Olympics on Pitara Kids Network

Winner Juice

Thu, 14 Nov 2002 08:46:25 +0000

Winner Juice [Illustration by Sudheer Nath]

October 28: Ask anyone who watched the recent Olympic Games, and they will tell you that it was the 28-year-old Japanese sportswoman, Naoko Takahashi, who won the women’s marathon.

But you could say that the race was won by giant killer hornets, whose stomach juices were drunk by the athlete to improve her stamina phenomenally.

A fascinating report by the ‘Telegraph Group’ of England, published in ‘The Hindu’ newspaper recently, stirred up a hornet’s nest in the world of sport with this announcement.

Sydney 2000

Tue, 30 Jan 2001 01:38:48 +0000

The Olympic medal is a source of pride not only to the individual athletes but also to the countries that they come from. Guess the nationality of some of the Olympic 2000 winners from their country flags.

Olympic Swim Against the Tide

Sat, 23 Nov 2002 14:38:21 +0000

September 23: Twelve-year-old Fatima Abdeljamid is creating waves at the Sydney Olympics and for all the right reasons. She is one of two Bahraini nationals and among the very few from the Middle East nations to compete in the Olympics.

Fatima, a swimmer, and Myriam al-Hili, an athlete, have been invited to the Sydney Olympics by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It is a gesture that is meant to encourage Muslim women from Islamic nations to take part in the Games.

An Olympics with a Difference

Fri, 09 Mar 2001 13:31:56 +0000

August 19: For all those who are physically challenged, Abilympics offers a wonderful opportunity to do something special.

An Olympic competition featuring ‘sports’ like painting, tailoring, jewellery-making, book-binding, embroidery and computer programming? Welcome to the fifth Abilympics, the three-day International Skill Competition that celebrates the abilities of the physically challenged to stand on their own in a harsh and competitive world.

Held in Czechoslavakia starting August 15th, the day India celebrates her independence, the Ablilympics are quite different from the Olympics.

A Green Olympic Village

Mon, 29 Jan 2001 13:11:30 +0000

August 19: Where will the world’s best sportspersons go when they stride away from the sporting venues at the coming Sydney Olympic Games? The answer is, the Olympic Village.

A Green Olympic Village [Illustration by Sudheer Nath]

As many as 15,000 athletes will live in a specially created residential complex designed to satisfy each and every whim of theirs. The village will have 800 houses, 355 apartments and 336 modular homes. What’s more, it will be an eco-friendly village, running with the help of solar power.

The Olympic Gold Rush

Mon, 13 May 2002 01:06:47 +0000

September 30: At the Millennium Olympics in Sydney, Barbados, the tiny island nation in the Caribbean, has overtaken the United States and China to head the medals tally – if you calculate the number of medals against the population.

When sprinter Obadele Thompson won the bronze in the 100-metre race in 10.04 seconds, on September 23, Barbados topped the medal table list maintained by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This is because Barbados has a population of only 270,000. This report featured in ‘The Hindustan Times’.

Worming into the Olympics

Mon, 06 May 2002 23:20:49 +0000

The organisers of the 2000 Sydney Olympics are very serious about projecting the Olympics as an eco-friendly event. So the Olympics village in Sydney, where the athletes are living, is entirely solar-powered. But the organisers haven’t stopped at that. They’re ensuring that even the garbage generated by people at the Olympics is eco-friendly.

For this, they’ve enlisted the help of the humble earthworm — three varieties of the earthworm, in fact. Thousands of these worms cluster behind eating areas at the Olympics. And chew their way through the garbage left there deliberately for their eating pleasure, reports an ‘Associated Press’ feature in ‘The Indian Express’.

For the Olympic Heights of Stamina

Fri, 14 Sep 2001 10:58:54 +0000

September 7: The horse is a symbol of strength, power and stamina. Ever wondered about the secret behind its energy? It is the kind of food the animal eats. Ask the person who has to keep up the energy levels of one of the world’s costliest racehorses, Fusaichi Pegasus, worth all of $4 million (approximately 1.8 crore rupees).

That is the reason why US Olympic swimmer, Gary Hall, is all set to imitate Fusaichi Pegasus’ diet in the hope that it will work wonders for him at the forthcoming Olymic Games.

Fire in Water

Fri, 17 Nov 2000 18:26:56 +0000

July 8: A flame moved through water! Unbelievable?
But it is true.

Fire in Water [Illustration by Sudheer Nath]

This was the Olympic flame. It was carried under water last week.

Why, one would ask. Because the games are being held in Sydney this year. The Olympic Games are held once in four years. And each time it is held, the Olympic flame is lit in Athens, the birthplace of the games, and carried to the venue of the games.

A Show of Endurance

Sun, 14 Jul 2002 10:05:13 +0000

A Show of Endurance [Illustration by Shiju George]

October 22: The newspaper photograph showed Japanese swimmer Kei Miyamoto’s body finely arched at the starting point as he prepared to slice into the Olympic pool at the Sydney Aquatic Centre. And then I noticed it. He had no arms.

Kei was practicing for the Paralympic Games, just as wheelchair-bound track athletes and sportspersons bearing the loss of an arm or limb with practiced ease, went through their paces for the 11-day event for the physically challenged that is going on in Sydney at present.