Olympics

Hockey at the Olympics

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Olympics Countdown: 30 days to go!

Love hockey?  We sure do!  Hockey is awesome, and it’s not long now till the New Zealand Black Sticks (men’s and women’s teams) compete at the London Olympic Games.  The first hockey match sees our Black Stick girls taking on the Aussies – exciting stuff!  Make sure you support our teams as they compete against the world’s best!!

You might also like to check out profiles of the 2012 New Zealand Olympic team including our hockey players and other athletes.

Make sure you come along to the library for our free school holiday activities all about Paralympics and Olympics 2012.  Meet a Paralympian and try out their special sporting equipment!  For more information phone 499 4444 or visit us online.

And here’s a selection of some of the hockey books available at the library:

Athletics at the Olympics

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Olympics Countdown: 31 days to go!

Did you know that athletics is the biggest Olympic sport?  A massive 2000 athletes will compete across a range of track, field and road events.  These include sprints, hurdles, relays, shot put, high jump, pole vault and marathons.  It’s an extremely technical sport and athletes have to be very precise with their performance in order to win.  It’s also a lot of fun – many of you may have given these sports a go on your school athletics days.

One of our most well known field athletes is Valerie Adams who has won an amazing three world titles in Shot Put – two Commonwealth Games gold medals and an Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Beijing games.  Check out this Olympic profile on Valerie Adams to find out more information and to see some amazing shot put action shots.

Come along to the library for our free school holiday activities all about Paralympics and Olympics 2012.  Meet a Paralympian and try out their special sporting equipment!  For more information phone 499 4444 or visit us online.

Badminton at the Olympics

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Did you know that badminton is an Olympic sport?  It debuted at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona (so it’s still a relatively new game at the Olympics).  The world’s best badminton players will compete at Wembley Arena on 28th July in front of approximately 6,000 spectators for the 2012 Summer Olympics and their shuttlecocks can travel at speeds in excess of 400km/h – that’s like a high speed train!!  (Thank you London2012.com/badminton for that cool fact!)

Badminton is a great way to get fit and have heaps of fun.  Why not grab some friends and give it a go?  You will need a racquet each, a shuttlecock, and a net (but if you don’t have a net you could improvise and make one!)  Or contact your local badminton club for more information about where you can play.

Make sure you come along to the library for our free school holiday activities all about Paralympics and Olympics 2012.  Meet a Paralympian and try out their special sporting equipment!  For more information phone 499 4444 or visit us online.

And here are some books available at the library to help get you started with badminton:

London Olympics – 35 Days to Go!

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The countdown to the London 2012 Olympic Games is on!  The games commence on July 27th with a spectacular opening ceremony opened by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip and will finish with a closing ceremony on 12th August.

The modern Olympic Games are a huuuge international event (the biggest sporting event in the world in fact) held every 4 years in a specially selected city and they are planned years in advance.  It is estimated that the 2012 Summer Olympics will involve 10,500 athletes from 204 countries competing in 26 different sports with millions of spectators world wide.  Wow!!

Did you know this will be New Zealand’s 24th appearance in the modern Olympic Summer Games?  We first participated in 1908 and have been taking part ever since – and we’ve won a total of 86 medals – go kiwis!!!  Our 2012 athletes will be training incredibly hard right now, preparing themselves for the games – most athletes will have been training nearly their whole lives for this amazing opportunity.  We wish them all the best!

Make sure you come along to the library for our free school holiday activities all about Paralympics and Olympics 2012.  Meet a Paralympian and try out their special sporting equipment!  For more information phone 499 4444 or visit us online.

Here’s a selection of some of the awesome books we have about the modern Olympics: ready, set, go!!!

School Holiday Activities

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We’re going nutty about the Olympics and have something very cool and unusual for you to try out at your library during the July school holidays.

We are very lucky to have paralympians visiting to tell us all about their experiences and to show you how to use some of their special sporting equipment. Try out a rugby wheelchair, learn how to play Boccia and Goal Ball and more!

We also have sporting story sessions and Olympics quizzes – see how much you know about the Olympics!

Here’s the where and when:

Paralymics – Come to the library to meet a Paralympian and try out their special sporting equipment.

4 July 11.15am at Karori Library

5 July 11am at Newtown Library

6 July 11am at Johnsonville Library

6 July 2pm at Miramar Library

10 July 11am at Tawa Library

11 July 11am at Central Library

12 July 2pm at Kilbirnie Library

13 July 11.15am at Cummings Park Library

 

Olympics holiday quiz – earn your place on the finishers’ podium!

3 July 11am at Island Bay Library

4 July 2pm at Brooklyn Library

 

Olympics stories and activities

11 July 11am at Khandallah Library

12 July 2pm at Wadestown Library

 

All sessions are free and suitable for 5-12 year olds. Don’t miss out -see you there!

Olympics Quiz Book

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Be the ultimate Olympics quiz master with this book. So You Think You Know the Olympics by Clive Gifford. It has about 1,000 questions about the Olympics, Paralympics to the Winter Olympics so you’ll never run out of things to ask.  It ranges from the easy to the hard questions and your scores match up to a bronze to gold. Here’s an easy one for you, In which country did the ancient Olympics start? Want to know the answer? Check the book out and see. Happy quizzing!

Olympics

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Currently there are 28 summer sports on the Olympic Games programme for this year. Approximately 10,500 athletes are expected to participate in this year’s games. Did you know that the 28 summer sports break down into 302 events?! Some of the sports are: archery, athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, beach volleyball, boxing, canoe/kayak flatwater, canoe/kayak slalom, cycling BMX, cycling mountain bike, cycling road, cycling track, diving, equestrian, fencing, football, gymnastics artistic, gymnastics rhythmic, trampoline, handball, hockey, judo, modern pentathlon, rowing, sailing, shooting, softball, swimming, softball, synchronized swimmimg, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, volleyball, water polo, weightlifting, and wrestling. Interesting aye?! See any sports you could try for? So keep doing your swimmimg lessons, bouncing on your trampoline, riding your BMX and playing table tennis! They are Olympic sports!

Olympics! 4 days to go!

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Hey guys its only four days to go till the Olympics start! Check out the official website for the Olympics: http://en.beijing2008.cn/ . Also check out New Zealand’s official site: http://www.olympic.org.nz/Front.aspx?ID=3783 . Our team is already there and they are saying how hot it is! Check out this site also: http://tvnz.co.nz/content/olympics_2008_index/olympics_index . It’s going to be very exciting to watch…..