Winning Ways

So, I was studying the medals table at the ongoing London 2012 Olympic Games, and some surprising names turned up in the Top 20 – in equally unusual positions.

Kazakhstan, ahead of Australia?

Italy and Hungary, ahead of Australia?
(Sorry, Aus; nothing personal)

Team Great Britain, in third place?

What is going on, here?

New Olympic world powers are finding new ways to win.

Which set me to thinking:

What exactly does it take, to be or become a winner?

Inspiration, then Perspiration
It can begin with a feeling. The belief that you can achieve something extraordinary – far in excess of what you have done, at present.

Or a commitment, to continually improve.

That’s where the hard work begins.

Because, for Olympic athletes – and, by extension, for would-be winners, in general – it’s all about pushing your limits. And having the courage to reach your potential – by doing disciplined work.

Without discipline, you’ll never achieve your goals. And your dreams will remain just that.

So, the winning athlete trains – hard – to an established routine, for a certain number of hours per day.

This training is monitored. He or she typically keeps a daily log, which can include details as arcane as the number of hours of sleep the previous night, their current heart rate, and their actual (or not) desire to train.

For the person (That’s you or me) who wants to become a champion in everyday life, this translates to something like:

1. Setting a goal
2. Outlining a program of activities to achieve it, and
3. Monitoring your progress toward the objective.

Eyes On The Prize. NOT The Competition
The race (or whatever) isn’t about you, versus them.

It’s about you, versus you.

Your ability to win the inner battles: fear of failure, negative associations from the past, or the urge to compare yourself to others in the game (or whatever), is key.

Remember: You can control or influence your own performance. Not (necessarily; there’s always cheating, I suppose) anyone else’s. So that’s what you need to focus on; you. And yourself, in relation to your goal.

It Ain’t Over, Till It’s Over
And there’s no such thing as an easy win; a sure thing. Or a pushover opponent.
Just ask the Aussies (Sorry).

For the true champion, every race is a big race – every game, a big game.

So, establish a mindset in line with this.

A sense of mental toughness will pull you through the rough patches – or give you the strength to persevere, when you’re down.

Winning Isn’t Everything
But, it helps.

Seriously, though. Achieving the aura and status of a winner is as much about the way you comport yourself while pursuing your goal, as it is about accomplishing the goal itself.

You can become a champion, simply in the way you go about becoming one.

Seriously cryptic. But, think about it.

Sports psychologist Jerry Lynch contends that: “The true champion is selfless. He/she naturally puts himself last. This individual manifests an “unconditional willingness to put the team or group before any of his/her individual or self needs.” In sum, the true champion serves others.”

So, it’s not just about fame, statistics, and money.

Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone
Because you’re going to have to, if you expect to succeed.

Following your dream, indulging your passion, and taking responsibility for success isn’t “safe”.
There are risks involved: failure, ridicule, rejection, or whatever.

But the champion’s way is always to trust in him / herself – regardless of the potential negative outcomes, or the reactions of others.

Not safe.

But, it’s a higher level of achievement. The pinnacle, for the Olympians.

If you’re ready for that, then go for it. With my blessing.

Peace.

Here’s Your List – And One I Missed

Okay, so I was looking back over my “A to Z of Olympic Sports”, and I suddenly realized: I’ve missed one.

Thought I might have included it, under “Swimming”, but, no. So, here it is:
Water Polo

Thanks as ever to http://www.olympic.org, for additional facts and figures.

Water Polo

Water polo is a sport played between two teams in a swimming pool, with a netted goal set up at each end. Competing teams attempt to score points by throwing a buoyant ball into the opponent’s goal. Each goal is worth one point.

Water polo originated in England during the 1870s and soon became popular in the United States.

In the early days, the players rode on floating barrels that resembled mock horses, and swung at the ball with mallet-like sticks. This made it similar to equestrian (land-based, horseback) polo – hence its name. In the United States it was termed softball water polo, due to the use of an unfilled bladder as a ball.

In 1897, New Yorker Harold Reeder formulated the first American rules for discipline, which were aimed at curbing the sport’s more violent tendencies.

Water polo was developed in Europe and the United States as two differing sports.

From approximately 1920 to 1946 the United States departed from the international rules for water polo by adopting a loosely inflated ball that could be gripped in one hand and carried toward the goal. Opposing players usually attempted to seize the ballcarriers, wrestle them under water, and render them helpless from loss of breath.

Ultimately, the faster, less dangerous European style predominated, and is today the standard form of the game. It consists of seven-man teams, playing four, seven-minute periods.

The ball weighs between 400g and 450g. Its circumference is 0.68m to 0.71m, for men, and 0.65m to 0.67m, for women.

The two goals are 3.0m wide and 0.9m high, and float on the water.

Lane ropes and buoys are used to distinguish the field of play, and imaginary distances from the goals.

Players wear colored bathing caps with individual numbers and ear protectors. These are used not only for protection, but to also distinguish the various players on a team.

Water polo made its Olympic debut at the Paris Games in 1900. It was not included in 1904, but would be present at each subsequent edition of the Olympic Games.

The Hungarians have historically enjoyed the greatest success in this discipline. Between 1928 and 1980, they won medals at every Games, winning six of the ten gold medals available between 1932 and 1976.

At the 2000 Games in Sydney, Hungary made a remarkable comeback, winning its seventh gold medal in water polo. In the same year, women’s water polo made its first official appearance at the Olympic Games.

So. That’s the one I missed.

And Here’s Your List:

The London 2012 Official Olympic Website:
http://www.london2012.com/schedule-and-results/

The site gives an overview of the tournament, in calendar form. There are also day-by-day breakdowns of the events in either list form, or as time charts.

Dates run from 27th July to 12th August, so the Events List for, say, the 28th of July would look like this:

http://www.london2012.com/schedule-and-results/day=28-july/list.html

Which would be the URL you would enter in your browser.

So, now you have no excuse to miss the action on your local broadcast network.

Speaking Of Which…

The Olympic Games were first telecast in 1960, and the broadcasts have only grown in popularity, since then. The global audience is now estimated at over one billion television viewers.

Viewer ratings, advertising revenue, and prestige associated with broadcasting the games have established the Olympic rights as among the most coveted and expensive in all of television.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has become increasingly dependent on income derived from television – particularly American TV. Even the scheduling of the games has been changed, in part, to accommodate the U.S. media.

The games first attracted a significant television audience during the 1968 Summer Games, when Roone Arledge was at the helm of ABC Sports. These shows set the standard for Olympic telecasts.

And it’s not just the sports coverage.

Typically, a host network captures 50% of the television audience each night, for the two-and-a-half weeks of the Olympic telecast. This establishes a relationship between the viewers and the network – which translates into increased ratings for regularly scheduled programs.

Paradoxically, though, networks lose money on the Olympics. Bids are made knowing that the result will be millions of dollars lost. Broadcasting the Olympics is more a matter of network prestige, than a question of profit.

And I hope you’ve profited, by your time spent here.

See you again, soon.

Peace.

An A to Z of Olympic Sports: The Ol’ VW

No Beetles, mind. Or Golf. Though there will be sports. Specifically:

Volleyball, Weightlifting, and Wrestling.

My thanks as ever to http://www.olympic.org, for additional facts and figures.

Volleyball

Volleyball is a popular team sport played by hitting an inflated ball back and forth over a high net.

In the indoor game, each team has six players, while in beach volleyball (played outdoors on sand) teams consist of two players each. Points are scored by successfully landing the ball in the court of the opponents without it being returned.

Traditionally, a point could only be scored by the serving team. If a team failed to score, the serve went over to the other team. This is called a side-out. The exception was in the deciding game of a match, when rally scoring was used. In rally scoring, a point is scored on each serve, whether by the serving team or the nonserving team. Beginning in 1999, international volleyball switched to rally scoring in all games to help shorten match length.

The first team to score 15 points (traditional) or 25 points (rally scoring) wins the game, provided the margin of victory is at least 2 points. An indoor volleyball match consists of the best two out of three or three out of five games.

Volleyball was conceived as a less strenuous alternative to basketball. Both games were invented at Springfield College in Massachusetts, within a few years of one another.

In 1895, William G. Morgan – the physical education director of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) chapter in Holyoke, Massachusetts – after watching basketball develop, decided to invent a less strenuous sport for older people. He called this game “Mintonette”. However, a local professor noted the ball being volleyed (hit without being allowed to strike the ground) over the net, and the sport was almost immediately renamed.

Japan was playing the game by 1896, followed closely by other Asian countries, and the sport developed rapidly over the next 20 years. A specially designed ball came into play; six-a-side teams became standard, and the rules mandating three hits were instituted.

No country has been truly dominant in volleyball, although the former Soviet Union has won the most medals.

The Japanese and the Soviet women’s teams dominated from 1964 – 1984. The balance of power has since shifted to Cuba, then to China, and now to Brazil.

The United States men’s teams were prominent in the 1980s, Italy in the 1990s, and Brazil in the 2000s.

Weightlifting

Weightlifting has ancient origins. As a means of measuring strength and power, it was practised by ancient Egyptian and Greek societies.

Weightlifting developed as an international sport primarily in the 19th century, and is one of the few sports to have featured at the 1896 Athens Games.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Austria, Germany and France were the most successful nations.

In the 1950s, the Soviet Union’s weightlifters rose to prominence, and stayed there until the 1990s when China, Turkey, Greece and Iran took the lead.

Although men’s weightlifting has always been on the program of the Olympic Games – except for at the 1900, 1908 and 1912 editions – women started to participate only at the 2000 Games in Sydney.

In the women’s field, China has been dominant since the very beginning.

The Olympic weightlifting program has evolved greatly over time. But the equipment lifted has remained much the same: a barbell, which consists of a steel bar with rubber-coated discs of different weights fastened onto it.

Competitors must lift the barbell loaded to a certain weight, under strictly specified conditions. In competition, the barbell’s weight is progressively loaded by one-kilogram increments.

Today, weightlifters compete in snatch and clean and jerk, and are placed according to their total combined result.

In the snatch, a loaded barbell is hefted from the ground to a position above the weightlifter’s head, in a continuous, (hopefully) smooth motion. Both legs may be flexed or moved at any time during this lift, but they must be straightened and returned to the same plane to complete the lift.

The clean and jerk involves hoisting the barbell to shoulder level (the clean), and then boosting it above head height (the jerk). Most competitors gain power for the final, upward thrust by bending and then suddenly straightening the knees, then moving the body under the barbell.

The Referee Light System is in operation now, whereby three referees give their decision about the correctness and validity of each lift by pressing white or red light buttons on a small device in front of them. As soon as a referee has judged a lift as correctly completed, he or she will press the white light button, or, if the attempt is incorrect or missed, the red light button.

A main scoreboard on the wall helps spectators to follow the progress of the competition by indicating all the important data on the lifters, the progress of the competition, and the actual ranking in that particular competition.

Multi-video Screen Replays of the lifts in slow motion from different angles are presented to the public and the Jury after each attempt, to allow for better observation of the athletes’ movements – which are very fast in real time.

Since the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, men have competed in eight weight categories and women in seven:

MEN’S EVENTS

+ 105kg men

105kg men

56kg men

62kg men

69kg men

77kg men

85kg men

94kg men

WOMEN’S EVENTS

+ 75kg women

48kg women

53kg women

58kg women

63kg women

69kg women

75kg women

Turkey’s Naim Suleymanoglu and Halil Mutlu have each won three gold medals – as have Greece’s Pyrros Dimas and Kakhi Kakhiasvilis.

Hungarian weightlifter Imre Földi and Germany’s Ronnie Weller and Ingo Steinhöfel hold a special record: they participated in the Olympic Games five times.

In women’s weightlifting, China’s Chen Yanqing and Liu Chunhong have both won two gold medals.

Wrestling

Wrestling is a sport in which two contestants try to force each other’s shoulders to the floor, thus scoring a fall and winning the match. Points are awarded for various holds and techniques during the bout, and if neither wrestler can score a fall within the time limit, the competitor with the most points wins.

Wrestlers compete in weight classes, which ensure that opponents are approximately the same size and weight. All wrestling matches are supervised by officials, who enforce the rules.

With the possible exception of athletics, wrestling is recognized as the world’s oldest competitive sport. Cave drawings of wrestlers have been found dating as far back as 3000 BC. The sport was introduced into the ancient Olympics in 708 BC.

Greco-Roman Style

In Greco-Roman wrestling, the wrestlers use only their arms and upper bodies to attack, and can only hold those same parts of their opponents.

When the modern Olympic Games resumed in Athens in 1896, Greco-Roman wrestling was considered to be a pure revival of the ancient Greek and Roman wrestling traditions.

Freestyle

In freestyle wrestling – a much more open form – wrestlers may use their arms and legs, and may hold their opponents above or below the waist.

In both Greco-Roman and freestyle, competitors wear boots of soft leather, with no heels or studs, and a wrestling suit, made of stretch material. The suit must be either red or blue.

The 1900 Games were the only ones where wrestling was not present in any shape or form.

At St. Louis in 1904, Olympic officials added freestyle wrestling, commonly known as “catch as catch can”, to the program.

Freestyle wrestling was not included in the 1912 Games, but since the 1920 Games in Antwerp, it has been present at every edition of the Games. Both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling competitions have featured since the 1920 Games, in Antwerp.

Today, the nations dominating this sport are the Russian Federation, closely followed by the USA in freestyle wrestling. Iran, Turkey and Mongolia – countries in which wrestling is the national sport – also feature prominently.

At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, the Greco-Roman wrestling program was modified. Only eight weight categories are now represented in each style, as opposed to the 10 that had been included since the 1972 Games in Munich. Since the 2004 Games in Athens, men have competed in only seven weight categories.

The reduction in the number of categories from 10 to seven in freestyle wrestling allowed for the introduction of women’s wrestling in 2004, at the Athens Games, where there were four women’s events on the program.

The Japanese women won medals in each category, while the USA and France won two medals each. The first medal was won by Ukraine’s Irini Merlini, who dominated her four opponents in the 48kg category and went on to win the final, by tie-break.

The schedule of bouts for London 2012 looks something like this:

Wrestling Greco-Roman

MEN’S EVENTS

– 55kg men

55 – 60kg men

60 – 66kg men

66 – 74kg men

74 – 84kg men

84 – 96kg men

96 – 120kg men

Wrestling Freestyle

MEN’S EVENTS

– 55kg men

55 – 60kg men

60 – 66kg men

66 – 74kg men

74 – 84kg men

84 – 96kg men

96 – 120kg men

WOMEN’S EVENTS

– 48kg women

48 – 55kg women

55 – 63kg women

63 – 72kg women

Well, that’s the ol’ VW.

And that’s the whole of our show. Xeroxing, Yak racing, and Zeppelin flying didn’t make the shortlist, so the Olympic alphabet ends here.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the tour. Hope you enjoy the Games of London 2012 even more.

Peace.

An A to Z of Olympic Sports: Two More Ts

And four, for the price of two.

Two events, four separate disciplines, as we consider:

Trampoline, and Triathlon.

Thanks for additional facts and figures go to the good people at http://www.olympic.org

Trampoline

Although trampolines and tumbling nets have been used in circuses since the 18th century, the first modern trampoline was built by George Nissen and Larry Griswold around 1934, at the University of Iowa. It was initially used to train tumblers and astronauts, and as a training tool to hone acrobatic skills for other sports such as diving, gymnastics and freestyle skiing.

People enjoyed the sensation so much, they began to trampoline for sheer fun, and it soon became popular in its own right.

Nissen and Griswold envisaged trampolines being used in a variety of new games – although they never grabbed the public’s imagination. In one, called Spaceball, two teams of two on a single trampoline with specially constructed end walls attempted to propel a ball through a middle wall, to hit a target on the other side’s end wall.

Trampolining made its first appearance at the 2000 Games in Sydney, with men’s and women’s competitions. The number of events (two) has remained unchanged since then.

At competition level, the trampoline consists of a metal frame supporting a spring bed that the gymnasts bounce off to perform their routines. The trampoline is 5.05 meters long, 2.91m wide and 1.155m high. The bed is made of nylon or string material, and is only about six millimeters thick.

A large, thick mat, known as the safety platform, sits on the floor at each end of the trampoline. It is designed to cushion the impact if anyone falls from the apparatus.

Triathlon

Triathlon

is an athletic endurance competition involving three sports, usually swimming, cycling, and long-distance running. The distance for each of the events varies depending on the level of competition.

The triathlon demands a variety of skills from participants, and training is rigorous. Triathletes must pace themselves during the long events, and develop extraordinary endurance. The goal for most competitors is simply to finish the triathlon, and to improve on previous times.

Triathlon was invented in the early 1970s by the San Diego Track Club, as an alternative workout to standard track training. The club’s first event consisted of a 10km run, an 8km cycle and a 500m swim.

In 1989, the International Triathlon Union (ITU) was founded in Avignon, France, and the first official World Championships were held. The official distance for triathlon was set at a 1,500m swim, a 40km cycle and a 10km run – taken from existing events in each discipline already on the Olympic program.

The most famous triathlon – the annual Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii – includes a 3.8-km (2.4-mi) swim, a 179-km (112-mi) bicycle race, and a marathon (42km, 195m or 26 mi, 385 yd). The majority of other triathlon events (including the Olympic Games version) involve distances shorter than those at the Ironman competition.

Triathlon made its full Olympic medal debut at the 2000 Sydney Games.

And I’m making my full medal retreat, at this point.

Be back soon, though. So don’t miss.

Peace.

An A to Z of Olympic Sports: T, for 3

No milk, no sugar. Just bats, battering, and a bit of a racket. And my thanks, as ever, to http://www.olympic.org, for additional facts and figures.

Today, we’ll be looking at the following sports, lined up for the program of London 2012:
Table Tennis, Taekwondo, and Tennis.

Table Tennis

Table tennis (or Ping-Pong, as it is commonly known) is believed to have started as a genteel, after-dinner game, in England of the late 1800s. Upper-class Victorians would use improvised equipment on dining room tables to play an indoor alternative to lawn tennis.

Around 1900, when celluloid balls began to replace rubber and cork balls, the game became very popular in England and the United States. Early manufactured sets were called Gossima, Whiff-Waff, and Ping-Pong – the latter being a patented trade name.

In 1926, meetings held in Berlin and London led to the formation of the International Table Tennis Federation. In that same year, the first World Championships were held.

The sport has evolved greatly, since its invention. Players now use specially developed rubber-coated wooden and carbon-fiber rackets and a lightweight, hollow celluloid ball. With the current technology, they can smash the ball at over 150 kilometers per hour.

It is estimated there are 40 million competitive table tennis players and countless millions playing recreationally, making it the sport with the most participants worldwide. This is largely due to its enormous popularity in China, which has become a dominant force in the sport.

Table tennis was given its Olympic debut at the 1988 Games, in Seoul.

Singles and team titles are competed for, in both the men’s and women’s events.

Taekwondo

The Korean word “tae” means “foot”, “kwon” means “hand”, and “do” means “the way of”. So, the name taekwondo literally means “the way of hand and foot.” Unarmed combat, in other words.

In the earliest human settlements, the need to capture but not kill invading enemies forced the development of non-lethal forms of fighting. Those members of the community without military training or weapons had to develop a system of defense that could be used when no weapon was at hand.

Wall paintings of the Kokuryo Dynasty (AD 37 to 668) depict the first evidence of unarmed warfare in the Korean peninsula.

At the beginning of the Silla Dynasty, the Hwa rang – a young warrior caste, skilled in archery, sword-fighting, horse-riding, and unarmed combat – demonstrated their skills in an annual national festival, which took place in July and August.

In the Koryo Dynasty (AD 953 to 1392), martial or military arts were systematized and taught to the Korean armed forces, under the name soo bahk.

Flash forward, to the Japanese occupation of Korea (1907 – 1945), during which time the practice of native Korean martial arts was at first suppressed. Later – when Koreans were inducted into the Japanese armed forces – Japanese martial arts like karate, aikido, and kendo were adapted and incorporated into the Korean systems.

At the end of World War II, a division occurred between the five major martial arts academies in Korea. An ideological split, between those who wished to preserve the martial art character of their schools, and those interested in developing a combat sport.

After the first sporting championships of 1956, an umbrella body known as the Korean Taesoodo Association was formed. In 1965, the body changed its name to the Korean Taekwondo Association, on the recommendation of General Choi Hong Hi.

In 1972, the Association founded the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF), and based it in Seoul. The first world championships of taekwondo were held there, in 1973.

WTF?? Yes, I know.

Incidentally, I studied the discipline under the auspices of the Taekwondo Association of Great Britain (TAGB), when I was at university. A story for another time.

Taekwondo is noted for its spectacular kicking techniques – often executed while jumping or spinning.

For competition purposes, combatants wear padded headgear, chest plates, and gloves, for added protection.

At Olympic level, taekwondo made its debut as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Seoul Games, and became an official medal sport at the 2000 Games, in Sydney.

For London 2012, the schedule of bouts looks something like this:

MEN’S EVENTS

+ 80 kg men
– 58 kg men
58 – 68 kg men
68 – 80 kg men

WOMEN’S EVENTS

+ 67 kg women
– 49 kg women
49 – 57 kg women
57 – 67 kg women

Tennis

The earliest recognizable relative to tennis, as we know it, was “jeu de paume”, a game of 11th century France. Played in a monastery courtyard, the players used the walls and sloping roofs as part of the court and the palm of the hand to hit the ball.

Many experts believe tennis – then called lawn tennis – was invented in 1873 by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield, a British army officer. Although Wingfield claimed that he modeled the game which he called Sphairistiké (Greek for “playing at ball”) after an ancient Greek game, many authorities believe he adapted the principles of the popular English games of court tennis, squash racquets, and badminton for outdoor play. Early players preferred to call Wingfield’s game tennis-on-the-lawn, or lawn tennis.

By the late 19th century, the popularity of lawn tennis had overtaken croquet in England. For this reason, the All England Croquet Club embraced the sport and designated certain croquet lawns to be used for tennis. This natural supply of venues combined with the existing infrastructure resulted in the birth of the modern game in England.

In 1913, the existing National Tennis Associations joined forces to ensure the game was uniformly structured. An international conference was held between 12 nations in Paris and the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) was formed.

Tennis has a long Olympic history, but withdrew from the program after 1924. It did not return as a medal sport until 1988.

Professionals are now welcome to compete, and the Olympic competition includes men’s and women’s singles and men’s and women’s doubles.

And that’s game, set, and match, for now.

See you in a few, for our next instalment.

Till then.

Peace.

An A to Z of Olympic Sports: Ss, Too

Both of them based in the water. Both of them part of the program of events scheduled for the Games of London 2012:
Swimming, and Synchronized Swimming.

My thanks as always to http://www.olympic.org, for additional facts and figures.

Swimming

Swimming can be dated back to the Stone Age, when Prehistoric humans learned to swim in order to cross rivers and lakes.

Swimming is the act of moving through water by using the arms, legs, and body in motions called strokes. The most common strokes are the crawl, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and sidestroke.

Crawl

In the late 1880s, an Englishman named Frederick Cavill traveled to the South Seas, where he saw the natives performing a swimming technique with a flutter kick. Cavill settled in Australia, where he taught the stroke that was to become the famous Australian crawl.

The crawl is the fastest and most efficient swimming technique. It is also called the freestyle, because swimmers use it in freestyle events, which allow the use of any stroke.

To swim the crawl, a swimmer travels through the water with the chest and head pointing downward toward the bottom. The legs move up and down quickly and continually, in a flutterkick. Each arm stroke begins as the right arm is brought in front and slightly to the right of the swimmer’s head and into the water. At the same time, the left arm accelerates underneath the water in a pulling motion down the length of the body.

The swimmer then brings the left arm forward to enter the water while the right arm travels down the swimmer’s side. As the left arm enters the water and the right arm exits, the swimmer’s body begins to turn to the left again, and the swimmer begins the stroke sequence once more.

As the body tilts completely to the right or left side, the swimmer should roll the head to the same side and take a breath. After inhaling, the swimmer puts his or her face back in the water. The swimmer exhales slowly through the nose or mouth as the body rolls toward the other side.

Backstroke

The backstroke is the only stroke that is swum on the back, with the swimmer looking up. Backstroke swimmers therefore cannot see where they are going. Because the face is out of the water, swimmers need no special breathing technique. Backstrokers use the same flutterkick that crawl swimmers do.

At the beginning of each arm stroke, the swimmer extends the right arm so it enters the water slightly to the right of the head.

As the swimmer finishes the right arm’s stroke along the body, he or she begins to rotate toward the left side as the left arm reaches to enter the water above the head.

As the left hand enters the water, the body completes its roll to the left side and the right arm lifts out of the water. Continuing these motions, the swimmer moves forward.

Breaststroke
The breaststroke uses more energy than the crawl and backstroke, when swum at a fast pace. The technique has undergone major changes since it was introduced in the 17th century. Most swimmers now use a method called the wave breaststroke, which Hungarian coach Jozsef Nagy developed in the late 1980s.
To swim the wave breaststroke, the swimmer enters the water with the body streamlined, facing the pool bottom with arms and legs fully extended. To begin the stroke, the swimmer sweeps the arms out with the hands facing outward and bent slightly upward at the wrist.
As the head and upper torso clear the surface of the water, the swimmer inhales and lunges forward with the arms. During this movement the swimmer turns the feet outward and kicks backward. The swimmer then returns to the basic streamlined position and repeats the stroke.
Butterfly
Developed between 1930 and 1952, the butterfly is swum with an undulating motion. The arms are brought forward over the water’s surface, then brought back together in front of the body simultaneously. Each arm stroke is complemented by two dolphin kicks, meaning the feet are kept together and brought down then up again, much like the motion of a dolphin’s tail.
As the swimmer lunges forward, submerging the head and chest slightly, he or she makes a light downward kick with both feet. The body glides forward, and the hands catch water and begin to pull.
When the swimmer then pulls the arms down to the hips, the motion forces the head and shoulders above the surface of the water. This positioning enables the swimmer to inhale.The swimmer finishes the arm pull with a sweeping motion that brings each arm along the sides with the palms facing in.

Sidestroke
The sidestroke evolved out of the breaststroke technique in the 19th century. However, because the sidestroke generates less force than the other strokes, it turned out to be slower.
The sidestroke has remained a popular recreational stroke for novices. It is also used as a life-saving technique because the lifesaver’s head remains above the water at all times and one arm stays free to help the distressed swimmer.
The sidestroke’s propulsion comes mainly from the legs in a movement called a scissors kick, because the legs are brought together powerfully like the shears of a pair of scissors. The arms provide some propulsion but mainly serve to stabilize the body on its side.

The highest level of swimming competition occurs at the Summer Olympic Games, as governed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The Fédération Internationale de Natation Amateur (FINA; French for “International Federation of Amateur Swimming”) governs almost all other international competitions.

Swimming has featured on the programme of all editions of the Games since 1896. The very first Olympic events were freestyle (crawl) and breaststroke. Backstroke was added in 1904.

The butterfly first appeared at the 1956 Games in Melbourne. This style is now one of the four strokes used in competition (Sidestroke does not feature, at the Olympics).

Women first participated in 1912, at the Stockholm Games. Since then, women’s swimming has been part of every edition of the Games.

The men’s and women’s programs are almost identical, as they contain the same number of events, with only one difference: the freestyle distance is 800 meters for women and 1,500 meters for men:

MEN’S EVENTS

100m backstroke men
100m breaststroke men
100m butterfly men
100m freestyle men
1500m freestyle men
200m backstroke men
200m breaststroke men
200m butterfly men
200m freestyle men
200m individual medley men
400m freestyle men
400m individual medley men
4x100m freestyle relay men
4x100m medley relay men
4x200m freestyle relay men
50m freestyle men
marathon 10km men

WOMEN’S EVENTS

100m backstroke women
100m breaststroke women
100m butterfly women
100m freestyle women
200m backstroke women
200m breaststroke women
200m butterfly women
200m freestyle women
200m individual medley women
400m freestyle women
400m individual medley women
4x100m freestyle relay women
4x100m medley relay women
4x200m freestyle relay women
50m freestyle women
800m freestyle women
marathon 10km women

At the 1972 Olympics in Munich, American swimmer Mark Spitz won seven gold medals, all in world-record times. He remains the only swimmer ever to win seven gold medals at one Olympics.

At the 1988 Games in Seoul, Kristin Otto of East Germany won six gold medals, and Janet Evans of the United States won three. American Matt Biondi won five gold medals in the men’s events. Also at Seoul, Anthony Nesty of Suriname became the first black Olympic swimming champion, when he won the 100-meter butterfly.

Ian Thorpe was one of the top stars at the 2000 Olympics, held in Sydney. He won five medals, including gold in the 400-meter freestyle and in the 4 × 100-meter and 4 × 200-meter freestyle relays.

Synchronized Swimming

Synchronized swimming has its origins in water acrobatics.

At the turn of the 20th century, Annette Kellerman, an Australian swimmer, toured the United States performing water acrobatics. Her shows proved very popular and a sport was born.

The discipline was further developed by Katherine Curtis, who had the idea of combining water acrobatics with music. Her students performed at the 1933-34 Chicago “Century of Progress” Fair, where the announcer, former Olympic swimming gold medallist Norman Ross, coined the term “synchronized swimming”.

The first synchronized swimming competition in the United States was a meet between Wright Junior College and the Chicago Teacher’s College in 1939. In 1941 the sport was recognized by the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States, then the governing body over many amateur sports in the US. Synchronized swimming became a competitive event in the Pan American Games in 1955 in Mexico City.

Synchronized swimming became an Olympic sport for the first time in Los Angeles in 1984, with solo and duet events.

These events also took place at the Olympic Games in 1988 in Seoul, and in 1992 in Barcelona. Atlanta replaced them in 1996 by a water ballet for eight people.

Since the 2000 Olympic Games, the Olympic programme has included the team event, and the duet.

In each event, synchronized swimmers compete in three categories: figures, technical routine, and free routine.

In the figures competition, swimmers perform 4 of a possible 20 figures, or combinations of movements. A panel of judges awards points from 0 to 10 based on the accuracy of the performance and the timing, height, stability, and control of the figures.

In the technical routine, the swimmers must perform a set list of elements, or combinations of figures and swimming strokes, in a prescribed order.

In the free routine, swimmers can create their own choreography of figures and strokes.

In the technical and free routines – which can last from two to five minutes each – a panel of judges awards points from 0 to 10 in the categories of technical merit and artistic impression.

Together with rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming is the only exclusively female Olympic sport.

That’s it, for the Ss.

Ts up, next.

Till then.

Peace.

An A to Z of Olympic Sports: Two Ss

And two contrasting events, lined up for the program of the 2012 Olympic Games, in London:
Sailing, and Shooting.

My thanks as usual to the good people at http://www.olympic.org, for additional facts and figures.

Sailing

Sailing is the technique by which a boat moves through water using a sail – a piece of fabric spread to catch the wind.

In generic terms, a sailboat describes any boat that can be propelled by sails.

A yacht is a vessel propelled by sail or power, used for cruising or racing. Also known as an expensive sailboat.

International yacht racing began in 1851, when members of the New York Yacht Club built a 101-foot schooner (a sailing ship) named America. The yacht was sailed to England where it won a trophy called the Hundred Guineas Cup, in a race around the Isle of Wight.  

The trophy was promptly renamed The America’s Cup, and remained in the hands of the United States until 1983, when an Australian yacht finally brought an end to the New York Yacht Club’s 132-year winning streak.

Sailing was first contested as an Olympic sport at the 1900 Paris Games.

The sport is organized under a single set of rules for racing, published by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF). Most are geared toward avoiding collisions between competing vessels.

Olympic racing is now conducted with boats categorized into classes based on similar weights and measurements.

Races are sailed in what is known as a fleet racing format: fleets of equally-matched boats, racing around the same course area, at the same time.

Courses are designed to incorporate a variety of different sailing angles:
1. Upwind, or in the direction opposite to the direction the wind is blowing.
2. Downwind, or in the direction the wind is blowing, and
3. Reaching, or sailing off the wind, where the wind reaches the craft from the side, or beam, and the sails are set at approximately 45° from the axis of the craft.

A new feature for the 2012 Games is the introduction of a match racing event for women: a head-to-head contest of strategy and tactics, between teams on two identical boats.

The full schedule of events looks like this:

MEN’S EVENTS

    470 – Two Person Dinghy men
    49er – Skiff men
    Finn – One Person Dinghy (Heavyweight) men
    Laser – One Person Dinghy men
    RS:X – Windsurfer men
    Star – Keelboat men

WOMEN’S EVENTS

    470 – Two Person Dinghy women
    Elliott 6m – match racing women
    Laser Radial – One Person Dinghy women
    RS:X – Windsurfer women

For the uninitiated (ie. most of us):

A dinghy is a small sailing boat or rowing boat.

A skiff is a lightweight, high performance dinghy used for the men’s competition.

A windsurfer or sailboard is a lightweight, surfboard-like craft with a mast, boom and sail, on which the rider stands.

A keelboat is a sailing boat with a fixed keel – which is the fin-shaped protrusion on the bottom of the hull, that prevents a boat from sliding sideways.

The Elliott 6m is a three-person keelboat used for women’s match racing at the Olympic Games. This event is making its debut in 2012.

The 49er is a two-person, high-performance dinghy class with a low hull and wings, used for open competition.

The Laser is a one-person centerboard dinghy, used for the men’s competition in the Olympic Games.

The Laser Redial is a one-person centerboard dinghy, with a slightly smaller rig and sails than the Laser. It is used for the women’s competition.

Shooting

Shooting as a sport has been practised for hundreds of years in European countries, with some German shooting clubs dating back more than 500 years.

The sport of small-arms target shooting dates from the invention of the pistol and the rifle in the 16th century. For several centuries the sport was contested only in sporadic fashion, because the firearms of that period were too undependable and inaccurate to meet the requirements of large-scale, organized competition.

Popular interest in rifle shooting reached new heights after the American Civil War (1861-1865), when the sport became a favorite diversion of city dwellers, groups of whom organized weekend target-shooting excursions into the countryside.

The popularity of shooting grew in English-speaking countries with the formation of the National Rifle Association (USA) in 1871, and an organization of the same name, in the UK.

At the inaugural 1896 Olympic Games in Athens, there were just 5 shooting events.

There are 15 events in the Olympic program today, divided into three different groups: rifle, pistol and shotgun.

The rifle and pistol competitions are held on shooting ranges, where marksmen (precision shooters; the competitors) aim at targets at distances of 10, 25 and 50 meters. The bullseye, or center of the target, appears as no more than a tiny dot, at these distances.

In the shotgun event, competitors shoot at flying clay targets propelled at a series of different directions and angles.

Marksmen need to be as steady as possible, to be accurate. In order to achieve this, they use relaxation techniques to drop their heartbeat to half its normal rate, and fire between heartbeats.

Many use blinkers – devices fixed to the sides of their protective shooting glasses. Blinkers keep the wind out of the shooters’ eyes, and prevent distractions from motion to the side.

The program of shooting events for London 2012 looks something like this:

MEN’S EVENTS

    10m air pistol (60 shots) men
    10m air rifle (60 shots) men
    25m rapid fire pistol men
    50m pistol (60 shots) men
    50m rifle 3 positions (3×40 shots) men
    50m rifle prone (60 shots) men
    double trap (150 targets) men
    skeet (125 targets) men
    trap (125 targets) men

WOMEN’S EVENTS

    10m air pistol (40 shots) women
    10m air rifle (40 shots) women
    25m pistol (30+30 shots) women
    50m rifle 3 positions (3×20 shots) women
    skeet (75 targets) women
    trap (75 targets) women

An air pistol uses compressed air or carbon dioxide to discharge lead pellets.

The rifle is a shoulder firearm with spiral grooves cut in the inner surface of the gun barrel (known as rifling) to give the bullet a rotating motion and render its flight more accurate.

The prone position has the marksmen shooting while lying face downward.

The double trap is a device for suddenly releasing or tossing two clay targets into the air, in trapshooting.

Skeet is the sport of shooting at clay pigeons that are hurled upward in such a way as to simulate the flight of a bird.

Karoly Takacs was part of Hungary’s world champion pistol-shooting team in 1938, when an army grenade exploded, crippling his right hand. Ten years later, having taught himself to shoot with his left, he won two gold medals in the rapid-fire class.

Class over, for now.

I’ll be back with more, shortly.

Till then.

Peace.

An A to Z of Olympic Sports: Rolling Rs

And a pronounced presence of sporting action, as we consider two distinctly different events, lined up for London 2012:
Rhythmic Gymnastics, and Rowing.

My thanks again to the folks at http://www.olympic.org, for additional facts and figures.

Rhythmic Gymnastics

In rhythmic gymnastics, gymnasts compete on a mat about 12.5m (41 ft) square. Using rope, a hoop, a ball, clubs, and a ribbon (in separate events), they perform choreographed movements set to music.

The ball must be made of rubber or soft plastic, with a diameter of 18-20cm, and must weigh at least 400g.

The hoop may be of wood or plastic, with an inner diameter of 80 to 90cm. It must weigh at least 300 grams. Performances with the hoop must include at least three leaps.

The rope, made from hemp or a similar material, has no set length, because it is relative to the height of the gymnast. Performances must include at least three leaps.

Gymnasts work with two bottle-shaped clubs of equal length, 40-50cm – each resembling a slender tenpin bowling pin. Made of wood or plastic, and weighing at least 150g, the clubs have a wide end (the body), a tapering middle section (the neck), and usually a ball on the end (the head) with a maximum diameter of 30mm.

The ribbon is a single 7m strip made of satin, or a similar material. One meter of its length is folded and doubled so it may be attached by a cord to a cylindrical stick 50-60cm in length, which the gymnast grasps. The ribbon must stay in perpetual, fluid motion throughout the routine.

Some acrobatic movements are permitted, but no flight elements, such as flips and handsprings, are allowed. Each competitor is judged on composition, or on the difficulty of what she does, and execution, or how well she does it.

She? Yes.

Rhythmic gymnastics is a women-only event, and evolved from a host of related disciplines. It incorporates elements of classical ballet, the German system of emphasizing apparatus work for muscle development, and the Swedish method of using free exercise to develop rhythm.

In the 1800s, rhythmic gymnastics operated under the guise of group gymnastics, and included a trace of elementary choreography. It grew slowly until the first experimental competitions started in eastern Europe in the 1930s.

The FIG (gymnastics’ governing body) recognized rhythmic gymnastics as an official discipline in 1963.
A year later, an international tournament took place in Budapest.

In 1964 the tournament was officially declared the first Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships, and Ludmila Savinkova of the Soviet Union became the first world champion.

Rhythmic gymnastics entered the Olympic Games in 1984 in Los Angeles, and has featured on the program, ever since. In its inaugural year, it was Canada’s Lori Fung who won the gold medal.

Until 1992 in Barcelona, only one individual event was on the program. A second, team event (in which five competitors perform together) was added in 1996, in Atlanta.

Rowing

Rowing is the technique of moving a boat through water, using an oar – a lever consisting of a long shaft of wood with a blade at one end.
 
Rowing was first used as a means of transport in the ancient world.

Competitive rowing among organized crews is one of the oldest and most traditional sports. Races between oared galleys were held in ancient Egypt and Rome.

The Thames River in England (which flows through London) is the setting for three of the most celebrated rowing events in the world:
1. Doggett’s Coat and Badge Race, the oldest rowing contest in the world, held annually since 1715
2. the annual boat race between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and
3. the Henley Royal Regatta.

Inaugurated in 1828, the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race marked the take-off of rowing as a popular sporting event. In the language of the street, it is known simply as “The Boat Race” (“Boat race”, incidentally, is Cockney rhyming slang for “face” – but that’s not important, right now).

In modern sports, rowers race against each other either as individuals or in crews of two, four or eight.

The races are divided into sculling and sweep oar. Sculling events use two oars, whilst in sweep, the rower holds one. The eight-person crews have a coxswain, who steers the boat and directs the crew, but in all other boats one rower steers by controlling a small rudder with a foot pedal.

Rowing was adopted as an Olympic sport in 1900 and formally incorporated in the Olympic Games in 1908.

It has been staged at all editions of the Olympic Games, except in 1896 in Athens. It was on the program then, but a stormy sea led to its cancellation.

Women made their debut at the Games in 1976 in Montreal.

Sir Steve Redgrave of Great Britain is widely hailed as the greatest rower ever. A six-time World Champion, he won gold medals at five Olympic Games, and has been loosely crowned Athlete of the Century because of the extreme physical demands of rowing.

In the women’s competition, Elisabeta Lipa of Romania, has also won five Olympic gold medals – between 1984 and 2004.

So much for the Rolling Rs.

Sorry; no Rugby Sevens. You’ll have to wait for Rio 2016.

In the meantime, keep it here, for my next instalment.

Till then.

Peace.

An A to Z of Olympic Sports: M and… M

One letter. One event. Five separate (but related) disciplines.

Due to take place for the first time – in its latest, approved form – at the London Olympics, of 2012.

The Modern Pentathlon.

Sweet. And no rapper.

Thanks to http://www.olympic.org, for additional facts and figures.

Modern Pentathlon

In ancient Greece, the Games culminated in the pentathlon, which consisted of running, jumping, spear-throwing, discus, and wrestling. All five exercises took place between the same contestants, on the same day.
The event held a position of unique importance, with the winner – the one who triumphed in a majority 3 or more events – ranked as “Victor Ludorum”.

The modern pentathlon was introduced by Baron de Coubertin at the Stockholm Games in 1912.
Pistol shooting, fencing, swimming, horse riding, and running featured, initially.

It was de Coubertin’s assertion that the pentathlon in this form would be the supreme test of an athlete’s moral qualities, skills, and physical resources.

Men’s modern pentathlon became part of the Olympic Games in 1912 at Stockholm, Sweden.

Jim Thorpe was a member of the United States track and field team at the Olympic Games of 1912 and was widely recognized as the world’s greatest all-around athlete after he won both the pentathlon and the decathlon.

From 1912 to 1980, the Olympic modern pentathlon was held over five days, with one event per day.

Beginning with the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, however, all five events were held in one day
This marked a return to the ancient tradition – a format which has also helped draw in more spectators.

Modern pentathlon competitions were open exclusively to men until 1977, when women’s modern pentathlon was officially introduced at the world championships in San Antonio, Texas. The 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, marked the Olympic debut of women’s modern pentathlon.

Competitors score points in the first three events, which decide their starting position for the final combined event, which comprises the shooting and running disciplines. The first athlete over the line wins the gold medal.

The points-scoring stage consists of the following:

Epee

A fencing competition, using the epee – a weapon developed from the duelling sword. It is similar in length to a foil but heavier, with a larger guard and a much stiffer blade.

Each athlete duels with each of the other athletes, in a series of one-minute bouts.

Pool

A flat-out swimming race, over 200 meters.

The competition pool is 50m long and a minimum 21m wide. It has touch panels of electronic timing equipment, at the starting end. The pool must be 1.80m deep, throughout.

Obstacle Course

A horse-riding and jumping event. A competitor on horseback must urge the animal to clear various objects (obstacles) in its path – such as a fence, gate or water jump.

The riding course is 350-450 meters in length, and consists of 12 obstacles – a combination of two elements (a double) and another of three elements (a triple).

Having established a points tally, the pentathletes then line up for the final stage:

Laser pistol

The contestants begin with the pistol-shooting event, in which they fire 20 shots at a target.

A laser pistol is a weapon that is identical in weight and pistol grip to the traditional air pistol – which used compressed air or carbon dioxide to discharge lead pellets.

The laser pistol, however, uses a laser-based barrel powered by one AA battery, instead of a gun barrel.
It fires a beam of light, rather than a solid projectile.

Competitors fire at electronic targets marked with concentric circles.

You know those combat sims or war games, where the kids wear padded gear with sensors on, and zap each other, round corners? Like that.

Laser shooting was introduced for safety reasons, and to reduce the environmental impact of lead bullets.

It was first featured in 2010, during the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.

Laser pistol will see its full debut at an adult Olympic Games, in London 2012.

Cross-Country Running

A race, over 3,000 meters of undulating landscape.

Pretty exhausting.

And I’m running out of time.

But I’ll be back, with some Rolling Rs.

Till then.

Peace.

An A to Z of Olympic Sports: H and J

H. And J. Hmm.

Hi-Jinks? Ho-Jo?

No. Can’t think of a single pun, so I’m going to play this straight.

Events, scheduled for the London Olympics of 2012, beginning with the letters H, and J:

Handball, Hockey, and Judo.

Additional facts and figures from http://www.olympic.org, for which, many thanks.

Handball

The modern game of handball was first played towards the end of the 19th century in Scandinavia and Germany.
G. Wallström introduced the sport of “handball” to Sweden in 1910.

The ball has a leather casing, and ranges in circumference from 58 to 60 cm for men and 54 to 56, for women. It weighs 425 to 475 grams for men, 325 to 400 for women.

The court for handball is 40 metres long and 20 metres wide.
A center line divides it into two equal courts, with a goal area at each end.
The goal area is D-shaped, arcing from the corners to a straight line six meters in front of the goal. The arcing sides similarly create a 6-meter distance from the nearest part of the goal at all points.

A back line across the end of the court – but not including the goal line – is also called the outer goal line.

The International Amateur Handball Federation (IAHF) was set up in 1928, on the occasion of the Olympic Games in Amsterdam.

Following its appearance at the 1936 Berlin Games, the first Field Handball World Championships were played in Germany in 1938.

Between 1938 and 1966 two forms of handball were played at separate World Championships:
1. An outdoor, 11-a-side game played on a football pitch and
2. A new 7-a-side indoor version preferred by the Scandinavians.

After 1936, field handball was not played at the Olympic Games, except as a demonstration sport in 1952 in Helsinki.

Indoor handball featured for the first time at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. Yugoslavia won the first gold medal, after a competition between 16 men’s teams.

Women’s handball debuted at the Games of Montreal 1976. Six teams featured, and The Soviet Union won this first women’s Olympic competition.

Hockey

Field hockey is a fast-moving game played outdoors, in teams of 11.

Hockey is the oldest known ball and stick game; records exist of it being played in Persia in 2000 BC. The name “hockey” probably derives from the French “hocquet” (a shepherd’s crook), and refers to the crooked stick which is used to hit a small ball.

The Blackheath Hockey Club was established in England, in 1861. The Amateur Hockey Association was then formed in London in 1886, before workers and the military carried the game to the four corners of the British Empire.

Until the 1970s, the game at international level was mainly played on natural grass, but the heavy playing surface made the game quite slow.

When (artificial) plastic turf was first used, the game became quicker and more exciting, giving birth to its modern form.

Hockey first appeared at the 1908 Games in London. It became a firm fixture on the Olympic program, from the Antwerp Games in 1920.

Women made their debut in this sport in 1980, at the Moscow Games.

Since the 2000 Games in Sydney, men have competed in a 12-team tournament, and women in a 10-team one.

In its 100 years of Olympic existence, hockey has essentially been dominated by one country.
The Indian men’s team – with six consecutive titles between 1928 and 1956 – was unbeaten in 30 consecutive matches, and scored 197 goals, giving away only eight.

Judo

Judo is a traditional Japanese wrestling sport, developed in the 1880s.

Judo is derived from jujitsu, the hand-to-hand combat technique of Japan’s ancient samurai warriors. It involves throwing opponents to the floor and holding them in submission.

It was Dr Jigoro Kano (1860-1938) who combined the features of the various schools of the sport and codified the rules. Kano stressed the philosophical principles of judo, adding methods of physical, intellectual and moral education, eliminating many of the dangerous parts of jujitsu, and opening his first school, or dojo, in 1882.

In Japanese the word ju-do means “the way of suppleness” referring to the story of a tree branch ‘bending’ under the weight of snow, and not breaking.

The competition area in judo is comprised of vinyl-covered foam mats, or tatami.
Two pieces of tape – one blue and one white – appear on the middle of the contest area.

The judoka (judo practitioners) wear loose-fitting judo uniforms called judogi, consisting of pants, a jacket and a belt tied at the waist.

Bouts last for five minutes, and can be as physically demanding as boxing and wrestling.

Judo made its first appearance at the Olympic Games in 1964 in Tokyo.

It was not included in 1968 in Mexico City, but returned, never to leave again, at the 1972 Games in Munich.

Women’s judo was added to the Games in 1992 in Barcelona.

Men and women now compete in seven weight categories:

MEN’S EVENTS

+ 100kg (heavyweight) men
– 60 kg men
60 – 66kg (half-lightweight) men
66 – 73kg (lightweight) men
73 – 81kg (half-middleweight) men
81 – 90kg (middleweight) men
90 – 100kg (half-heavyweight) men

WOMEN’S EVENTS

+ 78kg (heavyweight) women
– 48kg (extra-lightweight) women
48 – 52kg (half-lightweight) women
52 – 57kg (lightweight) women
57 – 63kg (half-middleweight) women
63 – 70kg (middleweight) women
70 – 78kg (half-heavyweight) women

There was originally a men’s category open to all weights, but this event was withdrawn after the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

This discipline is largely dominated by the Japanese, but, at the 1964 Tokyo Games in the open class, a 1.98-meter Dutchman named Anton Geesink defeated three-time Japanese national champion Kaminaga Akio before 15,000 people at Nippon Budokan Hall. It followed victories earlier in the year over other top Japanese opponents, upsetting the theory that a skilled judoka could defeat any opponent of any size.

See you next time, for M and… well. M.

Till then.

Peace.