Olympics

C

crackerjack

Well-known member
IdleRich said:
On the other hand squash is apparently not an Olympic sport yet so maybe a more disinterested and less morally dubious move would be to right this wrong and get it recognised - seriously, how can joke games such as synchronised swimming or basketball be counted and squash not? The medallists in those events must be embarrassed every time they remember that they are taking up space and time that could be used for real athletes.
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Squash isn 't a real sport, it's what middle-aged blokes do prevent weight gain. You may as well have medal for Best Atkins diet.

Wasn't it the Spanish basketball team that entered a load of able bodied players to the Para-Olympics? If I remember rightly the coach had to tell them to stop winning so easily because people were getting suspicious.
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They were pretending to be mentals, iirc. Just how tacky is that? The conspiracy must have involved a dozen or more people, all just for the prestige of a medal. At least when sprinters et al cheat, they do so knowing there's a pot of gold for the successful. Buut all they'd have is a medal which they can't boast about or display to their friends without hacving to explain that they're not 'special'.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"Squash isn 't a real sport, it's what middle-aged blokes do prevent weight gain. You may as well have medal for Best Atkins diet."
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I've just taken up squash. To prevent weight gain (or cause weight loss). However, it turns out it's a brilliant game, I'm completely addicted and I'd play every day if I could, I almost like it more than football.
 
C

crackerjack

Well-known member
IdleRich said:
I've just taken up squash. To prevent weight gain (or cause weight loss). However, it turns out it's a brilliant game, I'm completely addicted and I'd play every day if I could, I almost like it more than football.
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My dad played until he knacked his ankle falling out of a tree just short of his 60th birthday. It was a blessing - he'd have had a heart attack by now if he'd carried on.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"My dad played until he knacked his ankle falling out of a tree just short of his 60th birthday. It was a blessing - he'd have had a heart attack by now if he'd carried on."
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One of my friends is a pretty good player and he said something along the lines of "You can't play squash to get fit, you have to get fit to play squash" - apparently getting that the wrong way round is what leads to so many heart attacks. It's not just about fitness though, it's a really tactical game with so many ways to win points, plus it's really satisfying the way you can whack the thing so fucking hard without it going out. Makes me wonder why I wasted so much of my youth playing tennis really, I think squash is way better, I'm actually getting withdrawal symptoms 'cause my partner/opponent has gone on holiday. From what I've read it's the historical difficulty of televising the game and its weakness as a spectator sport that have prevented it from achieving the ubiquity of tennis. You're right though, it seems to be a game that is only played by executives which is a shame, I certainly never played it at school. I think it's time to right the wrong and give it Olympic status.
 
N

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
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mixed_biscuits

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
I think cavils like this from our media are rather pathetic given the utter awfulness of the last major opening ceremony we gave in Manchester, which could have been easily improved by being replaced with CGI - that is, *wholly* replaced with *any* CGI. :eek:
 
N

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
Someone's enjoying it all anyway -

AP0808100390.jpg
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http://gawker.com/5035885/bush-looking-drunk-at-the-olympics
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
Fuck yeah!

Double bronze in the horse thing (not dressage) - I take it all back. It doesn't get any better than this.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
IdleRich said:
Wasn't it the Spanish basketball team that entered a load of able bodied players to the Para-Olympics? If I remember rightly the coach had to tell them to stop winning so easily because people were getting suspicious.
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Haha, no way! Did he just tell them to stick their tongues in the bottom lips, or stumble around a bit?

Edit:
crackerjack said:
They were pretending to be mentals, iirc. Just how tacky is that? The conspiracy must have involved a dozen or more people, all just for the prestige of a medal. At least when sprinters et al cheat, they do so knowing there's a pot of gold for the successful. Buut all they'd have is a medal which they can't boast about or display to their friends without having to explain that they're not 'special'.
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Oh my god, it gets better! I bet they had superb, er, dribbling skills. Ahem.
 
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IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
Here you are

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2000/11/30/para001130.html

Not just basketball apparently

The Spanish sports world took a jolt last week when Carlos Ribagorda, a member of the country's gold medal-winning intellectually handicapped basketball team in Sydney, claimed that he and other medal winners were not mentally disabled.
Ribagorda, who made the allegations in Capital magazine for which he works as a journalist, said up to 15 members of Spain's Paralympic team, in categories such as track, table tennis and swimming, were not disabled.
Martin Vicente told EFE that "the process of psychological evaluation is very difficult because there are no amputations nor obvious physical defect. If someone wants to cheat, it's difficult to detect. It's easy to pretend you have little intelligence, but the opposite is difficult."
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Seems a bit weird to me - in Spain (but nowhere else) a load of people without any mental disability claimed to be disabled and entered sports as diverse as table tennis and swimming and it was in no way down to a systematic attempt by the Spanish team itself to increase their medal quota.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
The Australian Paralympic Committee's chief executive Brendan Flynn earlier said he was suspicious of Spain's intellectually disabled basketball team. He said some of the Spanish players were so talented they could play in Australia's National Basketball League.
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What does that say about the intelligence of Australian basketball players, I wonder?
 
C

crackerjack

Well-known member
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/08/13/georgia_and_russia_throw_sand.html

And the gold medal for wishful thinking goes to those within the Olympic Games hierarchy who thought this morning's meeting between Georgia and Russia in the women's beach volleyball tournament would send a message to the world that sport, even the silliest sport of all, has the power to transcend international conflict.....


But what was to be made of the music choices blared out during the many pauses in this morning's play: Blitzkrieg Bop, by the Ramones? Burning Down The House, by Talking Heads? Sex Bomb, by Tom Jones? If there is a gold medal for crass insensitivity this week, then the rest of the field might as well pack their bags and go home.
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What an unbeliebvably sick twat.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
Looks like that guy would win the gold medal for using the phrase "would win the gold medal for x" every time he wants to describe someone as doing something a lot.

"would send a message to the world that sport, even the silliest sport of all"
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I think that's a bit much, I bet I can think of a hundred sports I would ban from the Olympics before beach volley - although it is a bit weird to have that as well as volley ball and it is more than a little strange that one of the rules governs the maximum size of the competitors' bikinis.
In the comments they say that as well as baseball they have softball at the Olympics! Is that really true? SOFTBALL?!???! I mean baseball is lame and boring and pointless enough but having the children's version as well is completely taking the piss.
My friend sent me an email this morning suggesting sports that should be banned from the Olympics and I've added my own things to attempt to create a comprehensive list. Is there anything I've missed out?

Rich's manifesto to save The Olympics says ban the following:
1. All sports that are decided by judges (synchronised swimming, dressage)
2. All sports where a new category is created for people who aren't very good at it or for people who deliberately choose to handicap themselves (this covers light-rowing, all swimming except free-style, walking races etc)
3. No sports that need loads of equipment and that are thus unfairly weighted towards more prosperous countries (bye-bye to archery, horse stuff, sailing, rowing, the winter olympics in its entirety etc)
4. All sports where the Olympics is not the most (or almost the most) illustrious competition in the sport (football, tennis etc)
5. No really stupid sports (softball, basketball, triple-jump, dressage etc)
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hucks

hucks

Your Message Here
IdleRich said:
My friend sent me an email this morning suggesting sports that should be banned from the Olympics and I've added my own things to attempt to create a comprehensive list. Is there anything I've missed out?
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What's left in? Even athletics has the world championships which some consider superior. I read an interview with Linford Christie saying he was more pleased with his world champ medals than the olympic gold he won.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
IdleRich said:
Is there anything I've missed out?
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So would there be anything left other than the basic track and field events? It'd just be the athletics world champs, mark II.

Edit: x-post with hucks.

Also, I think you're wrong about archery - I reckon there must be indigenous dudes from the Amazonian rain forests or the hill tribes of Burma or wherever who'd totally clean up in the archery events, given half a chance to compete.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
hucks said:
What's left in? Even athletics has the world championships which some consider superior. I read an interview with Linford Christie saying he was more pleased with his world champ medals than the olympic gold he won.
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Sorry to be pedantic (actually, fuck it, I'm in a pedantic mood today), but that was because some of the top Americans happened to be absent due to the I-Can't-Believe-Anyone-Would-Be-So-Stupid-As-To-Do-That American trials system. it wasn't a comment on the value of Olympics gold per se.

In answer to your question though: dressage?
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"What's left in? Even athletics has the world championships which some consider superior. I read an interview with Linford Christie saying he was more pleased with his world champ medals than the olympic gold he won."
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Well, that's why I said "All sports where the Olympics is not the most (or almost the most) illustrious competition in the sport " - I'm pretty sure that the Olympics is either the greatest or almost the most illustrious competion for your average 100m runner. In general my impression is that nowadays the Olympics is considered the greater prize although this was not necessarily the case in previous years when countries boycotted the Olympics more than the World Championships. Even if I'm incorrect in that last assertion I'm sure it's right to say that the differential between World Championship gold and Olympic gold is far smaller than that between winning the (fooball) Wolrd Cup and Olympic football gold.
 
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