For two and a half weeks, the world had been mesmerized by the feats of the greatest athletes on the planet during the Tokyo Olympics. Caeleb Dressel set a new world record time of 49.45 seconds in the men’s 100-meter butterfly swimming event. Pole vaulter Armand Duplantis easily cleared 6.02 meters to win the gold medal.
Lasha Talakhadze heaved a total of 488 kilograms, the new world record in the men’s over 109-kilogram weightlifting category. And the USA Basketball Team continued its dominance in the Olympics. Amazing, right?
Well, if you were truly amazed by the Games and the athletes, then why not get into sports yourself? Let’s take a look at some sports you can take up and use the new Olympic motto—“Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together”—to categorize them.
Faster
If speed is what you’re looking for in a sport, then go for one that’ll test how fast you can go. These sports are basically games that require competitors to be the first ones to finish a race. For starters, there’s swimming, and you can pick which stroke—freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, or butterfly—to master. In athletics, you’ve got a number of events, including sprints, hurdles, marathons, and relays, to choose from. Of course, there are also races that make use of vehicles. If you want to use a bike, you can try road and track cycling and mountain bike, and BMX racing.
Get into motorsports if you want to race using a car or motorcycle. Just remember that, because cycling and motorsports involve high levels of speed, you should always use personal protective equipment like a helmet and fire-resistant protective clothing to keep yourself safe.
Higher
Do you like the excitement that being high above the ground gives you? If you do, you should probably get into a sport that takes you to, literally, great heights. In such sports, the name of the game is the higher, the better. In athletics or track and field, you can go for pole vault or high jump and find out what’s the highest height of the bar you can clear. There are also extreme sports if the element of danger that is really high above the ground brings is what’ll get your adrenaline pumping.
Try rock climbing, cliff diving, skydiving, bungee jumping, etc., if this is your thing. Then, you have gymnastics and platform diving. Yes, these sports are all about what athletes do while up in the air and how they stick their landing, but height still plays a major factor in how they perform their routines.
Stronger
While it’s true that most, if not all, sports require physical strength, some just really test the brute strength of athletes. Lift the heaviest, throw the farthest, and strike the hardest are just some of the things athletes need to do to excel in this type of sport. Weightlifting is probably the best example of sports requiring tremendous strength. So if you think you’ll eventually be able to lift a barbell that can weigh twice as much as your own body weight, then go ahead and get into weightlifting.
You can also take up athletics events, such as discus throw, hammer throw, javelin throw, and shot put, and chuck heavy things around as a sport. Or maybe combat sports will be the most suitable for you. Try boxing, karate, judo, krav maga, etc., and learn not only a new sport but also self-defense.
Together
Well, the word “together” in the new Olympic motto was actually added to emphasize the importance of solidarity, but it can still be used to categorize sports—team sports. With team sports, teamwork and solidarity are what’ll win you games. But even if you lose, it’s simply so much easier and more fun and rewarding to have other people playing with you, right? So go participate in team sports! For one, there’s basketball. You’ve probably already shot some hoops with your friends before, so just take up the sport again.
Baseball, volleyball, soccer, hockey, and football are the other ball sports that also make for great team sports. You can also try flag football or Ultimate Frisbee as an alternative to football. The good thing about most team sports is that they’re easy to learn and that you can play them just about anywhere.
The Tokyo Olympics has come and gone. But hopefully, the Games and the amazing feats of the athletes have inspired a lot of us to get into sports, so we can all get the chance to be “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together.” Until Paris, everyone.
