The Olympic Games in Irish

With the Olympics rolling around again Irish hearts will be swelling with hope as one of our strongest ever teams travels to Paris. So we at Bitesize Irish thought we’d do our bit by sharing with you some of the vocab you’ll need to discuss the competition – and hopefully medals – in Irish.

The Olympian spirit

Let’s start off with the name of the competition itself:

The Games have their origin in Ancient Greece, of course, but the modern Games always start with the opening ceremony, in which we see the Olympic flame or Olympic torch and the famous Olympic flag.

In the event…

The Olympic Games feature a lot of competitions and events of course, including individual events (and individual medley in the swimming). Some of the most distinctive events are comprised of several different sports played together, in the triathlon, pentathlon and decathlon.

The stars of track and field

Despite this huge and varied range of events at the Olympics, for many it’s the track and field events that really capture the imagination, with athletics representing some of the pinnacles of human achievement.

Running events tend to create some of the most dramatic moments of the Olympics, whether it’s the 100m sprint, the hurdles or longer races such as the steeplechase or marathon, while relay races provide the extra dimension of co-operation and teamwork.

The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted the word for a hurdle, cliath, is also to be found in the Irish name for Dublin:

The “hurdle” in this case would have been a kind of wicker structure to help people cross the ford over the River Liffey in this place.

There are also several jumping events at the Olympics, with the high jump, long jump, pole vault and of course the triple jump.

The other mainstay of track and field is throwing events: shot put, discus and javelin.

The winner takes it all

Ultimately, the Olympic Games are all about the people taking part. Fantastic athletes from around the world come together to participate against their competitors and rivals. All eyes are on the favourites to win each competition, but there can be only one winner in each event, though medals are given for first place, second place and third place: the gold medal, the silver medal and the bronze medal. It must be a tough journey home for those who leave empty-handed!

An mbeidh tú féin ag féachaint ar na Cluichí Oilimpeacha i mbliana? Will you be watching the Olympic Games this year? Cé a thabharfaidh bonn óir abhaile leo? Who will take home a gold medal? Inis dúinn thíos! Let us know below!