Winter Olympics '06

[KingVoyeur]

Thread for latest Olympic news. First coupla days and there's already disappointments for the US team.

'Wasn't my day'
South Korea goes one-two in 1500 as Ohno stumbles
Full story at SI.com (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/olympics/2006/02/12/bc.oly.sho.shorttrack.ap/index.html?cnn=yes)

Kwan withdraws
Injury forces U.S. skater to pull off team; Hughes in
Full story at SI.com (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/olympics/2006/02/11/bc.oly.fig.kwanworkout.ap/index.html?cnn=yes)

Snow kidding
U.S. women take gold, silver in halfpipe, too
Full story at SI.com (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/olympics/2006/02/13/snowboard.women.ap/index.html?cnn=yes)

Medal Standings So Far:

Norway - 8 (Gold-1, Silver-3, Bronze-4)
USA - 5 (G-3, S-2, B-0)
Russia - 5 (G-2, S-2, B-1)
Germany - 3 (G-2, S-0, B-1)
Netherlands - 3 (G-1, S-2, B-0)
Italy - 3 (G-1, S-0, B-2)
South Korea - 2 (G-1, S-1, B-0)
Canada - 2 (G-1, S-0, B-1)
France - 2 (G-1, S-0, B-1)
Austria - 2 (G-0, S-2, B-0)
Finland - 2 (G-0, S-1, B-1)
Estonia - 1 (G-1, S-0, B-0)
Czech Republic - 1 (G-0, S-1, B-0)
China - 1 (G-0, S-0, B-1)
Latvia - 1 (G-0, S-0, B-1)
Switzerland - 1 (G-0, S-0, B-1)

[omicron]

Ok, why the hell are things like snowboarding and icedancing called 'sports'??:confused:

IMHO, anything where the winner is decided by a panel of judges isn't a sport, period.

Omicron

[sickness]

I'm happily not watching the Winter Olympics. So far, it's going well. I'm considering extending it to the Summer Olympics as well.

[neglet]

You're just jealous because no one wants to see you dancing around in a tight, sequined spandex outfit. :(

And based on your description (anything where the winner is decided by a panel of judges isn't a sport, period), I guess baseball isn't a sport because an umpire has to judge between balls and strikes.

I would say snowboarding and ice skating are sports because you can get seriously messed up performing them. Did you see that Chinese skater fall on the ice last night? Or the snowboarder who went up off the slope and missed the pipe on the way down, landing on his back on the edge? Shit, those both look like they hurt. That's enough to make it a sport for me.

[omicron]

Nope, baseball has a score. There is a clear winner and loser.

How do you decide who won the halfpipe? All the skaters(or should that be sk8Trz :) ) go down the hill, and do basically the same tricks. Same with ice skating. Honestly, I don't think I'd watch NUDE ice skating, it's that boring.

Hey Negs, how would you like losing a sparring match because judges decided the other fighter had better form? Shouldn't it be the one who hits the most, or drops the other person, etc?

Again, just IMHO.

[neglet]

Hey Negs, how would you like losing a sparring match because judges decided the other fighter had better form? Shouldn't it be the one who hits the most, or drops the other person, etc?

Actually, that's how they break a tie in TKD scoring. If both competitors score 7 points, for instance, the judges look at how they accrued those points and award victory to the person with better technique. Someone who got seven points from two head shots (2 pts each) and three body shots (one point) each would probably win over someone who got in seven body shots. Or if head and body shots were equal, someone who scored with a spin hook would probably win over someone who just used round kicks, because their technique required more skill. And to muddy things further, you only score points in TKD if the judges decide you do. You may think you scored a body shot, it may feel like you got a clean hit in, but unless the judge sees it and thinks it was a full-on hit, you get nothing. So even the scoring system is based on judges's interpretations.

Almost all sports rely on judgments on some kinds, rather than straight measurements. A miler can cross the finish line first, but if a judge decides he interfered with another runner, he's disqualified. Maybe it's not as easy to watch a sport when victory is determined by a judge's score rather than crossing a finish line, but that doesn't invalidate it as a sport, it just requires a little more self-education to watch and enjoy it.

[Scotia]

Sorry Negs, figure skating is way too subjective and open to interpretation to be considered a sport. It does require skill and conditioning, years of coaching and sacrifice but that only proves it's good exercise, not a competitive event. The mere fact that a "kiss and cry" area exists confirms this for me.

Anyway, what the hell happened to the American women's hockey team?