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Random mutterings
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Recent Chicken Scratchings
With the Olympics on TV every minute of every day right now, I couldn’t help but watch at least a few of the swimming relays. I kept wondering: why it is that in swimming, the athletes are forced to use various different "strokes" (i.e. butterfly, free-style, etc.) whereas in other sports, such as running, it is kept nice and simple…go fast! (Of course, Usain Bolt has taken this all too literally and run frighteningly fast.)
And as I got to thinking about it, I realized that I’d like to see some cross-over between the Olympic sports …
Let’s see 100m hopping
Let’s see swimming with hurdles
Let’s see diving long-jump
Let’s see underwater archery
(On a side note to the last suggestion, I bet that event would also be a good way to capture James Bond’s nemeses – they always seem to be shooting something at him under water. It’s kind of the same way that Prince John tried to catch Robin Hood in the Disney cartoon version of that story.)
So readers, what other sports do you think the IOC should approve?
Posted 21 Aug 2008
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11 Responses to “Unique Olympic Sports”
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I’d say for ogling at male athletes. I’ll sure win at least a bronze for India.
Hi Kris – I burst out laughing at your comment. I suppose the Olympics is probably the biggest gathering of in-shape and hard-bodied people in the world.
Cricket on the moon! :-0
The pitch will be veeeeerrry bouncy (thanks to gravity)
@ Balu – Oh, I’d like to see that. Maybe then I would have a chance to knock ‘em for six!
Your comments made me think of some “sports” that are included, that really should be eliminated. Competitive walking (not making this up….speed walking is an event). Also, this morning I read that 4 horses were banned for steroid use. I think “sports” where the animal does most of the work should also get the boot.
@ Maire
I heard about a speed-walking race where the top two, in a dead-heat for the finish line could not help themselves and busted into a sprint….both were then disqualified. I guess this is a great parallel to butterfly stroke swimming. Go fast…but you can only move in a certain way. And what is this about horses using steroids? Come on…I hope the coaches got huge fines for that.
I told my trainer this morning about Kris’s suggestion. Since he gets it quite a lot – you will be amazed at how quickly cars driven by women stop when he is asking to be allowed to cross the road amid traffic – he was not amused and will likely oppose the introduction of such a sport tooth and nail. He is S African so they know how to do protests and all, I gather.
I, for one, would love to see under water archery
@ Tazeen
I don’t know exactly how the physics of it would work, but I think it could be pretty cool too…I just want to see people try it.
I guess the arrows would need to be weighted so that they don’t float to the top. I suppose it would end up being like shooting with a spear-gun, only powered by a manual bow.
Well, considering the olympians’ diets (e.g. Michael Phelps’ 12,000 calorie diet: http://www.blogs.com/2008/08/23/diet-of-champions-wii-fitness.html), one sure would like to go the whole hog (no pun) and see an “All-You-Can-Eat” competition.
The Americans will do great, I’m told.
Hi CheekyMonkey -
Welcome and thanks for the comments. Always a pleasure when new visitors stop by.
So, how do you see ‘All-You-Can-Eat’ being organised? Would it be divided by food or weight class? That is, would the competitors be divided by the type of food that they eat, or by their respective body weights?