I. 1.- People all over the world are fond of sports and fitness. Sport makes people healthy, keeps them fit, more organized and better disciplined. It unites people of different classes and nationalities.
2.- Sport is paid much attention to in educational establishments. Gymnastics is a part of children's daily activity in the kindergartens. Physical culture is a compulsory subject at schools and colleges. There are also different sporting societies clubs and complexes. Some of them are used for international and world competitions.
II. Fitness.
1.- Fitness may be referred to as a kind of sport. In involves some activities which help people to be able to perform physical activity. It also means having the energy and strength to feel as good as possible. Getting more fit can improve your health.
2.- Fitness is not only about being thin, having a small waist, or having bulging muscles. Physical fitness involves the performance of the heart, lungs, and the muscles of the body. And it lowers the risk for heart attack, diabetes, high blood pressure, and some cancers. It also can help you to sleep better, handle stress better, and keep the mind sharp.
III. Kinds of sports.
1.- Many people do sports on their personal initiative. They go in for skating, table tennis, swimming, volleyball, football, bodybuilding, etc. All necessary facilities are provided for them: stadiums, sport grounds, swimming pools, skating rinks, skiing stations, football fields.
2.- The most popular outdoor winter sports are shooting, hunting, hockey and in the countries where the weather is frosty and there is much snow-skating, skiing and tobogganing. Some people greatly enjoy figure-skating and ski-jumping.
3.- Summer affords excellent opportunities for swimming, boating, cycling, gliding and many other sports.
4.- All the year round many people do boxing, wrestling, athletics, gymnastics and track and field events.
5.- There are sport games: football, golf, tennis, cricket, volleyball, basketball and so on. Among indoor games the most popular are snooker, table tennis and chess.
IV. The Olympic Games are a major international event of summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes compete in a wide variety of events. The Games are currently held every two years, with the Summer and the Winter Olympic Games alternating.
At first there were only the Summer Games. Then the Winter Games for ice and snow sports were created, further the Paralympic Games for people with physical disabilities, and the Youth Olympic Games for teenagers. The growing importance of the mass media created the issue of sponsorship and commercialization of the Games.
V. Professional. Within the area of professional sports, there are problems that are concerned with drugs in athletics: steroid use and other illegal substance abuse. Within this framework there are various problems - legal, psychological, physical, and sociological.
VI. The extreme sport is a media term for certain activities with a high level of inherent danger. These activities involve speed, height, high level of physical exertion, highly specialized gear or stunts. There is an official extreme competition - X Games.
Winter sports have always an element of danger. I am fond of snowboarding, surfing on snow. Snowrafting is to sail in a boat down a mountain at great speed. It's dangerous, but the thing is worth the effort.
Then I am fond of caving, climbing, mountain biking, paintball, skateboarding, and especially of so called whitewater kayaking.
VII. Kinds of fitness.
1.- Aerobic fitness conditions heart and lungs. Aerobic means "with oxygen". The purpose is to increase the amount of oxygen that is delivered to your muscles, which allows them to work longer.
2.- Muscle strengthening. One can get more powerful muscles, which can do bigger jobs or which will work longer before becoming exhausted.
3.- Running is a well-known fitness workout: it's cheap, can be done anywhere, at any time and it is very effective.
4.- Swimming is very healthy for spinal column, helps to prevent hart diseases, implicates major muscle groups and is an effective slenderize exercise.
5.- Cycling provides healthy heart and it's interesting and pleasant.
VIII. Personal. As for me, I like sport very much. I don't take sport seriously, I only play for fun. As for competitions I should say I am competitive, but I prefer individual kinds of sport. But sometimes I may play some sport games and then it is very interesting for me to compete with other players.
What do I do to keep fit and to have fun? I do a lot of sport. Most of all I like outdoor leisure activities. I am fond of hiking, my friends and I often do short outings at weekends and long journeys to the north in summer and winter. And we often go camping in summer and winter.
In summer I often go rock climbing in hills near Moscow, we also made some big journeys to the mountains in summer – Caucasus, Crimea and some other.
Two years ago I joined a sport club and took up weight training. I go to the gym two or three times a week. But now I have had to give up the sport club for some time as I have a lot of things to do and little time for training. But I will take more exercise eventually.
