Ray9
Diamond Member
- Jul 19, 2016
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The long blurred line between acrobats doing tricks and athletes competing in actual events has produced another disappointing Winter Olympics with viewership way down. In 1924 figure Skating became a permanent sport in the Olympics but because it involves acrobats doing tricks on skates it requires panels of judges holding up scores.
Unlike real sports where a winner can be determined by the fastest, the strongest or the better trained, figure skating is more like show business where opinion and popularity ultimately decide a winner. Four guys hurtling down a hill in a bobsled only have to get to the bottom the fastest. No one cares if they are cute or wear costumes with rhinestones.
The winter Olympics has also been invaded by a lot of other phony sports involving what used to called “hot dog skiing” where acrobats on skis flip around doing tricks after they have launched themselves from fake hills and then get a score. Snowboards do the same thing.
Watching people do tricks is not the same as real athletes competing in real events and the 1924 decision to allow judged events in the Olympics has metastasized into state of affairs that lowers both the summer and winter Olympics to the level of a circus sideshow that detracts from genuine athletic competition.
The people are growing tired of the plebeian cheapness of judged events in the Olympics which is probably why so few are still watching. PT Barnum had his day and that day is gone. The only thing missing in the modern Olympics are the midgets and clowns.
Advertisers love the bogus events because they can make millions selling equipment and gear to people who dream of the spotlight but when no one is watching the spotlight will soon be a flashlight. The Olympics are not the old Ed Sullivan Show where performers ran across the stage spinning plates on the ends of poles.
In order to save the summer and winter Olympics all events that require judges holding up scores should be immediately jettisoned. That includes gymnastics in the summer Olympics which is the sad equivalent of figure skating.
If the falsified Hollywood mentality of the Olympics continues much longer fewer and fewer real athletes will want to take part because the games will just be mockery of what they were supposed to be.
The circus is dead for a reason.
Unlike real sports where a winner can be determined by the fastest, the strongest or the better trained, figure skating is more like show business where opinion and popularity ultimately decide a winner. Four guys hurtling down a hill in a bobsled only have to get to the bottom the fastest. No one cares if they are cute or wear costumes with rhinestones.
The winter Olympics has also been invaded by a lot of other phony sports involving what used to called “hot dog skiing” where acrobats on skis flip around doing tricks after they have launched themselves from fake hills and then get a score. Snowboards do the same thing.
Watching people do tricks is not the same as real athletes competing in real events and the 1924 decision to allow judged events in the Olympics has metastasized into state of affairs that lowers both the summer and winter Olympics to the level of a circus sideshow that detracts from genuine athletic competition.
The people are growing tired of the plebeian cheapness of judged events in the Olympics which is probably why so few are still watching. PT Barnum had his day and that day is gone. The only thing missing in the modern Olympics are the midgets and clowns.
Advertisers love the bogus events because they can make millions selling equipment and gear to people who dream of the spotlight but when no one is watching the spotlight will soon be a flashlight. The Olympics are not the old Ed Sullivan Show where performers ran across the stage spinning plates on the ends of poles.
In order to save the summer and winter Olympics all events that require judges holding up scores should be immediately jettisoned. That includes gymnastics in the summer Olympics which is the sad equivalent of figure skating.
If the falsified Hollywood mentality of the Olympics continues much longer fewer and fewer real athletes will want to take part because the games will just be mockery of what they were supposed to be.
The circus is dead for a reason.
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