Thoughts in a Skitoliv World

The Winter Olympics got under way last week and like most people I was surprised to see it snuck up on us like that. Let me preface my following statements by saying that I do love the Olympics, I think it is a truly fantastic event. I love the pagentry, the lesser known events, and even the sappy stories that they show us of all the adversity every athlete had to overcome to get there. Here is what I hate; NBC seems to believe that the Winter Olympics needs to be a 2-week celebration of Ice Skating. You watch the winter games coverage and all they show all the time is Ice Skating. Again I will preface my statement by saying that all Ice Skaters are tremendous athletes especially at this level. What they do, does require tremendous athleticism, I know I could not do it. Ice Skating is not a sport. I believe that the last Olympics proved that all events with any kind of subjectivity involved in it should be discarded. I really can not see how any of these "judges" can say, "oh you did not spin as fast as the other skater so you lose .1 of a point". Also, Ice Skating involves "artistic" marks. What the heck is that? Talk about subjectivity of all subjectivity! Ice Skating proved that it has no real idea as to who is better when in the pairs competition, the couple from China fell down and still won the silver. In my mind, you fell you do not deserve a medal, even I can see that you are not better than anyone when you fall. You notice that in Skiing, when the competitor falls they are out of the race. Skating should do the same

Quick Hits:

1. Bode continues to choke away his chance to become an icon, no shock there. If you talk about skiing wasted and take shots at Lance and Bonds, you had better be able to back it up.

2. Memo to Johnny Wier (men’s figure skating), in your NBC vignette you talk about what a bad-ass you are, was that before or after you decided to do a Short Program titled "The Swan" and make a point about how your costume looks like a swan. Does this make all the other Men’s figure skaters say "look out here comes the swan", or "Please Mr. Swan don’t hurt me" or "Oh no it’s the Swan". Just stop trying to be anything but a male figure skater.

3. Congrats to Italy’s women’s hockey team for finally scoring a goal. The Olympics needs to get rid of that rule that has the home country qualifying automatically for all team events.

4. The Canadians will beat the Czech Republic for the Gold in Men’s Hockey. The US will finish 5th or 6th.

5. Women’s Hockey is just not as exciting as Men’s. I am sorry but it is true. Canada wins here as well.

6. I hope Emily Hughes win’s the Gold just becuase of the screw job she got when the US Skating Team just had to have Michelle Kwan on the team and booted her off. How did that whole thing work for you US Skating?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 15th, 2006 at 7:37 am and is filed under Current Affairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.