Winter Olympics

[grrm]

Parris and I watched a fair amount of the Winter Olympics. 'twas okay. Some stirring moments, some excitement, drama, grace, all that

Comments

[dave_littler]

The sport you propose sounds like a nightmare, George!

[nycfalcon]

Maybe, it was a joke. Tongue-in-cheek and all.

[hilleviw]

You'd cull all the judged sports then? Ski jump, moguls, ski aerials, half pipe? And leave people earning Olympic medals for housework on ice. Oh yes, that's going to improve the event.

ski jump

[vieronymous]

Does anyone know why ski jump is judged at all? What is the point. See who can jump the farthest. THE END. We don't judge any other jumping events (long jump, high jump, etc.) so why this one?

Re: ski jump

[escarboucle]

Because how one ends at the end of the jump (how he puts his ski) and his posture during the jump are also noted. It's not only the distance.

Re: ski jump

[slyeagle]

Supposedly to make it more fair, since the wind changes from jump to jump. A judge can bolster a score with "style points" if he thinks a jumper had really good technique but the conditions didn't favor his jump.

[ema_load]

Real football is what you would call soccer, not American football:)

[ed_fortune]

I heartily agree with the sentiment.

And Rugby played in snow is fun, but messy.

[thoros_of_myr]

+1

[skellington1]

I believe George is referring to Handegg.

[kishi]

I'm always confused by four man bobsled. I mean, three of those guys run for five seconds, jump in the sled, and then mainly keep their heads down for the next minute.

I also feel that cross country skiing is fairly boring, and should probably have some fencing with ski poles involved at some point, but that's just me.

x-country skiing

[anhanga]

Personally I think cross country skiing, speed skating, curling and ice hockey are the only thing worth following in the entire event. At least they DO something there. Slalom, Alpine, snowboard, lunges, yes there is skill and a great deal of technique going down a hill, but from there to an Olympic sport? Why not get then skateboarding, pipes, etc in the summer Olympics next? I guess is all about cultures, North Americans are not that great at x-country and Norwegians, we are not really into this Alpine/slalom business. I'll take a long 5-6 hour x-country hike any time over a day spend being pull by a T-bar to only go down for a few minutes at a time :).

[rdore]

If you don't mind guns instead of swords, you might like the Biathalon.

[kishi]

I don't know, man- sure, it sounds all exciting, but then you find out that they're just shooting at little black targets.

Olympic Games

[skwidspawn]

I think this is why they're careful to call them the Olympic Games instead of the Olympic Sports. Though technically I agree with you. What about sports like curling? No score cards, but not really a "sport" either.

Re: Olympic Games

[notthebuddha]

When curling was still outdoors it was at least an endurance sport with skill needed to cope with wind and other factors. Indoor curling combines the least exciting qualities of bowling, shuffleboard, and the Zamboni run.

Re: Olympic Games

[sophia8]

Curling not a sport? I know a fair few Scots who would like to teach you otherwise....

Re: Olympic Games

[aaziz]

What makes curling not a sport? It's two teams against each other, where the actions directly influence the other players (rather than absolute scoring - speed laps, etc), and definite scores are added. It takes physical training and skill, and team work, as well as good sportsmanship. There's nothing that doesn't mean it's not a sport.

If you rule out curling you'd have to rule out bowling. And don't do that.