there.