AYJW

Parrot Trick Training

Poicephalus

Parrot Forum

OLYMPIC REJECTS




The XX Olympic Games in Torino, Italy offer competition in seven major winter sports with contests in eighty-four disciplines (events) within these sports.

There are serious questions as to why the disciplines are so numerous, and whether many of the events are sports that should receive recognition by being contested under the Olympic banner. Are they in fact worthy of Olympic status? Do they appeal to a wide or restricted audience? Would their removal from the Olympic Program be a loss?  

The Olympic Committee has bitten the bullet and removed some sporting events from the 2008 games for  some of the reasons cited above. Baseball, to name just one, has been pulled. Sorry, Fidel. Baseball was a poor draw for fans. It usually came down to a round-robin between the the United States, Japan, and Cuba.

There are a few candidates in the Winter Olympics that fall within the limited criteria set out above, and should be relegated to oblivion, these are the candidates:



THE BIATHLON


The Biathlon has been an Olympic sport since 1960. It is an amalgam of shooting and cross country skiing. It is a second cousin to The Modern Penthalon of the Summer Games (which the Olympic Committee wanted to retire but vociferous support saved it from relegation). It is military in origin with the contestants skiing a course and making stops to fire at targets. If they miss, they must take penalty laps before continuing  the course. The one with the best aggregate time is the winner. Accurate shooting appears to be the deciding factor in the competition, skiing is secondary. Is this truly a winter sporting event? Accurate use of a rifle seems to bear little relationship to the higher, faster, farther aspects of sports in the Olympics. Further, the audience appears fairly limited. The stands, at the target shooting venue, did not in anyway appeared packed. The removal of the Biathlon from the Olympic Program would not be missed.



ICE DANCING


To be generous Ice Dancing is little more than world wide auditions for the next edition of the Ice Capades. One can picture agents circling the rink like sharks anxious to sign up potential stars. The real competitions will have already been decided when the last events of the Figure Skating take place.

Figure Skating became an Olympic Event at the 1924 Olympics. Ice Dancing is a late edition being included only since 1976. It is nothing more than a showcase to further a skater’s career in the professional ranks, give the younger skaters a taste of the “Olympic Experience”  and to give more skaters a chance to participate. There appears  to be little to enhance its status as a sporting event. Its relegation would not be a great loss.


CURLING


Curling will be recognized by anyone who has ever played shuffle board. No doubt Curling predates shuffleboard (Historical records indicate it was played in Scotland as early as 1541). Since 1924 it has been an Olympic Sport. It is time for it to be retired.

Curling requires a minimum of athletic prowess. In fact, the oldest competitor in these Olympics (54) is a curler. The sport, outside the Olympic competition, is dominated  by middle-age participants. However, most of the teams boast curlers in their twenties.

Though not quite as boring as watching paint dry it comes in a close second. It is slow, except for those called  “sweepers” who use small brushes or brooms to prepare the surace in front of the stone travelling, agonizingly slowly down the ice surface. The object: come to rest within the three concentric circles. Your opponent tries to knock your stone outside the circle. This results in many scoring blocks showing zeroes, which also decreases spectator interest. The sport is old and creaky. It should be retired. Its main proponents are the Canadians, and Americans from the northern tier states; there is minimal interest in the other winter sport countries.



FREE STYLE SKIING


Free Style Skiing became an Olympic Event in 1994. Consisting of aerials and moguls it has already seen itself saddled with the bane of Olympic sports – performance enhancing drug scandals. This event is not a sport worthy of Olympic Status. It is a gymnastic event on short skis specially designed for the sport to facilitate spins and aerial somersaults. Like snowboarding, it appears to need rock music to augment the tricks. In fact seeing one exhibition all the others seem to be very small variations on the theme. The Moguls performed on short skis Are generally unexciting, on short skis they offer little challenge.

Free Style Skiing in its present form has been an Olympic Sport since 1994. It is basically an American sport, both in origin and support. It has little appeal beyond teenagers and the younger generation. There are very few middle-age Free Style skiers. It is not of sufficient wide spread interest and with a broad enough fan base to justify its continued inclusion in the Winter Games.


SNOW BOARDING


Snowboarding is nothing more than skateboarding on snow.  It became an Olympic Event in 1998. This should be its last appearance on the Olympic stage.It is a mid-sixties child of skateboarding, born and nurtured in the United States, and a natural outgrowth of the craze.

Like Free Style Skiing there is a sameness in the performances One half-pipe above the rim leap is like all the others. In fact skateboarding is more exciting; if a contestant falls it is on cement, not snow. Again, the audience is limited to the younger generation, and they don’t buy the tickets to the Olympic venues. Its time as an Olympic event should be finished. But it is a United States supported event. Its exclusion and relegation, as with Free Style Skiing, is probably unlikely.

As it could be said for the other events mentioned here, they have their avid supporters, and they will be very vocal in their opposition to removal  of the Olympic imprimatur from their sport. The Olympic Committee will meet after the games to decide what sports might be declassified as Olympic events. It is a difficult and thankless task but the games have become too cumbersome. The Summer and Winter extravaganza are now host to 42 Sports and 484 Events within those sports. Something has to be done. A start has been made. It is hoped the Olympic Committee has the courage and conviction to continue.

Raymond K. Clement