Winter Olympic Events you would eliminate (1 Viewer)

[Holadem]

The Yellow Menace

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H

 

[Kevin_Spradley]

I agree with removing all events involving a judge. The olympics are about "swifter, higher, stronger." Any timed event is fine or any event where you score more goals (points) than anyone. No human involvement in the outcome of the event. Even though I love the ski jump, there is an element of judging. Same goes for moguls.

Curling is definitely my favorite winter sport. It is a lot harder than it looks. It is a sport that is very condusive for the average person to be drinking beer while playing, such as bowling.

Oh yeah, Bring back Baseball.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

See, I'm not going to go there. I'm more a hater of ideology, not skin color. But seeing the Chinese seem to be pressing forward in the "sport" that most here do not even consider a sport, I figure we don't have to worry either way.

Though as I said, the young lady who got up after a terrible fall, gutted out the rest of the pairs program and claimed the silver had a lot of fortitude, ideologically ingrained or not. Sportmanship at its finest, regardless of the happenstance of her place of birth (or the 'sport' she was competing in).

 

[Jay H]

Yeah, skin color is irrelevant.

I'm trying to see if I can joing the Ethiopian National Ski Federation just because I think I could be the only Asian in an African organization dedicated to skiing.

Go Robel!

Jay

 

[Holadem]

Apparently the children of the Jah like Winter sports.

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H

 

[ChrisHeflen]

The reason I watch the olympics, both summer and winter, is because there are sports involoved that you don't get to see everyday.
Luge, bobsledding, ski jumping, pole vaulting, javlin, etc... Those to me, are fascinating! To have things like, snowbaording, basketball, and baseball to me, is irrelevant and redunant. In the Olympics it's about the heart and passion and pride. In the normal everyday sports it's about the paycheck. (In fact I think that's why our basketball team did so bad last time as there wasn't a paycheck involved). Sure, if you do good in the Olympics it can take you places financially, put it isn't promised or negociated a head of time.
The Olympics are special. They aren't on everyday. People work all their lives to compete once. It isn't like you have a bad game in basball or basketball, or golf, and you still get your over-inflated paycheck...you are done. That's it! Game IS over! That's why I also think that the Olympics are the only place you should be able to get a true medal. The world cups and stuff, you should still get trophies or something. Let the actual medals be Olympic exclusives.

Oh yeah, what would I do away with?
Snowboarding.
Cross-country ski-shooting.

I would add:
rolling down a hill in an inner-tube while trying to eat a snowcone and then you have to go off a jump and spin around a bunch.

 

[LarryDavenport]

I don't think anything needs to be eliminated, but some of the "sports" could be improved upon.

Figure skating: make it like the ballroom dance competitions and make them all have to do it at the same time and make the music random. Cool potential for crashes.

Speed skating: instead of having them skate, have them drive specially modified NASCARs.

Biathalon: compine it with downhill skiing or even the ski jump (can they hit a target while THEY are moving?). That's something I'd like to see...on television.

Curling (which I like BTW): the sweepers should have to fight off defenders who are trying to stop the rock from reaching target.

New sports: outdoor Water Polo, obstacle course (on ice), sledding (down the ski jump).

 

[Jeff Gatie]

You can actually do this if you want. Not from the top, but from the top of the landing hill. Lake Placid opens the Olympic ski jumps to the public 2-3 times a year. They give you a tube, you climb the hill, then walk in a trench to the middle of the landing hill. You then climb out on the hill, the handlers hang you over the edge and let you go. You can hit 40-50 mph and if you carry enough speed you go right up the hill in the landing area and catch air. Best 10 bucks I ever spent and you can do it as many times as you want to climb (though after 1 or 2 you start to think you are courting fate, it is that scary). Almost as good as the bobsled run.

 

[ChrisHeflen]

That sounds awesome.
I always though it would be cool to go down the ski slopes in a row boat. Use the oars for steering. I mean really, how fast could you go with a bunch of wax on that sucker?!
They have the bench seating and put six people in there and stuff...

Hey maybe that could be an event.

 

[Greg_R]

You can XC ski _way_ faster than you can run.

I'd like to see Speed Skating go to a figure 8 track w. protective gear.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Not up hill! I mean when they are struggling to go up the hills either traditional or duckwalk. Any normal person would take off the skis and walk.

 

[Jay H]

depends on how long a hill, I bet on many of the hills in the course, they can get enough momentum on the straights to go faster up the hill than running, even with the groomed and packed trails. Don't know how long it takes to put on/off skate skis but my manual bindings (Roto NNN-BC manual type), takes me about a minute to get them on cause you have to get all the snow off the bar on the boots first.

Plus, I think barebooting it up hills is slippier than you think, even in groomed hardpack snow.

Jay

 

[Patrick_S]

You are reading it incorrectly for it’s not personal at all. I made a statement in my first post that I would eliminate Figure Skating and Snowboarding because judges are the determining factor. In your posts I think made some wildly ridiculous statements and arguments and I felt compelled to point that out. I would have done the same if your posts had been in defense of the judging in Snowboarding.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

The only thing I have to say is I really think everyone has lost the ability to understand smileys.

Some of the things I had to say were admittedly ridiculous Patrick, especially my own silly rules on what constitutes a sport. I assure you they are tongue in cheek and probably more due to me once losing a girlfriend to a golfer than anything else.:b But I still say that there is as much if not more inconsistency, objectivism, favoritism and downright ego driven spite in a MLB umpire's strike zone than I have seen in the worst of Figure Skating judges, yet no one thinks baseball is not a sport. See my previous baseball posts (unanswered except for the dismissive "Nonsense") for details.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Now on a lighter note, for those fans of both curling and good looking women, when you are not drooling over Sasha Cohen, tune in a USA women's curling match. The skip and vice-skip are sisters, Cassie and Jamie Johnson and are ... ehem ... attractive young women, to say the least. A little pale from all those hours indoors on the ice, but I like that.

Cassie

Jamie

 

[Patrick_S]

What can I say it got the answer it deserved but I stated in a later post why it was nonsense. I'm brutally honest in my posts. Some people can’t handle that some can. I'll work on my tact some other time.

FYI: The Johnson girls are cute (in fact they looked much better today on TV then in those photos) but they can't hold a candle to Sweden's Anna Svaerd.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

So Greg Maddox never got a 6 inch outside strike? Derek Jeter never got a phantom tag call? Rookies never get squeezed against a veteran? Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens et al never got a questionable strike against a rookie (followed by the ump telling the rookie he has to swing)? Batters who mouth never get rung up on a would-be ball? Umpires don't have egos and throw a Cy Young award winner out of the ALCS for turning his back? The National League strike zone was never so out of whack with the American League zone that MLB had to put in electronics to keep an eye on the umps (which the umps protested vehemently)? Am I wrong about these things? Am I wrong that the umpire is the last word unless he chooses to consult other umpires, while the number of judges in figure skating tries to avoid a "one person rules" vote?

PS You did address it in a later post by saying there is just as much objectivism involved in both, which does not go a long way towards the proving that that baseball is a sport and figure skating is not. I would say that since every play in baseball starts with a pitch, the single man rule of the HP umpire is a pretty lousy place to put objectivism in any "sport".

PPS, yes the curling sisters look much better on TV than the pictures do them justice. See we agree on something.

 

[Patrick_S]

In Figure Skating the winner is solely determined by who the judges think should win. We all know that this is not the case is Baseball. This fundamental difference makes any comparisons between the two irrelevant. It is truly an Apples and Oranges situation.

I applaud your passion but I think we can both agree that we’ve covered all the ground possible on this one. You enjoy it as sport; I’ll enjoy it as entertainment.

On a side note: I certainly hope the US women Curling team faces the Swedish team again because it was very entertaining.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

We golfers are lady-killers.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

She broke up with him 6 weeks later. Mentioned something about his inadequate putter...