what are your feelings on the olympics?

[Logan]

Originally posted by Dragonsreach
Yes I agree, but to me it\'s like synchronised swimming. I always thought of that as a display not a sport.
To me Beach Volleyball has the same status as a \"kick around\" between friends in the local park using jumpers a goalposts.

Agree completely.
Yes it\'s entertaining, yes it\'s competitive and yes I\'ve enjoyed watching it (and NOT just the women\'s you pervs lol ) but I still see it as a gimmick. They\'ll be including French Cricket and Boules next.
I also agree regarding synchronised swimming and synchronised diving. Yes, they\'re feats of endurance and skill but sports worthy of olympic status?

 

[Infidel Castro]

Ah, my current subject of choice! \"Sport or Pastime\" is something I play regularly these days. For example, I have listed snooker as a pastime in my world-view, as I also have dressage (what the fack has that got to do with the olympics?!), equestrianism (anything that requires a shirt, tie and blazer has no right to be called sport), bowls, darts, diving, synchro-swimming, the fancy gymnastic dancing-on-the-mat nonsense, chess (some call it a sport it transpires!), figure skating, archery, shooting...the list goes on. Sport is your track sprinting, rugby, squash, tennis, football, cycling, throwing stuff, jumping over stuff...

I love playing \"Sport or Pastime\" but I wouldn\'t class it as a sport in itself :duh:

 

[demonherald]

Agree with a lot but I guess as the original starting point for the olympics was a show of battle prowess then I guess archery and shooting and riding a horse ..(even if it is making it dance a bit while wearing a bow tie and smiling falsely..) all have a place....

synchronised swimming , Trampolining , floor gymnastics, beach volleyball not so deserving...

I suppose in the mordern day the olympics should really consist of all the countries getting their armed forces together and providing evidence of all weaponry they have at their disposal,
Have the stealth bombing run , 6 days in the desert sniping challenge, The Tank assault course , torpedo accuracy etc etc etc.

 

[Roger Bunting]

This site has some interesting points about amateur and professional status as well as commercialism of the ancient games.

http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/olympics/olympicintro.shtml

 

[alextheartist]

Originally posted by demonherald

I suppose in the mordern day the olympics should really consist of all the countries getting their armed forces together and providing evidence of all weaponry they have at their disposal,
Have the stealth bombing run , 6 days in the desert sniping challenge, The Tank assault course , torpedo accuracy etc etc etc.

Now that i WOULD watch!

 

[Crackpot]

When you think of it as \"battle prowess\", then the olympic games will soon only show some guys sitting on a computer and operate some vehicles via remote controll.
And THEN you can combine olympics with e-gaming.

 

[Beelzebrush]

I love the olympics. I love to partake in/ watch sport, FFS it\'s healthy... both for it\'s competitiveness and it\'s \'feel good factor\'

It always saddens me when jumped up politicians use it as a forum for other agendas!

PS I\'m absolutely stoked at Team GBs performance this time round!!!!

 

[DaN]

Sorry - but this has to be both the worst display of sportsmanship ever, AND the funniest moment of the Olympics lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0Uw5SnQWqQ

Dunno if there\'s a version with sound sorry

 

[Thunderhawker]

You can see it with sounds at nbcolympics.com. While he had a legitimate gripe, you don\'t ever hit/kick an official. He deserves what he got.

 

[Aliengod3]

I think it is terrible that the chinese gymnastics girls have been able to win their medals without being legal age and getting away with it. Another problem I have as that during the individual womens gymnastic events the American girls were ripped off because other girls were performing harder vaults and such, but not making good landings, and still winning their competition. I think the judging system is terrible because it rewards tougher executions regardless of how good the landing was. In my opinion if one cannot stick the landing then they do not deserve a high score regardless of difficulty because they were unable to deliver their execution completely. That is like winning a golden demon while leaving an entire section of a mini unpainted.

As with Phelps I think he is a good swimmer but NBC does not need to sit him down after every race and have a large discussion with him while he discribes every emotion he feels every second of a race while they play it in the background on super slow motion. I do not care about his ADHD or his abnormal size or how people treated him growing up. I watch olympics to see events not interviews.

One thing I am happy about is seeing someone I went to school with compete in the marathon.

I also love watching womens beach volley ball because those girls have some killer bodies... *drooling*

 

[Roger Bunting]

The IOC have asked the gymnastics governing body to investigate the allegations about the Chinese gymnasts. As for the rewarding higher degree of difficulty, simply for being more difficult, that\'s not the case. Those routines carry a higher starting mark and then deductions are made from that for mistakes. Therefore there is room to make more mistakes, although the lower difficulty ones would more likely to have fewer mistakes in them. An example was in the women\'s asymetrical bars. The GB gymnast performed the highest difficulty routine that has been seen but she made a mistake on the dismount and it cost her a medal whereas others had less difficult routines and made no mistakes big enough to deduct much from the starting score.

 

[Theomar Pius]

I\'m so pumped right now. I\'m a season ticket holder in the NBA (Detroit), and it\'s 4:30 in the morning, I\'m totally full of energy, grinning ear to ear because the USA Basketball program just brought home their 2nd gold medal in two days. Way to go Guys and gals, your hard work has paid off.

 

[Logan]

Originally posted by Roger Bunting
The IOC have asked the gymnastics governing body to investigate the allegations about the Chinese gymnasts. As for the rewarding higher degree of difficulty, simply for being more difficult, that\'s not the case. Those routines carry a higher starting mark and then deductions are made from that for mistakes. Therefore there is room to make more mistakes, although the lower difficulty ones would more likely to have fewer mistakes in them. An example was in the women\'s asymetrical bars. The GB gymnast performed the highest difficulty routine that has been seen but she made a mistake on the dismount and it cost her a medal whereas others had less difficult routines and made no mistakes big enough to deduct much from the starting score.

Aye, I\'ve more of a problem with the abysmal judging to be honest. The usual trumped up excuses of the judges being \'unsighted\' were paraded, but some of the judging in diving, gymnastics, taekwondo and boxing were blinkered to say the least.
I\'m a huge fan of boxing but it\'s hard to stay passionate and arbitrary with what was going on. Some of the decisions rivalled Seoul \'88 and that\'s saying something...

 

[Roger Bunting]

Yep, some really poor decisions.

 

[Ksarthefaceless]

The way the Olympics way portrayed on TV was a joke, I think China did a great job of working their rich culture into what is essentially a western sporting tradition and all we hear about is how they treat our nosey bloody journalists and the Tibet protestors.
I would like some sport with my politicking if that’s ok.

And I agree the judging has been awful, but then so has the coverage, we got the delights of the beach volleyball and dressage but fencing (one of the first events to be included in the modern games) was cut even though we had four medal hopefuls.

Hmm I think that all the ranting I have in me for today

 

[Theomar Pius]

I generally don\'t watch the Olympic sport with judging. In fact, those are the non-sports in my eyes, more contests, since contests are judged.

Races have winners, it\'s who\'s fastest. Team sports (like beach volleyball) have clear winners, it\'s who has the highest score.
I saw many of non calls in Tae Kwon Do. Weird judging in gymnastics and boxing. The scoring doesn\'t reflect what you see with your eyes. That goes for the diving, figure skating in the winter too.

 

[Aliengod3]

And I agree the judging has been awful, but then so has the coverage, we got the delights of the beach volleyball and dressage but fencing (one of the first events to be included in the modern games) was cut even though we had four medal hopefuls.

Fencing was in the games. USA placed with all three medals. It was covered on the first or second day of the games. Not a very fun sport to watch but I like the fact that they play with sharp objects

 

[Theomar Pius]

Originally posted by Aliengod3

And I agree the judging has been awful, but then so has the coverage, we got the delights of the beach volleyball and dressage but fencing (one of the first events to be included in the modern games) was cut even though we had four medal hopefuls.

Fencing was in the games. USA placed with all three medals. It was covered on the first or second day of the games. Not a very fun sport to watch but I like the fact that they play with sharp objects

It was day 1, first medals the US recieved in these olympics. It was on MSNBC I think.
I\'m a bit spoiled in Detroit, get to watch live on CBC everything that gets tape delayed on NBC.

 

[Ksarthefaceless]

Sorry when i said cut i ment that the BBC neglected to show it, congrats to the US tho, caught most of it online, got to appreciate great sportsmen even if their not from blighty

 

[Theomar Pius]

Originally posted by Ksarthefaceless
Sorry when i said cut i ment that the BBC neglected to show it, congrats to the US tho, caught most of it online, got to appreciate great sportsmen even if their not from blighty

Ah, the beeb, gotcha.

Sidenote, could Boris look less professional? It\'s not like the whole world was watching. Oh wait...