New Zealand has 213 athletes competing in a wide range of summer sports at this year’s Tokyo Olympics. For the first time, we have a karate athlete chosen for the Olympics. She is Andrea Anacan, aged 30.
Andrea was born in the Philippines but immigrated to New Zealand with her family when she was 12. She began learning karate when she was only 4 years old but continued her training when she came to New Zealand. Because she is short, just under 1.5m, she has entered the kata type of karate which is judged on style and form not on fighting.
In 2018, she was placed 7th in the world championship in Madrid, Spain.
The Olympics will be different this year in many ways because of the pandemic. No spectators will be allowed which means that Andrea’s family cannot attend the Olympics. They will have to watch her performance online instead.
Different people in Tokyo are protesting about the Olympics. Some of them never wanted the Olympics to happen because of the risks related to Covid-19. Others are protesting because they want to be able to get inside the stadium to watch the games.
Vocabulary:
range: variety. A wide range means there are many different things. A narrow range means that there are not many different things.
form: body position
spectators: people who watch a sport. Note that if it was a show, or entertainment, we would not say spectators, but audience.
protest: complain publicly
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