|
|
Post by phil on Feb 22, 2006 23:17:50 GMT -5
the winter Olympics are super fucking gay,
HÉ ! Tell that to a downhill or Super Giant skier ...
A long track speed skater or a cross-country skier !!
|
|
|
|
Post by phil on Feb 22, 2006 23:30:14 GMT -5
In Norway, more than one million norwegians (out of 4,5 millions)
watched the cross-country ski competitions ... !!
|
|
|
|
Post by luke on Feb 23, 2006 9:01:51 GMT -5
'Expense paid'? What does this guy do?? His wife is a work-a-holic (among other things...) for GE, and she's always winning "Whatever She Does of the Year" and getting them trips to the Carribean, Bahamas, California, wherever. This time she scored the Olympics. Phil...to quote myself somewhere else... "The winter Olympics are all about figure skating, guys resting their heads on other guys' balls while they sled down a hill, and other recreational activities like skiing put to a scoring system. The summer Olympics are about athletes competing in sports. " |
|
|
|
Post by phil on Feb 23, 2006 9:14:18 GMT -5
Luke ... That's a bit unfair don't you think ??
Summer Olympics are also about Synchronized swimming...
(and it cannot get anymore "gayer" than THAT!)
Artistic gymnastic ... Trampoline ... Synchronized diving ...
Long track skaters, cross-country skiers and downhill skiers
are every bit as athletic as their Summer Olympic counterparts ... !!
|
|
|
|
Post by phil on Feb 23, 2006 9:27:17 GMT -5
Now I see the Winter Olympics trying to reach a younger, more "X Games" minded viewership with Free-style skiing or Snowboard competitions and short-track skating races which resembles more a Roller Derby competition than real athletic sports but for countries where WINTER is a very cold reality, sports like Luge, Bobsleigh and Ski jumping are much appreciated ...
|
|
|
|
Post by phil on Feb 23, 2006 9:39:03 GMT -5
And for the record, I couldn't care less about the Canadian(male)hockey team rout but athletes like Canadian Cindy Klassen(gold medal long track skater) and Chandra Crawford(gold medal cross-country skier) are true athletes worthy of all the attention usualy reserved here for our "Fat Cat professional sport figures" ...
Before winning this week, nobody in Canada knew the name of those two ladies but the Europeans did !!
|
|
|
|
Post by phil on Feb 23, 2006 9:50:56 GMT -5
Oh ! One last thing before I shut up ...
I don't care that much for medals !
Just getting to compete in the Olympics
(because the Canadian standards are stricter than the Olympic's)
is already an accomplishment in my book !
Eric Guay's fourth place in the Super G slalom is, in my eyes,
as worthy as any medal because it means he's the Fourth Best in the world
in a sport where you MUST be a true athlete competing against other true athletes ...
|
|
|
|
Post by chrisfan on Feb 23, 2006 10:10:27 GMT -5
Luke ... That's a bit unfair don't you think ?? Summer Olympics are also about Synchronized swimming... (and it cannot get anymore "gayer" than THAT!) Artistic gymnastic ... Trampoline ... Synchronized diving ... Long track skaters, cross-country skiers and downhill skiers are every bit as athletic as their Summer Olympic counterparts ... !! I agree. I've never really understood the arguments of summer vs winter games based on the genuiness of the "games" involved. Both the summer and winter games have their share of judged events, who can go fastest events, and scoring events. For scored, you've got figure skating and aerial jumping vs gymnastics and diving. For speed you've got alpine skiing and speed skating vs track and swimming. For scoring you've got hockey and curling vs basketball and soccer. I can understand someone saying "I enjoy watching figure skating more than I do swimming" or "I like basketball, not hockey". But to try to claim that one of the two is quality and the other is not ... baloney. |
|
|
|
Post by phil on Feb 23, 2006 11:02:40 GMT -5
Luke ... You're invited to come down here
and get to the "Petite rivière St-François" ski resort
where the national ski team practices regularly ...
They have their own 2000'+ long slope with a gradient -pitch- of 64 % (!)
which they will belt down at speeds of up to 60 MPH and more !!
That run is reserved for EXPERT skiers ... and Death-Wish seekers ... !!
Watching those guys - and girls - come barreling down that pitch
at full speed is an awesome(frightening)sight !!
One run when it was opened a few years ago was more than enough for me !
No way I'll ever try it again !!
|
|
|
|
Post by luke on Feb 23, 2006 12:52:36 GMT -5
You can say the same thing about Tony Hawk, but skateboarding just is not a sport in my eyes.
And sure, a lot of it has to do with television coverage. We get too much gymnist stuff in the summer, but almost all you see in the winter is figure skating. And yeah, that "X-Games" garbage is just stupid. Just because you're physically talented at some oddball activity doesn't make you an athlete.
In the summer, you get the basketball, soccer, boxing, wrestling, tennis, TRACK AND FIELD, judo, weightlifting. These are all activities that dont' fuck around. And even those Chinese guys whipping everyone's ass in ping pong is awesome.
On the other hand, I really think they should organize more MMA in the Olympics, to bring back the ancient feel to the games. That'd be awesome.
|
|
|
|
Post by RocDoc on Feb 23, 2006 13:36:56 GMT -5
Phil, there IS a big smiley there after all that Luke wrote, isn't there?
I'm looking and looking and then suddenly, POP, there it was...because he definitely can't be serious there...
|
|
|
|
Post by phil on Feb 23, 2006 13:54:39 GMT -5
Hé ! You won't get that much of an argument from me concerning snowboard competitions ... Same goes for Short-track skating or Free-style skiing... Fun to watch, exciting and all that but nothing to write home about from a pure athletic point of view ... I mean ... I see kids going crazy on snowboards everyday at Mont St-Anne, many of whom could make the Canadian team with just a little more training. If Free-style skiing had existed when I was 18 y/o, I could have tried to make the national team !! Hell ! We practicaly invented the "sport" before it even had a name !  |
|
|
|
Post by phil on Feb 23, 2006 14:01:24 GMT -5
As a matter of fact, one of my younger cousin was a founding member of the "Québec Air Force", the first group of Freestyle skiers who dominated the sport in the early 80's Here he is in the upper left corner of that picture ...  |
|
|
|
Post by phil on Feb 23, 2006 14:04:04 GMT -5
Tennis ... ?? LoLoLoL ...  Oh ! MMA ... ?? |
|
|
|
Post by Dr. Drum on Feb 23, 2006 14:05:40 GMT -5
The only Winter Olympic events I’d call questionable as "sports" are the ones where the winners are routinely decided on the subjective basis of a panel of judges issuing marks. I believe that gets you down to just two events – figure skating and half pipe snowboarding. The rest are 'legit', IMO.
I’d say if there is a basis for criticizing Winter vs. Summer Olympics it’s economics, not whether the winter games consists of real sports. Poor countries that can’t afford to build expensive bobsledding facilities or outfit a team with the latest high tech gear are almost always at a competitive disadvantage to the rich nations at the Winter Games in a way that, for example, the Ethiopians obviously never were in summer track and field events.
|
|
