My nomination for dumbest Olympic sport

[FarmerD]

I fully admit to being an Olympic junkie.  I'll watch whatever oddball sport is on the TV.  I just got done watching part of the equestrian competition.  This sport pisses me off.

The only people who participate are blue blood European aristocrats riding $1M horses with a bunch of personal trainers. I'll take this sport seriously when some cowboy from the Texas Hill Country medals. How can they call this a serious equestrian competition without any events like barrel racing, goat roping, or steer wrestling?  I’d love to see some pompous Euro-twit  in his fancy schmancy fox hunting outfit complete with red double-breasted hunting jacket, a small brimmed black hat, with thigh-high brown suede riding boots and leather gloves mounting a bull called Crippler II.  Besides, people who win this event should not get a gold medal.  They should get a gold belt buckle.  Or perhaps if the rider happens to be a PP adherent, maybe he should get the gold trimmed chaps if they win. 

[AdamA]

I fully admit to being an Olympic junkie.  I'll watch whatever oddball sport is on the TV.  I just got done watching part of the equestrian competition.  This sport pisses me off.

This guy agrees with you.  I, however, might switch the #10 selection (men's basketball) to the #1 spot.

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyr ... php?page=4

[FarmerD]

I fully admit to being an Olympic junkie.  I'll watch whatever oddball sport is on the TV.  I just got done watching part of the equestrian competition.  This sport pisses me off.

This guy agrees with you.  I, however, might switch the #10 selection (men's basketball) to the #1 spot.

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyr ... php?page=4

The one sport on his list I would take off his list is Rythmic Gymnastics which I love. Watch the third video down on this page.  This stuff they do in this sport is simply mind blowing.   

http://www.youtubefunnyvideoclips.com/t ... gymnastics

[Xan]

At this site, you can set your weightings for each event, and find out which country is winning: http://www.realmansolympics.com/

[MediumTex]

Curling is probably the most high profile dumb sport in the Olympics.

I think that the news people get a kick out of showing highlights of people doing a dumb-looking activity like frantically moving a broom in front of a rock on a sheet of ice.

[Gumby]

I think a lot of people would be surprised to know that race walking is an olympic sport:

http://www.london2012.com/venue/racewalk/

...But, actually it's quite difficult:

Racewalking, or race walking, is a long-distance athletic event. Although it is a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Stride length is reduced, so to achieve competitive speeds, racewalkers must attain cadence rates comparable to those achieved by Olympic 400-metre runners—and they must do so for hours at a time since the Olympic events are the 20-kilometre (12 mi) race walk (men and women) and 50-kilometre (31 mi) race walk (men only).
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racewalking

Yikes!

[Xan]

But why would there be a race other than the fastest possible way to get to the finish line?

[Gumby]

But why would there be a race other than the fastest possible way to get to the finish line?

It was actually one of the earliest track and field events — walking track and field events have been a part of every modern Olympic summer games. It was called Pedestrianism and it developed out of wagering on footmen events in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries (walking alongside carriages, walking/hiking hundreds of miles, etc).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedestrianism
http://www.cityofhullac.co.uk/club_history_p1.php

At the time, brisk walking was considered to be one of the best forms of exercise. Some say it still is.

Personally, I'd like to see race dog walking.

[FarmerD]

Personally, I'd like to see race dog walking.

Nice.  Here a few Olympics I'd like to see added to The Games (I copied this from part of an old essay I wrote after the 2008 Games)

1. Synchronized boxing. Imagine two pairs of boxers in the ring trying desperately to maintain synchronization while being punched in the face.

2. Any musclehead can throw the javelin but it takes an Olympic athlete of tremendous drive, determination and utter disregard for one's safety to actually catch a 200 ft toss, hence the Team Javelin competition. The beauty of this sport is that none of the favorites ever live long enough to dominate the sport so new champions are crowned each Olympics. When watching this event, you never know who is going to medal and who is going to die.

3. The s*x events: subcategories could include length competition, rockwell hardness testing, as well as special endurance and speed competition.

4. You already have the backstroke, the breast stroke, the freestyle, and the side stroke. However, these categories seem exclusionary since few casual swimmers perform these strokes in the pool. Not including the world's most popular style of swimming seems is a clear oversight so I fully expect to see the 200 meter dog paddle in the next Olympics.

5. The belly flop and/or cannonball diving competition. You could recruit a bunch of sumo wrestlers and watch them empty the pool of all water. Some of the spectators would get washed away by the resulting tsunami. Now I'd pay good money to see that.

6. the keg-a-thon - have a four man team run a mile with a keg. Frat guys all over the country practice running from cops all the time while carrying a keg so the US would dominate this event

7. Boxing, in the interest of fairness, has separate classes based on weight. They have the heavy weight division, the cruiser weight, the bantamweight, and the ever popular paperweight division. Likewise, the women's gymnastics competition should be divided into two subcategories: the pubescent and prepubescent division. The usual preteens could have their competition as normal but full figured women can have their sport too.

8. Cactus splash.  This is where drunken guys belly flop on cactus to see who can have the most needles stick.  Actually I have some practice at this event.  While at Field Medical Readiness Training at Sheppard AFB, they blew the whistle indicating an imminent chemical warfare attack.  I immediately hit the dirt and in the process, got stuck with 3 cactus needles.  Lousy retarded cactus. 

9. Midget curling. There isn't much challenge to sliding a curling stone down the ice. Try the same thing with a bound, squirming, and complaining midget. ( I think we can all agree that no comedy essay is complete without at least one midget joke .  If someone is offended by my reference to midgets, I sincerely apologize.  Simply replace the term “midget”? with “hippy”? and we can all get along.

10. Team cow tipping. College students take time out from studying for math exams by sneaking up on poor unsuspecting sleeping pregnant cows. Keep it up students. Don't let schoolwork get in the way of your Olympic training.

[Gosso]

Curling is probably the most high profile dumb sport in the Olympics.

I think that the news people get a kick out of showing highlights of people doing a dumb-looking activity like frantically moving a broom in front of a rock on a sheet of ice.

NOOOOO!!!  Curling is great!  People just don't understand it, if they understood it and the strategy behind it then they would have a much greater appreciation for it (kinda like the PP ).

The sweeping is critical since it heats the ice in front of the rock, creating a fine layer of water, which allows the rock to slide farther and curl less.  Sweeping can honestly add 10-15 feet of length to the path of the rock, and keep it straight, rather than crashing into the guard.

There are certain teams that play a boring style of curling, but others like to have many stones in play, creating insane angles and numerous options.

It is a "thinking man's" game, which also involves the skill of being able to execute the play.  They don't call it "Chess on Ice" for nothing. 

The yelling is a bit annoying, but you don't notice it after a while.

[FarmerD]

The sweeping is critical since it heats the ice in front of the rock, creating a fine layer of water, which allows the rock to slide farther and curl less.  Sweeping can honestly add 10-15 feet of length to the path of the rock, and keep it straight, rather than crashing into the guard.

Sweeping actually heats the ice?  Didn't know that - I'd always assumed the sweeping just polished the ice a little bit thus letting the stone slide a little further or encouraging it to go right or left. 

BTW I take it you live in a northern state and have actually played this game? 

[MediumTex]

Curling is probably the most high profile dumb sport in the Olympics.

I think that the news people get a kick out of showing highlights of people doing a dumb-looking activity like frantically moving a broom in front of a rock on a sheet of ice.

NOOOOO!!!  Curling is great!  People just don't understand it, if they understood it and the strategy behind it then they would have a much greater appreciation for it (kinda like the PP ).

The sweeping is critical since it heats the ice in front of the rock, creating a fine layer of water, which allows the rock to slide farther and curl less.  Sweeping can honestly add 10-15 feet of length to the path of the rock, and keep it straight, rather than crashing into the guard.

There are certain teams that play a boring style of curling, but others like to have many stones in play, creating insane angles and numerous options.

It is a "thinking man's" game, which also involves the skill of being able to execute the play.  They don't call it "Chess on Ice" for nothing. 

The yelling is a bit annoying, but you don't notice it after a while.

But is it really an athletic event?

I love playing Scrabble, but that doesn't mean I think it should be an Olympic sport.

[Gosso]

The sweeping is critical since it heats the ice in front of the rock, creating a fine layer of water, which allows the rock to slide farther and curl less.  Sweeping can honestly add 10-15 feet of length to the path of the rock, and keep it straight, rather than crashing into the guard.

Sweeping actually heats the ice?  Didn't know that - I'd always assumed the sweeping just polished the ice a little bit thus letting the stone slide a little further or encouraging it to go right or left.  

BTW I take it you live in a northern state and have actually played this game?  

Actually, I'm Canadian, and yes I have curled before...gotta do something to get through the winter.

The sweeping creates friction between the broom and ice, thus creating heat, which will melt a thin layer of the ice and allow the rock to slide farther and not curl as much.

I might be a little biased with regards to curling at the Olympics since Canada is usually the gold medal favourite.  

Here's some great curling shots:

Jennifer Jones final shot to win (0:39 - I cannot even describe how difficult that shot was, and even shocked she decided to attempt it) http://youtu.be/CM5mFH3_Qhs

Glenn Howard - what makes this shot difficult is that he cannot directly hit his opponents stone, since it will jam, so he needs to have his shooter bounce off his own and then hit the opponents stone from the opposite side (0:50) http://youtu.be/-EswFKNXjMo

But is it really an athletic event?

I love playing Scrabble, but that doesn't mean I think it should be an Olympic sport.

That's more difficult to defend.  Curling does test hand-eye coordination.  It doesn't test the endurance or strength of the human body, which I feel like is the purpose of the Olympics.  So it probably doesn't belong.  But if we use that as the defining quality for a sport/game to enter the Olympics then we could likely eliminate a large chunk of the events.

Edit: The main reason for adding Curling to the Olympics was to increase its exposure to the world, and to help develop teams in other countries.  Canada needs some competition!

[MediumTex]

Jennifer Jones final shot to win (0:39 - I cannot even describe how difficult that shot was, and even shocked she decided to attempt it) http://youtu.be/CM5mFH3_Qhs

That clip was highly entertaining.

I didn't completely understand all of the screaming and jumping around, but they were clearly very happy with what they had done.

[Gosso]

Jennifer Jones final shot to win (0:39 - I cannot even describe how difficult that shot was, and even shocked she decided to attempt it) http://youtu.be/CM5mFH3_Qhs

That clip was highly entertaining.

I didn't completely understand all of the screaming and jumping around, but they were clearly very happy with what they had done.

It was the final shot of the most important female curling event in Canada, called "The Tournament of Hearts".  It's typically a week long event, but that doesn't include all the qualifiers and whatnot.  It was the ultimate high risk / high reward shot...miss it and lose, make it and win, difficulty 10.

I will admit that curling will look bizarre to an outsider (and the screaming doesn't help).  But once you get into the strategy behind it and start thinking 2 or 3 rocks down the line, then it can be very entertaining.  But it's not for everyone, just like the PP.

[Lone Wolf]

That's more difficult to defend.  Curling does test hand-eye coordination.  It doesn't test the endurance or strength of the human body, which I feel like is the purpose of the Olympics.  So it probably doesn't belong.  But if we use that as the defining quality for a sport/game to enter the Olympics then we could likely eliminate a large chunk of the events.

I'd throw in attributes like "skill" and "agility" too.  Otherwise... no table tennis!

Here's a little video illustration of why table tennis is so much fun to watch.  (Gets good at 0:18, then stays good.)  If MediumTex's comparison of the low-interest rate LT bond game to a table tennis match turns out to be predictive, the "bonds" segment of the portfolio could continue to be exciting. 

[MachineGhost]

Here's a little video illustration of why table tennis is so much fun to watch.  (Gets good at 0:18, then stays good.)  If MediumTex's comparison of the low-interest rate LT bond game to a table tennis match turns out to be predictive, the "bonds" segment of the portfolio could continue to be exciting. 

Speaking of table tennis, does anyone have a link to a video where two Japanese mimes pantomime playing tennis?  I saw it years ago but cannot find it again.

[MachineGhost]

Speaking of table tennis, does anyone have a link to a video where two Japanese mimes pantomime playing tennis?  I saw it years ago but cannot find it again.

This?

You nailed it!