Torino!!

[dreamshark]

Richard and I have been enjoying the heck out of the Winter Olympics this year. Nobody could possibly call either of us sports fans, but the Olympics is more like watching dance performances. Especially the winter olympics, which is all about doing insane things on very slippery surfaces while wearing skin-tight spandex. For a normal person that has trouble staying upright while walking down icy steps, it is just mind-boggling to see what the human body can do. Although the skating is the most beautiful, the ski jumps are the most astounding. Essentially, these people are being shot out of a cannon with long cumbersome boards fastened to their feet, and they not only survive this nightmare once, they do it OVER and OVER and OVER again. And almost none of them die.

Comments

[barondave.livejournal.com]

The problem with the Winter Olympics is that so much of it doesn't seem like "sport". Luge, skeleton and the like just don't interest me at all. I agree that the jumps are "mind-boggling", but that also doesn't seem like a sport in the "fastest, strongest" sense. Heck, it looks stupid and not useful in combat; compare James Bond with XXX. The skating is beautiful, but this year was pretty disappointing. Not that I watched a lot. The games were boring enough to make me care about curling... but not a lot.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I think I like it because it DOESN'T seem like sports, unless you watch the hockey games (which I dont). If you're into the competition angle, the ski races are just dumb because you only see one skier at a time and they are all going exactly the same speed, so you have no idea who "won" until you look at the scoreboard. But I love watching the giant slalom anyway - it's just astonishing that anybody can turn at that speed! The cameras zero in on them and you can see every muscle flex; their bodies are practically horizontal in one direction, and a fraction of a second later they are horizontal in the OTHER direction, all at 60 mph, all the way down the hill! Yikes!

You'd probably like the sardonic description in one of the Slate podcasts on the subject of ski jumping: "... beautiful, breathtaking and kind of boring...combines all the unique qualities of the winter olympics: the looming shadow of imminent physical trauma, highly specialized and otherwise completely useless equipment, and subtleties that are virtually invisible to the audience and incomprehensible to the layman." All true, but I still love watching them fly. And, strangely enough, I think the commentator did too.

I never thought of "useful in combat" as an important criteria for rating sports events. But, oddly enough, the winter Olympics do have an event that I can only assume is based on ACTUAL combat skills from WWII - the biathlon. I can't think of any other reason to combine two events as divergent as skiing and shooting! What next: swimming and javelin throwing? Pole vaulting and chess?

[laurel]

Now the aerials ski jumping stuff is just insane. 5 stories in the air, all those twists before landing. I was blown away by that competition.

I'm mostly interested in the figure skating, but this time out I also followed speed skating. And watched some of the ski stuff and snowboard stuff.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

It is nothing short of astounding, I agree.

K.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

What better can one say of a sport than "almost none of them die"?

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

And almost none of them die.

The phrase damning with faint praise rises unbidden in my mind.

For the most part, the Winter Olympics have never held much interest for me.

And as I get older, I find the same holds true for the Summer Olympics. Unless, of course, I find myself confined to a hospital while the Olympics are in progress.

It's good to hear that someone gets enjoyment from them.