Olympic sports

[Samiam]

Can someone please explain to me why...

BASEBALL IS AN OLYMPIC SPORT?????

And how in the hell does anyone consider anyone who participates in this....activity an ATHLETE??

Interesting to watch. (for about 5 minutes) but not what I would call gripping competition.

Its about the same as calling people who plays Horseshoes, Pool or your local Janitor who sweeps and mops floors"Athletes"

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Doh! That's right, it's NOT an Olympic sport anymore!

[JimBear]

your in good company, this guy doesnt think they are athletes either, for reasons of his own..

Finally, tonight, the Winter Games. Count me among those who don’t like them and won’t watch them ... Because they’re so trying, maybe over the next three weeks we should all try too. Like, try not to be incredulous when someone attempts to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks who never heard of skating or skiing. So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention. Try not to point out that something’s not really a sport if a pseudo-athlete waits in what’s called a kiss-and-cry area, while some panel of subjective judges decides who won ... So if only to hasten the arrival of the day they’re done, when we can move on to March Madness — for God’s sake, let the games begin." -Bryant Gumbel

[Samiam]

One could argue that if it needs to be judged, it's not a sport.

In the winter olympics, that rules out:

Figure Skating, Snowboarding, Freestyle Skiing, Ski Jumping (though they could get rid of the sissy judging and just go for distance).

But leaves curling.


In the summer olympics, it rules out:

Gymnastics, ??


If you also discount any sport where a significant edge goes to the equipment, that pretty much only leaves Nordic Skiing and speed skating in the winter (though we could debate over alpine skiing).

It only discounts bicycling and yachting in the summer.

Seems like Bryant Gumble has a point.

[DREDIOCK]

Originally posted by Samiam
Can someone please explain to me why...

BASEBALL IS AN OLYMPIC SPORT?????

And how in the hell does anyone consider anyone who participates in this....activity an ATHLETE??

Interesting to watch. (for about 5 minutes) but not what I would call gripping competition.

Its about the same as calling people who plays Horseshoes, Pool or your local Janitor who sweeps and mops floors"Athletes"

-----

Doh! That's right, it's NOT an Olympic sport anymore!

It was an olympic sport but at least its a real sport and not just an activity.

Because to play it at a high level
It requires you to be physically fit at the very least, You have to be able to Run fast ,catch, and throw fairly long distances, or faster then your average person.

I find it interesting to watch...for about 5 minutes also before I am bored to tears with it also. But at least its a sport.

Now Curling may be more of a sport then say...a game of Monopoly or Chess. But its far closer to monopoly then it is baseball

[xrtoronto]

Originally posted by DREDIOCK
Interesting to watch. (for about 5 minutes) but not what I would call gripping competition.

It's about as exciting as womens golf

[indy007]

So appearently the Australian mogul gold medalist Dale Begg-Smith is also a spyware kingpin. Now some are even calling for an IOC investigation.

article on Spam Kings

I'd say I'm on the fence about it. Spyware creators and distributors should be beaten sensless on principle, and it violates the olympics code of ethics. However, he won because he did better than everybody else, not because the spyware helped him across the line faster.

[midnight Target]

Did you guys miss the fact that the "women of curling" calendar has been released? I'd post a pic, but Suzzy would track me down.

[DREDIOCK]

Originally posted by xrtoronto
It's about as exciting as womens golf

oh dont even get me started on golf  reguardless of gender.

Watching golf is only slightly more exiting then watching grass grow and slightly less exiting then watching snow melt

Though if forced to watch, (and it would take force) I'd much rather watch female golfers then male ones

[Holden McGroin]

At least in curling it doesn't take a judge to tell you who won.

I would get rid of:

Ice Dancing
(I'd get rid of the other figure skating but wouldn't get away with it.. at least I would bring back school figures part)
Aerial trick ski jumping
Half pipe
the judgement part of ski jumping

In the Summer games:

Diving
Rythymic gymnastics
Synchronized swimming
Half the medals in regular gymnastics along with music in the floor exercise

More or less anyting that requires that we throw out the high and throw out the low and average the rest then multiply by the degree of difficulty.

[Mighty1]

Originally posted by JimBear
your in good company, this guy doesnt think they are athletes either, for reasons of his own..

Finally, tonight, the Winter Games. Count me among those who don’t like them and won’t watch them ... Because they’re so trying, maybe over the next three weeks we should all try too. Like, try not to be incredulous when someone attempts to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks who never heard of skating or skiing. So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention. Try not to point out that something’s not really a sport if a pseudo-athlete waits in what’s called a kiss-and-cry area, while some panel of subjective judges decides who won ... So if only to hasten the arrival of the day they’re done, when we can move on to March Madness — for God’s sake, let the games begin." -Bryant Gumbel

I can't let this slide without at least pointing out how racist this sounds. But then I keep forgetting that he's black so he is allowed to be a racist.

[DREDIOCK]

Originally posted by Mighty1
I can't let this slide without at least pointing out how racist this sounds. But then I keep forgetting that he's black so he is allowed to be a racist.

I was thinking almost those exact same words

[TexMurphy]

huge winter sports fan here and belive it or not I really do enjoy curling as well.

I do agree that it does fall into the debate of "what is a sport" but I really dont care its got TONS of tactics, TONS of skill involved and curling games can be extreamly exciting.

Imho its just as much a sport as baseball. Baseball is alot of tactics and alot of skill but hardly a exhausting sport either.

Using the argument that curling shouldnt be in the olympics due to lack of physical exhausting activity is imho stoopid. Why? Because then once we get rid of curling we have to get rid of Half Pipe as its not as physically demanding as cross country skiing. Finally we would end up with the olympics consisting of two (at best) disciplines 50km Cross Country and 10km skating, well maybe the downhill could survive.

One of the reasons that Ive over the years gotten really into curling when it comes to the olympics is that our commentator is really great. A good commentator who can explain the sport and its tactics at a good level is really important.

Tex

[AWMac]

She's on the Hunters Toilet Paper Team?

[Holden McGroin]

Gumbel should strap on a pair of skiis and a rifle and see if he can finish the biathalon course within several hours of the time Olympians can.

[AWMac]

Olympians?  WE prefer to be called Olympianees!