The Olympics have just wrapped up, and the Paralympics will soon begin, so for anyone studying English, here are some tips on talking about sports!

Win: You can win an event, game, match, or tournament. You can win 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. place or win gold, silver, or bronze. You can win an award, medal, trophy, or prize. You cannot win a player or team. For this, you must use “beat”. Finally, you can also win "by" a score.

Ex. Andre de Grasse won the men’s 200m event.

Ex. Damian Warner won gold in the decathlon.

Ex. Penny Oleksiak won three Olympic medals this year.

Lose: You can lose a game, match, or tournament. You can also lose "to" a player or team (don’t forget “to”). Finally, you can also lose "by" a score.

Ex. The Swedish women’s soccer team lost their final match to Canada.

Ex. They lost by a score of 4-3. 

Beat / Defeat: “Beat” is a more casual way to say “defeat”. You can beat a player or team. You can also beat a record.

Ex. Canadian cyclist Kelsey Mitchell defeated Ukraine’s Olena Starikova in the women’s track cycling sprint event.

Ex. Team Canada beat their record for most medals won at a Summer Games.

Passive voice: Sports results are often reported in passive voice, usually the passive past simple tense.

Ex. The men’s baseball final was won by Japan.

Ex. The US team was beaten by Japan by a score of 2-0.

Synonyms for “beat”: There are many other verbs used to express nuances of the word “beat” when talking about sports. A few examples include: to edge or to scrape by (to narrowly win), to crush or to steamroll (to win by a large margin), to upset (to win by surprise, against the odds).

Scores: Scores are generally written like this “2-0” and spoken as “two (to) zero”. The word “to” is optional. It is also optional to use the word “by” to connect a score with the words “win”, “lose”, and “beat/defeat” (including synonyms).

Ex. The US women’s softball team edged Canada (by a score of) 1-0.

Records: As mentioned earlier, you can “beat” a record. Another way to say this is to “break” a record. When you beat/break an old record, you also “set” a new record. At that point, you now “hold” the record.

Ex. Usain Bolt still holds the world record in both the men’s 100m and 200m.

Ex. Japan won 27 gold medals this year, breaking the previous record of 16 gold medals.

I hope this will help you to talk about sports in English!

Zach