The Olympics is a quadrennial athletic festival that many athletes compete in all around the world. It happens every 4 years, in different places every year. There are summer Olympics, and winter Olympics. There are a total of 40 sports in both summer and winter Olympics. Many people tune in to watch these sports on their TV at home, little do they know the effort, work, and training that gets put into each and every one of these athletes year round.
Olympic games date all the way back 3,000 years ago. It is said that the games started when the Greeks began measuring time in Olympiads, or the duration between each edition of the Olympic Games. The first Olympic Games were held every four years in honor of Zeus. The first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece, in 1896. The Olympics occur every 4 years to respect the ancient origins of the Olympic Games.
Training for the Olympics puts an immense amount of stress on you. The physical training, the technical and mental strength it endures on you is unmatched. When asked what the hardest Olympic sport to train for is, many people responded and said “Water Polo”. Water Polo is a competitive team sport played in the water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters, in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team’s goal. The team with the most goals at the end of the game, wins the match.
One workout the athletes go through is strength training. They do strength training to reactivate the muscles, and focus on re-engaging them from the time spent on off season. Another way they prepare is Cardiovascular training. It builds endurance, improves heart health, and benefits your body in ways you never even knew. The most effective way that they stay above in the water is called the Eggbeater. It’s when they constantly churn their legs independent of one another in a circular motion to stay above the water. They use this technique because it allows the player efficiently but also to elevate in the water.
The Olympics are a way to showcase your athletic abilities and show off that you deserve a spot in the Olympics in the first place. All athletes do different things to train for the games. No matter what they do, they all have to put in maximum effort to be able to do good in their sport. Training takes a big toll on you as a person. Some days might be better than others, some days might be the worst. Overall, the training that these athletes have to go through, either make or break you, but in hindsight they get to show off all their training that they have learned.
