Sports and games

Sport has played an important part in our lives for many centuries. For some people it is as necessary and natural as eating and sleeping. For others it is just entertainment on TV. Some people do amateur sports and some are professionals.

Sport at an amateur level should be for enjoyment and fitness.Fitness comes not only from exercises done but from the way you live all the time. Good eating and sleeping habits, also plenty of fresh air are important parts of the way to keep fit.

Professional sport is an exciting sphere of hard work and competition. But professional sport seems less to do with enjoyment and more to do with making money. Sport is not just for participants, it is for spectators too. Millions of people all over the world spend hours watching sports events on TV, or at stadium. People enjoy being “fans” or supporters of one team or one particular sport personality.

The government policy in Belarus is to make sports accessible to all. The country has excellent sporting facilities in schools and higher education facilities. Belarusian sports facilities for the general public include: stadiums (243), swimming pools (250), gymnasiums (about 5,000), athletics centers (46), ice rinks (20), sports grounds. Many sports are played in Belarus. Amongst the most popular are: track and field athletics, football, gymnastics, skiing, hockey, tennis, fencing, wrestling, volleyball, handball, swimming, chess and checkers. The Raubichi Centre in Belarus is considered to be one of the best biathlon centers in the world. It has a ski track, freestyle slopes, ski jumps, shooting grounds with mechanical targets, indoor sports centre with gymnasiums, artificial pitches and swimming pools.

Belarus has already produced 280 world and European championsin different sporting disciplines. In theBeijing 2008 games,Belarus won 19 medals, including 4 gold and 5 silver. The team was most successful in athletics, canoeing and weightlifting, and finished 16th in the medals table overall. Belarus also fields a strongParalympics team. At the 2008 Beijing Paralympics Belarus won a total of 13 medals including 5 golds.

As for me, I like sports, though I am not active at it now. When I was at school I did sports more. I liked swimming and I went to the swimming pool regularly. But now I hardly do sports regularly, though I understand that it makes people strong, healthy and optimistic.