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Post by arjan on Feb 13, 2010 12:17:16 GMT -5
Choose one.
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Post by egoodstein on Feb 13, 2010 13:14:08 GMT -5
I like both really. I opted narrowly for summer ones because of track and field events (which I guess I still think of as ' real olympic' sports) and coz equestrian events in those. I like winter ones too though-- esp. the skating events and most of the skiing ones (both Alpine & Nordic) & hockey. There're also some in each I don't care about really: I don't see tennis/golf/softball or even basketball w. professionals as much more than gimmicks, and some of the 'X treme' winter sports bore me after I see a few people doing the exact same thing. Though I respect that all these are meaningful & 'testing' for the athletes involved.
Ed
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Post by jhar26 on Feb 13, 2010 13:37:38 GMT -5
I prefer the summer Olympics because track & field is one of my favorite sports to watch and I hardly know any skiers or skaters. But I usually end up watching parts of the winter olympics as well. The enthusiasm of the Dutch for skating is very catchy.  |
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Post by arjan on Feb 13, 2010 13:48:18 GMT -5
I prefer the winter games. Speedskating mainly, but also other sports interest me more than the summer sports. Running and swimming are not my favourites. For football (soccer) I prefer the World Championships over the Olympics.
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Post by jhar26 on Feb 13, 2010 13:57:49 GMT -5
I prefer the winter games. Speedskating mainly, but also other sports interest me more than the summer sports. Running and swimming are not my favourites. For football (soccer) I prefer the World Championships over the Olympics. The Dutch are expected to do great again at speedskating I hear. There's one guy (his name escapes me) who's considered the big favorite for the 5.000 and 10.000 meters. If he wins those two events he'll probably be the overall champ also, right? How about the ladies? Any medal prospects there? |
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Post by arjan on Feb 13, 2010 14:59:35 GMT -5
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Post by erik on Feb 13, 2010 18:12:46 GMT -5
I think both Summer and Winter Olympics offer something special each time, which is why I prefer both. These games are the true essence of Sports (IMHO).
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Post by profblues on Feb 14, 2010 9:51:14 GMT -5
prefer the Summer games for the track and field and the boxing. they spend to much time covering the swimming and diving i think. olympic basketball used to be good until the emergence of the pros but even now the US isn't guaranteed a Gold Medal using professional players which might say more about the quality of people that they are picking for the team or the state of the NBA. beach volleyball is fun to watch too but for reasons other than the game itself. |
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Post by erik on Feb 14, 2010 20:44:05 GMT -5
Quotes by profblues:
Personally I'm not particularly wild about NBA players being allowed on Olympic basketball teams, not even ours. It doesn't give our college players any real chance to bask in the international spotlight, and it's purely an ego thing for overplayed (and often underperforming) NBA players to hog all the action.
With respect to track and field, I especially like the longer distance races (1000, 5000, and 10000 meters), where anything can happen (anyone who saw what happened between Mary Decker Slaney and Zola Budd at the '84 Olympics in L.A. can attest to that).
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Post by jhar26 on Feb 15, 2010 4:44:55 GMT -5
prefer the Summer games for the track and field and the boxing. they spend to much time covering the swimming and diving i think. olympic basketball used to be good until the emergence of the pros but even now the US isn't guaranteed a Gold Medal using professional players which might say more about the quality of people that they are picking for the team or the state of the NBA. beach volleyball is fun to watch too but for reasons other than the game itself. I'm undecided about the boxing. There's always so much corruption at the Olympic boxing event. I don't like the "one punch - one point" type of scoring either. A body punch is never counted and often you see one guy throw a powerful combination of three or four punches and he only gets one point for it! A few seconds later the other guy throws a sissy jab that wouldn't hurt a fly and he also gets a point for it. Makes no sense to me. I for one like the swimming. I also like gymnastics and of course tennis and track & field. I've never been as much into teamsports as I am into individual sports, but I enjoy watching most sports once I get going. |
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Post by jhar26 on Feb 15, 2010 5:04:11 GMT -5
Quotes by profblues: Personally I'm not particularly wild about NBA players being allowed on Olympic basketball teams, not even ours. It doesn't give our college players any real chance to bask in the international spotlight, and it's purely an ego thing for overplayed (and often underperforming) NBA players to hog all the action. With respect to track and field, I especially like the longer distance races (1000, 5000, and 10000 meters), where anything can happen (anyone who saw what happened between Mary Decker Slaney and Zola Budd at the '84 Olympics in L.A. can attest to that). I like the fact that NBA players are playing. I'm of the opinion that all the best athletes for each sport should participate. In boxing only the amateurs compete, but it's hard to make the best fight each other if they get a zillion dollars for it - let alone if they just get a medal. The Mary Decker vs Zola Budd race was possibly the most overhyped race in track & field history. In those days the 5.000m and 10.000m for women weren't yet part of the Olympics, so they had to settle for the 3.000m. There is NO WAY that Budd could ever have beaten Decker in a 3.000m race. Budd was a great runner against the clock, but she couldn't accellerate during a last lap while Decker was a great finisher. If it had been a 5.000m or (for Budd) even better a 10.000m race she might have had a shot because she had great stamina and could run at a very high tempo for a very long time and keep up the pressure on Decker. It's not very likely that Mary would have cracked, but over a longer distance it would potentially at least have been a contest. But over 3.000m she would have had no chance whatsoever against Decker. Unfortunately for Mary she didn't get the chance to prove I'm right.  |
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Post by erik on Feb 15, 2010 10:23:40 GMT -5
Quote by jhar26:
I do remember that particular race quite vividly, as well as the hulabaloo that followed--whose fault was it, and all that stuff. Both Decker and Budd somehow got their feet tangled together in that pack, and Decker ended up getting the worst of it. It really looked like a train wreck watching it live, and Decker took a great deal of heat for her behavior afterwards. It was great controversy for the media grist mill, but not great for the sport of track and field (IMHO).
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Post by jhar26 on Feb 15, 2010 12:19:49 GMT -5
I do remember that particular race quite vividly, as well as the hulabaloo that followed--whose fault was it, and all that stuff. Both Decker and Budd somehow got their feet tangled together in that pack, and Decker ended up getting the worst of it. It really looked like a train wreck watching it live, and Decker took a great deal of heat for her behavior afterwards. It was great controversy for the media grist mill, but not great for the sport of track and field (IMHO). Well, Decker was always known to have quite a temper. One time in a relay race she knocked a Russian athlete on the head with her baton because she dared to pass her.  I don't think that Mary was exactly the nicest woman on the planet, but that she was a great athlete is also true. I don't think that the whole Decker/Budd saga was bad for the sport of track & field. A lttle controversy never harms the popularity of any sport. The doping scandals of Ben Johnson, Marion Jones and a host of others did much more harm to track & field in terms of credibility. |
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Post by erik on Feb 15, 2010 13:36:14 GMT -5
Quote by jhar26:
True.
The big deal this week in terms of the Winter Olympics will be in the Women's Downhill event, where Germany's Maria Riesch and America's Lindsey Vonn (bum shin and all), both of whom are good friends and fierce competitots, will vie for Gold. Provided that the course hasn't been chewed up by Mother Nature (the event was supposed to start this past Saturday but got pushed back), this should be an Olympics downhill race for the ages (IMHO).
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Post by jhar26 on Feb 15, 2010 14:05:26 GMT -5
Quote by jhar26: True. The big deal this week in terms of the Winter Olympics will be in the Women's Downhill event, where Germany's Maria Riesch and America's Lindsey Vonn (bum shin and all), both of whom are good friends and fierce competitots, will vie for Gold. Provided that the course hasn't been chewed up by Mother Nature (the event was supposed to start this past Saturday but got pushed back), this should be an Olympics downhill race for the ages (IMHO). Yes, the women's downhill event has been heavily advertised on Eurosport (our sports channel) for days. |
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I don't think that Mary was exactly the nicest woman on the planet, but that she was a great athlete is also true.