Forward to Beijing! A Guide to the Summer Olympics

"Forward to Beijing! a Guide to the Summer Olympics": -- Explains for each Olympic Sport the rules, special terms & vocabulary; Lists impressive Olympiad achievements of the past; Contains fascinating insights into the history of the Games; Showcases the Beijing Olympics, the third Asian Summer Olympiad; Provides useful information, dialogues, quizzes and conversational openers. -- In August 2008, the twenty-ninth Summer Olympic Games will be held in Beijing, The People's Republic of China. This will be only the third time ever that this test and celebration of human endeavour has taken place in Asia. -- In preparation for this exciting event, 'Forward to Beijing! A Guide to the Summer Olympics' gives a brief history of the Games from their ancient origins in Greece to their revival in 1896. It surveys some of the triumphs enjoyed and difficulties encountered by the Olympic Movement over time and gives some of the highlights of Olympiads held from 1896 to 1984, including details of those athletes who won more than one gold medal each in any single one of these early modern Olympiads. -- The Games first took place in Asia in 1964, in Tokyo, Japan, returning in 1988, twenty-four years later, this time to Seoul, Korea. Taking 1988 as a starting point, therefore, 'Forward to Beijing!' gives a detailed account of several important aspects of the Olympic Games. Each of the twenty-eight Olympic sports from "Aquatics" to "Wrestling" is described with definitions of some of the special terms used and explanations of the rules that govern these sports, together with their associated disciplines. Here also, for every single Olympic sport, are the names of gold medal winners at these Games, and information about the country they represented. -- Some Key Words for the discussion of each Olympic Sport are provided. Quizzes serve as a summary of the main points and as conversational openers. -- 'Forward to Beijing!' records many of the actions that the City of Beijing and the PRC has undertaken to ensure the success of the 2008 Games. -- Somewhat light-heartedly, but also usefully, it features a number of situational conversations (with vocabulary and phrase book sections).