1 . The first prize usually goes to the swiftest, but sometimes, the first one to cross the finish line isn't the only winner. Nowhere was that more _________ than in a recent race in Shelbyville, Indiana.

With less than half a mile to go, Levi LaGrange from Western Boone High School _________ tripped, twisting his ankle. He signaled to Sheridan High School senior Axel Aleman that he could _________ him, but in that instant, the race became a less important _________ for Aleman. "I saw he was in great pain," Aleman recalled. "As I got closer to him, he was _________ to move…I asked if he was _________ . He said he felt like something broken.”

In an extraordinary act of true sportsmanship, Aleman _________ to leave LaGrange behind. Placing an encouraging hand at his _________ back, Aleman _________ with LaGrange for the remainder of the __________ . The two crossed the finish line and Aleman even ensured LaGrange went first.

LaGrange's mother was __________ by Aleman's thoughtful __________ —especially since the two had never met before. “It takes a lot for an 18-year-old to __________ his spot," she said. “Axel never left Levi's side." Aleman's own mother,   __________ , was not at all surprised by her son's goodwill. “It really speaks to Axel's __________ . He is always concerned about others more than himself," she said.

When you're standing at a crossroad—or running by it—you can choose the path of __________ , or you can go the extra mile for someone __________ . For this teen athlete, the __________ is clear. While we might not always recognize when life hands us a __________ for grace (风度), when it does, in the words of Axel Aleman, “I would just really hope people do the __________ thing.”

2 . Farmers and runners have a lot in common. There is the drive to struggle in tough conditions. There is the ability to do hard labor, outside in any condition. There is also the restlessness, which, however, might be unique to Elle Purrier St. Pierre, a farmer and a professional runner, who admits she has a tough time sitting still, as a result of her growing up on a dairy(奶制品)farm, where she developed a working attitude that is hard to change. "Cows need to be fed; they need to be milked. And if something breaks, you have to figure out a way to fix it, and you have your responsibilities no matter what," she says. "That attitude really helps me in my career now."

Purrier St. Pierre will run for Team USA in the Olympic Games in Tokyo this year, where she’ll compete in the 1,500-meter run. In February 2020, she broke the American record for fastest indoor mile, with a time of 4:16.85. A year later, she broke the American record for the indoor two-mile, at 9:10.28. And sure, she trains hard, and is diligent and naturally athletic. But according to Purrier St. Pierre, farming is what initially set her up for success on the track.

"Runners and farmers are similar in their lifestyle. It’s just something that they do every single day. They’re kind of addicted," says Furrier St. Pierre. "It’s just who you are."

While farming is a central part of who Furrier St. Pierre is, running is a more recent addition. She started running in high school, despite the school not actually having a track. Instead, she trained on the dirt roads near her farm or the mountain biking trails that surround the hilly town. They proved to be good training grounds. It was in college that she started to identify as a runner and pursue it as a career. Now, running is what she’s known for, and there are high hopes for her to bring home a medal from Tokyo.

Whatever happens at the games, Furrier St. Pierre is excited to come home to the support of her husband, who is unsurprisingly, also a dairy farmer. As much as running is her life and career at this moment, Furrier St. Pierre keeps one eye on her future, and that’s on the farm.

"I am such a homebody and very true to my roots. I’ll always be a farmer. I’m pursuing this career right now, as a runner, but I’m still very much a farmer."

3 . Want to enjoy some extreme sports(极限运动)? Here are a small number of the extreme sport clubs across universities in the UK.

4 . Simone Biles is widely considered to be the greatest gymnast of all time. In America, she is the "face" of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. When the games began, she was expected to win five gold medals.

But she withdrew from the team final. She made the choice after her vault in the competition's first round. She later said her mind was not in the right place to let her safely perform the difficult moves. In other words, her mind was not letting her body do what it needed to do. So, she made the decision to protect her mental health and give her teammates a better chance at winning a medal.

Biles is not the only Olympian in recent months to talk about the pressure and mental effects of competing at the highest level. Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka decided not to compete at the French Open earlier this summer. She said she made that decision to protect her mental health.

This week, Osaka lost in the second round of Olympic competition. She said she felt extreme pressure to win for Japan.

Many Olympic athletes have discussed the stress they have felt. COVID-19 has greatly changed the way the Games are being held. Liz Cambage is a top basketball player for Australia. She left her team one week before the start of the Games because she was worried about entering the Olympic "bubble" in Tokyo without the support of her friends and family.

The IOC, or International Olympic Committee, said it is paying more attention to the mental health of athletes. The IOC said it has websites and phone numbers athletes can call if they need help with a mental health problem.

6 . Japan's prime minister encouraged the decision to ban viewers, even family members, by issuing a state of emergency order in Tokyo earlier this month in response to rising COVID-19 case numbers.

From the perspective of sports psychologists, an Olympics without fans is a real-life science experiment that is helping researchers and clinicians to comb through the true impact of a crowd of fans on its players—and on viewers at home. The strange circumstances under which the games are held may place unexpected pressure on some athletes. On Tuesday, superstar gymnast Simone Biles dropped out of the women's team event, telling teammates and reporters she wasn't in the right “headspace” to compete. “It's been really stressful this Olympic Games. There are a lot of different variables going into it,” Biles told the Washington Post.

The 2020 Summer Olympics bears similarities and differences to other major sporting events without viewers. The English Premier League supplemented (增加) game broadcasts with crowd noise from the soccer video game FIFA 20, mixed with game audio in real time. A Taiwanese baseball team and German soccer team began populating stands with cardboard cutouts of fans, and the trend caught on internationally.

Jamey Houle, the lead sports psychologist for Ohio State University Athletics and a former Al-American gymnast, says competitive athletes are trained in visualization— imagining performing a certain action or motion, such as doing a roundoff back handspring in gymnastics. Without moving a muscle, players using visualization can solidify neural (神经的) connections and activate their motor cortex (皮层). To visualize most effectively, Houle says, athletes working with sports psychologists will try to simulate as closely as possible the conditions of actual gameplay. Empty stadiums may thus have a measurable impact on players' performance. This phenomenon is grounded in a psychological concept called “social facilitation”, referring to a change in a person's performance that occurs when others are around compared to when a person is alone.

Early last year, as international lockdowns upset daily life, they took with them, one by one, many of the major     1    (culture) and sporting events that dot the calendar each year. The N.B.A. suspended     2     (it) season, the French Open was postponed for several months and the Tokyo Olympics     3    (delay) a year. The future of the Glastonbury Festival and the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival were     4     doubt. It was a bad time.

Recently, as conditions in many places around the world have slowly begun to improve, and as countries have begun mass vaccination     5    (campaign), some events have made plans     6    (return). The Tokyo Olympics will begin on July 23 with an opening ceremony. The     7    (major) of the athletic events will begin the next day. The 105th Indianapolis 500 will go on     8     planned on May 30. Officials will allow about 135,000 spectators in. The Edinburgh International Festival,     9     showcase for world theater, dance and music in the Scottish city since 1947, will run Aug. 7-29. Performances will take place in temporary outdoor pavilions with covered stages and socially     10    (distance) seating.