"Jackass stuff they invented and called Olympic sports"
The subject line is a Bob Costas quote about the new Winter Olympics events. I wish I had thought of it. All of the new stoner "sports" are ridiculous, but, the more I have watched the Winter Olympics, the more I realize that I don't like watching the Winter Olympics. This is in stark contrast to the Summer Olympics, of which I will watch every minute that I possibly can. What accounts for this difference of feeling?
1. Unrelatable sports
I know how to ice skate...a little. That is the closest I've come to participating in a Winter Olympics ("WO") event. Maybe the WO are more enjoyable for people who do these sports. But aside from hockey, figure skating and downhill skiing, who are the people who do these sports? I have never met anyone who has done the luge, or the bobsled or the biathlon. And even the people who ski and snowboard aren't doing flips on halfpipes and going backwards on the mountains. In other words, it's impossible for me to appreciate these sports. By comparison, I have played pickup baseball, basketball, soccer, volleyball, tennis, ping pong, water polo and badminton. I've swum every Olympic distance, ridden a bicycle, rowed a boat, raced every distance from 100 meters to 10 miles, done a triathlon, shot a gun, dived off a diving board, lifted weights, wrestled and jumped on a trampoline. I know gymnasts, horse riders, people who have shot a bow and arrow and done various martial arts. I have some ability to relate to just about all of these sports because I have done just about all of them at some point in my life in some pickup or organized manner. The more I've done a sport, the more I can appreciate the athletes who do them. But the WO are just a bunch of sports I understand but cannot appreciate (speed skating, cross-country skiing), or seem like a bunch of crazy stunts; daredevil activities rather than Olympic events.
2. Too much judging
How can ski jumping be a judged event? Isn't the winner just the athlete who jumps the farthest? Isn't the winner of the moguls the skiier who gets down the mountain first? In the WO, nothing is that simple. Figure skating, ice dancing, ski jumping, snowboarding and freestyle skiing are all, absurdly, subjectively judged to the hundredth of a point as if it were somehow scientific. Seemingly every new event is a judged event - it used to be just ice skating that was like this. If I want to watch a lot of judging, there's the Miss America Pageant and American Idol. All sports can be decided by the officials, but that shouldn't happen. In too many WO sports, that's how they are designed. Half the WO Olympics are decided by judging; only a handful of the Summer Olympics events are.
3. Bad for Spectators
The enduring image I have of the WO is some luger whipping past the screen at 100 mph. The races are sometimes decided by thousandths of a second. It is impossible to tell the difference from watching one luger whip past followed by another one who went down the chute infinitesimally faster or slower. Same thing for skeleton, bobsled and downhill skiing. Even in long-track speed-skating, only two skaters race at a time, so you can't tell who is going faster as between skaters in different heats. In the Summer Olympics, most of the events involve teams playing against each other and athletes racing each other. It's pretty easy to figure out who won a running, rowing or swimming race, and it's a lot more exciting when athletes are actually competing at the same time. There are simply too few events in the WO in which the athletes compete head-to-head. Figure skating, freestyle skiing, snowboarding and ski jumping are similarly one athlete at a time events. Only 7 out of 15 WO events involve different athletes or teams competing at the same time. By comparison, 23 out of 32 Summer Olympics events involve teams or athletes competing directly against each other at the same time.
4. Injuries
All of the WO athletes seem to have sustained any number of broken bones, concussions and torn ACLs. That's what happens when you try to do all of these crazy stunts. Injuries can happen in any sport, but in many of them, they are rare, and rarely serious. The only sport that seems to have a rate of serious injuries to match skiing and snowboarding events is football. Football is being assailed for how dangerous it is, but nobody seems to be questioning the WO stunt events. Also, hundreds of professional football players make a lot of money. Plenty of players make millions or even tens of millions of dollars in a 5-10 year career. That's quite a payoff for the risk of serious injuries. By comparison, virtually none of the WO athletes make significant amounts of money. Most are lucky to pay for their training costs. In other words, they risk serious injury for nothing except the thrill of victory. Why are people so concerned about football players voluntarily risking their health and safety for million dollar payoffs, but unconcerned about WO athletes competing for pride?
1. Unrelatable sports
I know how to ice skate...a little. That is the closest I've come to participating in a Winter Olympics ("WO") event. Maybe the WO are more enjoyable for people who do these sports. But aside from hockey, figure skating and downhill skiing, who are the people who do these sports? I have never met anyone who has done the luge, or the bobsled or the biathlon. And even the people who ski and snowboard aren't doing flips on halfpipes and going backwards on the mountains. In other words, it's impossible for me to appreciate these sports. By comparison, I have played pickup baseball, basketball, soccer, volleyball, tennis, ping pong, water polo and badminton. I've swum every Olympic distance, ridden a bicycle, rowed a boat, raced every distance from 100 meters to 10 miles, done a triathlon, shot a gun, dived off a diving board, lifted weights, wrestled and jumped on a trampoline. I know gymnasts, horse riders, people who have shot a bow and arrow and done various martial arts. I have some ability to relate to just about all of these sports because I have done just about all of them at some point in my life in some pickup or organized manner. The more I've done a sport, the more I can appreciate the athletes who do them. But the WO are just a bunch of sports I understand but cannot appreciate (speed skating, cross-country skiing), or seem like a bunch of crazy stunts; daredevil activities rather than Olympic events.
2. Too much judging
How can ski jumping be a judged event? Isn't the winner just the athlete who jumps the farthest? Isn't the winner of the moguls the skiier who gets down the mountain first? In the WO, nothing is that simple. Figure skating, ice dancing, ski jumping, snowboarding and freestyle skiing are all, absurdly, subjectively judged to the hundredth of a point as if it were somehow scientific. Seemingly every new event is a judged event - it used to be just ice skating that was like this. If I want to watch a lot of judging, there's the Miss America Pageant and American Idol. All sports can be decided by the officials, but that shouldn't happen. In too many WO sports, that's how they are designed. Half the WO Olympics are decided by judging; only a handful of the Summer Olympics events are.
3. Bad for Spectators
The enduring image I have of the WO is some luger whipping past the screen at 100 mph. The races are sometimes decided by thousandths of a second. It is impossible to tell the difference from watching one luger whip past followed by another one who went down the chute infinitesimally faster or slower. Same thing for skeleton, bobsled and downhill skiing. Even in long-track speed-skating, only two skaters race at a time, so you can't tell who is going faster as between skaters in different heats. In the Summer Olympics, most of the events involve teams playing against each other and athletes racing each other. It's pretty easy to figure out who won a running, rowing or swimming race, and it's a lot more exciting when athletes are actually competing at the same time. There are simply too few events in the WO in which the athletes compete head-to-head. Figure skating, freestyle skiing, snowboarding and ski jumping are similarly one athlete at a time events. Only 7 out of 15 WO events involve different athletes or teams competing at the same time. By comparison, 23 out of 32 Summer Olympics events involve teams or athletes competing directly against each other at the same time.
4. Injuries
All of the WO athletes seem to have sustained any number of broken bones, concussions and torn ACLs. That's what happens when you try to do all of these crazy stunts. Injuries can happen in any sport, but in many of them, they are rare, and rarely serious. The only sport that seems to have a rate of serious injuries to match skiing and snowboarding events is football. Football is being assailed for how dangerous it is, but nobody seems to be questioning the WO stunt events. Also, hundreds of professional football players make a lot of money. Plenty of players make millions or even tens of millions of dollars in a 5-10 year career. That's quite a payoff for the risk of serious injuries. By comparison, virtually none of the WO athletes make significant amounts of money. Most are lucky to pay for their training costs. In other words, they risk serious injury for nothing except the thrill of victory. Why are people so concerned about football players voluntarily risking their health and safety for million dollar payoffs, but unconcerned about WO athletes competing for pride?