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Tug of war and pigeon shooting: Welcome to the 1900 Olympics 拔河、射鴿比賽：歡迎來到一九ＯＯ年奧運賽

The tug-of-war, seen here in Banaue city, Philippines, on April 17, 2008, was contested at the Olympics until 1920. 四月十七日，菲律賓巴拿威市舉行了拔河賽。直到一九二０年為止，拔河一直是奧運的競賽項目之一。 照片：美聯社 PHOTO: AP

If you’ve been swimming, you probably tried it at least once: Dive into the water and see how far you can get without taking a stroke. Coast past 19m and you could have earned a gold medal at the 1904 Olympics.

The tug-of-war you played with friends at school? That could have been worth a podium spot at six Games.

“It was a different thing, particularly the very early days before it got formalized,” said David Wallechinsky, vice president of the International Society of Olympic Historians. “Eventually, as it got bigger, they had to take it a lot more seriously.”

At the first few modern Olympics, there were no national teams — athletes could just sign up, pay an entry fee and compete — and the host countries had a free rein to pick what events were to be held.

One event was the dueling pistols at the 1896 Athens Summer Olympics.

The participants didn’t actually shoot each other; they fired upon mannequins dressed in frock coats with bulls-eyes on their chests.

For the authentic blood and guts, you’d have to go back to the 1900 Paris Games and live pigeon shooting. Nearly 300 birds were killed during the release-and-shoot competition, leaving a mess of feathers and blood after an event that clearly wouldn’t fly today.

The swimming obstacle race in 1900 was another unusual one, with swimmers climbing up and down a pole, then over and under boats in the Seine River. Surely, some kid at the local swimming pool made that one up.

“It was probably tremendously entertaining,” says Olympic historian John Lucas.

(STAFF WRITER, With AP)

常游泳的人，都至少這樣試過：跳下水，看看不划水能前進多遠。若能滑行超過十九公尺，你就能在一九Ｏ四年的奧運中奪下金牌。

你和朋友在學校玩的拔河呢？那有可能讓你站上六屆奧運賽的頒獎台。

國際奧林匹克歷史學者學會副會長大衛．瓦勒欽斯基說：「以前的奧運和現在的大不相同，尤其是在規則、形式都還未定的最早期。最後，隨著奧運規模愈來愈大，他們不得不更認真看待這場運動會。」

最早的幾屆現代奧運中，並沒有所謂的國家代表隊，運動員可以自己報名、繳費然後參賽，而地主國可以任意決定要比哪些運動項目。

一八九六年在雅典舉辦的夏季奧運會就把拔槍對決列入比賽項目。

參賽選手並不是真的用槍射殺彼此，而是把槍瞄準穿著長大衣的人型模特兒胸膛上的靶心射擊。

至於血肉模糊的血腥畫面，你得回到一九ＯＯ年的巴黎奧運會，去看看當時的射活鴿比賽。那場放鴿子讓選手射殺的比賽，犧牲了將近三百隻鴿子，這場現今絕不可能舉行的比賽結束後，留下了滿地的羽毛和鮮血。

障礙泳賽是一九ＯＯ年奧運中另一個不尋常的項目，游泳選手必須爬上竿子，下來後，再從塞納河上的船舶下方游過。想必這是當地游泳池裡的某個小孩想出來的鬼點子。

奧林匹克歷史學家約翰．盧卡斯說：「這可能極富娛樂效果吧。」

（美聯社／翻譯：袁星塵）

TODAY’S WORDS 今日單字 1. podium n. 頒獎台 (ban1 jiang3 tai2) 例: Percival was delighted when he was asked to step onto the podium to collect his gold medal. (佩西弗受邀上台領取金牌時，滿心雀躍。) 2. mannequin n. 人體模型 (ren2 ti3 mo2 xing2) 例: The dress looked great on the mannequin but it was too small for Jane. (那件洋裝穿在假人模特兒身上很美，但對珍來說尺寸太小了。) 3. pigeon n. 鴿子 (ge1 zi5) 例: Nesting pigeons have damaged the chapel roofing. (築巢的鴿子破壞了禮拜堂的屋頂。) 4. tremendously adv. 非常 (fei1 chang2) 例: Last night's movie was tremendously exciting. (昨晚的電影非常刺激。)

SAY WHAT? 說說看 a free rein 隨心所欲 If you have a free rein, you have the authority to act however you want in a particular area. For example: “When the mayor commissioned the new statue for the town square, he gave the architects a free rein to design whatever they wanted,” or “Austin’s mohawk looks terrible. I can tell he regrets giving the hairdresser a free rein to style his hair.” 「a free rein」意指在特定權限內，可以隨心所欲。 例如：「市長委託製作市鎮廣場上的新雕像時，給了設計師隨意發揮的空間」或是「奧斯汀的雞冠頭看起來糟透了，我知道他很懊悔讓髮型師隨意設計他的髮型」。

OUT LOUD 對話練習 Jacob: I can’t figure out why Sophia doesn’t want to come to the movies with me. Ethan: That’s strange. She seems to like you. Jacob: Yes, I know. But when I invited her to see Knife Slasher 4, she refused. Ethan: No wonder. Girls don’t want to watch a blood and guts movie like that. You should take her to see a romantic comedy instead. Jacob: You must be kidding. Those movies are for geeks. Say, why don’t we see Knife Slasher 4 together? 雅各：我搞不懂蘇菲亞為什麼不願和我去看電影。 伊森：這就奇怪了，她好像對你有意思啊。 雅各：對啊，我也覺得。但當我約她去看《刀魔四》時，她拒絕了耶。 伊森：怪不得，女生都不喜歡看那種血腥的電影，你應該約她去看浪漫愛情喜劇的。 雅各：你一定在開玩笑吧，怪咖才看浪漫愛情喜劇。哎唷，不如我們兩個一起去看《刀魔四》好了？ blood and guts　血腥暴力的 Blood and guts is an expression which refers to something with lots of violence, such as a horror movie. 「blood and guts」指的是充斥暴力的某事，例如一部恐怖片。

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