History of Brazil – the Olympics host nation

The 2016 Olympics are being hosted by a South American country called Brazil. The events will all be happening in and around one of it’s main cities – Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil is just slightly smaller than the United States of America and is the largest country in South America.

The population of Brazil is made up of AmeriIndian indigenous people, and people of Spanish and Portuguese descent.  In the year 1500 the country was colonised by Portugal and with them came the sad tradition of slavery, which impacted the lives of the indigenous population greatly. Then over the following centuries many people came from other countries arrived because they were escaping wars, looking for a warm and beautiful country and seeking adventure.

This diverse mix of different cultures has created lots of different religious, music and culinary culture that is specific to Brazil.

One really good website to find information on Brazil is ManyAnswers.

Some cool Brazil facts: Brazil is the country which has the greatest number of animal species. Two of the major cities in Brazil are Rio de Janeiro and Saō Paulo. To fid out more you can take a look at the many interesting books about Brazil in the library collection.

 

Rio de Janeiro:

Rio de Janeiro (known as ‘Rio’) is a large city in Brazil and is the host city of the 2016 Olympics. It was the first capital city of Brazil. It has a Portuguese name and was founded in 1565, but didn’t become the capital city of Brazil until 1763.

In 1960 another city called Brasilia was founded and became the new Capital City instead of Rio. A famous Brazilian architect named Oscar Niemeyer designed the city of Brasilia. It is a planned city and it is designed to look like an aeroplane when viewed from above.

Rio de Janeiro has a large Roman Catholic population, so one of it’s most famous landmarks is the large statue called Jesus Christ the Redeemer, which is on top of Corcovado Mountain and looks out over the city.

The city is also famous for a Mountain called Sugarloaf Mountain which has a cable car.

A famous dance called The Samba comes from Rio, which is a mixture of African and Brazilian music and dance. Every year before the start of Lent near Easter time there is a Festival with a big parade called a Carnival. Lots of people get dressed up for it with very elaborate costumes and dance along the parade route and go on floats. People come from all over the world to see the Carnival.

Rio is also known for its famous beautiful beaches. The Copacabana, Ipanema, Barra da Tijuca. The Copacabana beach is where some of the big Olympic events are taking place.

Many places around Rio are being use as Olympic venues, and some have had to be specially built for the Olympic sports. It must be very exciting for the people who live in Rio.

7 new back to school children’s non-fiction you must get your hands on!

The holidays may be over, but have no fear, Wellington City Libraries always has fantastic new books in stock for your viewing and reading pleasure. Come on down to your local library and check out what’s new in our junior non fiction collection, especially some must have new reads about the Olympics, which you should get your hands on before the games officially start:

 

image courtesy of syndetics

Travel the world Atlas.

Take a trip around the world and back again where you can  expand your geographical knowledge and stimulate  curiosity with this delightful map book.  Filled with fascinating, bite-sized facts about the landscape and the culture of each geographical region. Great for children over 6 years old.

 

image courtesy of syndeticsSuperbug.

Grab hold of this book and read all about the biggest, fastest, deadliest creepy crawlies on the planet.

 

 

 

IMAGE COURTESY OF SYNDETICSMy Little Book Tractors.

Packed full of cool photos and fascinating facts about tractors. Perfect for reluctant readers and young children interested in tractors and automobiles

 

 

image courtesy of syndeticsPokemon visual companion.

Pokemon madness has taken over the library, especially with the release of this fantastic Pokemon guide. Here is your chance to really catch all the Pokémon you can find, as uncover amazing artwork, fascinating facts and comical anecdotes. This is truly a must have reference for every Pokemon fan!

 

 

image courtesy of syndeticsOlympic Sport: The Whole Muscle-Flexing Story.

From running a marathon to beating your friends at basketball or being the bendiest gymnast around, find out everything you ever wanted to know about sports and games and what it is that makes athletes the best at what they do. A must have read to have in time for the Olympics.

 

 

image courtesy of syndeticsOlympic Expert.

Read this book and discover record breaking sprints of 100m legend Usain Bolt, Gymnast Nadia Comenaeci’s perfect ten, Bob Beamon’s amazing long jump and David Weir’w wheelchair racing heroics and much, much more! This book is also crammed full of facts and statistics, quotes, trivia and lots of other essential information for every Olympic fan. Grab it quick before someone else does.

 

image courtesy of syndeticsMinecraft : the survivors’ book of secrets.

The latest instalment of Minecraft as arrived in the form of  Minecraft : the survivors’ book of secrets. This Official Minecraft book contains collective knowledge of the Survivors – an underground group of Minecraft experts who’ve been around since the early days of alpha. Out in the field you’ll learn how to stalk your enemies, how to master the art of practical munitions and how to crush any opponent in hand-to-hand combat.

Winter Olympics

Have you been able to watch any of the Winter Olympics yet?

The athletes are so amazing – the figure skaters are so graceful – the ski jumpers can fly sky-high – the bobsleigh goes crazy fast and the ice hockey players crash a lot.

This morning I watched Julia Lipnitskaia a Russian figure skater perform. She is incredible and is only 15 years old.

You might like to check out this website for lots of information about the Winter Olympics or take a look here if you are looking for fun activities with a Winter Olympic theme.

 

Boxing at the Olympics

Did you know that New Zealand’s first gold medal was won by a boxer called Ted Morgan in 1928?

Boxing is one of the oldest sports at the Olympics; it’s been around for around 5,000 years and was practiced in China, Greece and Rome. It was first introduced as an Olympic sport in 1902. It’s been in every Olympic Games since then except the 1912 Games, as Sweden, the host country, had a law against boxing.

Boxing was traditionally fought with bare hands until 1867, when the Queensbury rules were introduced. It was these rules that also introduced weight limits to the sport. These rules were extremely influential on boxing, and changed it from bare-knuckle brawls to a real sport.

New Zealand is sending two boxers, Siona Fernandez and Alexis Pritchard to the London; this year is the first time women’s boxing is appearing at the Olympic games.

 

Great New Zealand Olympians of the past

New Zealand didn’t compete as a nation in its own right until 1920; in the previous Olympics we had competed as a conjoint team with Australia. In 1920 New Zealand’s first Olympic team took 9 weeks to get to Antwerp by ship. Every member of that team made it to the finals, and Violet Walrond, our first female Olympian, was with them. She was only 15 at the time, and only 14 when she qualified. Unfortunately, she stopped swimming at 18.

Our first gold medal was in boxing, and was won by Ted Morgan in 1928. Yvette Williams was the first New Zealand woman to win a gold medal in 1952, in long-jump. The next female Olympian to win Gold was Barbara Kendall, in 1992.  Barbara Kendall competed in five Olympic Games…that’s pretty impressive!

Perhaps the most famous historical Olympian is Peter Snell.  He first won gold in the 800m race in 1960, and won two more gold medals in 1964. But he’s not New Zealand’s most ‘successful’ Olympian: that’s Ian Ferguson, a canoeist, who has won 4 gold medals and one bronze across five Olympic games.

 

This is a great book that will tell you about some of out best Olympians.

Judo and Taekwondo at the Olympics

http://www.wcl.govt.nz/easyfind/?hreciid=|library/m/wellington-carl|0000748833

Judo and Taekwondo are the  only two Asian Martial Arts that are accepted as Olympic sports.

Taekwondo became an Olympic sport in 2000. That’s quite late; early forms of Taekwondo began appearing  in Korea almost 2000 years ago. That makes it almost as old as the Olympic games themselves! Today, Taekwondo is practised in about 190 countries.  The country that has won the most medals in Taekwondo is South Korea, followed by China and then the United States. The three New Zealanders in Taekwondo are Logan Campbell, Vaughn Scott, and Robin Cheong.

Judo was started in Japan and became an Olympic sport in 1964, although it was demonstrated at the 1932 Olympics . Judo was created by Jigoro Kano, a Japanese educator. Visually impaired martial artists can also compete in Judo at the Paralympics. Japan has won the most medals in Judo, followed by France and then South Korea.  Moira de Villiers is the only New Zealand Judoka (someone who practices Judo) at this years Olympics.

Fencing at the Olympics

Did you know that sword-fighting is an Olympic sport? At the Olympics it is called fencing. Fencers fight one-on-one indoors on what is called the Strip. The Strip is 14 metres long and 2 metres wide. Competitors have to stay within this boundary. A fencing challenge is called a bout. Fencers fight in bouts of 3, which last 3 minutes each.

Competitors fight with three different kinds of swords: foils, epees and sabres. Medals are given for the winners in each competition for each kind of sword. Each sword has its own rules, but generally a competitor scores one point each time they touch the other person with the tip of their sword. To win they must score 15 hits on their opponent, or the highest number of hits in a bout. Fencers dress all in white. So that the competitors do not get hurt for real they wear gloves, padded jackets and pants, and wire masks to protect their faces. Most importantly, the swords have blunt tips!

Sword-fighting is a very old sport. Many soldiers in ancient cultures fought with swords, including the Greeks and Romans. Fencing schools were founded in Medieval England, and the rules of fencing were set up by the end of the 1400s. The foil sword was invented in the 1600s, as well as the mesh face mask.

Fencing was first part of the Olympics in 1896, and has been included in every Olympic Games ever since. France, Italy and Hungary have had a strong tradition of fencing since the 1800s. They frequently win the individual men, women and team events, along with Germany and Russia.

You can learn all about what it is like to be a fencer in Fencing is For Me, and learn all about every single Olympic sport in the Macmillan encyclopedia of Olympic sports.

Cycling at the Olympics

Cycling has been an Olympic sport since the very beginning of the modern Olympic Games. It made its first appearence at the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens.

Bicylces had been around since the early 1800s, but they had only recently become popular. Can you imagine trying to race on the penny farthing? The bicycles at the first Olympics were much more like the bikes we ride today, with two wheels of the same size.

There was only one cycling event at the first modern Olympic Games: the men’s road race, which had only seven contestants. Five of them were from Greece!

Today there are 18 different events, with both men and women participating. In the men’s road race in 2012, there will be 145 contestants. That’s quite a step up from 1896! Probably the most famous New Zealand Olympic cyclist is Sarah Ulmer, who won a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

 

New Zealand Women Olympic Gold Medalists

With the London 2012  Olympics happening now, we always hope that New Zealand can bring home a gold medal. According to Wikipedia, as of April 25,2012, New Zealand has so far won 55 Olympic gold medals! Six of the athletes who won the gold medals were women. They have been dubbed the golden girls and they are :

  • Yvette Williams– she is the first woman ever to win the gold medal for New Zealand. Her event was the Long Jump in the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games.
  • Sarah Ulmer –was the first New Zealander to win an Olympic cycling gold. She also set world records at the 2004 Summer Olympics at Athens.
  • Barbara Kendall – is a boardsailor. She won a gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics  in Barcelona. She also went on to win a silver medal in 1996 Olympics Games in Atlanta, Georgia), and a bronze medal in 2000 in Sydney. She also finished 5th at the 2004 Games in Athens and sixth at the 2008 Games in China. She is the first, and as of 2008, only woman from New Zealand to compete at 5 Olympic Games!
  • Caroline Meyer (formerly known as Caroline Evers-Swindell)- her event is the double sculls along with her identical twin sister. She won with her sister,the double sculls gold medal in the 2004 Olympic games. At the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, she and her sister successfully defended their title and won gold medals in the women’s double sculls.
  • Georgina Earl (formerly known as Georgina Evers-Swindell) – She competed in the double sculls with her identical twin sister Caroline Meyer, and is a double Olympic gold medalist, having won at Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008.
  • Valerie Kasanita Adams (formerly known as Valerie Vili)- she is a shot putter and is the reigning women’s Olympic champion and three-time World champion, two-time Commonwealth and World Indoor champion.

 The library has a book about these awesome women Olympic gold medalists Golden Girls: celebrating New Zealand’s six female gold medalists. It is a young adult and adult non fiction but you might like to try check it out.

Olympic Games – Opening Ceremony

On Friday 27th of July is the opening ceremony for the 30th Olympic Games held in London, England. The opening ceremony is usually a spectacular show with all the competing athletes marching into the main stadium and the Olympic flame being lit by the Olympic torch. It’ll be worth getting out of bed to watch!

Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, has launched a really great site full of information about the Olympics, Empire and Commonwealth games and New Zealand’s involvement. It has information on our medal winners and the sports that we are really good at. Best of all, it has loads of videos and pictures so you can see what they are talking about. Take a look!