We have been watching far too much of the Olympics.
Last time the Olympics were on I was looking forward to catching fragments in the evenings and mornings (Sydney being almost exactly out of phase with Surrey) but not really seeing all that much since I was working. Then I handed in my notice at my Oracle job and was asked to serve out my notice period at home, and hey banana! I got to watch a great deal of Olympic coverage. Good timing.
This time we're suffering through NBC's really quite bad coverage, where prime time is reserved for gymnastics and actual sport is relegated to very late night and the small hours. I've stayed up late more times in the last fortnight than in the last six months.
... which leads me to the glorious blog DFL, courtesy of The Register, celebrating last place finishers at the Athens Olympics. The point which gets lost in the first place frenzy and the sarcastic remarks from commentators is that even the tail end charlies are phenomenal athletes, worthy of respect simply for getting there.
I'm training for a marathon and expect to finish in around five hours. The last place finisher in the women's marathon on Sunday finished in 3:48:42. Dreadful in comparison to the winners of course (and not a time that even qualify the runner for the Boston Marathon...), but still vastly better than the common herd.
"Because they're there, and you're not." Quite.
One incredibly interesting piece of information on DFL is the number of athletes competing for each country. I'd like to see that applied to the medals table too, just to get some sense of how the size of the country affects the scale of the medal haul. For instance, the USA has entered 1,558 athletes and (as I write this) has 25 gold medals (73 total). Britain has entered 355 athletes which suddenly makes the country's haul of 7 golds (23 total) seem vastly more respectable.
I'm going to miss the Olympics when they're over, but I'll be glad when they're finished just because I'll get more sleep.
Posted by Dunx at August 25, 2004 09:58 AM
Gymnastics *is* an actual sport.
The Beeb have 5 parallel broadcast streams to play with and it's still a hit and miss affair as to whether the events I want to see get coverage. They're relentlessly thorough about the athletics though, which I guess you'd count as actual sport.
I'm going to miss the games when they're over too.
Ah - I thought I had written something else. Competitive gymnastics most certainly is a real sport (although some of the judging has been bizarre enough to make one doubt this) and we've enjoyed watching it.
What I was objecting to was NBC showing the "champions' gala" exhibition where the competitors were doing parts of their routines without the onerous burden of being judged instead of actual competitive sport. That's not on.
Hmm. I take issue with that. Sports that require post-event scoring have always seemed to me to be "sports made up for people who don't do sport". "Artistic interpretation" should not be part of any sport. Dance competitions, yes - but then you'd not count tap dancing as a sport. So why gymnastics? Synchronised bouncing / jumping? Sport gets scored by achieving stated aims (scoring a goal in football, a try in rugby, first across the line in a race etc), or by points marked immediately (boxing, judo etc) - and in points scored sports, there's usually a "I win outright" option (a knockout in boxing, throttling your opponent to death in judo (although that's usually commuted to a submission or a 25 (I'm sure it used to be 30) second hold down)).
Gymnastics (and other similar "sports"), clever and athletic though it is, belongs in the ranks of dance competitions. It's subjective, as is diving (as proved in the wildly differing marks given during the diving competitions in the Athens Olympics) and other "judged" "sports". And subjectivity should have no place in sport. Admittedly (before someone picks up on this point) there is always an amount of subjectivity in any sport when it comes down to interpretation of the rules by a referee, but at least the referee is *supposed* to apply the same judgement to all sides / participants.
Not that that makes it any less valid a pastime than football, running or boxing - but neither does it make it any more a sport than flower arranging.
(Phew - I might have to put that in my own 'blog...) :-)