Sports Kaleidoscope

Multi-sport Event

Multi-sport events are extensive global sports events that take place every four years in a chosen city over consecutive days. Each game features multiple sport disciplines, and athletes represent their countries to compete in individual or group events for Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. Numerous athletes aim to enter these world-wide sports events to set records and win glory for their country. The Modern Olympic Games is the first multi-sport event of such scale, successively followed by similar multi-sport events, namely the Paralympic Games and Asian Games etc.

Olympic Games

The Olympic spirit is about mutual understanding, solidarity, fair play, and establishment of friendship across countries and races through sports. The first modern Olympic Games was held in 1896 in Athens, Greece, in which 331 males from 14 countries competed in nine sports events. In 1924, the first Winter Olympic Games was held in Chamonix, France, after which the Olympics was subsequently separated into the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics which both became a signature of global sports events. The next Summer Olympics will be held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil; whereas the last Winter Olympics took place earlier in Sochi, Russia last February, so the next Winter Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Paralympic Games

The Paralympic Games is a major international multi-sport event hosted by the International Paralympic Committee for athletes with a disability. The Paralympic Games is organized in parallel with Olympic Games, and has held 14 Summer Games and 11 Winter Games hitherto. The Paralympic Games first took place in 1960 in Rome, Italy. In 1988, The Paralympic Games was unprecedentedly held in the same host city (Seoul, South Korea) with the Olympic Games, and such arrangement is still in practice nowadays.

Asian Games

The Asian Games, previously known as the Far Eastern Championship Games, is the biggest sports event in Asia, and is organized and managed by the Olympic Council of Asia. The 45 members take turn to host the event. The first Asian Games was held in New Delhi, India, while the coming 17th Asian Games will take place in Incheon, South Korea from 19th September to 4th October 2014. The 17th Asian Games is featured with 36 sports and more than 13,000 athletes are estimated to be competing. The mascots this year are three cartoon images based on the harbour seals in Baengnyeong Island, and they are named “Vichuon”, “Barame”, and “Chumuro” to symbolize the prospect, momentum, and alacrity of sportsmanship.    

Other games

The success of the Olympics has facilitated the creation of various large-scale sport events in different regions, such as the Nordic Games, South American Games, Mediterranean Games, Central American and Caribbean Games, Universiade, and Special Olympics etc. Whereas in Asia, there are the East Asian Games, Southeast Asian Games, and South Asian Games etc.

Source:
Chinese Olympic Committee
(http://www.olympic.cn)
Hong Kong Paralympic Committee & Sports Association for the Physically Disabled
(http://www.hkparalympic.org)
Olympic Council of Asia
(http://www.ocasia.org/ch_Index.aspx)
International Paralympic Committee
(http://www.paralympic.org)
Wikipedia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-sport_event)