Thoughts while watching a couple of Russians dancing around in fake plants to the sounds of Didgeridoos...
Eddie Maguire may have gotten in trouble for making fun of figure skaters, but he incessant ranting during the snowcross made one thing perfectly clear to me: most commentators at a niche sporting event like the Winter Olympics are just there to avoid silence. They don't know enough about the sport, so it sounds like someone doing a race call, and little else.
Why do we have a Winter Olympics anyway? Imagine if the real Olympics was just "summer" sports?
"That was great action from the sandcastle making finals. Coming up later tonight, beach volleyball as the Brazillians take on our Aussie girls, but first the Surf Lifesaving preliminary rounds, after this break."
And another thing ... it seems the great majority of sports are judged. Doesn't that sort of make them pseudo-sports? Figure skating, ski jumping, moguls, aerials, half-pipe & ice dancing all rely on judges viewing the contest and handing out a score to determine who wins.
Sorry guys, but in a real sport, you either go faster, jump or throw something further or higher, lift a greater weight, put something in a goal more often, hit a target more often, or beat the crap out of someone else. These are real sports.
While I agree that these pseudo-sports have a significant physical component, the judging rules it for me.
However, both versions of the Olympics are the only places where one can see athletes as varied as figure skaters and ice hockey players competing at the same event. Yeah, I said it.
Recently added to the list of things that are offensive: being a ridiculous looking Russian couple on skates.
Recently removed from the list of things that are harmless fun: luge.
Least envied body part at the Winter Olympics: Moguls competitor's knees. Second least envied: aerial's competitor's head.
When it is all said and done, the Biathlon is my favourite Winter sport invented by the Nazis.
Winner of the Martin Vinnecombe Award for Australian (!) Athlete most unhappy at winning a Olympic Silver Medal: Dale Begg-Smith.
And finally, does anyone remember what the Winter Olympics were like before they became the Winter X Games? Me neither, but it has something to do with Eddie The Eagle and Katarina Witt.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Not in the Olympic Spirit
The Australian two-person female Bobsled team will compete at the Olympic Winter Games starting on Saturday, Australian time. I'm sure the ladies involved are very happy, and I'm also sure the Irish team are happy that the Aussies have been included as an extra team, and not at the exclusion of the Irish.
But I'm not. Not because I don't care about winter sports, or because the Court of Arbitration for Sport was required to make a ruling in regard to this matter. No, I'm unhappy because I think that the people involved haven't truly embraced the Olympic Spirit.
The rules with regard to bobsledding at the Olympics state that one team from both Asia and Oceania are entitled to compete, as well as the best eighteen performing bobsled teams. Australia argued successfully they were entitled to the Oceania spot in the competition. I'm sure many Olympic events would have similar rules allowing competitors who could not qualify, but come from weak areas for the sport, to attend and compete at the Olympics.
However, weren't these rules created to ensure teams that struggle to compete at the Olympics can? While Australia are a minnow when it comes to bobsledding, that is certainly not the case when it comes to the Olympics overall.
Australia have never had a problem sending a conventially-qualified team to any Olympics. We've won gold medals at the last three Winter Olympic Games. We've competed in 16 Winter Olympic Games. We've won 438 Olympic Medals overall.
These spots were created so people like Eric Moussambani could compete at the Olympics. He's from Equatorial Guinea, a nation that has never won an Olympic medal, and in all likelihood, never will. Hardly anyone from Equatorial Guinea would compete at the Olympics if not for these spots.
Sorry if I'm not terribly concerned by a couple of Aussies missing out on an opportunity to finish in the last two in an Olympic Event. It's not in the spirit in which these rules were created, and not in the spirit of the Olympics.
But I'm not. Not because I don't care about winter sports, or because the Court of Arbitration for Sport was required to make a ruling in regard to this matter. No, I'm unhappy because I think that the people involved haven't truly embraced the Olympic Spirit.
The rules with regard to bobsledding at the Olympics state that one team from both Asia and Oceania are entitled to compete, as well as the best eighteen performing bobsled teams. Australia argued successfully they were entitled to the Oceania spot in the competition. I'm sure many Olympic events would have similar rules allowing competitors who could not qualify, but come from weak areas for the sport, to attend and compete at the Olympics.
However, weren't these rules created to ensure teams that struggle to compete at the Olympics can? While Australia are a minnow when it comes to bobsledding, that is certainly not the case when it comes to the Olympics overall.
Australia have never had a problem sending a conventially-qualified team to any Olympics. We've won gold medals at the last three Winter Olympic Games. We've competed in 16 Winter Olympic Games. We've won 438 Olympic Medals overall.
These spots were created so people like Eric Moussambani could compete at the Olympics. He's from Equatorial Guinea, a nation that has never won an Olympic medal, and in all likelihood, never will. Hardly anyone from Equatorial Guinea would compete at the Olympics if not for these spots.
Sorry if I'm not terribly concerned by a couple of Aussies missing out on an opportunity to finish in the last two in an Olympic Event. It's not in the spirit in which these rules were created, and not in the spirit of the Olympics.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Religion and Sport
Tim Tebow is a champion quarterback for the University of Florida football team. He's a interesting case from a sporting point of view, because many argue his skill set isn't easily transferable to the professional game, the NFL.
He's also a devout Christian. So devout, he writes Bible verses on the black stickers he wears under his eyes. And he's about to cause some controversy in the USA.
Tebow and his mother will star in an ad due to run during the Superbowl on CBS on Sunday evening US time, which will detail his personal story. Tebow's mother suffered complications with her pregnancy, was advised to abort the child that became Tim, and went contrary to that advice and carried the child to term.
The ad will advocate a strong pro-life position, but it is the placement of a major sporting star at the centre of perhaps the most contentious political and moral issue facing the USA today, during the most popular sporting and television event of the US calendar, that makes this all the more interesting.
One could argue that this sort of thing could only happen in America. Sports stars routinely thank God for intervening and helping them make a major impact on the sporting field.
The fact is this simply cannot be the case. God is not picking favourites in a mere sporting contest - if he did, the sentimental favourite would always win.
In Australia, we've always been a bit more muted in this regard. Matthew Hayden copped some flack when he crossed himself whenever he scored a century. Shaun Hart mentioned "his Lord and Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ" when he won the Norm Smith Medal, and Gary Ablett did a similar thing.
The difference between Hayden, Hart & Ablett's utterances and some of the utterances that occur on the other side of the Pacific is the Australians were merely thanking God for making their performances possible. That's not the same as making the performances happen, or altering that ethereal element we know as luck to favour one side over another.
Tebow is crossing another line again - he is proselytising. He is doing so in a time and a culture where the idea that God is intervening in the everyday lives, and in particular the politics, of people, is becoming more prevelent. That Tebow feels the impulse to make the sporting field an arena for publicising certain extracts from the Bible demonstrates how strongly he feels, but it also makes intensifies the idea that all sports people are role models.
This may lead to some thinking Tebow is some sort of expert on this matter. He's a professional athlete; a "jock" if you will. He's not a theologian, or even ordained. But many, many young people would look up to him, certainly more young people than would a famous evangelist or Archbishop.
I, for one, hope we don't ever go down this road in Australia, and this opinion comes from a church going Catholic. God, whatever God is, doesn't care about recreational pastimes such as sport, even if they are careers for many people. I don't like playing the perspective card when it comes to sport, but this blows sport's importance out of all proportion.
I have a very strong view that religious belief is something that is very personal: a covenant between a person and God. Lord knows I've looked to the heavens and implored God's intervention in a sporting contest, but those have been moments of illogical weakness, brought about by the performance of a beloved sporting team. To use the sporting field as a platform for religious conversion is something that is inappropriate and potentially dangerous, and also doesn't sit well in a pluralist, multicultural society. The less of this, the better.
He's also a devout Christian. So devout, he writes Bible verses on the black stickers he wears under his eyes. And he's about to cause some controversy in the USA.
Tebow and his mother will star in an ad due to run during the Superbowl on CBS on Sunday evening US time, which will detail his personal story. Tebow's mother suffered complications with her pregnancy, was advised to abort the child that became Tim, and went contrary to that advice and carried the child to term.
The ad will advocate a strong pro-life position, but it is the placement of a major sporting star at the centre of perhaps the most contentious political and moral issue facing the USA today, during the most popular sporting and television event of the US calendar, that makes this all the more interesting.
One could argue that this sort of thing could only happen in America. Sports stars routinely thank God for intervening and helping them make a major impact on the sporting field.
The fact is this simply cannot be the case. God is not picking favourites in a mere sporting contest - if he did, the sentimental favourite would always win.
In Australia, we've always been a bit more muted in this regard. Matthew Hayden copped some flack when he crossed himself whenever he scored a century. Shaun Hart mentioned "his Lord and Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ" when he won the Norm Smith Medal, and Gary Ablett did a similar thing.
The difference between Hayden, Hart & Ablett's utterances and some of the utterances that occur on the other side of the Pacific is the Australians were merely thanking God for making their performances possible. That's not the same as making the performances happen, or altering that ethereal element we know as luck to favour one side over another.
Tebow is crossing another line again - he is proselytising. He is doing so in a time and a culture where the idea that God is intervening in the everyday lives, and in particular the politics, of people, is becoming more prevelent. That Tebow feels the impulse to make the sporting field an arena for publicising certain extracts from the Bible demonstrates how strongly he feels, but it also makes intensifies the idea that all sports people are role models.
This may lead to some thinking Tebow is some sort of expert on this matter. He's a professional athlete; a "jock" if you will. He's not a theologian, or even ordained. But many, many young people would look up to him, certainly more young people than would a famous evangelist or Archbishop.
I, for one, hope we don't ever go down this road in Australia, and this opinion comes from a church going Catholic. God, whatever God is, doesn't care about recreational pastimes such as sport, even if they are careers for many people. I don't like playing the perspective card when it comes to sport, but this blows sport's importance out of all proportion.
I have a very strong view that religious belief is something that is very personal: a covenant between a person and God. Lord knows I've looked to the heavens and implored God's intervention in a sporting contest, but those have been moments of illogical weakness, brought about by the performance of a beloved sporting team. To use the sporting field as a platform for religious conversion is something that is inappropriate and potentially dangerous, and also doesn't sit well in a pluralist, multicultural society. The less of this, the better.
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