Sports divide into played individually or played in teams. Most sports can be played by men and women, boys and girls. Many people participate in sports as amateurs for personal enjoyment, the love of competition or as a healthful form of exercise. Sport have a very long tradition . Official from the first Olympic Games in ancient Greece till now. But today's sport differ from this former past one. It's not only about the disciplines, rules and records. It's about the ambiance of sport games and reasons why people play sports especially professional. The main reasons are money and fame and not pure competition or improving one's abilities or just fun like it should be.

Many of today's sport disciplines are very dangerous and vicious. They become more and more popular as well among the people who play it as people who watch it.

Why sports like: boxing, car-racing, soccer, football or hockey raise so much interests ? It is involved with a high risk after all. We can say about direct and indirect danger. The direct danger we can call the contusions and injures which are part of practicing sports. In car-racing or motorcycle-racing there is a lot of accidents which are often are very serious and even sometimes lead to death of a sportsman. Scenes when a race car crashes and bursts into glances are not rare. After those accidents drivers are often very heavy injured some of them become invalids. Motor sports demand extreme precision from a driver and from team, but no one is infallible : sometimes the equipment fails sometimes mechanics make a mistake. I think that these people who love extremely high speed and risk they lives are psychically wrong because one error can cost their life.

In 1994 Ayrton Senna Brazilian automobile racer, who won the Formula One championship three times, died in a crash at the Grand Prix of San Marino in Italy. He was often criticized for sacrificing race safety in the interest of achieving higher speeds. His death, one of several serious accidents that year in Formula One racing, prompted safety-related changes in the design of Formula One automobiles.

In group games like: soccer, football, rugby, hockey frequent contusions are even worse. Although in football and hockey special helmets and pads are required, in all those games players are exposed to numerous injuries. Their most often problem are sprained or broken limbs (legs and arms) spine and inner injuries. Even basketball is consider to be dangerous game.

Also boxing is a very dangerous sport. Two men batter in each other to overturn an opponent on a boxing ring. In boxing the most explored parts of the body are: skull, nose, eyes, jaw, abdomen. Sometimes boxers are beaten to unconsciousness. Thousands of blows they receive destroy their brains and after few years of fighting boxers have heavy mental diseases (Mohammad Ali), besides their children are often cripples. This is also one of the most influencing sports on our mental life - box release aggression in people who watch it.

There is also indirect danger of practicing sport. All sportsmen no matter what kind of sports of discipline they practise want to be the best and win the competitions. So they train a lot and sometimes even too much.

Some of them take drugs to improve their strength. Steroids induce weight gain and increase muscle mass. Originally developed to help cancer patients and victims of starvation, they are derived from the male sex hormone testosterone. In recent decades steroids have been abused by many athletes hoping to improve performance. Besides the unfairness their use introduces into competition, steroids can have serious psychological and physiological side effects, including increased aggressive behaviour and cancer of the liver.

The improper or illegal use of drugs and substances such as steroids for the enhancement of athletic performance has been a frequent subject of inquiry since the 1960s, when drug misuse by athletes to gain an unfair advantage began to rise dramatically. Tests for narcotic analgesics such as heroin and stimulants such as the amphetamines were introduced at the Olympic Games in 1968. Steroids were banned in 1974, when a suitable test for presence of them became possible. A number of athletes have been disqualified from that day.

Some woman practicing athletics get pregnant just for the one contest because in third month of pregnancy woman is in a very good physical condition.

Controversy has also arisen over the legality of the practice of “blood doping,” in which an athlete receives a blood transfusion just before an event. The resulting increase in red blood cells apparently enhances the athlete's aerobic power (Muhammad Ali ).

There are many other ways in which sportsmen destroy their bodies.

In sport there is no place for young and health people. So when the sportsman is getting old his career is over. Not many of them makes further career in media or politics. Rest usually is not able to do anything else because sport was their whole life. In the worst situation are young sportsmen who ended their career because of contusions (they are often invalids). They can only count on charitable organisations.

Sport can influence incorrect for some people who watch it: 2 to 3 percent of the U.S. adult population is addicted to the activity of gambling. Pathological Gambling is a behaviour disorder in which an individual becomes progressively unable to resist the impulse to gamble. They show interest in betting on games of chance such as : boxing fights , horse races, soccer matches. Withdrawal symptoms are similar to those of drug addicts. Recovery often takes two years or more.

I think that some sports, especially Olympic Games should be under restricted control, and sport's safety regulations should be introduced before same accident happens.

Vocabulary:

Participate in - uczestniczyć w

fame - sława

vicious - agresywny

raise interests - wywoływać zainteresowanie

involved with - związane z

direct - bezpośredni

injures - obrażenia

lead to - prowadzić do

bursts into glances - stanąć w płomieniach

infallible - niezawodny

equipment - sprzęt

sacrificing - poświęcenie

in the interest of - w celu

prompted - zapoczątkować

safety-related - związane z bezpieczeństwem

design - projekt

helmet - kask

pads - ochraniacze

exposed to - narażone na

sprained - zwichnięte

batter - bić, walić

overturn - przewrócić

skull - czaszka

blow - cios

cripples - kaleki

release aggression - wyzwalać agresję

steroids - sterydy

induce - powodować

gain - wzrost

derive - czerpać

abuse - nadużywać

unfairness - nieuczciwość

liver - wątroba

enhancement - podwyższenie

inquiry - badanie, śledztwo

misuse - nadużywanie

advantage - korzyść

analgesics - znieczulacz

athletes - sportowcy

suitable test - odpowiedni test

charitable - dobroczynny

pathological gambling - nałogowy hazard

event - zawody

progressively - stopniowo

resist - przeciwstwiać się

withdrawal symptoms

recovery - powrót do zdrowia

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