Free English Class! Topic: The Olympics! 🏐🏃‍♀️🏅 (Lesson Only)

Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson where I'm going

to talk about the Olympics. It might be a little challenging

to stay focused this morning because this lesson is being

delivered to you at the same time as the opening ceremonies.

I was just watching a little bit of the opening ceremonies

and it was super exciting to see all of the different

countries. But I thought this would be a perfect time to do

an English lesson about the Olympics. I'm certainly not

going to talk about every single type of event at the

Olympics. But I will certainly help you learn some English

words and phrases that you can use when you have little

conversations over the next few weeks about the Olympic games.

Certainly an exciting time when the world gets together to

compete with each other in a very friendly and sportsman

like way. So, the Olympic games, the Olympic games happen

every four years. It's a very exciting time because it's one

of the few times when the entire world gets together in

one place or sends representatives. I mean, the

whole world can't be in Tokyo right now but we send our best

athletes to compete with each other in various sports and

it's super fun. It's one of the few things that we do as a

world. I know we have a world's fair and there are a few other

things but it's exciting when we get together for the

Olympics. Again, it does happen every four years. This year,

the Olympics have been delayed by a year because of COVID but

we, I think our still calling these the 2020 Olympic games.

They are the summer Olympics. I'll talk about summer and

winter Olympics in a moment. They are the summer Olympics.

We sometimes just call them the Olympics. I'm not sure if I've

mentioned that. Are you going to watch the Olympics? Oh the

Olympics are going to be on TV every day this week. So we

don't always say the Olympic games. That sounds very very

formal. Um and then one last thing over 200 countries uh

come and participate. It's a very cool thing. I think the

winter Olympics, it's a little bit over about over a hundred.

Um you have to kinda have winter in your country if you

want to get good at winter sports but let's talk about the

Summer Olympics. The Summer Olympics usually happen in a

city that has beautiful weather during the summer. And it

usually takes place uh in the summer because many of the

events take place outside. A lot of them are inside but some

are outside. If you look to the right, I think that's It's my

right. I'm not sure if it's your right. You'll see that

there's weightlifting, there's cycling, there's pole vaulting,

there's archery, and I think the last one is volleyball. I

was trying to figure it out. So, sports that can be done

inside and some sports that are done outside. It's very cool to

watch some of these sports. I think there are 300

thirty-nine. I might have the number wrong. That might have

been at Rio the last time but there are over three events at

the Olympics. So, everything that you do at the Olympics is

called an event. I'll talk a little bit more about that in a

sec. The Winter Olympics, at the Winter Olympics, you have

ice hockey which Canada likes to win. Usually, we try to win.

Sometimes, the Russians beat us. Sometimes, the Americans

beat us but usually, we do pretty good. You have

snowboarding, you have downhill skiing or cross-country skiing.

Uh cross-country skiing is when you go forward under your own

power and downhill skiing Of course, you go down the hill

and then we also have figure skating. Um and I think there's

over 100 events at the Winter Olympics. There is something

called the host country. So, every time the Olympics are

held, a country um has been awarded the ability to host the

Olympics. I'm not sure exactly how to explain that but that's

planned far in advance. Currently, the host country is

Japan. Hi to everyone in Japan. I wanna say thank from Canada

and I think I can say thank you on behalf of the whole world.

Thank you for hosting the Olympics especially this year.

It's an especially difficult year to host the Olympics.

You're wondering how can how English speakers use the word

especially, that's a great example. It's an especially

difficult year for hosting the Olympics because of covid. So,

thank you Japan. Um I think you have everything well in hand.

So, hopefully, we have a good Olympic games. Thank you for

being the country. I think the last host country was Brazil.

So hi to everyone in Brazil. Uh the last summer Olympics I

believe was in Rio de Janeiro. So thank you everyone. And I

think the next Olympics uh is going to be in France. I think

the next Olympic games will be in Paris, France. So thank you

Paris for hosting that in four years. Or it might be 3 years

if we stay on track. We also have what's called the host

city. So the host city uh is the main city that hosts the

Olympic games. Not all of the events happen in the same city.

Sometimes, there are other cities that have large stadiums

or arenas that are used as well and sometimes, you have to

actually drive to get to the different events if you are an

athlete. You don't always just live in the Olympic Village and

walk over to the stadium and do your event. Often times,

especially in the Winter Olympics, your events might be

held in the mountains. If you are in the summer Olympics, uh

your event be held at a local soccer stadium if you're

playing soccer or something like that but thank you to the

city of Tokyo. If there's anyone in the chat um from

Tokyo, uh hi to all of you uh and thank you very much for

hosting the Olympic games this year. Very cool that your city

was chosen to do that. And then we have what's called the

Olympic Stadium. The Olympic Stadium is the main stadium,

the main large building where the Olympics occur. Now, again,

not all of the events happen in the Olympic Stadium but

generally, there is one stadium, sometimes two but

there's one stadium where the opening ceremonies happen, the

closing ceremonies happen. The majority of sometimes the track

and field events might happen at the main stadium and I think

this year, it's the national, the Tokyo National Stadium. I

can't remember the exact name. Though the Japan National

Stadium, sorry, do have notes over there pinned on the

window. Uh the Japan uh National Stadium. So, very cool

stadium. Sometimes, the Olympic stadium um is kind of a

showpiece of how well that country can build stadiums. We

notice that in Beijing, very cool stadium. Uh almost every

time there is an Olympics, a new stadium is built or an

older stadium is renovated to look really, really nice. Uh

let me get to my next slide, the Olympic torch. So, my

understanding, first of all, I like to teach English. I am not

an Olympic expert. So, if I get anything wrong, please bear

with me. My understanding though is that the Olympic

torch is lit in Olympia, Greece a few months before the Olympic

games begin and I think it's lit using um a mirror that

focuses the sun on the Olympic torch. So, Greece, I'll talk

about Greece in a little bit. Was the original country to

start the ancient Olympic games. So, honor the tradition

of where the Olympics originated. We light the torch

there. And then the Olympic torch goes through what's

called the Olympic torch relay. So they bring the torch from

Greece all the way to the host country many times by running.

But I think I have a funny feeling it must go on a boat or

plane occasionally in order to cross water. But usually the

Olympic torch is brought to the host country at the host city

by what's called a relay. If you don't know what a relay is,

a relay is when one person runs with something and then hands

it to the next person. So, in uh the Olympics, there are

actual relays. Where four runners all line up around the

track and they have a baton that they pass to each other.

The Olympic torch also participates in its own relay.

And then when it gets to the host city, when it gets to the

Olympic Stadium, it is used to light the Olympic cauldron. Uh

the Olympic cauldron is lit during the opening ceremonies.

At least that's my understanding. And it burns for

the entire duration of the Olympics. So from the beginning

from the opening ceremonies until the closing ceremonies.

The cauldron is lit. And the Olympic flame is there to

symbolize I think peace and competition between nations. So

the uh Olympic cauldron is lit using the Olympic torch and it

burns for the entire time. Very cool. Greece So, the original

Olympic games, the ancient Olympic games, started in the

country of Greece. So, we still pay tribute to Greece when we

have the Olympics. We honor Greece because you guys started

something really cool um thousands of years ago. I don't

know the exact date but the original Olympic games in

Greece, I think were just a few events, some running, some

fighting, and some other things but uh it was very cool and a

very neat thing that was started by that country. So, I

should thank everyone who's from Greece as well. I'm not

sure if Athenacios is here this morning but thanks uh to your

country for coming up with this really cool idea. The Olympic

symbol or logo, you'll see this on the Olympic flag. You'll see

this on every country's uh logo probably has the or flag on

their shirt probably has the Olympic logo be below it. Um

and basically it symbolizes uh peaceful unity and competition

between I think the five main continents of the world. I

think that this represents Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania,

and Americas and the Americas. Um so the is that the world is

coming together and that's what the Olympic symbol or logo

represents. And once again you have the opening ceremonies.

This happens at the beginning of the Olympics. I think it's

still happening right now. Countries walk in in

alphabetical order I think according to the local

language. So when you watch it you might think well why isn't

Canada near the front? And I think it just depends on what

the name for Canada is in the language of the host country. I

could be wrong. Sometimes don't remember this is an English

lesson. Not a lesson about Olympic facts. But the opening

ceremonies are where everyone comes together. All the

athletes come to the stadium to the Olympic stadium at the

beginning of the Olympic games. Just to kind of walk in to show

their flag and their new outfit or uniform. And it's a fun fun

time. I'm kind of missing it but I'm gonna watch the rest of

it later. When you walk in you have what are called flag

bears. Canada's flag bears are Miranda Ayem. Uh and Nathan

Hirayama. Uh she plays on our women's basketball team and he

plays on our men's rugby team. This year, I think is one of

the first years where there are two flag bearers for some

teams, a man and a woman but the flag bearer will carry the

flag of that country into the Olympic Stadium at the opening

ceremonies. It is an honor to be chosen to be the flag bearer

for your country. You are probably aware of your flag

bearer or flag bearers uh but they get to uh the flag into

the stadium during the opening ceremonies. Very cool job um to

have. And then of course at the end of the Olympics you have

the closing ceremonies. The closing ceremonies are simply

the opposite of the opening ceremonies. All of the events

have pretty much been completed. Uh and then all of

the athletes get together once more for a celebration uh to

celebrate that the Olympics are over. And there's usually

fireworks and there's usually music and there's usually a lot

of really fun things going on. By the way, what I should

mention as well about the opening ceremonies is that

usually the host country takes a moment to kinda showcase

their culture and the beauty of their country and the beauty of

their people and so you will often see a lot of really cool

things happen that represent the culture and the history of

the host country. That's to me one of the cool parts of the

opening ceremonies as well to see, you know, how how does

dance work in that country. How what is a little bit of their

history? Um and usually it's technologically um amazing as

well. Venues. So you will hear often um when you are watching

the Olympics that there's different venues. So once again

not every event can take place at the main stadium. There's

just too many events. So there will be different venues. There

will be the swimming venue. There will be the diving venue.

That might be the same building. In the Winter

Olympics There will be the venue where they have all the

skiing. So, a venue is simply a place and it's the place where

a certain number of events take place. So, in the main stadium,

you might have all the track and field. So, the venue for

track and field might be the main stadium. In the Winter

Olympics, the venue for hockey for ice hockey will be one of

the local arenas. So, it's simply a word for place. And

then, there are a number of different events. Here, we see

the women's volleyball teams playing in Rio um in the last

Olympics. So, an event is any competition at the Olympics

where there is a medal, okay? So, the reason I say that is

this, for volleyball, that's one sport and there's one event

but actually there's two events, isn't there? There's

men's and there's women's volleyball. When you look at

something like figure skating in the women's Olympics, so you

have skating is the sport but there's figure skating, there's

speed skating, etcetera. So, there's many different events

in that sport. So, what's another example of different

events? I think that works. I think you got the point of what

an event is. You have athletes or what we also call Olympians.

So, one of the cool things about participating in the uh

Olympics is you get to call yourself an Olympian. My

understanding is that you don't need to win a medal to be

called an Olympian. You just need to participate in one

event at the Olympics and you are an Olympic athlete. You are

an Olympian. By the way, this is Kia Nurse from the Canadian

uh women's basketball team. I think she's going to have a

really good Olympic games. I think Canada's women's

basketball team is gonna do quite well. When you go to the

Olympics, we use the verb to compete. You compete at the

Olympic games. You compete in sports like boxing. Oh, what

sport do you compete in? Oh, I compete in rowing. That is the

sport that I'm going to compete in. So, the Olympics is just

one long uh stretch of time where people are competing with

each other in various different events and sports. And then of

course, you want to win a medal. The medals at the

Olympics are gold, silver, and bronze. Gold is for first

place, silver is for second place, and bronze is for third

place. There are no medals if you don't get into the top

three. So you have a gold medal for first place which is what

everyone wants. Everyone dreams of winning a gold medal at the

Olympics if they go as an Olympic athlete. And silver is

pretty good too. And bronze is pretty awesome. But I think

most people at the Olympics are trying to win a gold medal.

Because they want to be a medalist. By the way watching

you Usain Bolt Run is one of my favorite things as well. Uh

it's cool to see he he is fast. Uh I think the the hundred

meter sprint, the hundred meter dash is a fun sport to watch.

It's it's one of the probably um primary viewing sports of

the Olympics. Everyone wants to know who the fastest man in the

world is. Anyways, if you win a medal, you are then a medalist.

By the way, medalist sometimes has two Ls. Sometimes has one.

There's two different spellings of medalist. Um Let's see here.

And then if you do win, you could also be called a

champion. You would be an Olympic champion. Um after the

Olympics are over, if you uh were able to become a champion

at the Olympics, you probably will be able to go on tour in

your home country to show off your medals and maybe talk at

some schools or other events. People love when the champions

come home from the Olympics and when they get to see them and

see their medals. When you you stand on the podium. Of course

the person in the centre who is the highest is the person who

has won gold. The person who is the best at that sport or

event. And then you have people who also get the silver and the

bronze. But certainly when you get to the podium you want to

be in the middle and you want to be the highest person. And I

think you get your medal and you also get flowers. It's very

interesting for Jen and I because we grow flowers on our

farm. We love seeing the flowers at the Olympics as

well. It's cool to see what types of bow case the athletes

are given along with their medals. There's something

called the Athlete's Village or the Olympic Village. So, this

is where all of the athletes live during the Olympics. Um

it's usually close to the national to the Olympic Stadium

but not always. Um and it's just a place where if you are

an athlete, you live in the Olympic Village, that's where

you eat, that's where you sleep, that's where you shower,

um and it's just kind of I think probably a cool place to

live for a few weeks. To be surrounded by people from all

different parts of the world. Um if there's thing about the

Olympics that I find fascinating, more fascinating

sometimes than the games, it's what is it like to live in the

Olympic Village. It must be a lot of fun. But anyways, the

Olympic Village is simply where people stay, where the athletes

live while they're at the Olympic games. Now, there's two

types of sports in the Olympics. Hey, I'll flip to um

yeah, two types of sports. You might participate in an

individual sport or a team sport. So, an individual sport

would be like boxing or let me see what would be another good

one. Um swimming. Uh any sport where you yourself are trying

to win a gold medal. Whereas a team sport obviously would be

something like volleyball or hockey in the Winter Olympics

or basketball. A sport where you and a bunch of other

players water polo might be another good example. Uh where

you and a bunch of other players together make a team

and as a team you try to win a medal. So the Olympic outfit or

the Olympic uniform every country tries to showcase their

fashion style by having designers develop a an outfit

or uniform. The athletes generally wear this when they

walk in during the opening ceremonies. This morning, I was

especially impressed with a lot of the different outfits or

uniforms that people were were wearing. It was super cool to

see the unique design styles of each country and I think

fashion designers around the world Probably, really enjoy

the Olympics because they get to see all of these different

styles in a very short amount of time. I think if I was a

fashion designer, it would be very cool. There are what are

called official Olympic sports and there are demonstration

sports or demonstration events. So, for instance, pole vaulting

is an official Olympic sport. Hockey is an official Olympic

sport but many, many years ago, I believe in Seoul, maybe I got

this uh the last time not not the Winter Olympics you're not

here for Olympic facts but at one point badminton was a

demonstration sport and now it's an official Olympic sport

so at the Olympics the majority of the sport are official

Olympic sports but some are just for demonstration I'm not

sure if there is a demonstration sport at the

Tokyo Olympics I think there is an exhibition or a tournament

for sumo wrestling but I'm not 100% sure. Maybe someone from

Japan can let us know in the chat. There is of course the

IOC, the International Olympic Committee. This is the

organization that takes care of planning and helping the host

country host the Olympics. They're in charge of all of the

rules. They're in charge of a whole bunch of things. It is

the group of people from many different countries that

decides that makes all the Decisions that need to be made.

They are the, yeah, they are in charge. Sometimes, there is one

person in charge of something. Sometimes, it's a committee and

the IOC or International Olympic Committee is in charge.

In order to be at the Olympics, sometimes you need to qualify

in the sport that you play. My understanding is that the

Canadian men's soccer team did not qualify for the Olympics.

Maybe Brad or Jim can look that up. I think Mexico beat us out

and so Canada, I don't think we have a men's soccer team at the

Olympics. I'm pretty sure we have a women's soccer team

though. They're usually really, really good. Maybe Jim or Brad

can check that as well for us. But you need to qualify. In

order to qualify for something, you need to prove that you're

good enough. So, you might need to win an earlier tournament.

You might need to have um jumped a certain distance or or

have a certain record in a sport in order to qualify. And

then, there is what's called eligibility. Eligibility, um

that would be that you conform to all the requirements to be

in the Olympics. So, in order to be eligible for the

Olympics. You have to be 16 years of age or older. In order

to be eligible, you need to be a citizen of a certain country.

I think for more than three years. I'm not sure of the

exact details. But eligibility refers to that you've done

everything you need to do to be allowed to go. You can also be

ineligible. This kid might be a great tennis player but he's

not old enough to go to the Olympics. He's ineligible,

okay? So when you're ineligible, uh you are not uh

allowed you are not allowed to be at the Olympics. If you're

eligible, if you fulfill all the eligibility requirements,

you can go. But if you are ineligible, you can't go. So

kids can't go to the Olympics. And then, you might be

disqualified. When you are disqualified, it means that

whatever you won, you no longer are going to be written down as

the person who won that. So, a long time ago, there was a

sprinter from Canada who we were very embarrassed about

because he used illegal um performance-enhancing drugs and

then, when they found out he was disqualified. His name was

Ben and Canada is still ashamed of the fact that we had an

athlete use uh performance in enhancing drugs and that person

was disqualified. Sad when that happens. And then there are

what are called records. There's two types of records.

There are Olympic records and there are world records. A

record is when you are you do the best in that sport compared

to everyone else who has ever done it. So if you are a high

jumper, if you break the Olympic record, it means that

you have jumped the highest of any person who has ever done

high jump at the Olympics. If you beat the World record. It

means you have jumped higher than anyone else in the world

ever has at an event. So, Olympic athletes love to break

the Olympic record but they're even more excited if they break

the world record because when you break the world record,

you've also broken the Olympic record. So, um the world

record, 9.5 eight. That's fast. I think the fastest I ever ran

the hundred meter was around 11.9 seconds or 1212 .1

seconds. I wasn't super fast. Fast enough though. So, I

mentioned band substances. There are number of band

substances. Um in order to perform as an athlete, you need

to keep your body clean. You can't smoke marijuana. You

can't take performance enhancing drugs. You have to

train and become in the best physical shape you can without

using anything that's illegal, okay? And we call those banned

substances. Sometimes, they will do a blood test and some

and the results will come back and they'll find a banned

substance in that person's blood and then that person no

longer be able to participate. They will be uh disqualified.

Sportsmanship, so when you are sportsman like, when there is

sportsmanship, it means that you are kind to each other in

spite of competition. A good example of this would be at the

end of a lot of team sports, when there's no covid, the

players will shake hands or give each other a high five at

the end. I think at this Olympics, I read yesterday, all

of that is banned. There are no high fives. There's no

congratulatory handshakes allowed because they don't want

people to touch each other but normally sportsmanship would be

happy that the other person won even though you lost, okay? So,

if you get the silver medal and you congratulate the person who

got the gold medal, that's good sportsmanship. That would be

you being very sportsman like. Always a nice thing to do. And

then, of course, you have coaches and trainers. Coaches

are the people who help the athletes do well in their

sport. Um there are a lot of Olympic coaches. It would be

quite an honor to be an Olympic coach. It would mean that in

your sport, you are really good and your country recognizes

that and has asked you to be uh an Olympic coach. That would be

cool. It would be cool to coach the Olympic hockey team or the

Olympic volleyball team or to be um like any any kind of

coach. Maybe a trainer for an Olympic boxer. All of those

things be cool but these are the people that um take care of

the athletes, uh train the athletes, design exercise

programs for the athletes, encourage the athletes, by the

way, if you um let's see here, the men's soccer team did not

make it into the Olympics. That's what Brad says. Thanks

Brad for looking that up. Um by the way, if you wanna watch a

video about encouragement in English, I did do one this

week. Maybe I'll put a link in the chat later. And then of

course, we have fans. Fans are the people who watch the

Olympics. This year, the vast majority of the fans will be at

home watching this one on TV but as we have heard from other

viewers, some of you probably have actually gone and seen an

Olympic event. Probably, it was an awesome experience. Um and

again, I am an Olympic fan. I would love to go to Paris in

2024 uh and I'll I'll literally watch any event. Um if I could

see any Olympic event live, I would go to it. I if I could

tickets. I would go but fans of course are people who watch a

sport. So, we have basketball fans and we have people who

are, oh, I'm a big fan of gymnastics or I'm a fan of pole

vaulting. I'm a fan of track and field. So, you are the

people who like to watch that event.