Winter Olympics

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This may cause a bit of controversy so I'm posting it here.

IMHO, we should just make a rule that the Winter Olympics should always be held in countries like Norway, Sweden, Finland, Austria, or Canada. People like the Swedes, Norwegians, and Fins simply OWN these events, so we may as well go all the way and just let them host the games too. They probably invented most of the sports that we watch anyway, and unlike places like Torino, they actually have snow in the winter.

The only sports we Americans excel at (during the Winter Games) are the ones we made up - like snowboarding. I don't think many people in Europe started snowboarding until a few years ago, so naturally they aren't going to be as good at it as we are.

And some of the events that they have in the Winter Olympics make no sense. Like the biathlon. Combines cross country skiing with target shooting. WTF? What's the connection?

The final recommendation I have is that the U.S. never get to host another Winter Games ever. Americans like the Summer Olympics - we actually follow some of those sports at times other than at the Olympics. But the Winter Olympics are more of a curiosity to us than anything. We don't really get any sense of great national pride from our winter olympians (there are of course some exceptions) because we really don't care about these sports. To show how little we care, American Idol absolutely destroyed the Olympics in TV ratings last night. Wasn't even close. It also seems to me that Euopeans care a whole lot more about the Winter Olympics than we do, so we may as well always do it over there.

 

At least two James Bond movies.

 

Hmm...skiing, shooting...just add in numerous shots of Jagermeister and several hundred de-winged quail...and it looks to me like an uniquely American sport.

Actually, the US isn't doing to badly...
Total Medal Count: Top 5
Country Total
Norway 1 6 6 13
Russia 5 2 4 11
Germany 5 4 1 10
United States 6 2 1 9
Canada 1 3 4 8

Those numbers are for gold, silver and bronze medals and then total. The US has more golds than anyone else.

But there is something about Winter Olympic sports that seems rather alien.

 

The U.S. doesn't do too poorly. But I agree, they should be held mostly in European countries, generally the ones with the best Alps. However, considering they are Worldwide, I think every once in a while, they should move around, to get other countries more excited about them. Perhaps thats why they had them in Salt Lake, to get Americans more excited about them.

And we do have excellent athletes in other sports. Check out the mogul skiing, and speed skating. We haven't won many medals, but we certaintly have talent.

 

Russia is doing a lot better than last time. I remember Scandinavian countries were leaving Russia to the 4th or 5th place 4 years ago, but now Russia is second - total medal count.

 

Heh, Australia's record at the Winter Olympics is less than impressive. Until Steven Bradbury won the speed skating four years ago in spectacular fashion (read: everyone else crashed), we'd never won gold there.

I guess when your country is 50% desert, that shouldn't be too surprising. Still, one gold on the board for us so far this time around.

I also don't understand the biathlon - I know it's very demanding, but it'd be the equivalent of combining swimming and fighting into one event at the Summer Olympics (and would probably mean more gold for Australia, given our pool performances).

What I'd like to see would be an "involuntary luge" or "involuntary bobsled" event... I think they're the only sports you could make someone do against their will.

 

It's funny really, we dutch absolutely love speedskating but we are getting our arses kicked by the americans. Yet when Chad Hadrick visited the tonight show he was heralded in as Chad Hendrick. Americans really do not appreciate athletes other than the major sports such as baseball :yawn:, basketball or american football.

But on the snow subject, looks like theres enough snow isn't there?

 

Well, they are making it, and due to above freezing temperatures during the day, and below freezing temperatures at night, it may be more appropriate to say they are making ice. There has hardly been any natural snow in Torino all year.

And the Winter Olympics ARE alien to Americans. The three biggests sports in the U.S. are football (obviously the American version of it), baseball and basketball. With the exception of basketball, none of those are Olympic sports. But that's not the whole of it. There are many college sports that have followings, but most of those are geared towards the summer olympics. For example, most college and universities have track and field teams, swim teams, diving teams, rowing teams, but very few (if any) college and universities have ski jump teams, or biathlon teams or speed skating teams.

And I also think that the gold medal count is a bit of an unfair assessment. It's great that we have 6 golds, but I think that 4 of those 6 are in snowboarding events - a sport that we invented and have been doing it so much longer, it's only natural to assume we're going to be better at it. It's not like we've won 6 golds in a wide array of events.

EDIT: and the next winter olympics are in Vancover - which is also OK by me. While Canada is definitely not Europe, our northern neighbors know their snow sports too - so I have no problem with a Canadian winter olympics. I also think that places like Norway, Finland, Sweden, etc., should get a shot at the winter games because it's not likely that they could ever host the summer games. Not that they don't get warm weather, but rather they lack the facilities. For the winter olympics though, they have natural available facilities all around them.

Also, while I didn't explicitly say it, I DO think the U.S. is an appropriate country for hosting the summer olympics.

 

The more that the Oympics committees can raise the profile of all their sports (summer, winter, Special, etc) the more sponsorship money they can attract for their athletes and the more $ can be made by everyone involved. That sounds cynical, and maybe it is a little, but i don't see it as that bad a thing. IMHO, the money that governments spend on their athletes could be better spent on education and health care for the masses, not just training for the elite few, but at the same time, that money could also be worse spent on weaponry or terrorism, so sports funding isn't high on my lst of pet peeves.

As for the Vancouver Winter Olympics, I think it's great that some of that tourism money will be pumped into the Canadian economy, but I predict that the games themselves will be a disaster as the West Coast penchant for screwing things up will make the games an organizational SNAFU of epic proportions (apologies to my BC friends, to whom I'll also point out that IIRC the Calgary games were also 'organizationally challenged', so I'm not claiming Alberta was any better at hosting than BC is likely to be.)

 

I don't know much about the infrastructure of Vancover - or much about Vancover in general for the matter. Although I seem to remember it's on Canada's west coast, just a bit north of Seattle. I'm assuming it has a climate similar to Seattle, meaning that the winters aren't particularly cold. Seattle gets a whole lot more rain in the winter than snow. It also seems rather lacking in mountains, another essential for the winter olympics. Then again, we had an olympics in Lake Placid, NY, another state not exactly known for having huge mountains (the Appilacian Mountains aren't nearly as big as the Rockies).

 

There's plenty of GREAT skiing around Vancouver -- when it comes to natural terrain I think the city will have it fine. It's just when it comes to man-made infrastructure and organizational skills that Vancouver will hit some serious problems. Vancouver is well known for being the Pot capital of Canada, and say what you will about the positive effects of weed, it does not imbue its users with great organizational skills

(I know I'm playing into the typical North Van stereotype here -- I can't help it! )

 

People don't have to like everything; I mean, come on, what you want? a worldwide baseball event? I think that any European or at least most of them wouldn't care about it; I remember when Argentinians were champions in... paddle... of course they should be because nobody else in the world play it!
So, we should ban winter olympics so Americans can show the world their supremacy at normal olympics?
And as it is pointed here, USA is first in the medal count, meaning that they have lots of excellent players.
You would found that biathlon is this or that, the same will people think about IndyCar or baseball.
And the same, I think that luge and similar sports and the fly skiing (the one where one guy skiies donwhill to jump some 100mts) are sports where man do almost nothing, I mean, yes, something they should do to get it right, but I heard many of the jumpers complaining about the wind, so what? if they do nothing but let them fall and gravity do the rest!
You see, people have different taste, and there's a lot of people (I think that half of the world) who will enjoy watching this events, as there should be another millions of people that likes to watch a 4 hours baseball game, including me.

 

Is this a joke? I'm sorry, but I don't know you well enough to know if you just have a dry sense of humor. Try typing "WBC" or "World Baseball Classic" into google. There IS a worldwide baseball event. We'll see how well the public reacts to it though.

No, I never said that. I said that the winter olympics should always be held in countries like Norway, Finland, Sweden, etc. because they have the best natural terrain, and it seems like Europeans enjoy them a whole lot more than Americans do, so it makes sense that they should be located in a country where the population is the most interested.

Why did you think I was trying to ban the winter olympics? I totally cannot see how you got that. If anything, I was saying that in most winter olympic sports the Europeans are BETTER than the Americans - probably because there is more interest in these sports in Europe - and thus we should always let Europeans host the games - preferably northern European countries who know a thing or three about snow based sports.

 

Ok, maybe I didn't express myself correctly.
There maybe a worldwide baseball event but I don't think that is very much known; as you expample with American Idol, I think that if most people around the world should choose from a baseball event and a reality, I'd say that reality will win.

I think that is not totally correct that Europeans are better in most winter olympics sports, because somehow, USA is winning more medals than the rest; and I think too that USA has lots of places where to practice these kind of sports; the point here seems to be the lack of 'general' interest in the winter olympics; but I always thougt that whatever people tell me that this shows has more rating than the other doesn't mean that the whole people watch that.

Resuming; I know that winter olympics maybe a curiosity for many people and not just only in the USA, (ask Africans, even tho today half continent watched the first Africans to compite in the cross country) but I know that there should be plenty of people that likes winter sports too and I'm sure that those people would love to host them (Aspen?).

 

I would just like to point out that Finland is not an ideal place for the Winter Olympics, as we lack mountains. I also think that the Olympics should be hosted more in such places where it is not that popular, to promote it.

 

Actually, in a recent poll (I can't find it now, I'll try to, and post it), America's favorite sport to watch was Football. Followed by Olympic Skating. Baseball was number 6 (MLB).

EDIT: I can't find the poll... but various Olympic events were higher than MLB baseball and NBA basketball.

[ February 18, 2006, 00:29: Message edited by: Saber ]

 

The one thing that I really don't like about the Olympics is the lack of a mercy rule. The Canadian womens hockey team is the perfect example. This is supposed to be a friendly competition, yet there are scores of 16-0, 12-0, and the closest for them being 8-1. It became less about the game and more disrespect. Sure, there is always the goal differential involved, but sportsmanship can really be lacking at times.

 

LKD,

Sports is very helpful to the poorer portion of the population. Maybe this is not the case with countries like Norway, but everywhere else where there is a big ammount of poor people, sports can change many people's lives.
Not only that, but having high class sportsmen - and women - can bring lots of benefits to the society and the Country. Plus, spending money on the development of sports ensues a healthy population, not only physically, as it envolves things like discipline, determination, willpower, self sacrifice etc.

 

If you could find that poll, I'd be really interested. I am really surprised that figure staking is ranked #2, because other than the Olympics, I can't even think of any televised figure skating events. I find it surprising that it can be #2 if you cannot even find said event to watch. I also watch Sportscenter on ESPN a lot, and I cannot recall (again, other than the Olympics) when figure skating ever gets mentioned. I cannot envision how figure skating can be anywhere near the mainstream, and certainly not the 2nd most popular in the U.S.

In the U.S., NFL, MLB, and NBA (in that order) are known as the "Big Three". In terms of watching sports, I know that NASCAR is very popular as well, and I wouldn't be entirely shocked if NASCAR rated higher than MLB or NBA, but not NFL.

 

Fuson: New Winter Olympic sport: Vice presidents will shoot, score
Fuson of Des Moines Register