Sports vocabulary/Sportwortschatz

Kanute/Kanutin – canoeist – nothing to do with Knut or Canute.
Wasserball – water polo – makes more sense, I suppose, since there are no horses involved.
Turmspringen – (high) diving – German distinguishes between Tauchen for underwater diving and Springen for diving into water
Springreiten – show jumping
Vielseitigkeitsreiten – eventing
veredeln – Edelmetall means noble metal, and a highjumper, for instance, who is sure to win the bronze medal but then improves and gets silver or gold is said to have “veredelt” the bronze (turned it into silver or gold).
das Treppchen verpassen – to miss the podium
Speerwerfen – javelin
Fünfkampf, Siebenkampf, Zehnkampf – pentathlon, heptathlon, decathlon
but Triathlon – triathlon
Florettfechten – foil fencing
der Turnfloh – the gymnastic flea (Florian Hambüchen)

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