2 . My favorite activity is playing, watching, reading, and really anything to do with basketball. A basketball court (球场) is where I feel most at home.

As I see it, it’s wildly popular in the US and its athletes are extremely recognizable, because it’s the one sport where an athlete’s face is not covered up by a football helmet (头盔) or baseball hat. My favorite time and place is anywhere and anytime. I prefer indoors, although it can be played outdoors. Many people often play in a driveway at home, but the best is always against someone on a court.

I started playing basketball because of my favorite player, Shaquille O’Neal. He was a huge, unstoppable player. When I was 11 years old, I decided to go outside to the family basketball hoop (球框) and take a shot (投球). This was my first time ever shooting a basketball. I will never forget the first shot I ever took. It was perfect. It felt amazing! And I’ve been in love with this sport ever since!

I learned a long time ago that very few people are going to have the love of this game that I do. I’ve always understood that in this area, for the most part, I am alone. Especially coming from the state of Texas, where football is king.

I’m not the best of players. When I do good things on court, I know it’s because I can make up for my lack (缺乏) of athleticism by being a student of the game. I’ve never missed a training day. I don’t worry about school, family, or problems. I think about what’s in front of me, and how I can get the basketball in the hoop.

Playing, watching, and reading about basketball fills me with a sense of enjoyment that I truly do feel that very few people can match.

4 . When Nigeria’s first-ever female taekwondo (跆拳道) Olympian Princess Dudu was fighting on the Olympic mat sat Athens 2004, five-year-old Elizabeth Anyanacho was enjoying one of her favourite movies at her home in Abuja.

She knows that the Olympics are not a joke, and she dreams of being a role model to other women. At 16, Anyanacho wanted to try out a sport. She began training with the track and field team at a local stadium in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.

During one of her training courses, she was spotted by Chika Chukwumerije who was at the stadium to identify up-and-coming talent to train for taekwondo. “In 2015, I went to the stadium to find tall boys and girls. Her body structure fits the body of a taekwondo athlete. She had never done sport in her life,” said Chukwumerije, now the technical director at Nigerian Taekwondo. Chukwumerije, a three-time Olympian figured Anyanacho’s long legs would give her an edge over opponents (对手) when she is kicking from a distance.

“I was happy to give it a try,” said Anyanacho. “I was excited when I discovered taekwondo.” Anyanacho spent more time training and improving her skills. She was outstanding on the mat. In her first competition in 2017 held in neighbouring Ghana, she won gold. The national under-67kg champion has competed in 13 tournaments (联赛), winning eight of them and finishing twice in second and three times in third place. All these events formed part of the road that led her to Tokyo.

“Taekwondo has given me confidence, exposed me to different cultures and I have made friends from all over the world. I would not have had all these opportunities if it weren’t for taekwondo,” said Anyanacho. In addition to her Olympic goals, she hopes her rise can inspire more women.

6 . A small study out of Skidmore College examined the advantages of morning vs, evening exercise for both women and men. Paul, professor for health at Skidmore, led the study.

“We had the groups divided into evening and morning groups,” he says. “We found women and men answered differently to different types of exercise depending on the time of the day, which surprised us.”

The study showed that for women who want to lower blood pressure (血压), the risk of heart disease or reduce fat, morning exercise works best. Those women hoping for upper body muscle (肌肉) gains or mood (心情) improvement should consider evening exercise. For the men, the findings were somewhat different: Evening exercise lowers blood pressure, the risk of heart disease, and feelings of tiredness. But similar to women, they burn more fat with morning exercise.

“For many people, the best time to exercise will depend on their chronotype,” says Heisz, author of Move the Body, Heal the Mind.

“Chronotype is your body’s natural habit to sleep at a certain time—it’s what decides whether you’re a night owl or an early bird. For the 25% of the population that considers themselves a night owl, getting both enough sleep and enough exercise can be difficult,” adds Heisz.

He continues, “Sleep—which provides your body the necessary time to recover (恢复) and make gains from exercise—should always be the first choice. When it comes to exercise, regardless of research on the advantages of certain exercises at particular times of the day, your results will not be good if it doesn’t allow enough time for sleep.”

8 . The FiFA World cup is upon us in Qatar and excitement is truly kicking in. It’s the world’s biggest international soccer tournament and also the most-watched sporting event in the world. There are 32 teams competing to win. This year’s tournament looks to be particularly unique. What makes it different from the ones before?

For starters, it’s the first time the tournament has been held in the Middle East after Qatar beat other host competitors- the US, South Korea, Japan and Australia back in 2010. It’s also the first time in history the tournament is happening during the Northern Hemisphere winter months, from Nov 20 to Dec 18.

That’s because Qatar is a desert country, and in summer the temperature can be as high as 42℃. That’s way too hot to play outdoor sports. But it will still be pretty warm in winter. The temperature in the stadium is expected to be around 20℃ to 30℃. Air conditioning will help to keep it cooler.

Qatar is also the smallest nation by area to host the cup. They’ll be playing the first match of the tournament facing Ecuador. It’s Qatar’s first-ever FIFA World Cup game. This makes them the first country to host their debut(首秀) game since Italy in 1934!

There may be new challenges for many players too. Apart from the hot weather, for European teams like England, France, Germany and Spain, it’s only just over a year since their last big international tournament, the UEFA Champions League.

According to FIFA’s rankings, the favorites to win the tournament this year are Brazil, followed by Argentina and France.

9 . During the COVID-19 pandemic (流行病), some people found their exercise was greatly reduced. However, it was an attraction for others to increase their physical activity. With the change of working from home, some physical activity was reduced. People took this newly freed up time as a chance to add exercise to their day, with online fitness programs and health apps (应用软件) reporting an increase.

However, the early drive to exercise appears to have been short-lived for many, with a study comparing activity levels between the first and second waves of COVID-19 in Victoria finding most people reported a reduction in their physical activity levels the second time around because of a shortage of encouragement. A study found that COVID-19 has reduced physical activity and increased sedentary (久坐不动的) behavior, and the effects could be lasting.

Continuing concerns about COVID-19 have led to carefulness about returning to public spaces such as gyms. But also, with many people changing their exercise habits and setting up home gyms during the pandemic, it’s become much more convenient to exercise at home. It’s clear for many of us that COVID-19 changed how and how much we exercise. But the changes don’t necessarily have to be for the worse.

People who changed to online workouts (锻炼), fitness apps and home gyms during the pandemic said their exercise was less satisfying, less enjoyable and they felt less active com-pared with doing exercise in gyms. Besides the physical effects, people reported missing the social communication, friendship, and being avoidable of the gym. In-person classes also offer the advantages of management and instruction, which can help make sure workouts are completed safely and effectively.

However, online workouts, fitness apps and near-home workouts are likely here to stay, and offer many advantages, such as no need to travel to the gym and convenience, making it easy to fit in a workout while working and shouldering family responsibilities.

10 . Sportsmanship isn’t just about shaking hands after the game. It’s about helping young athletes enjoy the spirit of competition, deal with adversity.     1    

Character is a word that gets used often, but its true meaning may be hard to explain to a young mind.     2     By raising standards early, an athlete can both give and expect mutual respect during their course of competition.

One way to teach the idea of sportsmanship is to let the athlete know that they should do their personal best and to treat teammates and opponents in the same fashion they wish to be treated.     3     It also helps them off the field as well.

It’s important to the young athlete to understand that for as many victories as they hope to have, they must face losing if they’re going to play their sport. An effective method is to have a young athlete pick out well-known popular athletes, particularly in their sport or sports of interest, and look up their statistics.     4    

    5     Practice and skill building should be offset by times of goofing off (偷懒), perhaps practicing with crazy costumes or with fun music, and not coaching in the traditional sense. This one little thing can do wonders in reminding the athlete not to take anything too seriously and to have fun doing what they have chosen to participate in.