- Name a famous sport personality in Japan. What is their sport (what do they play)? When was the peak of their career? What did they achieve?
- Do you like or admire this person? Why?
- In your country, which sports offer the highest salaries? How much do those players earn?
- If you had a top athlete's salary, what would you do or buy?
- Tell us about a sports personality in your country who has successfully made the transition into another career (restauranteur, commentator, actor, actress etc.). Are they any good? Why?
- In the sport you like the most, who do you consider the most heroic or iconic sports personality of all time? What did they achieve? Why do you consider them heroic or iconic?˜
Question 1
Asashoryu Akinori. He was a sumo wrestler. The peak of his career was between 2004 and 2007, when he was the sole yokozuna of sumo in Japan. Over his entire career, he won twenty-five top division tournament championships. In 2013, he became a member of the Mongolian Democratic Party.Question 2
Not particularly. He is very much a part of my Japan story however. His career was starting to take off when I first arrived in Japan in 2003. I saw a lot of him on the TV over the next few years. It is difficult for me to think about sumo without thinking of him.Question 3
Cricket and Australian Rules Football are our national sports and probably the two most widely watched sports in Australia. Cricket is our summer sport and AFL is our winter sport. The average wage for an Australian international cricketer is now up to $94,000 a year. The top echelon of players earn up around $200,000. Footy is far more lucrative, with the average salary being $365,000 annually. I like that number; it's like saying "I make a thouand dollars a day". Football stars, however, can earn as much as $3 million a year. Now that's serious money.Question 4
If I had a top athlete's salary, after making sure I had a nice house and car, I'd probably want to invest in a top of the line home gym and a team of personal trainers. Being an athlete, I'd want to make sure I stayed in top shape so I could keep earning the big bucks.Question 5
I'm not especially sporty so I really can't think of anyone in particular. There are loads of people who after retiring from their sport of choice go on to be sports commentators. That seems like a pretty normal transition though. Actually, I think it's pretty interesting that Asashoryu made the switch from sumo wrestling to politics!Question 6
I'm going to go with Andre Agassi. He was a pretty decent tennis player, no doubt. He is iconic to me however because of his amazing hairstyle, which I remember thinking at the time made him super cool. It turns out though that he was starting to go bald and he was actually wearing a wig the entire time! I think playing through five sets during the heat of the Australian Open wearing something on your head that's only going to make you sweat more is pretty heroic.Tough Vocabulary
| - English - | - Japanese - |
|---|---|
| sole | 唯一 |
| not particularly | 特にない |
| starting to take off | 離陸し始めて |
| the top echelon | トップ階層 |
| lucrative | 儲かる |
| top of the line | ラインのトップ |
| serious money | かなりの金額 |
| earn the big bucks | 大金を稼ぐ |
| commentator | コメンテーター |
| transition | 遷移 |
| no doubt | 間違いない |