Every day we are looking at a word that is being used in the media about the London Olympics. You can see a translation, example sentence and definition. Then read a short article containing the word and learn some more vocabulary that is explained in the vocabulary glossary below Olympic Word of the day No#6 –
LIGHTNING
fulmine, rayo, foudre, молния, 稲妻, Blitz, yıldırım, 閃, 번개, błyskawica, relâmpago, αστραπή, villám blesk, برق
Definition
Noun: a flash of electricity from a weather storm Adjective: very quick
Olympic Story
Surely, almost everyone in the world has seen or heard about the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt and his victory in the Olympic 100 metres last night.
It seemed like the whole world had stopped to watch the blue ribband event as you could hear a pin drop in the stadium as the athletes waited in their starting position.
Just 9.63 seconds later and it was all over. It was a case of lightning strikes twice as Bolt had retained his Olympic title; only achieved once before by Carl Lewis in the 1980s.
This was the second fastest time of all time (the World record is also held by Bolt) and perhaps it wasn’t expected, as Bolt had been beaten twice recently by his team mate Blake.
However, Blake could only manage the silver medal here as the Lightning Bolt (one of his nicknames) got down to business in the true style of an Olympic defending champion.
Before the start, Bolt looked a little bit more nervous than he had done at Beijing 2008, where he was supremely relaxed.
This time he had his usual signature warm-up poses and some clowning around, but you could see that there was some tension in his face.
But 10 seconds later when the job was done and with the crowd going wild, it was business as usual with his legendary lightning bolt stance, that signifies that he is truly the fastest man alive. However, to truly seal his legacy, he’s going to have to do what no man has ever done before and do it all over again at Rio 2016!
What’s your opinion?
Is Bolt the biggest star at the Olympics? Will Bolt win the 200m, too? Are there other events which are more exciting/important than the Men’s 100m?
Vocabulary Glossary
- blue ribband event
- the most important event in a sporting competition
- to be able to hear a pin drop
- idiom: to be extremely quiet situation where there is a large number of people
- lightning strikes twice
- a play on words – common phrase is ‘Lightning never strikes twice: meaning something unusual will not happen two times, but here, the unusual thing DID happen twice
- to retain sth
- to continue to have sth
- to get down to business
- to be serious and professional about doing sth
- signature
- here – sth that you are famous for
- pose
- noun: to stand in a specific way in order to be photographed
- to clown around
- the opposite of ‘being serious’
- tension
- the opposite of ‘relaxed’
- to seal your legacy
- to do sth that confirms that you are great
