--The Spirit of the Olympic Games
外国语学院2001级英语教育（3）班　丁璟

The Olympic Games are the grand meetings for human beings. Every four years, people from different countries come to join in these magnificent sports meets. In the contests, athletes try their best to compete, to love, to learn and at the same time, to show the spirit of the Olympics--peace and friendship.

According to some historical materials, the spirit of peace and friendship can be traced back to the time when the Olympic was born. In ancient times, there were numbers of city-states in Greece. They fought frequently with each other in order to gain more land, property and to show the bravery of their soldiers, too. However, after years of wars, people were tired of fighting and killing, so they tried to use a new way to compete--that is the Olympic Games. All the city-states came to join in the sports contests, the soldiers who were chosen to compete did their utmost to win the competitions so as to gain honor for their city-states and to show respect to the gods they adored. During the competition time, all the fighting and conflicts between or among city-states must stop. As a result, the Olympic Games became the symbol of peace and friendship.

Although the first ancient Olympic Games are remote from the modern time, the spirit of peace and friendship has passed down despite of the passage of time. It can be seen almost in every scene in the modern Olympic Games.

Do you still remember the opening ceremony of the 28th Athens Olympic Games? The athletes from Korea and South Korea stepped onto the track together--hand in hand. These two delegations showed their deep love between them in spite of the tense situation between the two governments. Their action strongly represented the spirit of the Olympics, peace and friendship touched all the people’s hearts.

Besides, in the final match of the men’s horizontal bar, the sportsmanship that the Russian athlete Nemov showed also impressed us all. In that match, the umpires unfairly judged Nemov, so the spectator hissed for a long time to show their anger. The contest was interrupted. At that moment, Nemov, as a veteran athlete, came to the competition area again to calm down the spectator and helped the contest continue. His magnanimity won the acclamation of people and once more showed the spirit of the Olympics--Friend ship first, competition second.

The 28th Olympic Games were over, but the influence they brought to the world would last for a long time. After the Olympics, we should ponder over it: Were the spirit of Olympics ended with the Games? Shouldn’t the spirit of peace and friendship last not only in the Olympics but also in the daily life? Nowadays, the conflicts exist in many areas of the world, if all the people can follow the spirit of the Olympics, we surely can bring peace back to these places. Why don’t we try?

Let the spirit of the Olympics last for ever!