Popular sports

Popular sports.
Britain does not often produce sportsmen or sportswomen who are successful in world sporting championships, but it has been good at inventing sports and writing the rules of games.
Sports help people to keep in good health. It is very popular with young people. Any boy or girl who shows good results at sports clubs or in athletics competitions for schoolchildren is given every help to become a champion.
An English proverb says, «In sports and journeys men are known.»

Cycling.
Cycling is one of the fastest – growing sports in Britain. Recently two British cycling have been in the news. Boardman won a gold medal for cycling at the 1992 Olympics. Graeme Obree broke the world record in 1993 by riding 52.27 kilometres in one hour.

Golf was first played in Scotland in the fifteenth century and the most famous golf club, Saint Andrews in Scotland, is still the most respected authority on golf in the world. Cricked was first played in England in the sixteenth century and its rules were written in the eighteenth century.
Golf.

Basketball.
Basketball is played on a court with a large orange ball. There are five players on each team. Each team moves the ball across the court by bouncing ( or «dribbling» ) it. The players can also throw, or pass, the ball to each other. They then try to shoot the ball into the basket, or hoop, to score a point. The team with the most point wins.

Swimming is enjoyed by a great many people, firstly because it is a recreational sport and secondly because it keep one fit. But it is all the more enjoyable if one masters the various techniques of swimming.
The common stokes used in swimming are: the breast stoke, the butterfly, stroke, the dolphin stroke, being its variety, the back stroke, the front crawl stroke. But we know other strokes such as: competitive swimming, one-style swimming, swimming with legs only, swimming for relaxation, sprint swimming, swimming of duration, medley swim.
Swimming.

Tennis is the kind of sport. Tennis is a very beautiful game. It is played with a small ball and rackets on a level court. The court is divided into two parts by a net. One or two players make a team. The object of the game is to bat the ball over a net with racket, so that it will fall in the opponent’s half of the court and if possible so that the opponent cannot return it.
Tennis.
The players must stand on opposite sides of the net;
the player who first delivers the ball is called server, and the other the receiver.

There are lots of stories about how soccer-like games have been played all over the world and at different times in history.
About 10.000 years ago Romans played ball games, they played for exercise.
Soccer.
Britain was invaded by Rome, and the game-playing Roman soldiers probably brought soccer like games with them and may have introduced them to people living in Britain.
Despite being illegal in Britain until the 18th century, the English created rules for the game in 1863.

Skiing is very popular with Soviet people. Tens of thousands of young men and women go in for skiing, participating in skiing competition. Skiing is good for one’s health. It includes slalom, giant slalom, downhill run ski-jumping, different races such as cross-country race, flat ski race, relay race, ski-lift, etc. And biathlon which is a combination of cross-country race and rifle-marksmanship.
Skiing.