Britain to showcase its 'girl power'
奥运巾帼不让须眉 英国女将撑起半边天

Medal-hopeful Bryony Shaw

STEP aside, men. In Beijing this August, Britain's women have a great chance of winning the majority of their country's medals for the first time in Olympic history.

"Gender really isn't important, but you can't escape the fact that we will be taking an exceptionally strong team of women, and they will again play a central role in 2012," the British Olympic Committee's chief executive Simon Clegg told the London Times.

According to the newspaper, "the men are on the retreat. The pool of talent that for so long provided a new hero every four years …has evaporated."

Instead, women athletes such as sprinter Christine Ohuruogu, javelin-thrower Goldie Sayers, windsurfer Bryony Shaw and track cyclist Rebecca Romero have taken the spotlight.

At recent Olympics, British women have begun narrowing the medal gender gap.

At the 1988 Seoul Games, the British men won 19.5 medals to the women's 4.5. In Athens, the men won 18 and the women won 12.

Of course, this news comes as little surprise to this year's crop of athletes.

Shaw, who won the windsurfing test event in Qingdao in 2007 and is a favorite for gold, has been beating up on men for years. When she was in her teens, she won the Under-17 national championships, where she competed against boys.

"They were gutted to lose to me," the 25-year-old told the Times. "It was a real girl power moment."

But beating the men is not the only goal these women have. They also want to inspire the women.

A recent UK study funded by Nike found that British women between 16 and 30 are the second least-sporty group of women in Europe. Many of those surveyed said they feared becoming too muscular.

"Sport makes you healthy and fit, it doesn't make you look like a bloke," said Shaw.

"I think it is more important than ever that girls begin to see sportswomen as genuine role models who have achieved something," added Sayers, 25. "It annoys me that celebrities and reality TV contestants get so much attention."

decathlon 十项运动

evaporate 蒸发, 消失

gutted 非常疲惫的，沮丧的

javelin 标枪

podium 颁奖台

reflex 反应

torso 躯干

versatility 多功能性

windsurfer 帆板运动员

BONUS

E xpression

bloke

大块头

He's a real bloke - look at the size of his muscles.

他真是个大块头，你看他的肌肉块儿多大。

freakish

畸形的

I don't like going over to her apartment. She's got this freakish cat that has only three legs and one eye.

我不想去她的公寓。她的畸形猫只有三条腿和一只眼睛。

girl/sth power

女生力量，也可以在power之前加别的名词，表示这个群体的力量。

We beat the seniors in the tug-of-war! Yeah! Freshman power! 我们在拔河比赛中赢了高年级队。耶！这就是新生的力量！