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BS: Obituary:The Olympics
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Subject: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Jack the Sailor Date: 20 Feb 14 - 10:25 AM Are half the events in this Olympics young people with flat sticks on their feet going down hills that could not exist in nature, twisting in the air? Is it really a sport when you need judges to tell you who won? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: beardedbruce Date: 20 Feb 14 - 10:34 AM No. Many of the sticks are curved. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: catspaw49 Date: 20 Feb 14 - 10:40 AM Personally, I don't mind using "Refs" but the judging issue grinds on me. I'm not a big fan of anything including boxing that requires judging. The whole figure skating thing is ridiculous. Unless you're a previously recognized top contender, you can't win a first/gold even if you do a perfect program with a high difficulty. What kind of crap is that? Spaw |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Musket Date: 20 Feb 14 - 10:40 AM Football pitches can't exist in nature either. Except Hillsborough and Wembley because they are hallowed divine turf. Those of us who like that sort of thing are enjoying that sort of thing. I take it you enjoy a few things I can't begin to appreciate too. Did you say the same when your lot hosted it? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 20 Feb 14 - 11:20 AM Well, I don't know much about any of the sports being shown, but I'm enjoying it all, especially the ice-skating. I could watch that all evening, so graceful and dainty. Just because some people don't like some things on TV, others really do. We're all different, thank goodness. As to refs, I suppose there have to be winners and losers in an Olympic competition, and somebody has to decide! Never mind, Spring is coming and we'll all be out in our gardens in the sunshine, not watching the box. (I used to ice-skate rather well, but that was hundreds of years ago! With my bulk I'd fall through the ice nowadays.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 20 Feb 14 - 11:39 AM It's the kind of thing people like if they like that sort of thing. Anything involving judging rather than measuring isn't sport. Sometimes it might be art, but most of the time it's show business. No business like it. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Jack the Sailor Date: 20 Feb 14 - 11:43 AM LOL!! Bruce!! Excuse me please, non tubular laminate constructed foot attached sliding conveyances. :-D |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Jack the Sailor Date: 20 Feb 14 - 11:48 AM Football pitches can't exist in nature either. They can here. We are on a grassy coastal plain. In many place all you would have to do is send in the cows and put up a couple of nets. While half pipes and slide rails are both unnatural and goofy things for ski slopes IMHO. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: GUEST,gillymor Date: 20 Feb 14 - 11:48 AM Whatever it is, Slopestyle snowboarding and skiing, is very cool to watch. Click here |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Ebbie Date: 20 Feb 14 - 11:50 AM I'm not watching much of it - it's not that different from American Idol and those sorts of shows, is it- but I do enjoy the competitors involved. There is something so childlike in the wholeheartedness of young adults who put their all into their efforts that I have to applaud them, and that's true whether it is skating or snowboarding or skiing or any other individual sport. Team sports not so much; it becomes just another game to me. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Jack the Sailor Date: 20 Feb 14 - 11:51 AM Eliza, Carol loves the figure skating she doesn't really consider it sport. McGrath put it well. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 20 Feb 14 - 11:56 AM The problems about Olympics etc. are:
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Jack the Sailor Date: 20 Feb 14 - 12:00 PM Ebbie, you are correct! If a poll were taken here anonymous of course, "If you were in your twenties and were offered a job where you could slide on snow all day and smoke weed next to a fire in the evenings." I think a lot of people would would find that attractive. Its fun, its visually appealing, the competitors are attractive and fun to watch. It is a lot like American Idol on snow. Did I mention that I don't like American Idol either. I don't like Ryan Seacrest, Don't like Costas. Give me a sport where it is swifter, higher of stronger, please. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Musket Date: 20 Feb 14 - 12:09 PM I don't get hung up over sport. I accept it has two meanings. Football and cricket are sport, full stop. Other competitive physical games can also be called sport if you like. I'll enjoy them, but they aren't sport in the football and cricket sense. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: gnu Date: 20 Feb 14 - 01:01 PM Spaw... pairs figure skating with two pairs at once using swords and maces? No need for judges. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 20 Feb 14 - 01:37 PM The importance of national prestige is as old as the Greek Olympiads. "The games became a tool used by the city-states to assert dominance..." Wikipedia. They included chariot races (four and 10-horse teams, the only event that women could enter; wrestling and fighting events added in 708 BC (Judges not required since the matches continued until one of the contestants was rendered insensible, dead, or hollered "uncle"). No ice events possible at Olympia, but if there had been.... I suppose I am like many others, enjoying certain competitions but bored by some. Viva Canada! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Stilly River Sage Date: 20 Feb 14 - 01:41 PM I also love the figure skating, but NBC is trying to be all things to all viewers. Tonight's listings says "Figure skating: ladies' gold medal final; freestyle skiing: women's halfpipe gold medal final, men's ski cross gold medal final" and this is a bit quiet now that they've gotten through a lot of the preliminaries. I don't want to watch all of that and I don't want to wait through it. Maybe they'll do me a favor after the whole thing is over and broadcast a "best of figure skating" program (of course it will be US-centric, another issue I have with NBC). SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: gnu Date: 20 Feb 14 - 01:45 PM BTW... figure skating? Few understand the complicated scoring deductions and the many judging rules. For instance, anyone know how a skater can gain 10% on a jump by it's time placement in the program without asking Mr. Google? So, as fer the obit, maybe we could spice it up by combing these new "snow sculpture events" with trad events. Say, biathlon with half-pipe or whatever where the guys with the guns shoot at the pipers. Twice the points if the bi's crack the pipers at "jump" apex. The degree of difficulty for each would depend on how fast the pipers were flippin and spinnin around. Just to make it interesting, lace the course with pressure explosives. Such would ensure a larger viewing audience... at least in Idaho. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: GUEST Date: 20 Feb 14 - 02:47 PM My wife and I have watched the snowboarding and new skiing events and really enjoyed it and the people sliding down an ice track on tea trays. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: gnu Date: 20 Feb 14 - 02:57 PM If ya didn't see the gold game in women's hockey, ya lost out. What a game!!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 20 Feb 14 - 03:10 PM We are lucky here in that we get NBC Spokane, Detroit, and CBC on cable. Also the French language network. This gives a better choice of events - two time zones plus a different selection from CBC |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: catspaw49 Date: 20 Feb 14 - 04:30 PM Musket I think Hemingway might disagree with you. AS I recall he said mountaineering, bullfighting, and motor racing were sports. Everything else is just games. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 20 Feb 14 - 05:25 PM I was by no means suggesting that things were generally better in former times. One aspect, however, is getting worse all the time indeed: the amount of money involved, related to worldwide media attention, and thus the incentive to cheat and manipulate. As for group emotions, which may or may not be tied to countries: they are probably unavoidable, and team games can make a good relieve valve for them. Athletes in individual disciplines, however, should ideally not appear as "soldiers" of their country. The quality of mass media can be judged by their restraint in that respect, e.g. medal counting. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Ed T Date: 20 Feb 14 - 08:25 PM Sport = $ Therefore, it exists |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Bill D Date: 20 Feb 14 - 09:50 PM I like the sports where the winner is obvious...like cross-country skiing. I admire the sports where amazing athleticism is shown... and figure skating is one. (being old enough to remember Sonja Heine doing a few spins and jumps makes me gape in awe at triple axels!) It is always a problem when 'artistic merit' is involved. Who remembers when all the individual judges' scores were flashed on the screen? Not any more.. too many second guesses. I am in bemused bewilderment at contests where I can't imagine anyone bothering... like doubles luge! (and when 'winning' has to be measured in 100ths of a sec., the system needs adjusting. Like more or longer runs.) (as an aside,I do NOT like contests where the contestants try to stop, control or injure each other... and sadly, soccer/football falls into that category, no matter what the rules say. The big rule is 'don't get caught'.) What non-Winter sport do I like? *grin*... well, golf, for one. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Jack the Sailor Date: 21 Feb 14 - 03:17 PM "(as an aside,I do NOT like contests where the contestants try to stop, control or injure each other... and sadly, soccer/football falls into that category, no matter what the rules say. The big rule is 'don't get caught'.)" I, on the other hand, appreciate the odd body check. I saw a Canadian snow boarder eliminate another lady from contention in a multi-player race the other day. It was the only slippery board person I cheered for this Olympics. I'm not saying the boarders should look for others with their heads down.... But if the opportunity presents.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 21 Feb 14 - 03:50 PM contests where the contestants try to stop, control or injure each other... and sadly, soccer/football falls into that category, no matter what the rules say. The big rule is 'don't get caught'.Technology can do a lot about that. Professional players can be made to wear sensors in their clothes, so that software can decide reliably about foul play, offside, goal, etc. With "artistic value", doping, and bribing, it is more difficult. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Greg F. Date: 21 Feb 14 - 05:33 PM Follow the money. That's all anyone needs to know about the Olympics. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: gnu Date: 21 Feb 14 - 05:33 PM "But if the opportunity presents...." Hahahahahahaaa! Only a Canuck would approve body checks on the slopes. Heheheheheee! Minds me a Lewis from Port-aux-Basques. He was racing his teenage son on bikes. Pedal bikes. His son was gonna overtake him and win and he kicked the front wheel, sending the lad into the alders! I went bad on him and he said, "Better he learns from me in a bike race." Can't argue with that eh? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: GUEST,Guest: Texas Guest Date: 22 Feb 14 - 12:48 AM One announcer said that for some people,"...the olympics is hockey,...and some other things." He spoke for me. Cheers. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Bert Date: 22 Feb 14 - 01:21 AM Jack, stop starting these threads and raising my hopes. :-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Doug Chadwick Date: 22 Feb 14 - 04:22 AM I could enjoy ice hockey if it wasn't for that bloody organ. It drives me to distraction. For me, the most exiting events have been the ski cross & board cross and the toughest, the biathlon where a punishing cross-country course is punctuated by target shooting. Even in the events that I don't find riveting, I admire the skill and determination shown. I see no need for an obituary. The Winter Games seem alive and well. DC |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Jack the Sailor Date: 22 Feb 14 - 10:30 AM Don't worry Bert, I only complain about the Olympics every couple of years. You are safe until at least spring of 2016. :-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 22 Feb 14 - 01:32 PM Overall, a good Olympics. Sports that people engage in have changed over the years; the Olympics reflects these changes. The events cannot be fossilized. I expect the Olympics will be alive and well for centuries to come. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Dorothy Parshall Date: 22 Feb 14 - 03:08 PM "I expect the Olympics will be alive and well for centuries to come." I do not consider them alive now and certainly extremely unwell. Yes, some people enjoy watching the athletes show marvellous control of their bodies, their ability to do amazing things. Others enjoy watching the horrors of hockey and others the boredom of curling. To me all of the sports watching combined cannot possibly be worth the cost to the Russian people. It is not worth the cost to the environment - considerable destruction took place to build the sites for these so-called "games". It is not worth the intolerance to the LGBT community and others or the deliberate murder of hundreds of "stray" dogs and cats. I consider the spirit of the Olympic Games to be dead - completely. It was once a wonderful thing. Now it is merely another money maker for a few who have no consideration for the planet on which we all need to live or for those who live here. It is contemptible that the IOC has done this to what was once something wonderful. This choice of venue was (unprintably) stupid, thoughtless.... Just another ignorant, self-serving corporation, imo. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 22 Feb 14 - 07:28 PM DP, I presume, is already waving her little 'no' banner at PyeongChang. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: GUEST,Troubadour Date: 22 Feb 14 - 08:04 PM "Did you say the same when your lot hosted it?" Why would us Brits favour the Korean over the Russian Ian, were it not a fact that she skated the better program. Also, consistency is apparently not a feature of the judging. Our speed skater Elise: 500 metres: she slipped and took out the girl outside her. Elise was disqualified 1000 metres The girl inside Elise fell and swiped Elise's back skate out with her hand. Elise was disqualified. Identical events, both blamed on her, cannot possibly be described as fair judgement. The third DQ was justified, as she was outside the line, by however small a margin (one centimetre). She has every justification for feeling that she was deliberately robbed of a result in one of those three races. It leaves a very sour taste in ones mouth, and I'm sure the Korean figure skater would agree with that. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: GUEST,jts Date: 22 Feb 14 - 08:55 PM horrors of hockey and others the boredom of curling. Whaaaaat??? Did a Canadian pee on your cornflakes? You wanna talk boredom, lets talk nordic skiing! Horrors of hockey? Yeah, if grace, speed and finesse are horrors! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Don Firth Date: 22 Feb 14 - 09:45 PM Scoring in figure skating is actually quite precise, if a bit esoteric. It breaks down mainly to "content" of program and "execution" of that content. If a skater includes a triple-Axel (extremely difficult jump to execute without buttering yourself all over the ice!), they get points for the attempt. But if they screw it up or "two-foot" the landing, they will lose points. Or if the execute it like they were naturally airborne, the gain lotsa points. Points are awarded for all kinds of things, including fancy footwork, types of spins and how well executed, all sorts of complexities, but all very logical. But figure skating (somewhat akin to ballet—indeed some figure skaters take ballet lessons to enhance their skating) also has the element of aesthetics. Sometimes a technically "second rate" competitive skater might skate in very elegant and audience-pleasing manner. Both of my sisters were deeply involved in figure skating way back when—O.D.ed on Sonia Henie movies—and were active in competition and show skating. Mary, my older sister, was spooked a bit by some of the jumps and opted for ice dancing. She and partner Donald Laws won a U. S. National Championship in 1948. My younger sister, Patricia, could jump like a flea on a hot rock. She won two Senior Pacific Coast Championships, and a National Junior Ladies Championship, which qualified her for the World Championships in Vienna in 1053. She placed 7th, behind powerhouses like Tenley Albright and Carol Heiss. All the skaters went on a European exhibition tour after the competitions. The Covent Garden ice show in England offered Pat a featured spot in their show, but the British government wouldn't give her a work permit. Both of the girls turned professional and taught skating, Mary in Toronto, and Pat in Portland, Oregon. Pat in action at Rockefeller Center on her way home from Vienna. CLICKY. Mary posing with her National Silver Dance trophiy, 1948. CLICKY Rather proud of the girls. My sport, on the other hand, was classical fencing. CLICK. Fencing is yet to come up. Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: GUEST,jts Date: 22 Feb 14 - 09:50 PM The scoring for for technical is precise. The scoring for "execution" is still very subjective and political. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Jack the Sailor Date: 23 Feb 14 - 07:20 AM The horrors of a great gold medal hockey game are upon me!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: GUEST, topsie Date: 23 Feb 14 - 08:07 AM I assume that was "Vienna in 1953" - or it brings a whole new layer of meaning to "way back when". |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Jack the Sailor Date: 23 Feb 14 - 11:29 AM Oh Horror of horrors! Canada wins gold!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 23 Feb 14 - 01:29 PM Sochi! It has been a seaside resort since the time of the tsars. Through the years, the Circassian population has been suppressed, as Russians and Georgians took over the business. What has changed? Putin wanted a resort on the level of the Austrian winter resorts, and now the structure is there. It is a monument to his dreams. 51 billion came from the federal budget. New hotels on the seaside have increased the number of rooms, up from 20,000 to 40,000. (An American planner quit because of Russian failings such as steep, narrow-tread stairs and other bad interior designs). Apparently casinos are planned. A major development was the railroad and highway built to the small ski installation at Rosa Khutar. A grand hotel complex of German limestone and Italian marble, built in what looks like 1900-style Alpine grandeur is set in a picturesque place. Snow is unpredictable, so 700,000 cubic meters have been stored from falls of previous years. Will the resort attract moneyed Russians and world tourists? It is close enough for most Europeans, but they are used to Swiss-Austrian-Italian Alps. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obituary:The Olympics From: Dorothy Parshall Date: 23 Feb 14 - 04:40 PM This is one aspect that bothers me greatly: 51Billion spent on an "upscale" resort, destroyed a pleasant, viable seaside resort. The Russian people paid for Putin's "dream". He was able to use the Olympics as an excuse for this destruction and expense which will profit the people nothing. Those who dare to complain are in jeopardy of imprisonment. |
