Olympic Medal Count or GO Canada GO!

[kandrathe]

Have you heard of "Chess Boxing"?

[Kevin]

On the other hand, this is the place where many sports get a "world cup" where they otherwise wouldn't get seen at all (which maybe is telling).

Just because something isn't super entertaining to watch, doesn't mean it isn't very entertaining to participate in or that it doesn't take tremendous skill or endurance to compete in. Personally I find golf horrendously boring to watch, but I understand the skill involved in it and can appreciate that.

But for many minor sports (even things like swimming and track and field that have a world championship) the Olympics is still the big stage. I haven't checked the number of swimmers at this years Olympics, but there were more swimmers at the 2003 World Championships than there were at the 2004 Olympics. So even for something like that due to regulations at the Olympics it may not be the biggest pool of competitors even in that sport, but I don't think you will find a swimmer in the world who would claim that anything is bigger than the Olympics for them. It is still the grand stage. Many still value an Olympic gold medal more than a world record.

Why do I talk about swimming directly so much? Because from the age of 5 till the age of 20 I swam competitively. I suffered an injury when I was 19 that I couldn't recover from, though I tried, so I have more personal experience with it than any other sport. I swam against Neil Walker in High School 4 or 5 times a year (I'm a year older than him) and while he isn't in this years games (he's 32 now) he was there in Atlanta, Sydney and Athens, and yeah it was very cool for me to be able to see him on that stage. Of course I got to see him at the world championships and a few other meets that get some air time. I played american football, baseball, track and field, tennis, racquetball, and cycling at the same level of skill (or near too) as my swimming was and none of those sports were as taxing on my body as swimming was. Well OK Swimming was the only sport I continued to participate in on high level in college, but high school football (and we went to state and I played both ways) was not as taxing on my as swimming was, etc. So I appreciate the skill, endurance, and strength it takes for those swimmers to do what they do. I'm amazed by what Mark Spitz did and what Michael Phelps is attempting to do. I'm amazed by Dara Torres too. I was amazed that Neil was close to making a 4th Olympic team. And of course when I was younger and better


Of course there are things like the rowing events which I enjoy watching as well that have no stage like the Olympics. Getting to see fencing, handball, volleyball, etc, etc played at those levels is pretty fun too and there are other sports that I enjoy seeing on that stage but yeah, once every 4 years is fine for me. Many of them I can appreciate the effort and skill to be able to do what they are doing. It's still a glimpse into the extremes of what humans can do and I enjoy it. I get entertainment from watching a bit of the X-games, and snowmobile racing and the lumberjack competitions that you see on ESPN. I quite enjoy the worlds strongest man competitions as well.


I also agree that I don't see the point in soccer at the Olympics, the World Cup features a much higher level of skill. Basketball just needs to internationalize more since it has more professional leagues world wide than any other sport now I believe. Those leagues need to work together to integrate play or come up with something more like the world cup is. Olympic baseball (and there isn't any this year) used to be the stage for a few countries who love the sport and have tremendous players but have leaders that don't let those people play in the best leagues (MLB in the US or even the Japanese leagues). But yeah again that is something I think I would prefer to see in a stage more like the World Cup.

I like the huge variety of sport and atheletic competitions that I can catch at the Olympics, even though television coverage of the Olympics has pretty much always been horrible and this year I watch more of it streaming on line than I do on the TV. I care very little about the backgrounds of the athletes. I do like finding out about some of the training regiments and that, but I'd rather watch the competition than watch some interview with some irrelevant athlete.

As far as the medal counts? I don't really care. I don't need someone to root for to enjoy the competitions. So I don't need that extra artificial motivation. Well that isn't true. I do find it interesting to learn that something I just watched was the first medal winning performance for X country or the first one in 80 years or whatever. When I hear something like that I sometimes go rooting around for more information on that athlete/country and to find out what additional obstacles they had to overcome. Yeah I guess I do buy into the triumph of the human spirit crap just a bit. :)

[--Pete]

Hi,

Yeah I guess I do buy into the triumph of the human spirit crap just a bit. :)

Me, too. I just wish they'd stick to that and leave the politics, the medal counts, and the personal alone.

Got a good link for the on-line streaming? What I've found kinda sucks.

--Pete

[Kevin]

Got a good link for the on-line streaming? What I've found kinda sucks.

--Pete

It hasn't been the best, and a lot of it has been a bit hit and miss because I can't read Chinese but I've used several of the links off of http://cnreviews.com/video/beijing_olympic...e_20080807.html much of it in Chinese just guessing as to what it might be. But for me that isn't a huge deal. I just like seeing some of the competition.

I have to cheat for the nbcolympics.com stuff since my zip and area code aren't affiliated but I can use my parents or brothers information to get it.

Edit: I forgot to mention you'll have to use a bit of trickery to get many of those streams to work as well since they are often region blocked as well.

[--Pete]

Hi,

It hasn't been the best, and a lot of it has been a bit hit and miss because I can't read Chinese but I've used several of the links off of http://cnreviews.com/video/beijing_olympic...e_20080807.html much of it in Chinese just guessing as to what it might be. But for me that isn't a huge deal. I just like seeing some of the competition.

I have to cheat for the nbcolympics.com stuff since my zip and area code aren't affiliated but I can use my parents or brothers information to get it.

Edit: I forgot to mention you'll have to use a bit of trickery to get many of those streams to work as well since they are often region blocked as well.

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

--Pete

[Icebird]

The Olympics are simultaneously the best and worst event in the world. They're over-commercialized, bloated, and an opportunity for national ego stroking. But the athletes are amazing, and some great moments come out of the most obscure sports. My home country of New Zealand is strong in sailing and equestrian, two sports you wouldn't normally put at the top of your list for inclusion.

For the last two Olympics I lived in Canada where I had the opportunity to compare the television coverage of NBC and CBC. I pity the Americans out of range of Canadian broadcasts, because NBC's coverage royally sucked. They showed almost nothing live. The coverage focused on the "glamour" events (swimming, gymastics, track and field), and the coverage seemed to be split equally between actual footage of a sporting event and dewy-eyed tearjerker emotional profiles (what one columnist likes to call "Big Detroit Auto Maker Olympic Moments").

With current coverage I've seen in New Zealand, if there isn't an event featuring one of our own athletes for broadcast, they'll find something else interesting to show, rather than resort to endless interviews and profiles. Hey, its a Team Handball game between France and Angola! Look, its the women's Sabre gold medal match!

The thing about the "minor" sports is that some of them make absorbing television (think Curling during the Winter Olympics, which is otherwise a non-sport outside of Canada as far as the media goes), while some sports only a purist could love. (Like Fencing - its the kind of sport that on paper should be cool, but darned if I can tell who scored and who didn't during the milliseconds each point seems to last).

I love the obscure sports for giving some fleeting recognition to the people who toil away in anonymity for 3 years and 50 weeks between events.

[Kevin]

The thing about the "minor" sports is that some of them make absorbing television

I just got done watching the live stream of the Poland vs Korea Men's Team Archery Quarter final, and was quite entertained by the match. I caught myself making comments to myself after some of the shots and was quite engrossed in the match. The cheering by the Polish and the Korean fans might have helped a bit too. But I'm sure that since there isn't even a US team in that competition that there will be nothing shown from it on the Television feed here in the US, but it was an entertaining 8 minutes or so. :)

[Rhydderch Hael]

...some sports only a purist could love. (Like Fencing - its the kind of sport that on paper should be cool, but darned if I can tell who scored and who didn't during the milliseconds each point seems to last) ...

That's because Olympic fencing is so far devolved from classical sword tournament and technique that it has become, literally, an exercise to see who wiggles their metal whip past the other guy's first.

[eppie]

Have you heard of "Chess Boxing"?

No but I'm sure you have some link in your bookmarks that can show us what it is.


ps I hope the olympic medals show on the backside for what discipline they were given. I mean winning the marathon is a slightly different thing than winning that thing where you have to let your horse walk or run in circles and sideways and so on

[kandrathe]

No but I'm sure you have some link in your bookmarks that can show us what it is.

The wonderful world of "Chess Boxing" or wcbo.org.

...your horse walk or run in circles and sideways and so on

Dressage. Yes, I will alway remember it. I was almost trampled to death in a horse trailer after a Dressage clinic when I was younger.

[--Pete]

Hi,

That's because Olympic fencing is so far devolved from classical sword tournament and technique that it has become, literally, an exercise to see who wiggles their metal whip past the other guy's first.

Yes, indeed, things have changed a lot since Hagar the Horrible bludgeoned people to death with his ten pound sword. You actually need to think to fence;)

When your only armor is speed, only speed will defeat your armor.

--Pete

[Rhydderch Hael]

Hi,
Yes, indeed, things have changed a lot since Hagar the Horrible bludgeoned people to death with his ten pound sword. You actually need to think to fence;)

When your only armor is speed, only speed will defeat your armor.

--Pete

Your armor isn't speed. Your armor is your own blade (which gets better with speed, no?). Length and the stiffness of the blade can be a big help, too, if you can close or set aside your opponent's attack while bringing the point in line for a thrust home.

I've seen modern matches where the combatants did little more than vibrate their epees and then run towards each other, all in the hopes their point was made first. And flicking with a foil isn't about respecting the 'armor' of speed or blade, but rather a way to ignore it to fulfill the purely technical obligation of putting the point on a target.

I'd agree that thinking will get you going in the world of fencing. Problem is the sport has come to the point, technically and stylistically, where the fencer who metaphorically 'mashes buttons' will get viable results.

[Mordekhuul]

Some Olympic sports look laughable, as someone mentioned, to those uninitiated, but are very demanding and athletic nonetheless.

I think that Olympic level ping-pong is pretty amazing, and a lot more athletic than most of my friends (or myself) would think from our casual garage ping ponging experiences.

I also heard a great segment on competetive wind surfing. It is probably one of the most physically demanding sports in the Olympics. They rarely have the actual wind at their backs, pushing them to great speeds, and it is some 45 minutes of massive pumping of their arms and bodies to move the sail to generate speed.

That said, I spent the weekend watching seasons 1 and 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as my wife and kids are out of town visiting her parents, instead of watching the Olympics, so it hasn't caught my interest this time around somehow.

[kandrathe]

... 45 minutes of massive pumping of their arms and bodies to move the sail to generate speed.

This is when I substitute the one person power on the tippy surfboard for the 5 HP Johnson outboard on the Alumicraft. What is Wind Surfing without "wind" other than shark baiting?

[--Pete]

Hi,

Your armor isn't speed. Your armor is your own blade (which gets better with speed, no?). Length and the stiffness of the blade can be a big help, too, if you can close or set aside your opponent's attack while bringing the point in line for a thrust home.

Length of the blade is fixed by the rules. Stiffness is somewhat variable, but there are advantages to both a stiffer and a more limber blade, so the trade off is a matter of personal preference. Not that épée blades (my sport) get too limber.

I've seen modern matches where the combatants did little more than vibrate their epees and then run towards each other, all in the hopes their point was made first.

Épées? That's pretty unorthodox technique in a sport where the motto is "Assume a good fourth and wait for the other fool to make a mistake." Sounds more like saber to me.

And flicking with a foil isn't about respecting the 'armor' of speed or blade, but rather a way to ignore it to fulfill the purely technical obligation of putting the point on a target.

I don't exactly understand your point here. In saber and foil (but not in épée) there is a right of way rule that basically states that, if attacked, you must nullify the attack before counterattacking. If there are simultaneous hits, the person with the right of way scores the point (in épée, both score). That's what is behind a lot of the movement in fencing.

Then there's the whole 'second intention' and more. Basically, second intention is an attack designed to generate a response which can be counterattacked for the touch. Often, false attacks are used to 'condition' your opponent into a reflexive response. And sometimes second intention has to be extended to third or even fourth.

And, of course, at the same time you are judging your opponent's attacks, both to try to avoid being predictable and to see if you can take advantage of one of his second intentions in a way that you'll get a defensive touch.

All of this at the rate of a 'phrase' in about one, maybe two, seconds. Which is why, before electrical scoring apparatus, it took five judges for a bout, one on each side of each fencer and one watching from the middle of the action. Novice foil was still being fenced that way when I was last competing (20 years ago) and I often judged those matches. Even as an expert fencer, there were times (many times) when I could not follow the action. And these were people that I could have beat dead tired and half asleep. Once the wrist takes over, the mind lags far behind -- which is why you do all your thinking ahead of time:)

I'd agree that thinking will get you going in the world of fencing. Problem is the sport has come to the point, technically and stylistically, where the fencer who metaphorically 'mashes buttons' will get viable results.

Perhaps. I haven't competed in forever and I haven't even gone to a sala in over fifteen years. Maybe the sport has, as you say, devolved. Perhaps when my arms, hips, and eyes are all cured, I'll test out the oft repeated theory that fencing is a sport for life. If I do, then I'll report on my findings;)

--Pete

[Occhidiangela]

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.
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.

Now that's golf I can consider an athletic contest. But I'd suggest 36 holes, as you'd have a lot of people in the field.

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.

Not going to argue, my bias against sailing as an Olympic sport is informed by a few years pulling an oar.:P

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.

The IOC needs to hear more about this, one of the best ideas I've seen in weeks.

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.

Aye. That is how filling air time becomes a priority. Personally, I blame it all on Howard Cosell. :shuriken:

Occhi

[--Pete]

Hi,

Not going to argue, my bias against sailing as an Olympic sport is informed by a few years pulling an oar.:P

You mean you were in the Navy when they still had galleys? Didn't realize you were that old :lol:

Had a friend that was a coxswain for the UW crew. Part she hated most was being barfed on at the end of a race. So, OK, I've never lost my lunch on a boat, and I can't say that about on a track. But how much strategy is needed to keep "legs, keep moving" in mind (or "arms, keep pulling" for that matter).:)

--Pete

[Occhidiangela]

Hi,
You mean you were in the Navy when they still had galleys? Didn't realize you were that old :lol:

Had a friend that was a coxswain for the UW crew. Part she hated most was being barfed on at the end of a race. So, OK, I've never lost my lunch on a boat, and I can't say that about on a track. But how much strategy is needed to keep "legs, keep moving" in mind (or "arms, keep pulling" for that matter).:)

--Pete

For an oarsman, it isn't about strategy. It's about power and endurance, sorta like the triathalon. Now, for the sculls without coxwains, there is a bit of strategy.

Sailing can indeed be rigorous. I was only ever in a race once, grinding line on a yawl, and it was hard work. That said, if you can carry a keg on the boat and get drunk on it during the race, as an option, I don't think it's an Olympic sport. :lol:

YMMV

Occhi

[kandrathe]

So it begins with everyone currently at 0

Any predictions?

It appears that the US will need to work harder on the fluffier olympic "sports". Seven of China's gold medals are in synchronized diving and air pistol. Now if only we had synchronized air pistol shooting at 10 meters.

[Concillian]

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.

This sounds like a tournament I heard of once. Don't recall where.

One hole golf tournament. each person starts at the same spot... at the top of a mountain. Each participant is given a map, compass and one club. The hole is several miles away... in that general direction. Get whacking! I hope you're good at finding a little white ball in the wilderness, oh, and don't get lost.