The London Olympics 2012

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**notprop**

Of course there can be more medal classes in any sport and even new sports added all they have to do is apply to the IOC and be vetted.

Ergo the inclusion of rugby 7's (easy medal for NZ so don't get grumpy AUS!) and golf at the Rio games in 2016.

**Ribon Fox**

Personally I don't see why skate boarding isn't in the Olympics.
Right there you have three 5 different types of disciplines (vert, street, flatland, down hill and slalom).
Same with the rest of the BMX stuff that should be in it (Vert, Street and flatland).
Then add mountain biking (down hill, cross country, North shore, MX-C).
And In line skates (see the skate boarding stuff for the fruit booters).
There are more people that could relate to these sports than my little pony sports and say the dancing in water.

**Grakmar**

Ribon Fox wrote:Personally I don't see why skate boarding isn't in the Olympics.
Right there you have three 5 different types of disciplines (vert, street, flatland, down hill and slalom).
Same with the rest of the BMX stuff that should be in it (Vert, Street and flatland).
Then add mountain biking (down hill, cross country, North shore, MX-C).
And In line skates (see the skate boarding stuff for the fruit booters).
There are more people that could relate to these sports than my little pony sports and say the dancing in water.

The thing is that the Olympics don't want to deal with more governing bodies than they have to. So, they like having things under a single umbrella. For example, the International Swimming Federation governs not only swimming, but also synchronized swimming, diving, and water polo. Skiing handles Alpine, Cross-Country, Nordic Combined, Snowboarding, etc.

The Olympics is open to including skateboarding, but wants to fold it in with the cycling. The head of the International Skateboarding Federation (Gary Ream) is an <expletive> that doesn't want to give up control, so he is fighting any attempts to combine the two. This means that adding skateboarding to the Olympics is going to be a much longer, more difficult process. If it weren't for him, we'd probably have skateboarding in 4 years.

**notprop**

I saw some synchronised swimming yesterday, strangely hypnotic and more entertaining than you might imagine. Russia and Spain I think it was.

Then after about 10 minutes I went and did some DIY, drank some beer, wrestled a Lion and got in a fight with a scotsman; you know to rebalance the manlyness deficit I was clearly experiencing.

**Amaya**

Russia is a dominant force in synchronized swimming. I suppose its ultimately a bit like ballet in water.

**Experiment 626**

Grakmar wrote:
Ribon Fox wrote:Personally I don't see why skate boarding isn't in the Olympics.
Right there you have three 5 different types of disciplines (vert, street, flatland, down hill and slalom).
Same with the rest of the BMX stuff that should be in it (Vert, Street and flatland).
Then add mountain biking (down hill, cross country, North shore, MX-C).
And In line skates (see the skate boarding stuff for the fruit booters).
There are more people that could relate to these sports than my little pony sports and say the dancing in water.

The thing is that the Olympics don't want to deal with more governing bodies than they have to. So, they like having things under a single umbrella. For example, the International Swimming Federation governs not only swimming, but also synchronized swimming, diving, and water polo. Skiing handles Alpine, Cross-Country, Nordic Combined, Snowboarding, etc.

The Olympics is open to including skateboarding, but wants to fold it in with the cycling. The head of the International Skateboarding Federation (Gary Ream) is an <expletive> that doesn't want to give up control, so he is fighting any attempts to combine the two. This means that adding skateboarding to the Olympics is going to be a much longer, more difficult process. If it weren't for him, we'd probably have skateboarding in 4 years.

Not only that, but the IOC won't allow new events if they feel the competition level is severely lacking.

For example, there's serious thought of dropping women's ice hockey from the games because so far, 3 out of 4 gold medal finals have involved the same two teams, and one country has won the gold three times out of four Olympics.
Because the IOC feels there's been so little growth in the competition and only a handfull of countries even compete, they're threatening to drop the event and the most relegate it to a non-medal event.

So the IOC won't allow things like skateboarding if they believe that only a fraction of countries would compete and if it would be utterly dominated by just a bare handfull of nations.
That's the reason they wouldn't allow women's ski jumping in 2010; lack of serious competition and too few nations competing.

Of corse, it's an absolutely moronic stance and proves just how out of touch the old farts running things are, because you're never going to grow a sport if you ban it from the highest levels of international competition!

**Amaya**

That's really stupid.

Women's Basketball is dominated by America. Men's Basketball is dominated by America. Women's soccer is dominated by America and Japan. 100m and 200m events are dominated by those of west African descent typically living in the US, Canada, or the Caribbean. America dominated swimming this year.

You could make an argument for dropping any sport from the Olympics. Certain countries dominate certain sports. Certain body types are better for certain sports.

**mattyrm**

I dunno, I think it makes sense personally.

For example, I dont even know what handball is, I had never heard of it up until a week ago, if one country is full of handballers, and several have never even heard of it, how fair is it to have it in the Olympics?

How is it fair to have Basketball when its huge in the USA and pretty much nowhere else?! Its not like the American men are going to lose to anyone is it?!

As I said, as far as I'm concerned they could drop about 20 sports! I think they should just stick to proper sports that everyone plays and are actually difficult, gak like Triathalon and marathon and such.. feth all this horse tap dancing and such off as well!

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Amaya wrote:
You could make an argument for dropping any sport from the Olympics. Certain countries dominate certain sports. Certain body types are better for certain sports.

There's nothing wrong with dominating, its all about whether or not other nations even know what it fething is!

**Amaya**

Yeah it's a bit daft. The American team doesn't even have all the best players available on it and they're still beating top 5 teams by 20+ points. The women's team hasn't lost an international game in something like 6 years.

It's almost as bad as if they had American Football in the Olympics.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

mattyrm wrote:I dunno, I think it makes sense personally.

For example, I dont even know what handball is, I had never heard of it up until a week ago, if one country is full of handballers, and several have never even heard of it, how fair is it to have it in the Olympics?

How is it fair to have Basketball when its huge in the USA and pretty much nowhere else?! Its not like the American men are going to lose to anyone is it?!

As I said, as far as I'm concerned they could drop about 20 sports! I think they should just stick to proper sports that everyone plays and are actually difficult, gak like Triathalon and marathon and such.. feth all this horse tap dancing and such off as well!

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Amaya wrote:
You could make an argument for dropping any sport from the Olympics. Certain countries dominate certain sports. Certain body types are better for certain sports.

There's nothing wrong with dominating, its all about whether or not other nations even know what it fething is!

I've known what handball is for a long minute, but I understand that not everyone has a passing familiarity with most sports. I believe Dirk Nowitzki's parents were handballers.

**Experiment 626**

Amaya wrote:That's really stupid.

Women's Basketball is dominated by America. Men's Basketball is dominated by America. Women's soccer is dominated by America and Japan. 100m and 200m events are dominated by those of west African descent typically living in the US, Canada, or the Caribbean. America dominated swimming this year.

You could make an argument for dropping any sport from the Olympics. Certain countries dominate certain sports. Certain body types are better for certain sports.

Baseball iirc got dropped from the games because it was overly dominated by only a few countries, women's softball even more so.
Men's basketball isn't quite as bad, as other nations are catching up. (China will be scary good in a few more years) Women's basketball though is a joke, but again, while the US is dominant so far in Olympic women's soccer, other nations have much more skilled players - they're just badly out muscled by a much physically bigger US squad. (Both Japan and Canada also got royally screwed over by the officiating in their games vs the US to boot which helped to drastically alter the outcome of both games!

)

And while the US dominated in the racing events in the pool, they're winning most of those races by quite litteraly tenth's or hundreths of a second! That's not anywhere near the same as say what's happening with the women's basketball team outscoring opponents by 20-30+ per game! (or the Canadian women's hockey team who win most games by 4-6+ goals!)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not for dropping any sports just because a very small number of nations compete and/or dominate! I think it's

'ing stupid because all it does is completely discourage the sport outside of those small number of 'hot spots'.
Having sports that right now are clearly dominated by three or four countries might seem silly, but it's more importantly promoting that sport and giving kids the idea of taking it up so that they can perhaps one day compete on the world stage!

And for the record, Canada doesn't really have 'dominant' sprinters because it's hard to train properly when your entire country is frozen for upto half the year!

(we've had Donovan Baily, and the idiot who had no clue how to hide his doping, but we like to point out he's not actually Canadian born...)

**mattyrm**

I think they should drop plenty of gymnastics as well me, I'm not saying drop all of them, but some of them look kinda impressive despite being ultimately pointless.

I wonder what the Greeks would make of that Russian bird fething about with a pink soccer ball!

**Mannahnin**

After they got past it being a woman competing in the Olympics, the ancient Greeks would have been amazed and impressed. Her coordination, balance and flexibility were stunning.

**mattyrm**

Mannahnin wrote:After they got past it being a woman competing in the Olympics, the ancient Greeks would have been amazed and impressed. Her coordination, balance and flexibility were stunning.

They are, I'm not saying it doesn't look impressive, but its more like a graceful and fluid dance than a contest or something.

It's not a fething sport is it!

**Mannahnin**

I was just watching Wrestling, and last night caught some Tae Kwan Do. Have you? It's kind of stunning sometimes how much subjectivity there is in awarding points, even in events where folks are competing directly to physically beat one another.

**mattyrm**

Nah I haven't watched much to be honest, I can see it being tough to call because nobody gets knocked the feth out, so obviously it has to just be a case of "who do you think fought the best?"

As I said, Im not massively into the Olympics, I just watched the gymnastics because I like watching the limber chicks dance.

**Mannahnin**

Well, they do have rules. TKD it's a point if you strike the red padded torso with your foot; two if you get the head, three if you land a spinning kick to the torso or four if you land a spinning kick to the head. They go three rounds, whoever gets more points two out of three wins.

Wrestling uses the same best two of three system; 1pt for taking someone down, 2pts if you get their shoulders turned 90 degrees from the ground, 3pts if you take them off their feet and get their back to touch the ground.

It's still scary how subjective it gets with the judges awarding points.

Yeah, the limber chicks dancing are pretty awesome.

My wife's from Eastern Europe, so of course she's way into it, and was disappointed that the Bulgarian chick didn't get any airtime. And was annoyed about the winner being overscored. Still, I thought those top three were all pretty darn impressive.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jpmoore/21-reasons-olympic-rhythmic-gymnastics-is-cooler-t

**BolingbrokeIV**

Most of the scoring in the Taekwondo events was made by pressure pads in the protective gear, not the judges. They really only come into play on headshots and fighters can appeal if they think they got one which didn't score. From what I watched the judges got it right 99% of the time and most appeals were turned down.

that was an awesome night.

**Amaya**

Case in point, US Womens team beat France by 36 in the gold medal game. Not remotely close...

**SilverMK2**

What time is the closing ceromony starting?

**filbert**

mattyrm wrote:I dunno, I think it makes sense personally.

For example, I dont even know what handball is, I had never heard of it up until a week ago, if one country is full of handballers, and several have never even heard of it, how fair is it to have it in the Olympics?

It's not so much that handball is a minority sport but more that it is a minority sport within the UK - outside of the UK, it is absolutely massive (barring USA - I'm not sure they are big handballers) but it is a big sport in Europe for example.

**Kilkrazy**

The thing is there's no way a nation can play every sport and most nations have their traditional sports at which naturally they are going to be strong.

Any sport requiring a larger team or special equipment is going to be harder to get off the ground as a new introduction. The UK already has netball for girls at school, so it might be fairly easy to convert to basketball or handball. The three sports are very simiar. But how would the USA convert from baseball to cricket? Despite the availability of playing space, cricket isn't part of the culture.

**SilverMK2**

Kilkrazy wrote:But how would the USA convert from baseball to cricket? Despite the availability of playing space, cricket isn't part of the culture.

Plus the uniforms aren't silly enough.

**mattyrm**

We could convert to Baseball, its basically rounders.. you know, that game we all played when we were little kids before we realised it was ridiculous and surely nobody over the age of 10 would actually take it seriously.

Right?

**Kilkrazy**

Cricket is much more widely played than baseball.

**SilverMK2**

Kilkrazy wrote:Cricket is much more widely played than baseball.

The only places I've ever really heard Baseball played are America and Japan. And a little bit in Mexico and Canada.

**Mannahnin**

Central America and some of the islands have strong Baseball cultures too. A lot of big professional players in the US are Dominican, Cuban, etc.

**Melissia**

Was going through the Onion and found this little gem:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/gabby-douglas-excited-to-return-to-her-abnormal-to,29122/

LONDON—Women's individual all-around gold medalist and media darling Gabby Douglas admitted Thursday that as much as she loves all the attention she has received at the Olympics, she’s looking forward to returning to her completely abnormal, fethed-up life back in the United States.

"This trip has been incredible, but really I'm already starting to miss home and being a weird kid who doesn’t have any friends," said the 16-year-old gymnast, who told reporters her teammates have been wonderful, but conceded she’s more accustomed to the incredibly bizarre existence of never talking to anybody aside from her coach. "I didn't think I would miss it so much, but I guess I'm just like anybody else my age who practices gymnastics more than eight hours a day, every single day of the year."

It has been increasingly common, in interviews, for Douglas to yearn aloud for everything to be as fethed up and strange as it was before the Olympics. Considering herself an irregular American teenager with a deranged obsession with gymnastics, she confirmed she has been pining to go back to her completely freakish life of being isolated from her family in Virginia by living hundreds of miles away from them in Des Moines, IA, where she compulsively trains.

"When I go back home I'll finally be able to talk to all the other girls who act as if they’re friends because they have no other choice," said Douglas, who expressed enthusiasm about seeing her crazy-ass, atypical kid’s stuff in her bedroom, which includes gymnastics trophies and pictures of herself participating in international competitions. "It's just been kind of crazy having people telling me where to go, who to talk to, and when to smile at cameras instead of telling me when to practice, how to get better, and when to smile in my routine."

Her first order of business upon returning home, Douglas said, will be to flop down on her host family’s couch all by herself and watch one of the many movies she wasn’t able to go see over the past three years. After that, the thing she is most excited to do is get back to practicing gymnastics.

"Is it weird that I even kind of miss doing homework?" said Douglas, referring to the only concept of school she knows—a series of worksheets she completes on nights and weekends in order to fulfill a base-level of education without interfering with her training schedule. "Oh, and pizza. I can't wait to go back and eat some pizza."

"Well, it's not like normal pizza," Douglas added. "That's not really part of my diet regimen. It's kind of a low-calorie, healthy pizza thing without any cheese. But it's still pretty good.”

The teenager with a smile that has lit up the nation goes by the nickname "Flying Squirrel," a moniker she didn't get by acting silly in class with friends or because of some inside joke with her family, but rather from the fact that she flies around on uneven bars for a living.

“As excited as I am to return to my abnormal life back home, I’ll never forget how magical London has been,” Douglas said. “Because having a goal pounded into my head over and over again until it becomes more recognizable than basic human emotions is probably my favorite thing in the world to do.”

**Testify**

The Onion is rubbish.

Anyone know if there's a medals-per-capita breakdown?

**Mannahnin**

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/londonspy/olympic-medal-per-capita-table-125300447.html

The Onion is rubbish.

Obvious troll is obvious. That Gabby piece is really not a good one, though.

**Melissia**

The Onion is only rubbish if you think that it's a real paper, even though they specifically state that they are not.