More Olympic Thoughts
by KevinFebruary 20th, 2006
- Shani Davis will be remembered for fifty years. He is the first African-American to win an individual gold medal at a Winter Olympics, and his story is a true Horatio Alger. he grew up on the South Side of Chicago and participated in a sport that was foreign to his friends and neighborhood. He overcame material hardship and the psychological hardship of being a trailblazer. It is a remarkable achievement that will live in Olympic lore for a generation.
- In five years, no one will remember Chad Hedrick I suspect that is why Hedrick is acting like a spoiled brat. His implied attacks on the patriotism of Shani Davis were petulant and ridiculous. At the top level, asking an athlete to break his training schedule in order to compete in an extra event is an extraordinary imposition. But Hedrick had one and only one chance to be remembered past these next two weeks or so: win five gold medals. But because Davis didn’t skate, the US had a lesser chance to win the relay, and thus Hedrick had a lesser chance at his five medals and Olympic immortality. Hedrick was asking Davis to make a huge sacrifice in order to advance his own glory. And when Davis had the temerity to refuse to sacrifice his chance at history for Hedrick’s and then enter Olympic immortality himself, Hedrick’s petulant nature rose to the surface. he sulked on the bench during the 1000 meter that Davis won and then pointedly refused to congratulate him for his historic achievement. I love the Olympics, but part of me will be glad when they are over, so that I will never have to hear Hedrick’s impersonation of a three year old again.
- Everyone knows the “S” guy in that Chevy commercial is dead, right? And everyone realizes that his buddies use his corpse to pick up those two women, right? And we are all okay with this? When did necrophiliacs become Chevy’s target demographics?
- Joey Cheeks is a true Olympian Cheeks, who has won two long track speed skating medals, has given his bonus money — 40,000 dollars in total — to a charity designed to give poor children the world over and opportunity to play Olympic sports. Forty thousand dollars is a noticeable amount of money, and speed skaters are generally not multi-millionaires. Cheeks’ actions are in the best traditions of the Olympic spirit and he should be applauded for them
- The medals are ugly Sorry, Torino, but those are some ugly medals. They look like deformed DVDs. They are bulky, oddly designed, and lack anything that could be described as grace or elegance. They look like something from the Early Soviet Realism catalog.
- Why is Ice Dancing in the Olympics? Not only is it, like figure skating and ski jumping, not a sport, it is not even an athletic competition. The competitors are not allowed to do jumps. They are penalized for being too athletic. Why don’t we just add tidily-winks to the Olympics and be done with it?
- The Russian speed skating uniforms look like pajamas It is a bold statement, I think: they are so confidant that they are prepared to nap during the race to make things more equitable.
- The new NHL rules are really working. Watching the men’s Olympic Ice Hockey tournament has really driven home how much the new NHL rules have changed the game for the better. In the past, watching Olympic hockey just drove home how slow, choppy, and grabby the NHL had become. Where NHL players slogged, Olympic competitors flew. This year, however, aside form the obvious difference that having all the best players in the world in a small tournament produces, I can see almost no difference between the NHL and the Olympic games.
- Curling needs better announcers The NBC and affiliated networks have done a good job of explaining what is happening so that casual fans can understand what is happening during the event. Except for the curling announcers. I love curling. The mix of strategy and physical skill and the deliberate pace is enchanting. I have watched enough of it to be confidant in my knowledge of the basics and to try and figure out the strategy. It would be nice if the commentators would help with that. As it is now, I get a constant stream of “nice throw” and “missed and opportunity there” with not even an attempt at explaining why the throw was good or bad or what, exactly, the players are trying to do with each throw.
What about Vonetta Flowers?
I agree with your curling observation. The average American has never even heard of it, much less understand the strategy involved. It is fun, I tried it while living in Canada.
SD
Vonetta won a team medal, not an individual.
To make the case that ice skating and ski jumping are not sports, it helps makes the same case for about 80-90% of other events at the olympics.
And ice dancing is a sport so that people past their twenties can compete in the olympics. I think they keep the dancers from getting into jumping so that it doesn’t turn into ice skating.
I agree about Shani Davis, but his post-Gold interview was, umm, distracted at best, and hostile at worst. And I absolutely agree about Hedrick. What a brat.
As to the curling announcers, MAN do I agree with you there. Every time I think I’ve figured out what’s going on, I see something that looks to me like a very good or very bad shot that the announcers say nothing at all about. One day, I’ll figure out what the hell is going on.
Can I say that, as fun as the bobsleigh is, it’s mostly an engineering competition. Like the fighting robots.
Your Shani Davis is partially on, he is a pioneer, but he is far more arrogant and not quite the person you make him out to be. Cheers for his ability to do what he did, Two thumbs down for his attitude and typical NBA and NFL wide receiver mentality, “its about me and nobody else”
CURLING IS NOT A SPORT you dim-whitted curling lovers. It’s right up there for excitement with Lawn Bowling, Golf and listening to a Church Sermon. I know you may have a different opinion but your opinion means nothing because you know nothing. It’s just logical. People with even a minimal IQ know curling is not a sport. It’s more like a dull, boring slow paced exercise. Slapping a yo-yo on your finger and making it go up and down is about the same thing.
I bust a gut whenever the curlers sweep in front of the rock as it boringly and slowly moves down the ice. The person who just threw the rock, yells for them to stop, start, stop, start. It makes no sense. The curlers who are sweeping have a much better grip on what the rock is doing and know if sweeping is needed or not, than the rock tosser way back down there. In reality, there ain’t nothing there that needs to be swept away. I ain’t stupid. It’s the curlers attempt at adding excitement, somewhat like a body-check in hockey.
Speaking of hockey (I only care about the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League) curling needs to incorporate some kind of real activity into this nothing ever happens activity - something that might wake up the viewer. Give the fans yo-yo’s and we can watch them go up and down while they are doing the wave.
Fights are good. “Smack, poof, pound, biff”
Curling rule makers. Get on this. I might even watch a game now and then if I could see curlers beating the shit out of each other. Eww, it would be a hoot. I don’t know how it would work though if somebody was sent to the penalty box, since there ain’t that many players on the team. What is it four or five curlers on a team? Rule changes to add more players could fix the problem.
As far as I can ascertain, curling requires no skill at all. All you gotta do is toss the rock at the other rocks, or try and get it real close to the big dot in the round circle. People sweep their floors at home every day, so this skill most of us already have.
Some years ago, a team from Regina, Saskatchewan won the gold medal at the Olympics. I can’t remember the name of the team, it matters not. What does matter is who in the hell decided curling should be an Olympic sport. Pure nonsense to include it in the Olympics.
What did we see after this win. News coverage of the team arriving home, endless boring interviews, newspaper articles non-stop on this non-event.
The real kicker though, is one day I’m a driving down the road and I see this huge sign that read something like this:
“Welcome to Regina, home of whoever won , Olympic Gold Medallists”.
I could care less.
If signs are going to be plunked down bragging that somebody or this or that team from our fair city did something great, then how can anyone in their right mind consider a gold medal in curling an achievement. Okay, great you won that medal thing. We don’t need a sign.
The American network televising the Olympics that year did not give this so called great event any coverage. I think the Olympics were in either Melfort, Tisdale or Japan that year. Hold it, Japan. The people of Japan were down right amused at this event. I don’t think they could grasp how this event was included in the Olympics, as did most of the rest of the planet.
Curling fans. C’mon, reply. Let’s get a lively debate going. Post your idiotic comments and let’s get a movin on this.
Warning. You cannot survive a Battle of Whits with me. Not one single living organism on the planet, ever, has defeated my superior intellect. You will fail miserably and make a complete ass of yourself. However, it’s your ass so let’s see it.
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