The Olympics: Sorry I find it all a bit dull really and have never seen what the big deal is.

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So what, someone ran a race point five hundredths of a second faster than another person. It's boring and I have never seen how most of these people are looked up to as role models. They spend years and years training for one moment to prove that they can jump a few milimetres further than someone else or run a distance half a second quicker. I wouldn't want any children of mine looking up to such self absorbed losers (or winners). can someone tell me what all the fuss is about?

I do get rather excited by pole vaulting though, i have to admit I wouldn't have the the balls to do that.

― Paul Kelly (kelly), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 07:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I agree. Except for the pole vaulting bit.

― hmmm (hmmm), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 07:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe I've been hanging around with certain Olynpic haters too much, but going on about the dullness of the Olympics is rapidly becoming more boring than even the most tedious of Olympic events.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 07:37 (twenty-one years ago)

and the ping pong!!!

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 07:38 (twenty-one years ago)

i thought that it was just somthing I felt. Along with
All Sports are dull
Coffee tastes like crap
Julia Roberts is ugly as hell.

― Paul Kelly (kelly), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 07:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I am interested in the shot-put because they are doing it where Zeus clobbered Fido or something.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 07:41 (twenty-one years ago)

The Olympics has always been boring, I can never get bored of hearing people agreeing with me. Well done Paul.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 07:43 (twenty-one years ago)

My dad swam in Junior Olympics so we had to watch it. My dad has all the undesirable attributes of an ex-varsity athlete BTW and spent the 1970s playing softball as anything else way too much like THINKING. All the swimming events, all the equestrian events, all the gymnastics (my little sister was one of those post-Nadia Comaneci takeup tots), all the diving, the basketball, and the decathlon.

Winter Olympics was all about the figure skating (sister again) and one year we all decided we were mad for luge.

Kids like the Olympics until they are 12 or so. Then the next time they roll around, your peer group is on skateboards or planning group outings to safe malls.

― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 07:44 (twenty-one years ago)

It's all about the rhythmic gymnastics and the synchronized swimming. Riveting.

― Penelope_111 (Penelope_111), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 07:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Ew, I forgot about synchro. My school had the state champ synchronised swimming team, coached by hatchet-faced preppy harridan in Lilly Pulitzer swimsuit which has never made contact with water. Could not bear to watch the pinchy noses.

― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 07:48 (twenty-one years ago)

That pinched look is so not flattering. On anyone.

― Penelope_111 (Penelope_111), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 07:50 (twenty-one years ago)

All Sports are dull
Coffee tastes like crap
Julia Roberts is ugly as hell.

Coffee you can eventually get used to and like but the rest is OTM I think.

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 07:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I wuv it, skeet shooting? yes please, water polo? oh yes, in fact everything but synchronised swimming and rythmic gymnastics

what are the guest events this year?

― Porkpie (porkpie), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 08:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Jam jar juggling and ironing boarding (bonus points for 70's flowery purple and yellow board covers)

― Penelope_111 (Penelope_111), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 08:18 (twenty-one years ago)

My favourite event is the SOLO synchronised swimming. I didn't believe it really existed. But it does. Haha.

It's interesting how things cease to feel like they're happening when you don't have a tv. I don't know if it proves that I'm too used to TV validating experiences, or that most televised events are not inherently very interesting anyway.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 08:23 (twenty-one years ago)

In tho old days you would have rushed out and bought a TV especially for the olympics, so it has obviously gone downhill.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 08:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I won't watch one second of the Olympics, I'm sure. I will admit watching some of the Winter Olympics, and found Sarah Hughes' gold medal performance really wonderful, mesmerizing, everything one could ask for in such an event. And the WOs also have bobsledding and ice hockey! Crashing sleds of steel and toothless mullet-haired goons from Europe beating the hell out of one another!

The SOs have assholes running for ten seconds and then stopping, and we're supposed to be all "yay team". Sorry, but the only way I'll watch the Athens games is if they incorporate The Running Man as an event.

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 08:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Even normally enjoyable sports like tennis and football can seem a bit lacklustre at the Olympics.

― Penelope_111 (Penelope_111), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 08:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I've been uninterested by the build-up, but with an empty house and a gf in foreign climes I'll need to find something to do with myself every evening, and the Olympics fits the bill perfectly. I think it'll be swell.

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 08:46 (twenty-one years ago)

i went to skool with D34n M4c3y. didn't know him. but his sister was in my class. and my football team. she bust my lip by kicking me in the face while doing leapfrogs over me once.

olympics = k-rub

― g-kit (g-kit), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 08:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I think it might be more fun if they all wore little ancient greek skirts.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 09:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Now you're talking.

It might also be a bit more interesting if we could see them all bangin' up in advance.

― Penelope_111 (Penelope_111), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 09:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I like being jusgemental about the diving.
Tiniest splash "Well, that was a bit shit"

― Nellie (nellskies), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 12:32 (twenty-one years ago)

x-post Or if they did the Greco-Roman wrestling old style.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 12:32 (twenty-one years ago)

They have the trampoline in this year's Olympics!! The trampoline!!!!

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 12:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Greco-Roman wrestling is an event. xpost

― mcd (mcd), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 12:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, but it isn't done NAKED.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 12:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Point taken.

― mcd (mcd), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 12:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Come to think of it, all Olympic evenst should be performed in the nude. Ratings galore.

― mcd (mcd), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 13:09 (twenty-one years ago)

EXCEPT for the clean and jerk boys, oh no siree, nasty.

― Penelope_111 (Penelope_111), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 13:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I love the Olympics. Nyah.

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 13:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Like any televised sporting event, the Olympics aren't really worth getting all pumped up for in advance and planning to watch and organizing a party around, but flipping around the TV, not having anything good on, landing on the Olympics, watching for a few minutes, and getting caught up in some bizarre sport like weightlifting and ending up watching for like two hours is classic.

― na (Nick A.), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 13:19 (twenty-one years ago)

They spend years and years training for one moment to prove that they can jump a few milimetres further than someone else or run a distance half a second quicker

i think this sentence describes pretty succinctly the appeal of the olympics

― ryan (ryan), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 13:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Ehh, I love 'em too, Dan. The swimming and kayaking especially, the triathalon and track and field stuff secondarily.

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 13:20 (twenty-one years ago)

what a bunch of grumps. The Olympics are all right, fules. Ps. all you SOCCER fans should love it.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 13:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I will be spending the next 3 weeks in front of the telly and have even taken a week off work in order to enjoy it properly. Time to revive the thread for the olympic lovers out there - OLYMPICS 2004

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 13:49 (twenty-one years ago)

At the Sydnet Olympics, 10,651 athletes went through 100,000 condoms in the village.
Athens village is reportly spilling out 130,000 of them for the village.
Apparently colored Gold, Silver and Bronze. When faced with those options what kinda person settles on bronze?

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 14:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I love the Olympics, as long as they are on CBC and not NBC -- the NBC coverage is insufferable.

― Leon Czolgosz (Nicole), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 14:30 (twenty-one years ago)

See, you're lucking out there. Not getting the CBC here = ARGH. But I was just reminded of Five Live coverage on the net, so unless the CBC is full-on netcasting their coverage, I'm content.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 14:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Ned, the BBC is actually putting TV coverage on the net too, but I'm not sure if it'll be available outside the UK.

Looking forward to the track cycling as much as anything else, and I know that Nicole Cooke is going to do the business for us on the road.

― NickB (NickB), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:17 (twenty-one years ago)

The Winter Olympics are great because of that James Bond event, the one with the simultaneous skiing and shooting.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Madchen, I wish I lived nearer you and then I'd be turning up every other day with wine and chinese takeaway and a hopeful look on my face.

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Ps. all you SOCCER fans should love it.

Finally NBC isn't fucking it up by interrupting games with commercials. Mexico-Mali is coming on just now.

― Dickerson Pike (Dickerson Pike), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:45 (twenty-one years ago)

The Olympics just reminds me of that awful kid's TV show "We Are The Champions". Where these kids had to do all these horrible competetive events like weird relay races and swimming stuff. I was always worried that my school would get picked for this show, and that my lack of athletic ability would be on show to the entire nation. I really kinda dislike David Coleman, I associate him with the Olympics too.

Another school related point is the dreading of summer term when we would be forced from the football pitch to do horrible things like running - short and long distance, long jump and occassionally throwing stuff. I was rubbish at these.

So, in conclusion, I think I would possibly like the olympics if they scrapped athletics and swimming completely. If they only did hockey, football, darts and bowls, then I could stomach it.

jel

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 16:54 (twenty-one years ago)

They spend years and years training for one moment to prove that they can jump a few milimetres further than someone else or run a distance half a second quicker

No actually they spend years and years training to prove they are the absolute best in the world at jumping far or running quick. I mean, the person being beat by a few millimeters isn't just anybody but rather the second best in the world.

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 16:55 (twenty-one years ago)

OH GOD the Olympics are coming to Vancouver. I am so incredibly terrified of the circus my dear city is going to gradually become over the next 6 years. It's already started, the gov't is putting up huge "Spirit of 2010 BLAH" advertising... ugh. It's going to fuck us up; there's all this new transit infrastructure being planned, and rather than make it work for the city's commuting patterns and such, they're worried about transporting athletes and dignitaries for TWO FECKING WEEKS, and you know all the cost overruns and cut corners will be ignored because 'we have to be ready for the world!!'. Not to mention that we're lucky to get a day or two of snow here anyways all winter. In Feburary, it RAINS. I don't get it.

The Olympics are nice and fun, I used to watch them, esp. the skiing and hockey and stuff, but your whole perspective changes once they're coming to YOUR town.

― derrick (derrick), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

It would be very entertaining if the Olympics came to Detroit, if not "nice and fun".

― Leon Czolgosz (Nicole), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 17:09 (twenty-one years ago)

oh, and another thing...

The people who commentate on present the Olympics remind me of the PE teachers, the kind who go on and on about trying, and how there is no such word as "can't".

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 17:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm worried I got my fill of amazing feats of human awesomeness watching the X-Games this past weekend.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 17:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Not to mention that we're lucky to get a day or two of snow here anyways all winter. In Feburary, it RAINS. I don't get it.

There are plenty of places right outside Vancouver with lots and lots of snow.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 17:21 (twenty-one years ago)

You mean they won't be holding the slalom competitions downtown?

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

probably not! They might hold them, at, say, Whistler/Blackcomb, which got 21" of snow the week I was there in February, 2002.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 17:25 (twenty-one years ago)

I love the Olympics for all the odd little sports and the internationalism and the glorious ephemera and the unexpected drama. Can't understand all the hatin'.

― briania (briania), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Hint: childhood PE trauma

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 17:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Hint: pre-emption of Law & Order reruns.

― na (Nick A.), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Hint: GET CABLE, NA.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 17:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh like they don't run that show 24-7 anyway.

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 17:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, true, all the stuff that requires snow is going to be up in Whistler etc., but all the media will be in Vancouver, and I can just imagine all the tv networks freaking out because there won;lt be any snow to show the fans. People want to see snow at the Winter Olympics! Vancouver is plumb ugly in the rain. The joke during the bid process was that all the umbrellas everywhere would make for an unprececdented marketing opportunity.

― derrick (derrick), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

people don't ski IN Salt Lake City, dude.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

The Olympics are one of the few (if only) sports events that I'll watch - but the events I like (fencing, archery, etc.) are rarely shown on TV so a pox on NBC

The Winter Olympics >>>>> Summer Olympics anyway

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 21:27 (twenty-one years ago)

i much prefer summer olympics to winter. i love swimmers.

especially...
http://www.rediff.com/sports/2002/aug/01sld2.jpg

― colette (a2lette), Thursday, 12 August 2004 09:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm looking forward to the drugs testing most of all

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 12 August 2004 09:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Competitive drugs testing! My money's on China.

― Markelby (Mark C), Thursday, 12 August 2004 10:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh no, what people are just realising now is that US athletes are the world's biggest and best drugs cheats and have been for years

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 12 August 2004 10:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Well yes, but I'm assumning they'll be disqualified.

― Markelby (Mark C), Thursday, 12 August 2004 10:30 (twenty-one years ago)

The people who commentate on present the Olympics remind me of the PE teachers

Funny you should say that - one of the lecturers at the university where I work is going to Athens to commentate on the swimming. A choice quote re. Alex Popov: "like a soft meringue coming out of the oven, beautiful."

― Madchen (Madchen), Thursday, 12 August 2004 11:05 (twenty-one years ago)

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