The United States is a sports-loving nation. Americans are greater lover of all kinds of sports. It is natural for them to begin talking with a sports discussion when they meet, even if they are neither playing nor watching games. In front of sports, they are crazy!

As a young country, America has a variety of sports, some of which were brought by early European immigrants. Up to now, they have formulated their own sports characteristic. The following are the general conditions of American sports I will discuss.

Nowadays, as it is known, it is no doubt that the sports of America are more developed than any other country in the world. No matter in the aspects of its facilities and the abilities of their athletes, American athletic sports is excellent. The sports of America are prevalent and the sort of its sports is various. Gradually, America has developed its own sports culture which promotes its athletic sports development. Meanwhile, it has also brought great profits to American people and much pleasure to the world.

Sports in America take on a variety of forms: competitive contests which draw huge crowds to cheer their favorite team to victory; athletic games which played for recreation are found in any sufficient space. Most sports spectators greatly exceed the number of those playing in the game. Other sports are called participant sports, drawing a crowd of onlookers only on special occasions, such as tournaments. Some sports are commercial and professional with players who are paid for their participation, and with audiences who pay admission to watch.

First of all, as a great and strong country of sports in the world, we should talk about its sports system. American sports system consists of three parts, which are U.S. Olympic Committee, U.S. Sports Assemble and U.S. Undergraduate students Alliance. Each of them has its own duty and responsibility. Presently U.S. Olympic Committee whose functional authorities are limited is just an organization to communicate with international Olympic committee. The Olympics is the summit in the field of sports events. Americans dominated the track and field events of the first modern Olympics Games in 1986. From then on it paid more attention and emphasis on sports events. Therefore, American athletes can win more gold medals than the representatives of any other nation. U.S. Sports Assemble has the most authorities on behalf of American athletic sports. U.S. Undergraduate students Alliance is mainly responsible for undergraduate students, which has the absolute authority to determine whether an athlete can attend contests or not. That is the American sports system which ensures everything related to athletic sports going smoothly.

Now that talking about American sports, we can not neglect the favorite sports in America. At present, there are four main sports leagues, named National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association(NBA) and National Hockey League(NHL).

As the data reveals, the most favorite one of them is NFL, which has the most fans in America. It includes two conferences: American Football Conference (AFC) and National Football Conference (NFC).When walking in the street, you will often hear the common thing that they are talking about is national football, which brings them so much pleasure during their hard and stressful work.     

MLB consists of national league and American league in 1997. Before that time, the two leagues have nothing to do with each other, however, this situation changed because of common benefits which they cooperated with each other. Since then, Americans will watch the games between the teams of the two leagues. That was unbelievable before 1997. Although hockey is also a favorite game and has a long history in USA, its popularity has just been starting since 1990. Relying on its popularity, hockey has become one of the four most popular games in North America.

NBA is the most famous league in America. It is no doubt that it is the most successful of the four in the aspect of international road. The number of the fans of NBA is much larger than any of the other three leagues in the world. Therefore, basketball is becoming more and more popular in USA. Since the early 1970s, many outstanding players moved up to the NBA from college ranks. In 1984 Michael Jordan and five other members of the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team entered   NBA. Then the NBA comes to its most magnificent period with its brightest stars, Michael Jordan who led the Chicago Bulls in winning consecutively three NBA champions in 1991-1993. Basketball is the winter sports in American schools and colleges. Many Americans prefer it to football because it is played indoors throughout the winter and it is a faster game. It is a very popular game in universities. Contests are held every year between statewide high schools.

Besides them, there are many other sports in USA, such as wrestling, boxing, horse racing, fishing, hunting, boating, swimming, skiing, tennis, golf and so on. They are also welcomed by some people, which just have fewer fans than the four above talked. From all of these sports, we can see that all of them are operated and serves the American people well. The usual work time of a week in the U.S. is 40 hours. This gives American people more time for recreation.

Athletics is the symbols of health and power, it could strengthen our nation. Therefore we Chinese should develop our athletics diligently. Americans have a sharp vision and good mode to operate the athletic sports. This is just what we should learn. Of course, they have their own problems and disadvantages. But these can not mask their merits. What we can do is to learn their advantages and characteristics. Generally speaking, American athletic sports culture has some merits we can learn from. After all, they have many famous sports events in the world. We should learn their administration, management, belief and spirit. I am sure the athletic sports in our country can also achieve the same level as America. We will also form a kind of athletic sports culture atmosphere, which is filled with kindness, energy, justness and order.