|
Module 5 The Great Sports Personality A Life in Sport They called him the prince of gymnasts. When he retired at the age of 26, he had won 106 gold medals in major competitions across the world. They included six out of seven gold medals at the 1982 World Championship, and three at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles ( as well as two silver and a bronze). Li Ning was the best. When sports journalists met in 1999 to make a list of the greatest sportsmen and sportswomen of the twentieth century, Li Ning’s name was on it, together with footballer Pele and boxer Muhammad Ali. But even though he had won everything it was possible to win in his sport, Li Ning retired with the feeling that he had failed. He was disappointed because he had not performed well in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. But it was this sense of failure that made him determined to succeed in his new life. A year after his retirement, Li Ning began a new career—as a businessman. But he didn’t forget his sporting background. He decided to launch a new brand of sportswear, competing with global giants like Nike and Adidas. He made the unusual choice, for a Chinese person, of choosing his own name as the brand mark. The bright red logo is made up of the first two pingyin letters of Li Ning’s name, L and N. Li Ning’s sports clothes came onto the market at just the right time. The number of young people with money to spend was on the increase—and sport had never been so popular. Li Ning’s designs were attractive, and they had a major advantage over their better-known rivals—they were cheaper. A pair of Nike trainers, for example, could cost up to five times as much as a similar Li Ning product. Success for Li Ning was guaranteed, and it came quickly. In just a few years, Li Ning won more than fifty per cent of the national market. Today a Li Ning product is purchased every ten seconds. But the clothes are not only worn on the athletics track or the football pitch. If you go into a school or university anywhere, you will see students in Li Ning tracksuits with the familiar logo. The company has also grown internationally. The Spanish and French gymnastics teams wear Li Ning clothes, while Italian designers are employed by the company to create new styles. Whenever Chinese athletes stepped out onto the track during the 2008 Olympics, they were wearing Li Ning tracksuits. But Li Ning’s goal when he retired was not to make money. His dream was to open a school for gymnasts. He was able to do this in 1991. Since then, he has continued to help young people to achieve their sporting ambitions. Like Pele and Muhammad Ali before him, who have worked with the United Nations for children’s rights and peace, Li Ning has discovered that the work of a great sportsman does not finish when he retires from the sport. It starts. And if you are a great sportsperson, anything is possible, as Li Ning’s advertising slogan says. Module 5 The great sports personality A life in sport 这个人人们把他叫做体操王子。在二十六岁退役的时候，他已经在世界重大比赛中获得了一百零六枚金牌。它们包括1982年总共七枚金牌中的六枚和1984年洛杉矶奥运会中的三枚金牌和两枚银牌以及一枚铜牌。这个最棒的人就是李宁。在1999年当体育记者在评选20世纪最杰出的男女体育运动员的时候，李宁和球王贝利以及拳王阿里。但是即使是已经赢得了自己在体操项目上有能力赢得的一切，李宁依然还是带着一种失败的感觉退役了。因为在1988年汉城奥运会上表现不是很好，他感到很失望。 但是这种失败感使他决定在新的生活中取得成功。在退役一年后，李宁做为一个商人开始了他的新生涯。但是他没有忘记他的运动背影。他决定开始一种新的运动品牌，和全球的大品牌Nike和Adidas竞争。对于一个中国人，他做出了一个非同寻常的选择，他用自己的名字做为商标。红色的商标是由李宁的前两个拼音L和N组成。 李宁运动服在一个好时机进入市场。有钱消费的年轻人的数量在不断增长吗，体育运动也变得前所未有的普及。李宁的设计吸引人，相比其它有名的一个优势就是它的价格比较便宜。比如一双Nike运动鞋的价格比同种款式的李宁的五倍还要多。李宁的成功有了保证并且发展很快。 在仅仅几年的时间里，李宁赢得了国内市场的百分之五十。今天每十秒钟就有一件李宁的产品被售出。李宁的运动服不仅仅出现在田径场和足球场上。如果你去任何一个大学或校园，你都会看到身穿熟悉标志的李宁运动服的人。公司也有了国际化的发展。西班牙和法国的体操队员也穿李宁牌的服装，然而公司还雇佣了意大利的设计师设计新的款式。当中国的体育运动员进入2008年奥运会赛场时，他们将会穿李宁牌的运动服。 但是当李宁退役时他的目标并不是赚钱。他的理想而是开办体操学校。在1991年他做到了这一点。自从那里开始他开始持续不断的帮助年轻人去实现他们的体育梦想。在他之前，球王贝利和拳王阿里在联合国为儿童权利和世界和平工作了很多年，李宁发现做为一名杰出的运动员退役的时候不是结束而是开始。正像李宁广告语所说的“如果你是一名杰出的运动员，一切皆有可能”。 Marathon: the Ultimate Olympic Event The final event in the Olympics is the marathon. It is also usually the most exciting. As the leader comes into the stadium to run the last few metres of the 42-kilometre race, the crowd rises to its feet to shout and cheer. The name of the race comes from a battle in Ancient Greece. According to the story, a soldier ran from the scene of the battle, Marathon, to Athens, to bring the news of a Greek victory against the Persians. He died just after arriving. The marathon has been an Olympic event. Since the modern games started in 1896. At first the distance was 40 kilometres – the distance between Marathon and Athens. In 1908, however, at the London Olympics, it was changed. The King of England wanted the runners to leave from his castle in Windsor and arrive in a new stadium in central London. The distance was 26 miles – about 42 kilometres. In fact, the 1908 marathon ended dramatically. When the leader, an Italian, entered the stadium he returned the wrong way and fell onto the ground. Officials picked him up and helped him to the finishing line, just as the second runner, an American, entered the stadium. The Americans protested and in the end the American runner was declared the winner. Since then, there have been many more exciting marathons. In fact, you don’t have to wait for the Olympic Games to run or watch a marathon, as there are marathons in over sixty countries and hundreds of cities around the world today. One of the most famous marathons is in New Your, and is watched by two million people around the streets and across the bridges of the city’s five boroughs, and past New York’s famous landmarks. But perhaps one of the most beautiful and extraordinary marathons ever is the Greet Wall Marathon, which most competitors find is the toughest course to run. The marathon is the final Olympic event because it is thought to be the hardest. But experts believe that most people – even people who are not particularly good at sport – can run a marathon, if they train for it. Animals in Danger Saving the Antelopes On a freezing cold day in January 1994, Jiesang suonandajie found what he was looking for – a group of poachers who were killing the endangered |
