Biggest complaint about the olympics

rusty JEDI · #1 08-15-2004, 09:04 PM

How many swimming events do they need?

50m, 100, 200m, 400m, etc. Now multiply that by freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke (probably missing one). Now multiply that by individual, and a bunch of team events. Now multiply that by allowing in so many athletes that really have no shot at all, but run them through 6 heats for every single event, then a semis and a finals.

Seriously we need to get rid of almost all of them, and in particular all the extra strokes (back, breast, butterfly). Who really cares who can do the fastest butterfly. All anyone should care about is who moves the fastest in the water any way they choose period.

In running it is simply who goes the fastest and they dont add events like running on one leg, or running backwards.

Second complaint....Synchronized diving (what a joke).

rJ

bugstud · #2 08-15-2004, 09:21 PM

kinda like the hurdles and steeplechase, though...

Taxman · #3 08-15-2004, 10:03 PM

Well, they do have a lot of different distances for running as well. I kinda like watching the different strokes and I think some are inherently faster, thus if they made them irrelevant, everyone would end up doing the same thing anyway. I think the medleys are cool too. Also if you've ever swam, there is a pretty big difference between swimming even 50m and 100m. It's much more of a workout than running. Sychronized diving is kinda lame, although I am amazed at how sychronized the top teams actually are.

I was watching sailing the other night. Now that is a boring sport to watch.

Ray Zee · #4 08-16-2004, 12:07 AM

hey rusty, the fires up there have you smoke confused. the olympics are for the athletes not the tv audience.

rusty JEDI · #5 08-16-2004, 02:06 AM

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hey rusty, the fires up there have you smoke confused. the olympics are for the athletes not the tv audience.

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I can not tell if thats sarcasm or not. Is there an olympics without the fans?

I just dont see the point in watching some kid pad the USA medal count because he can swim so many similar events.

The one that bugs me the most is the fly. It can not possibly be faster or more efficient than the other strokes. Why not make a running event where instead of the arms alternating forward motion, they must both go forward and back at the same time. This will slow you down and tire you out the same as the fly would in swimming. The only difference is one receives a gold medal and the other i just made up.

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kinda like the hurdles and steeplechase, though...

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I think it is rare to have someone at the top of the world in hurdling and sprinting or steeplechase and long distance. However, in swimming it happens way too often that the tops in one stroke is close to tops in another.

rJ

natedogg · #6 08-16-2004, 04:20 AM

President Carter killed the olympics. Well, he shot first at least.

They should remove all sports that are team sport or require a judge. If you can't time it or measure it and give the medal to one person, can it.

natedogg

swimfan · #7 08-16-2004, 10:34 AM

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The one that bugs me the most is the fly. It can not possibly be faster or more efficient than the other strokes. Why not make a running event where instead of the arms alternating forward motion, they must both go forward and back at the same time. This will slow you down and tire you out the same as the fly would in swimming. The only difference is one receives a gold medal and the other i just made up.

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Fly is the second fastest stroke. I see the analogy you're making with track and field. Why have hurdles or a steeplechase? Anyway, there is a point of only racing one stroke since it's the fastest (freestyle), but your argument over distance leaves me confused since you're making an analogy to track in previous posts. Furthermore, you may not like to watch, however if I'm not mistaken, the stands are at capacity for all strokes, and why would NBC put swimming in primetime if there were no fans? Besides, there is a great amount of differentiation between the four strokes (at least in sight); I'm not certain your suggested event holds true.

Michael Phelps is unique in world class swimming. Rarely do you see a swimmer cross strokes at a world class level. I could care less about the medal count, I only want to watch the best at each separate event.

pudley4 · #8 08-16-2004, 10:46 AM

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They should remove all sports that require a judge. If you can't time it or measure it and give the medal to one person, can it.

natedogg

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Keep the team sports, but I agree 100% with this part of your statement.

Ray Zee · #9 08-16-2004, 11:05 AM

the butterfly is the fastest stroke of all, or it used to be for short distances. but in the olympics they go farther.

swimfan · #10 08-16-2004, 11:40 AM

Ray, sorry to dispute/be a nit, but freestyle is faster, even over short distances such as 25 yards...but the fly can almost be as fast as freestyle over short distances (up to 50M)...the fastest 50 yard free time is about 19.1, think the fastest 50 yard fly is around 20.6. The top backstroke times are a bit faster than fly in yards because of turns. However as an average, fly is faster than backstroke in distances up to 200M.