Hello friends! We’re the Ostmo family, and we love learning about countries, people and sports. Our oldest daughter, Melaya, has tons of friends all around the world and they love sports too!

Sakura Wants to be Part of the Olympic Gymnastics Team

Melaya has a friend named Sakura who lives in Tokyo, Japan. Almost 6,000 miles away from London, Melaya’s home!

Sakura was telling Melaya that she just got into a gymnastics school to become a professional gymnast like her favorite gymnast “Murakami Mia”. she explained to Melaya that Gymnastics is a sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, dedication, and endurance. It is an Olympic sport and she would one day love to be part of the Olympics.

Sakura says she’s been practicing a lot and now she can do Forward Rolls, Cartwheels, Handstands, and other mesmerizing exercises. Mesmerizing means it captures your complete attention as if by magic! 

She said doing a full split has been the most difficult, she hasn’t been able to perfect it yet.

Have you ever tried doing a split? It’s incredible but very difficult!

Wrestling is Mateo’s Favorite Olympic Sport

In Mexico, over 5,000 miles away from Melaya’s home in London, lives her friend Mateo. he and Melaya chatted a little last week and Mateo said he started practicing wrestling last month. Hold on! Does that mean he hits his opponents with chairs and jumps from the top of the ring post?! No, not that kind of wrestling. Mateo explained to Melaya that Olympic wrestling consists of locks and takedowns. He got interested in wrestling after watching an Olympic wrestling competition with his dad. His dad explained the rules and moves to him and he immediately got interested. 

Nathan in Manchester Loves Swimming

Melaya has a friend named Nathan who lives in Manchester, England. The same country as Melaya. She knows Nathan loves swimming and the last time they talked, he explained how he is constantly practicing a lot and now he is among the best swimmers in his school. That’s amazing!

Nathan said he knows a lot of swimming styles but his favorite is the backstroke. He said he wants to compete in the Olympic games when he grows up and perform gorgeous styles of swimming like the butterfly style! 

Aluna’s Uncle is a Professional Sprinter

Really far from England in Kenya, a country in Africa lives another good friend of Melaya called Aluna. Her uncle is a professional sprint race athlete. He has represented his country in several competitions apart from the Olympics. Aluna said she has been joining her uncle to train lately but can’t keep up because He is extremely agile and fast. Aluna’s and her uncle’s role model is “Usain Bolt”. A Jamaican sprint race athlete. 

Have you seen Usain Bolt run? He is the world’s fastest man and can run so fast it’s almost mesmerizing!

Samuel Wants to Practice Archery Like his Dad

Have you seen that superhero named Hawkeye? Did you know that there are people who can shoot arrows with almost the same precision?

Melaya has a friend named Samuel who lives in Australia. Samuel loves archery and always wants to talk about it. Samuel says archery is a sport where you shoot at a target with a bow and an arrow. He says his father is a really good archer and he competed in the 2004 Olympic Games, many years before Samuel was born! 

He says his father is teaching him archery and, although he just started his training a few weeks ago,  Samuel has really good aim and can hit almost any target!

There are a lot more Olympics sports from around the world! Melaya says maybe she would like to try some of them, like cycling, Javelin throwing, or canoeing. 

Would you like to join Melaya to learn and practice new Olympic sports?

Tell us in the comments what your favorite Olympic sports are! If mom or dad are reading, please use @learningtail on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok to keep in touch!

If you want to learn more about different Olympic sports, make sure to download the activity pack, we have flashcards, a learning guide, handwriting sheets, and drawings pages all dedicated to various Olympics sports!

Also, Melaya loves chatting with kids from all over the world! If you want to teach Melaya about where you live or your favorite activities, please tell your mom or dad to get in touch with us on social media. 

Ciao friends, until next time!