【推荐1】Olympic Games organizers in France presented the 2024 Olympic torch (火炬) that will light the Summer Games in the country a year from now. In the Olympic torch tradition, many people carry the torch in turn from Greece to the current location of the Games. After it has traveled thousands of kilometers. the torch will light the Olympic cauldron (火炬台) at the Opening Ceremony of the next Olympic Games.

French designer Mathieu Lehanneur created the torch. which is 70 centimeters long and made of lightweight steel. Lehanneur said its shape is inspired by the famous Seine River, which flows through Paris. He said the torch is equal from top to bottom and all around the middle, which stands for equality between athletes. The twisting shape of the torch represents peace.

The torch was made with lightweight steel. Its lower half copies the movement of the Seine, along which the opening ceremony will take place for over 500,000 viewers.

Lehanneur said he wants the torch to represent the kind of event that Paris 2024 hopes to be. “I wanted to move away from the torch appearing as an object of conquest (征服),” Lehanneur said. He also told reporters that designing the torch was much more techn1cal than he thought it would be. “The magic is not the torch itself. but the flame” Lehanneur said.

The torch will be lit up in Olympia, Grecce on April 16, 2024, followed by a nine day torch relay before sailing across the Mediterranean Sea from Athens to Marseille on May 8. It will then pass through several important places , which include Strasbourg , the Pantheon in Paris, the Mont Saint-Michel and multiple French territories.

Tony Estanguet, the Paris 2024 chief, said the torch is “very ,very beautiful”. He also said it is “...very pure, It’s perfectly balanced in the hand.”

【推荐2】China Daily and its Study China platform ( studychina.chinaservicesinfo.com ) are holding a story-telling contest from April to May 31, 2022.

International students who study or used to study in China are welcome to share their campus life.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

■Works in three categories: Articles; Photos; Videos

■Languages in either English or Chinese are preferred.

WHAT YOU CAN GET

We offer a prize worth up to 10,000 yuan ( approximately $1,563 ). Some of the best works get a chance to be featured on China Daily app ( with 36 million users ) and studychina.chinaservicesinfo.com.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

Articles & Photos

Article: 300-1,000 English or Chinese words

Photo: 10 photos maximum, 5MB for each; each with a caption up to 200 English words; format in JPG or PNG

Videos

Format: MP4 or MOV

Size: 1GB maximum, up to 4 minutes.

Caption: 200-500 English words to give a brief introduction.

SUBMIT HERE

*Click the button to see the full text of the statement

Contact us: shenyjia@chinadaily.om.cn

gaowenjun@chinadaily.com.cn

【推荐3】Ready to show off your art to the world? Check out our guide to some of the best art contests to enter this year.

Watermedia Showcase

Prize: $2,500 first prize, $1,250 second prize.

Entry Fee: $35.

Requirements: Open to international artists 18 years of age and older.

The Watermedia Showcase awards original art created primarily with water-based media. Judged by the editors of Watercolor Artist, all winners will have their work featured in the magazine.

The Lumen Prize for Digital Art

Prize: $4,000 first prize, with a $13,500 total prize fund.

Entry Fee: $40.

Requirements: Open to artists worldwide.

This digital art competition is organized by Lumen Art Projects Ltd, which provides new opportunities for digital artists around the world. Categories include Still, Moving Image, XR, 3D/Interactive and Artificial Intelligence.

World Illustration Awards

Prize: A cash prize of $2,540 and more publicity opportunities.

Entry Fee: $37.

Requirements: Open to artists worldwide.

Illustrators are invited to submit works to 8 different categories. Winners will win not only a cash prize, but also a feature in a major exhibition in central London, and an invitation to the Awards Evening in October.

Strokes of Genius: The Best of Drawing

Prize: $2,000 first prize, $1,000 second prize.

Entry Fee: $45.

Requirements: Open to artists in the United States.

The Strokes of Genius Competition celebrates original work made in drawing mediums, including pencil, charcoal and even some wet paint mediums. Winning entries (参赛作品) will be published in a special edition publication, The Best of Drawing.

【推荐2】When I was 13, I climbed my first mountain--a fairly gentle 3,900-foot peak. I was overweight at the time and out of breath when I reached the summit. But I loved challenging myself. Soon I’d climbed nearly 100 peaks. My parents were happy I’d finally found a hobby.

I often go climbing with my friend Mel Olsen. She and I drove to tackle 11, 240-foot Mount Hood. It’s safer to start winter climbs at night when there’s less risk of the sun melting the snowpack. That day, we started at 3 a. m. At around9 a. m., we reached an ice step. It was about three or four feet tall and sloped al a 75-degree angle. 1 volunteered to go first. I placed my left foot on the ice step.

I gained a sense of the ice when 1 stuck my ax and crampons (鞋底钉) into it, and it felt good. Confident I was safe, I put my full weight on it. Suddenly, I heard a crack, and as the snowpack became thinner, a whole piece of ice broke off the step, right under my foot.

In an instant, I fell backward, bouncing off the rock face and rolling down the mountain as if I were a character in a video game. I remember thinking, This is it. You’re done. I stuck out my arms and legs, grabbing at anything. That stopped my rolling down the mountain, but I was still sliding, After 2 few seconds, I came to a stop on a shallow slope.

I asked myself: Where are you? Mount Hood. What’s the date? December 30. Good. My brain was functioning. Then I checked my body to see where I was hurt. For the most part, I was fine, except that I was suffering from a sharp pain in my left leg. Later I’d learn that I’d broken my femur (大腿骨) and that the bone was slicing into my skin and muscle.

At the bottom of Mount Hood, I was loaded into an ambulance and taken to a hospital. The doctors told me it would be a year before I could climb again, but I was back on the trails within six months.

【推荐2】On Aug 7, Xu Shixiao and her partner, Sun Mengya, won gold in the first women’s canoe(划艇) double 500m event at the Tokyo Games. It was also the first Olympic gold medal for China in the event.

Yet Xu’s journey to the Olympics was bumpy—she faced lots of difficulties.

In 2013, the news that women’s canoeing was still not an Olympic event dealt her a heavy blow. At that time, Xu’s coach suggested her either changing to another sport or retiring(退役).

It was impossible for her to change the sport at age 21. Xu gave up her career and found her first job as a saleswoman. The next year, she was promoted as a human resources manager.

When Xu went to work as usual in a company in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, five years ago, she was surprised to get a call from her former coach, asking about her willingness to return to canoeing and compete in the Tokyo Olympic Games. Xu quickly made her decision.

“I quit(辞职) my job, told my family about it and went back to training three days later. There was not much time left for me to prepare for the Olympics,” Xu recalls. “I never thought that one day I could go back to the sport. Now that I have started again, I will do my best.”

To catch the opportunity to go back to canoeing on the international level, Xu started her training—“as cruel as hell”. She began her daily exercises early morning and ended at 10:30 p.m. Every day, she would set several detailed goals for her training. “Only when I reached all my daily goals. I would go ashore,” Xu says.

The more than two months of grueling(艰辛的) training finally paid off. Xu won two gold medals at the 13th National Games in two women’s canoe events, which meant she would be part of the national team to compete in the Tokyo Olympics.