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[00:01.00]BOB DOUGHTY:And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program,EXPLORATIONS.
[00:08.02]The Summer Olympic Games begin this week in the city of Sydney,Australia.
[00:14.71]Today we tell about the Olympics and some of the American Olympic athletes.
[00:20.93]STEVE EMBER:The world's most famous sports event is the Olympic Games.
[00:26.13]Five-million people are expected to attend the Summer Olympic Games this year in Sydeny,Australia.
[00:33.96]They include leaders and officials from many countries.
[00:38.40]About fifteen-thousand reporters are there.
[00:42.56]More than three-thousand-million people are expected to watch the games on television.
[00:49.69]More than ten-thousand athletes from two-hundred countries will compete in twenty-eight different sports in the Summer Games.
[00:59.93]They will be trying to win medals-gold for first,silver for second and bronze for third-in about three-hundred events.
[01:10.98]New additions to the Summer Olympics this year include synchronized diving,women's weight lifting,trampoline,women's pole vault and the triathlon.
[01:24.25]BOB DOUGHTY:The name of the modern Olympic Games comes from games held in ancient times.
[01:31.33]The games are said to have started in the ancient Greek city of Olympia,about two-thousand-seven-hundred years ago.
[01:41.49]The first thirteen Olympic Games were foot races during festivals held to honor the Greek god,Zeus.
[01:50.68]Winners were honored with a crown of olive leaves placed around their heads.
[01:57.84]Greece continued to hold the Games every four years for the next one-thousand years.
[02:05.03]Then the Games stopped.The ancient Romans banned the Olympic Games when they ruled Greece.
[02:13.15]They destroyed Olympic temples and sports fields.
[02:18.32]STEVE EMBER:The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens,Greece in Eighteen-Ninety-Six.
[02:25.45]French diplomat Baron Pierre de Coubertin proposed a world celebration of sports like the ancient games of Greece.
[02:34.60]He believed the international event would provide a way for athletes of all nations to become friends.
[02:42.77]The official symbol of the Olympics shows five rings.
[02:47.97]Baron de Coubertin designed the symbol in Nineteen-Thirteen.
[02:53.14]The five rings represent the linking through sports of five parts of the world:Europe,Asia,Africa,Australia and the Americas.
[03:06.31]The colors of the rings are blue,yellow,black,green and red.
[03:12.42]The flag of every nation competing in the games has at least one of these colors.
[03:20.55]Under the rings is the Olympics saying in Latin:"citius,altius,fortius."The words mean in English--swifter,higher,stronger.
[03:34.73]BOB DOUGHTY:The Olympic flame links the old and new games.
[03:39.35]In ancient Olympia,a fire burned in honor of the god Zeus during the sports competition.
[03:47.16]Now,runners carry a flame from Olympia to every new Olympics.
[03:53.30]This year's fire was lit in Olympia,Greece on May tenth.
[03:58.61]Each person ran with it for one kilometer and then passed it to another runner.
[04:05.74]Before the flame reached Sydney,it was carried by more than thirteen-thousand people.
[04:13.97]The flame was flown from Athens,Greece,to the island of Guam in the South Pacific.
[04:22.09]It then was carried by individuals who traveled by foot,boat or vehicle through the Pacific islands to Australia.
[04:33.32]This Olympic flame has traveled farther than any other.
[04:38.52]This Friday,September fifteenth,a runner will use the flame to open the twenty-seventh Summer Olympic Games.
[04:48.68]The Olympic flame will burn during the Games.It will be put out during closing ceremonies.
[04:57.85]STEVE EMBER:Some of the athletes taking part in the Summer Olympics have trained for these events since they were children.
[05:05.27]One is American swimming champion Lenny Krayzelburg.
[05:09.89]Lenny Krayzelburg was born in the former Soviet Republic,Ukraine.
[05:16.01]He started swimming when he was five years old.
[05:19.19]A coach told Lenny's father that he could be a great athlete.
[05:24.37]The coach said Lenny was burn to swim the backstroke.
[05:29.62]The Krayzelburg family left Ukraine and arrived in the United States when Lenny was thirteen.
[05:37.71]They settled in Los Angeles,California.Lenny continued to swim in competitions.
[05:45.84]In Nineteen-Ninety-Four,Lenny Krayzelburg's swimming skill won him financial support to attend the University of Southern California.
[05:57.05]In Nineteen-Ninety-Eight,he became the first swimmer in twelve years to win all the backstroke races at the World Swimming Championships.
[06:09.27]Last August,he broke the American record in the two-hundred meter backstroke for the fifth time.
[06:17.50]Later in the month,he broke the world records for the two-hundred meter and one-hundred meter backstroke.
[06:25.54]Swimming experts say Lenny Krayzelburg should win both the one-hundred and two-hundred meter backstroke races at the Summer Olympics this year.
[06:37.72]Lenny Krayzelburg says he will be unhappy if he does not win three gold medals in Sydney.
[06:47.83]BOB DOUGHTY:Three members of the same American family will compete in Sydney.
[06:53.99]Hazel Clark,Jearl Miller-Clark and Joetta Clark-Diggs are all members of the track and field team.Hazel and Joetta are sisters.
[07:08.23]Jearl is married to their brother,J.J.Clark.He is the coach for all three women.
[07:16.27]It is unusual for members of the same family to compete in the Olympics.
[07:23.51]But it has been done.Jackie Joyner-Kersee and her brother's wife Florence Griffith Joyner both competed in past Olympics.
[07:34.77]But they did not compete in the same event.The Clarks do.
[07:40.41]They all compete in the eight-hundred meter women's foot race.
[07:46.52]Hazel Clark is the youngest in the Clark family of runners.
[07:50.73]She was the fastest in the Olympic trials.
[07:55.85]Her brother's wife,Jearl Miles-Clark,was second.
[08:01.05]Jearl has already won medals in two earlier Olympic Games.
[08:06.22]Joetta Clark-Diggs finished third.She is the oldest,at thirty-seven.
[08:13.40]That was the first time three family members finished first,second and third in the same United States Olympic trials race.
[08:25.58]And this will be the first time three Americans competing in one Olympic race are from one family.
[08:34.77]Many people will be watching the eight-hundred meter race to see if the three members of the Clark family can win all three medals.
[08:47.99]STEVE EMBER:Another international sports event will take place in Sydney following the Summer Olympics.
[08:55.17]The Paralympic Games will be held from October eighteenth to the twenty-ninth.
[09:01.34]All the athletes who compete in the Paralympics have a physical disability.
[09:07.56]About four-thousand disabled athletes will compete this year.
[09:13.72]One American athlete who will compete in the Summer Olympics is already a Paralympics champion.
[09:21.90]Her name is Maral Runyan.She won the one-hundred,two-hundred and four-hundred meter races and the long jump at the Nineteen-Ninety-Two Paralympics.
[09:35.01]She also won the Pentathlon competition in Nineteen-Ninety-Six.
[09:41.23]This year,she will become the first legally blind athlete in the Summer Olympic Games.
[09:49.33]Marla Runyan suffers from an incurable eye problem called Stargardt's Disease.
[09:56.59]It destroys part of the retina of the eye,and blocks the center of vision.
[10:03.67]Marla Runyan has been legally blind since she was nine years old.
[10:08.87]She has been taking part in track events since she was in high school.
[10:16.10]Marla Runyan will compete in the women's fifteen-hundred meter foot race at the Sydney Games.
[10:23.18]She says her goal was not to be the first legally blind Onlympian.
[10:30.10]She just wanted to take part in the Olympics.
[10:34.26]But her story has helped other disabled people find the strength to try to reach their goals.
[10:42.43]And Marla Runyan says that makes her feel very good.
[10:47.63]BOB DOUGHTY:The Two-Thousand Summer Olympic Games will end October first,after sixteen days of competition.
[10:56.88]The next Summer Games will be held four years from now,in Athens,Greece.
[11:04.01]The Summer Olympic and the Winter Olympic Games used to be held in the same year,every four years.Now,however,they are separated.
[11:16.13]The next Winter Games are less than two years away.
[11:21.30]The western American city of Salt Lake City,Utah is busy preparing for the Winter Olympics of Two-Thousand-Two.
