Chinese Vocabulary about Sports

This article will not only show some sports vocabulary but also tell you how to talk about sports with Chinese people, especially some conversations about summer Olympic Games!

Before we get started, let’s see how to say Olympic Games itself: àolínpǐkè yùndònghuì 奥林匹克运动会, and normally people just call it “ào yùn huì 奥运会” for short.

1. Aquatics

Chinese people are big fan of aquatics! The diving competition is the match you should not miss since the Chinese team has been winning the championship for a long time. Both Chinese women and men are top athletes in this field. The diving champions are very popular among Chinese people too, like Guo Jingjing 郭晶晶, the “diving queen” and ”diving prince” Tian Liang 田亮.

2. Athletics

100m/ 200m/ 400m/ 800m/ 1500m/ 5000m/ 10000m: yì bǎi/ liǎng bǎi/ sì bǎi/ bā bǎi/ yìqiān wǔ bǎi/ wǔ qiān/ yí wàn mǐ pǎo : 200/ 400/ 800/ 1500/ 5000/ 10000米跑
110 m/ 400 m hurdles: yì bǎi yīshí mǐ / sì bǎi kuàlán 110米/ 400米跨栏
20 km/ 50 km walk: èr shí gōnglǐ/ wǔ shí gōnglǐ jìng zǒu 20公里/ 50公里竞走
4 x 100 m/ 4 x 400 m relay: sì chéng yī bǎi mǐ/ sì chéng sì bǎi mǐ jiēlì 4×100米/ 4×400米接力

It is known that the Chinese athletes do not usually rank at the top, but Chinese people’s passion for sports is something you cannot deny. We owe it to the 110m hurdles final of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games which drew national attention because of Liu Xiang, known in China as the”Flying Man.”

3. Ball Games

As a Mandarin teacher, I’ve heard of a lot of jokes about ”do not mention your ping-pong skill in front of Chinese people” from my students all over the world. But the truth is that not everyone in China knows how to play table tennis, let alone to play it very well, including me. The idea that all Chinese are good table tennis players is, of course, a stereotype.

4. Others

This is just a few of the sports vocabulary in Chinese, if you want to learn more, register here and learn with our best Chinese teachers!