Do you know how a sport becomes an Olympic event? To be accepted as an Olympic event, a sport must be played in at least 75 countries on at least four continents (for women's sports 45 countries on three continents). The new sports that have been introduced in recent Olympic Games reflect changing fashions around the world. Snowboarding was introduced in Nagano in 1998, and the first Olympic Taekwondo competitions were held in Sydney in 2000.
Air sports such as paragliding, hanggliding and skydiving are becoming increasingly popular. Paragliding first became popular in the 1970s and it is estimated that there are already more than 400, 000 paragliders in Europe alone. The first world championships were held in 1979 and paragliding schools can now be found around the world. Paragliders say that they do their sport simply for the love of flying.
In the meantime, the World Paragliding Association is busy trying to get the sport accepted as an Olympic sport. If that happens, paragliding will become even more popular. It will help athletes to find sponsors(赞助商)and it will attract more people to the air. Official competitions for paragliding are held in more and more countries each year, and there is reason to hope that paragliding will be added to the Olympic list before long.
