THE SPORT GLORY OF THE CITY

LEAD-IN

1. What kinds of sports are popular in Russia?

2. What are the achievements of the Russian sportsmen?

3. Do you go in for any kind of sport? What is it? What are the results?

HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW?

1. What kinds of sports are especially developed in our city?

2. Who of the famous sportsmen from our city do you know?

3. What can you tell about their achievements?

TEXT

The Sport Glory Of The City

The information circulates about the city that it has been included into Guinness Book. The reason is said to be the number of sportsmen from our city who have become the Olympic champions. Whether the information about Guinness Book is true or not, we are still proud of these people and of the fact that we live in the same city with them. Their success isincontestable. Only God knows how much they paid for their victories.

In different years and in various kinds of sports these people took the highest places of the Olympicpedestals.

Vassily Alekseev- the 2-fold Olympic champion,weightlifting, 80 world records!

Gennady Bessonov- the World and European champion, 3 world records, weightlifting.

Aleksey Vakhonin- the Olympic champion, the 3-foldWorld Europeanchampion, weightlifting.

Nikolai Kolesnikov- the Olympic champion, the World and European champion, weightlifting.

Ludmila Kondratieva– the Olympic champion, the bronze medal of the Olympic Games, track and field.

Marina Logvinenko- the Olympic champion, the silver and the bronze medals of the Olympic Games, the 8-foldWorld champion, the 12-fold European champion, shooting.

Rudolf Plyukfelder- the Olympic champion, the 3-fold World champion,weightlifting .

David Rigert- the Olympic champion, the 6-fold World champion,weightlifting .

Victor Tregubov- the Olympic champion, the World champion, the silver medal of the European championship, .

Here is a story about only one of them.

Vassily Ivanovich Alekseev was born in 1942 in the Ryazan area. He began to go in for sport in 1960. Since 1966 he has been living in Shakhty. Having arrived in our city, V. Alekseev invited R. Pljukfelder to become his coach. Together they had worked till 1968. After leaving “Plyuk”, Vassily Alekseev started training himself. He was laughed at; his methods of training weren’t accepted. Nevertheless, he managed to break 80 world records.

He has become the champion among champions. His result, 645 kg, hasn’t been beaten up today! At the XX Olympic Games in Munich and in 1976 at the XXI Olympic Games in Montreal Alekseev became the Olympic champion.

On October, 30, 1996 V.I. Alekseev was awarded the rank of "the Honourable Citizen of the City of Shakhty" and on the basis of the city the RegionalSportsSchool named after V.I. Alekseev was opened.

In 1999 inGreece, V.I. Alekseev was recognized the best sportsman of the XX century, and in February, 2000 was called the legend of the Russian sports of the XX century.In 2000 inMoscow, with the assistance of the Mayor of Moscow Yu. Luzhkov, Vassily Alekseev fund of the development of sports was created.

Now, Vassily Ivanovich with his spouselives in the city of Shakhty.

REFERENCES

2-fold champion— двукратный чемпион

the Honourable Citizen— Почетный Гражданин

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT?

Use the information in the text to answer the questions.

1. Is it true that our city is included into Guinness Book?

2. Who of the famous sportsmen can you name? What are they famous for?

3. Who was Alekseev’s coach? How did he train himself?

4. How many world records did he break?

5. What is his contribution to the sport life of the country?

Think a little and express your opinion.

1. Why did our city produce so many famous sportsmen?

2. Can you guess who will be the next Olympic champion from our city?

CREATIVE IMPULSE

TOPIC: Guinness Book.

END PRODUCT: a page from Guinness Book about our native city as a native city of many Olympic champions.

1) Make a draft of a page from Guinness Book. Describe the reason of including our city into the Guinness Book. Give names and facts.

2) Discuss your drafts all together and choose the best or design new ones combining the ideas of the whole class.