events that should not be in Olympics

[BradVesp]

that's fine but dancing on skates is not a game or sport
we called our Track and Field events ''meets''
definition of game does say ''play''.....so if they are at ''play''
play

1. engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.

it seems more serious than not....these people train seriously for a long time
it should be just ''The Olympics'' then

Dancing's tough and takes strength and skill , but it's such an arbitrary seeming point system that it's not a sport or game.

it appears they usually do different routines/dances

Then it's incomparable. It's just silly.

How can comment or make judgements on a sport you know nothing about at all? All you do is reveal your arrogance and your ignorance.

Ice dancers are marked on their difficulty and execution of their elements which are clearly defined, their skating skills and their performance.

The Short Dances have two “compulsory” dance sequences which are required and identical to all of the other competitors. This season it was the Rhumba. They are also required to do a dance spin, twizzles, a non-touch footwork sequence and a footwork sequence in dance hold. And two different lifts. Each element is assigned a baseline level which is determined by how difficult it is and how many “features” it has.

The skaters choose their elements creating unique moves, within the rules. They pick their music, the costumes and the order of their elements.

that's what it is --''dancing on skates''
why don't they just go out and do their triple whatever?? why all the dancing?
aren't they judged-- not marked?

Since we brought in baseball and to tie the two comments together: I've never understood why a pitcher winds up. It seems like wasted energy and then a liability when there's a runner on base. They should just go out there an pitch from the stretch all the time. It doesn't seem to make much difference for most pitchers, but I imagine they'd say otherwise.

 

[harmonica]

Dancing's tough and takes strength and skill , but it's such an arbitrary seeming point system that it's not a sport or game.

it appears they usually do different routines/dances

Then it's incomparable. It's just silly.

How can comment or make judgements on a sport you know nothing about at all? All you do is reveal your arrogance and your ignorance.

Ice dancers are marked on their difficulty and execution of their elements which are clearly defined, their skating skills and their performance.

The Short Dances have two “compulsory” dance sequences which are required and identical to all of the other competitors. This season it was the Rhumba. They are also required to do a dance spin, twizzles, a non-touch footwork sequence and a footwork sequence in dance hold. And two different lifts. Each element is assigned a baseline level which is determined by how difficult it is and how many “features” it has.

The skaters choose their elements creating unique moves, within the rules. They pick their music, the costumes and the order of their elements.

that's what it is --''dancing on skates''
why don't they just go out and do their triple whatever?? why all the dancing?
aren't they judged-- not marked?

Since we brought in baseball and to tie the two comments together: I've never understood why a pitcher winds up. It seems like wasted energy and then a liability when there's a runner on base. They should just go out there an pitch from the stretch all the time. It doesn't seem to make much difference for most pitchers, but I imagine they'd say otherwise.

is there any stats on effectiveness stretch vs wind up?

 

[Dragonlady]

that's fine but dancing on skates is not a game or sport
we called our Track and Field events ''meets''
definition of game does say ''play''.....so if they are at ''play''
play

1. engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.

it seems more serious than not....these people train seriously for a long time
it should be just ''The Olympics'' then

Dancing's tough and takes strength and skill , but it's such an arbitrary seeming point system that it's not a sport or game.

it appears they usually do different routines/dances

Then it's incomparable. It's just silly.

How can comment or make judgements on a sport you know nothing about at all? All you do is reveal your arrogance and your ignorance.

Ice dancers are marked on their difficulty and execution of their elements which are clearly defined, their skating skills and their performance.

The Short Dances have two “compulsory” dance sequences which are required and identical to all of the other competitors. This season it was the Rhumba. They are also required to do a dance spin, twizzles, a non-touch footwork sequence and a footwork sequence in dance hold. And two different lifts. Each element is assigned a baseline level which is determined by how difficult it is and how many “features” it has.

The skaters choose their elements creating unique moves, within the rules. They pick their music, the costumes and the order of their elements.

that's what it is --''dancing on skates''
why don't they just go out and do their triple whatever?? why all the dancing?
aren't they judged-- not marked?

There are four events in figure Skating: Men’s, Ladies’, Pairs’ and Ice Dance, and they require different skills.

Singles skaters, both Men and Ladies, do jumps. Ladies do triples, Men do quads and triples. Both do spins, footwork, and connecting moves.

Pairs do side by side triple jumps in unison (more difficult than it sounds), spins in unison, but also have overhead lifts and throw jumps (triples and quads). Very dangerous stuff.

Ice Dancers are not allowed to jump. Nor are they allowed to do overhead lifts. Men cannot raise their arms above their shoulders on the lifts. Their elements are twizzles (travelling rapidly across the ice while spinning in unison), lifts, dance spins, footwork (both non-touching or in dance hold). Dancers can do multiple lifts but all must be different: straight line, curved, rotational.

In singles, the jumps tell the tale. Women have 7 jumping passes, men 8, and can do up to 3 jump combinations. They also have spins, and footwork and they must be able to do all of the elements at the highest levels to win.

Pairs only have 2 jumping passes. But they also have two throws, three lifts, two spins, and a release move. In lifts, the man must rotate while travelling across the ice while holding the woman over his head with one hand, while she changes positions while in the air.

 

[harmonica]

Dancing's tough and takes strength and skill , but it's such an arbitrary seeming point system that it's not a sport or game.

it appears they usually do different routines/dances

Then it's incomparable. It's just silly.

How can comment or make judgements on a sport you know nothing about at all? All you do is reveal your arrogance and your ignorance.

Ice dancers are marked on their difficulty and execution of their elements which are clearly defined, their skating skills and their performance.

The Short Dances have two “compulsory” dance sequences which are required and identical to all of the other competitors. This season it was the Rhumba. They are also required to do a dance spin, twizzles, a non-touch footwork sequence and a footwork sequence in dance hold. And two different lifts. Each element is assigned a baseline level which is determined by how difficult it is and how many “features” it has.

The skaters choose their elements creating unique moves, within the rules. They pick their music, the costumes and the order of their elements.

that's what it is --''dancing on skates''
why don't they just go out and do their triple whatever?? why all the dancing?
aren't they judged-- not marked?

There are four events in figure Skating: Men’s, Ladies’, Pairs’ and Ice Dance, and they require different skills.

Singles skaters, both Men and Ladies, do jumps. Ladies do triples, Men do quads and triples. Both do spins, footwork, and connecting moves.

Pairs do side by side triple jumps in unison (more difficult than it sounds), spins in unison, but also have overhead lifts and throw jumps (triples and quads). Very dangerous stuff.

Ice Dancers are not allowed to jump. Nor are they allowed to do overhead lifts. Men cannot raise their arms above their shoulders on the lifts. Their elements are twizzles (travelling rapidly across the ice while spinning in unison), lifts, dance spins, footwork (both non-touching or in dance hold). Dancers can do multiple lifts but all must be different: straight line, curved, rotational.

In singles, the jumps tell the tale. Women have 7 jumping passes, men 8, and can do up to 3 jump combinations. They also have spins, and footwork and they must be able to do all of the elements at the highest levels to win.

Pairs only have 2 jumping passes. But they also have two throws, three lifts, two spins, and a release move. In lifts, the man must rotate while travelling across the ice while holding the woman over his head with one hand, while she changes positions while in the air.

it's based on judging--if some do the moves the same--who is the winner? I remember some time ago there was a dispute
I thought it was in Russia

so you have all these long ''dances''/twists/turns/spins/lifts/etc while ''dancing''--seems like a lot of extra fluff for nothing
in other events it's just the fastest/longest/highest/etc

 

[Dragonlady]

This is true for all elements, but it’s easier to explain with jumps. Everyone in the jumping sports does the exact same jumps - there are 5 of them. Each jump is assigned a base value according to the level of difficulty, which is the same for all skaters

The base value for a triple axel is 8.5 points. If you do the jump in the back half of your program (more difficult when you’re getting tired), you get a 10% bonus raising the base value of 9.3.

To get base value, you need to take off correctly, complete 3 1/2 rotations in the air and land backwards, on one foot. Skater must control the landing on one foot. The judges then assess the Grade of Execution on a 1 point scale ranging from -3 to +3.

Here how GOE is applied:

-3 - rotations completed, skater fell on landing
-2 - skater completed rotations but touched the ice with either a hand or the free leg, or stepped out of the landing without showing control
-1 - poor form but technically clean skater had to fight for landing, or was lucky to land it (lean in the air)
0 - clean but nothing special.
+1 - clean with one “feature” like a hand over the head, footwork into the takeoff, transition move in to or out of jump (spread eagle is popular), great height, or great ice coverage.
+2 - beautiful jump with height and distance, or two features
+3 - huge clean jump with multiple features.

So do that triple axel in the back half of the program with +3 GOE and you can score 12.3 for your 3A. Rotate it and fall and you get 5.5 for the jump and a -1 point on your overall score for a fall.

Spins are assigned levels based on the numbers of features: changes of position, change of edges (from inside edge to outside edge), change of foot, flying entrances, etc.

There are pages and pages of base values.

There is a technical panel of 3 former skaters, which determines whether the take off is correct and the jumps are fully rotated, as well as determining the levels for non jump elements. The judges assign GOE.

There are still shenanigans going on. The two Russians girls who won gold and silver were hugely overscored getting +2’s and 3’s on all their jumps, even though their jumps lack both height and distance, they slow down going into them and have no flow coming out. At best they should be getting +1 for the hand over the head but more realistically I’d give them 0 for GOE.

These girls are also getting 9.5 for Skating Skills on the components scores (artistic marks) despite being slow, havinf weak edges and “Barbie” knees, with laboured stroking, and not using the entire ice surface, skating their programs in the centre of the ice. High 7’s, low 8’s is more realistic.

“Barbie” knees - skaters are supposed to be deep in the knees to achieve speed and power. My daughter’s coach used to say “I’m going to start calling you ‘Barbie’ because her knees don’t bend either”.

 

[BradVesp]

I noticed somewhere, as little more then gossip or hearsay, that the Olympics used to have a art category that judged painting and sculpture and the like. I don't know if this was the 1920 Olympics, the 0020 Olympics, if at all.

 

[Dragonlady]

I noticed somewhere, as little more then gossip or hearsay, that the Olympics used to have a art category that judged painting and sculpture and the like. I don't know if this was the 1920 Olympics, the 0020 Olympics, if at all.

There are displays of art at the Olympics, as part of the event, but not a competition. There’s also dancers, singers and entertainers on stage every night. It’s a big street party around the sporting events.