Olympic Medal Count or GO Canada GO!

[--Pete]

Hi,

(WTF is the triple jump, anyway, and who made it up? )

Also known as the 'hop, skip, and jump'. Probably invented by a golfer who just missed a six inch put. His final motion became the hammer throw.

Golf: no point in making it Olympic (A bunch of professional golfers agree with me.)

Marathon golf. You have to play 72 straight holes and your score is the time in minutes plus the number of strokes. Survivor, if any, gets carried to the podium for the gold. Then to the cardiac unit.:) Oh, and did I mention, no caddy. You've got to hoof your own bag.

Baseball: no point in making it Olympic
Basketball: OK, I'll live with it as an olympic event, along with ice hockey
Soccer: Oh, God, please, stop the madness! We already have the world cup.

Any team sport that has some kind of national or international championship is already over represented. Ditch them all.

I am against judged events being in the Olympics, but I really want to keep gymnastics in the Olympics, even though it is judged.

It's hard to come up with good criteria for what events should be included. By and large, I don't like judged events, either, but I do like diving and gymnastics.

Rowing? Yes. It is a race.
Sailing? No.

A little contradictory there? They are both races. Small boat races (one or two man) in the right conditions take a lot of physical and mental abilities. Planning your strategy while hiking your ass to windward and trying to catch a roll to plane on is harder than, for instance, a 5k run. Or, at least, that's my opinion, having done both.

Wrestling? Yes
Boxing? Yes

Yeah, but no judging and no points. Fight to a submission or a KO.;)

An event I'd like to see added is the "Media Massacree". The rules are taken from La Plaza del Toros. Anytime a media jerk interrupts an athlete or asks an inane question (e.g., "How does it feel to lose the Marathon by .001 seconds?"), the athlete is permitted to kill said media jerk. The observers to this event award ears and tails on the basis of the cleverness and style of the execution. The final tally determines the standing at the closing ceremonies.

As for me, I can no longer take all those interviews and background stories that pass for Olympic coverage. A few years ago, at the Winter Olympics, the media morons chose to show an interview with the (non-contender) US downhill racer. To do so, they cut away from what was the gold medal run. I turned the damned thing off, then, and have no stomach for turning it back on.

--Pete