2. My favourite kind of sport is
SWIMMING.
I like it very much and during a
couple of minutes I’ll try to tell you
some interesting facts about this
sport.
3. The humanity knows swimming for the whole
period it exists. The main reason of it is the
necessity of swimming in our daily life.
But what about the developing of swimming
as a sport? Swimming began to form at the
beginning of the 16th century. The first
competitions took part in 1515 in Venice.
At the same time not each man could swim.
Some of people were simply afraid of it.
So, in 1538 a Danish man,
whose name was P. Wynmann,
published the first guide of how
to swim.
4. At the end of the 19th century swimming
became popular and even more than that in
Europe. So, the first swimming schools were
built in Germany, Austria and France.
In 1890 the first European Swimming
Championship was held. Six years later, the
sport was included in the Olympic Games’
programme.
In 1908 FINA (the International Federation for
Swimming Lovers) was founded. In 1973 this
organization included 96 national federations.
5. In our country, which was called the
Soviet Union then, the first competitions
took part in 1918 and three years later
the first national championship was held.
The sportsmen competed in the Moskva-
river. Since that year such national
championships are held every
year.
6. Quiz
1. Answer the following questions:
a) How do you think why there was a necessity to swim in people’s
daily life in ancient times?
b) Do you remember the name of a man who wrote the first guide of
how to swim?
c) Can you spell out the word “FINA”?
2. Choose the correct answer:
a) The first swimming competition was held in … .
A) Venice B) Greece C) Rome
b) In 1896 … .
A) swimming was included to the Olympic Games’ programme
B) the first Russian National Championship was held
C) a Danish man created “butterfly”
