Olympics

[yakalskovich]

**eyes flist with posts about 'ice dancing is not a sport' and 'skeleton and luge were invented by drunk guys thinking it a good idea at the time'**

Could it be possible that even the silliest ice-and-snow activity can become an Olympic discipline because the time-and-place for them is severely limited, thanks to the overall geography and meteorology of planet Earth?

As to say, there isn't that much of a choice of things to do in ice and snow, so in order to fill the Winter Olympics calendar up nicely, even moronic stuff like curling is included. Or biathlon, which is basically cross-country skiing with added random breaks for shooting some sort of air gun. WTF, people??

Of sports and competitive activities you can do in summer, though, there are lots and lots and lots and lots. So not even kendo, which is a mass sport even offfered in schools in Japan and Korea, and has niche popularity in many, many, many other countries, has a chance of becoming Olympic.

Now, if they just wore shoes! Then they could apply for the Winter Olympics, and hit each other in the snow. The rest of their traditional gear should be warm enough. But not barefoot. Eurgh!

Comments

[ceitfianna]

I think that makes sense and they are fun, its just some of the sports have a real aspect of wow, that takes courage and insanity to do.

[yakalskovich]

Skiing takes enough courage as it is. Stand on the top of a mountain with two thin boards on your feet and throw yourself off???

No thank you!!!

[nazgulwears.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but cross country is rather nice. I really would like to try Biathlon one day...

[yakalskovich]

But only if I can have a bow or crossbow instead of an air rifle!

[nazgulwears.livejournal.com]

You know, I was just thinking about posting about how Skeleton is even sillier than Kendo. They interviewed the two ladies who won medals last night and asked them how much they see during the run. And one answered that it is impossible to lift the head at the hight speed and their face basically scraps over the ice.
I think that is even more stupid than hitting each other with bamboo sticks. :-)

[yakalskovich]

Yep I saw some of it last night. It was terminally mental.

Wingy!Kate has a post about what crackchat said after I went to bed this morning. I agree with them.

[wiebke.livejournal.com]

I've heard lots of people who say they are actually watching curling. Including a coworkers whose kids are really into it.

I don't get NBC on satellite TV, because my service is free and I'd have to pay $5 to get 6-7 "local" channels. So no Olympics for me. BUT I do get CNBC, which is some sort of cable version of NBC News... or so I thought until I noticed that the ONLY thing they are airing right now is women's ice hockey and curling. I have managed to watch maybe a minute at a time before moving on. After a week of flicking through and seeing nothing but these two sports, I conclude that C in CNBC stands for Canada b/c why else would they choose to run curling for days?! (It's not true, I just looked it up.)

[yakalskovich]

Here, we get it on ARD. Public TV. No advertising, shows Olympics all night.

[wiebke.livejournal.com]

I read a great critique of NBC's Olympics coverage and apparently CNBC is the only version of NBC that shows uninterrupted coverage. The main channel chops up events into bits, scatters them throughout the night, does tape delays, etc. Very annoying to viewers... who find curling and hockey and realize they can watch a whole competition all the way through.

[essayel.livejournal.com]

Skeleton and luge - yeah - sheer insanity, but I'd defend the biathletes. At one time I trained for The Apache - an archery competition that involves a ten mile run and two arrows at each of 20 targets [if I remember correctly] and that was a real test of strength, speed, stamina, accuracy and cool headedness, because both time and shooting score counted. That's approximately the same kind of test as the biathlon and is a helluva lot more difficult than it sounds. Much more of a trial than "Who's prepared to throw themselves down a mountain on a tin tray wearing a full body condom?"

[yakalskovich]

It's odd that not more lugers and skeletonis die.-

But yes, the way you describe it, it does make sense.

[anghara13.livejournal.com]

What annoys me is the limitation on sports for women, where are the women's Ski Jumping events? There are plenty of women ski jumpers out there, more than enough to have at least six or seven teams in the events, and yet, no, no women are allowed to compete at this sport.

Yes it's dangerous, so are most Winter Olympic sports, and they're included, and yes, women are lighter than their male counterparts, so maybe the men are scared the women would fly further???? Whatever, it should have been included!

[yakalskovich]

Women do skeleton! Which is probably even more dangerous, which my Milliways co-muns went on about after I went to bed last night.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Yes, and since Amy Williams won gold (Yay Amy!!), FINALLY the British press has stopped shrieking about the Calamity Games and the Disaster Games. Of course, now they aren't talking about anything but "skeleton bob", but it's still a welcome change from "Vancouver sucks."

I don't care what people think of the winter sports, I love to watch them all. Except for hockey. My life goes on hold for the televised Olympics, I kid you not. Always has.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

"Not enough competitors" allegedly, and "not at a high enough level."

Riiiiiiiiight. Sexist IOC bastards.

[sdelmonte]

Many sports are silly. Golf? My beloved baseball? Looked at the right way, it is very silly.

Harder to defend luge this week, since it seems to have become a little more risky than it was.

There is also a lot of debate about any sport with a subjective scoring system. The people who ice dance, or are gymnasts, or divers, are all athletes. But how do you compare these with objective sports? Or does it matter in the first place?

[alchemistseraph]

Oh, I think the sports are great, but when you look at someone sending themselves flying down a bobsled track on what amounts to a piece of plastic with skateblades on it, it makes me laugh at the sheer ridiculousness.

Perhaps it's because where I'm from, the dumbest thing we do is dress up in camouflage and go shoot at things while there are other people out there in camouflage as well. (For the record, yes, I think sport hunting is a really great contestant for the darwin award.)