Olympic Bullshit

[baboon2004]

I'm surprised a lot of people still think she was having a piss, when in fact she was crapping. I wonder if we'd be taking the, err, piss quite as much/even more if a bloke did it...?

tbh I think it would've been judged more acceptable for a man (though obv they'd still have been ridiculed for a while)

 

[Slothrop]

Yeah, the whole thing is pointless, but even given that, the breast stroke is higher up the internal hierarchy of pointlessness than the 100m sprint or even any of the freestyle swimming events.

But still nowhere near as pointless as football, hockey, tennis, badminton etc. We don't come up with sports based on whether or not they're pointless, we come up with them based on whether or not they're challenging to do and interesting / impressive to watch.

 

[droid]

Yeah, the whole thing is pointless, but even given that, the breast stroke is higher up the internal hierarchy of pointlessness than the 100m sprint or even any of the freestyle swimming events.

Why is the breast stroke/butterfly any more pointless than the hurdles?

All sporting events are simply combinations of objectives and restrictions. By those criteria, wouldnt football be more pointless than rugby because its easier to just pick up the ball and run instead of all that unnecessarily fiddly kicking and passing stuff?

 

[baboon2004]

i always thought swimming was a bit rubbish to watch, but I enjoy athletics a lot - probably because I know a lot more about it and can get into the characters/history/culture of it, cos in essence the two sports are similar in excitement value

 

[droid]

I gained a relatively newfound respect for swimming a few years back when I tried to do some butterfly strokes whilst out for a swim on hols. After about two attempts my entire body ached for days.

Running is easy, swimming is really, really hard.

 

[IdleRich]

"But still nowhere near as pointless as football, hockey, tennis, badminton etc. We don't come up with sports based on whether or not they're pointless, we come up with them based on whether or not they're challenging to do and interesting / impressive to watch."

True enough. I guess it just seems that running and swimming are analogous and you don't have these extra events with imposed conditions in running. I don't think hurdles is an argument against that, hurdles is running over harder terrain, not running in a sub-optimal manner.
I think there seems to be a distinction between the "purer" sports such as athletics and ones which are basically games (eg football). I don't at all mean to belittle the games, I just think about them subconsciously in a different way. Though in my olympics which would ban all the silly-walk swim styles I would probably also get rid of most of the teamsports cos in the majority of cases the olympics isn't the main event. I'd also get rid of synchronised swimming, synchronised diving, dressage, yachting etc etc
Or maybe you should have a lower class of event - gold in dressage for some fat millionaire sat on a horse should not even have the same name as the reward you get for years of slogging your guts out round a track or in a pool or whatever.
Agreed though - butterfly is fucking difficult.

 

[Slothrop]

Racewalking is an olympic sport (and has been since the modern olympics has existed), though - that's pretty much analagous to breast stroke, I think...

It's an old chestnut, but I'd totally agree with removing anything where the olympics isn't the main event (including the cycling road race FWIW), I don't really see how they can justify the inclusion of sports where even people who are interested in that sport don't know who the olympic champions are.

 

[baboon2004]

the football obviously being the worst offender of all, redefining pointlessness

 

[IdleRich]

Men's football.

"Racewalking is an olympic sport (and has been since the modern olympics has existed), though - that's pretty much analagous to breast stroke, I think..."

I was gonna mention the walking one but I thought that it was so obvious that that shouldn't exist that I didn't even need to mention it. Agreed it is analogous to breast stroke. Although there isn't one over a hundred metres and if there was I doubt that Usain Bolt would enter.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Please dig out the article about sportspeople shitting mid-contest.

AFTER RACING NEARLY 140 miles, first through the ocean, then across the blackened lava fields of Kona, Hawaii, Julie Moss crested the final hill of the 1982 Ironman Triathlon alone in front, hovering near delirium. She was also about 45 seconds from becoming, as she remembers it, "the ultimate, giant, chocolate mess."

Since the 16-mile mark of the marathon, Moss, a vivacious 23-year-old with a shock of red hair, had managed to hold back the field as well as the considerable contents of her intestines. Suddenly, like a beacon in the Pacific twilight, a Sizzler steak house appeared, cool and inviting, atop the hill on Palani Road. Almost a half mile from the finish, Moss had a gastronomical gamble to make. She gazed back and forth, evaluating her options -- relief by way of the Sizzler bathroom in front, an evaporating lead in the inky darkness behind -- all the while contemplating the ultimate unspeakable taboo almost every elite athlete faces at some point.

Do I stop? Or go?

Exhausted and dangerously dehydrated, Moss was losing control of her body with every step. But she trudged on, pushing herself toward victory. The legs went first. A quarter mile after passing the Sizzler, Moss wobbled, then her knees buckled inward and she telescoped to the ground like a dynamited building. The moment she hit the pavement, her bowels cut loose, emptying against her will. The torrent breached her dainty, light-blue running shorts and moved down her legs, where the hot, acidic fecal matter stung her skin and the putrid stench tattooed the inside of her nostrils.

http://espn.go.com/espn/print?id=5651802&type=story

 

[IdleRich]

That's written with rather too much salivating for my liking. Then what happened, did she continue? Surely she must have done after 145 miles.

 

[grizzleb]

Me and my little bro got right into the women's weightlifting yesterday. Pretty nuts seeing pretty 19 year old tunisian girls lifting the weight of an obese person over their heads. Some interesting characters doing that I'd thought, not exactly the most obviously glamorous sport for women to be doing.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Anyone know how our very own Sunny Brar is getting on?

I heard she has a very impressive sna-...no, I'm sorry, I just can't.

 

[mistersloane]

http://espn.go.com/espn/print?id=5651802&type=story

I really have to ask, did you look that up...or...sorry. I do just have to ask. Like Rich says, it's lacivious.

 

[Bangpuss]

Suddenly, like a beacon in the Pacific twilight, a Sizzler steak house appeared

Oh yeah. Sizzler steak house. Imagine if she'd taken the calculated risk of reducing her lead, rushed into the Sizzler and discovered they were a) out of bog-roll; or b) the toilets were busy.

I agree it's lacivious. But that's what makes it funny. This must have been nominated for a Pulitzer, you'd think...

 

[Bangpuss]

David Inglis, a professor at Scotland's Aberdeen University and the author of A Sociological History of Excretory Experience

That's one for the Dissensus book club, surely.

 

[Mr. Tea]

I really have to ask, did you look that up...or...sorry. I do just have to ask. Like Rich says, it's lacivious.

It was just lurking my browser history - probably someone sent it in an email yonks ago. Quite possibly my brother, he's good for stories like that - or like this.

 

[baboon2004]

"After the crash, Chance had a broken neck, a crushed face, a fractured skull, and traumatic brain injuries. Doctors had to bring him back to life three times."

Sounds like a bit of a whinger to me.

 

[Leo]

probably not news to you at this point, but...

After Warnings of an Olympic Crush, Businesses Suffer in a Deserted London


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/03/s...sses-suffer-in-a-deserted-london.html?_r=1&hp

 

[baboon2004]

yeah, it's fucking eerie. best tube experience of my life over the past week. Long live the Olympics!

Decent comment from a guy in Atlanta:

"Before the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta the hype was: Restaurants will be packed, retailers will have record sales, rent your house or apartment for $10,000 per week – everybody gets rich!!

Folks it did not happen. Any non-sponsor was not even allowed anywhere near the actual Olympic venues, retailers lost money because the fear of all the crowds actually kept customers away and no apartment rented for $10K…or at all for that matter.

Sure, a couple of the Olympic venues are now put to good use – the baseball stadium and natatorium – but at what cost? We found this was pure hype and I do not know of one local that benefited one iota – know a quite a few that bought into the hype and lost.

As far as the ‘prestige’ of being the host city – baloney – you are left the dead carcass of the games and a lot of debt and traveling show moves on to the next sucker."