Olympic Games

[Lardmeister]

Does anybody watch the Olympic Games? What and why?

I watched the basketball, baseball and tennis, sports you normally don't see on TV.

[Ancient Dragon]

What does one do after becoming the greatest swimmer in Olympic history??? He could make TV commercials, but I'd think that would be pretty dull. His sponsor already gave him $1Million. Now what???

[peter_budo]

Not watching them, but I do follow news online. Will see how the guys (SVK) on white water will do...

[vegaseat]

Wonder if ping-pong is an Olympic sport?

[peter_budo]

Wonder if ping-pong is an Olympic sport?

Of course! It is just not called "ping-pong", but Table Tennis. The ping-pong name makes me wonder if you not from East Block ;)

[scru]

Im mostly interested in the swimming and rowing. Although I am a football fan, I find Olympic soccer quite boring.

[sneekula]

I like to see people running and jumping.

[peter_budo]

That is understandable sneekula, at least you do not feel alone in the world where your wife tell you when to run and when to jump ;)

[R0bb0b]

Na, I'd rather watch the spoiled brats complain about not being paid enough millions to catch a ball and roll around in the grass for a couple hours a week.

[steven woodman]

I dont have the time to watch, although i do like events on the gymnastics side of thing. people are more likely to fall and trip in front of million in these events. And that just gives me a weird feeling of embarassment for the person while actually laughing my a55 off (am i allowed to say that, hmmmm better safe then sorry).

[bumsfeld]

Like to see tennis, everything else is too boring!

So what if they can swim, walk, run, jump, throw, bike, spit, row the distance of 50 meters, 100 meters, 200 meters, 500 meters, 1000 meters, 10000 meters and so on. Also, what is this thing separating the boys from the girls all the time?

[steven woodman]

When you really think about it so what if they do any of the useless crap involved in the olympics. what are they doing to better humanity i mean what do they contribute?

ugly legs perhaps :)

[scru]

Also, what is this thing separating the boys from the girls all the time?

Men are physically stronger than women by nature. By leaving them to compete together, it would be giving the men an unfair advantage for the medals.

When you really think about it so what if they do any of the useless crap involved in the olympics. what are they doing to better humanity i mean what do they contribute?

Elaborate. I don't want to mock you yet if I don't know what context you are speaking in.

[steven woodman]

I mean the olympics and most sports are very much useless. ya they generate some money through fools spending huge sums on tickets, but what i mean by useless is zero contribution to the betterment of a civilized world.

there are so many better things people can train their body and minds for besides running, swimming, balancing (oooo) and all the rest of the crap.

now mock away my friend, mock away.

[peter_budo]

In your view sports are useless, in my I happy they there. I did previously 5 years in biathlon and at least another 5 in taekwondo. I was happy to do them, it kept me out of troubles and other ill things that teenagers and young adults do. Beside others could never travel so much, see so many things and meet so many people as we did.

[scru]

I mean the olympics and most sports are very much useless. ya they generate some money through fools spending huge sums on tickets, but what i mean by useless is zero contribution to the betterment of a civilized world.

there are so many better things people can train their body and minds for besides running, swimming, balancing (oooo) and all the rest of the crap.

now mock away my friend, mock away.

All right, but remember you quite literally asked for it.

Now, sports contribute a lot more to civilization that you think. I wonder how much you thought about it when the very event you accuse of "zero contribution to the betterment of a civilized world" does so much for our civility, even if not on a direct level.

There are over 200 countries coming together for these games, yet, there they all are being quite civil, no? Put some of these same countries together to talk about, say, religion or even land boundaries and you get bombs flying everywhere.

Sports are a way for humans to compete, and make no mistake, it is part of our natures to compete. To deny this or even go as far as trying to change it is foolish and petty. You made a point about no seeing how this helps humanity, but competition *is* humanity. And there's nothing wrong with it!

It brings us together. It divides us. It helps us to arrange ourselves into groups that we can identify with. It gives us something to support. It's fun. There is nothing wrong with healthy competition.

And come on, Steve, I'm pretty sure there's *some* sport that you like.

[Lardmeister]

It is a fact that people that practice sports, not just watch it, make the best leaders. Bill Clinton liked to jog, and George Bush likes mountain biking and fishing. Sir Winston Churchill hated sports, but he is an exception.

[Lardmeister]

Like to see tennis, everything else is too boring!

So what if they can swim, walk, run, jump, throw, bike, spit, row the distance of 50 meters, 100 meters, 200 meters, 500 meters, 1000 meters, 10000 meters and so on. Also, what is this thing separating the boys from the girls all the time?

I have to agree with you, all these different length/style swimming events are a bit silly! One short, one long distance event, whatever style should be enough. After all, the runners don't run one-legged, hands-only, sideways or backward races. Even though, they could be very interesting to watch!

[Lardmeister]

Men are physically stronger than women by nature. By leaving them to compete together, it would be giving the men an unfair advantage for the medals.
...

In earlier Olympics, the East German Women would have proven you wrong!

Also, what do we do with asexuals? Where the heck are other popular sports like Golf, Fishing, Air-hockey?

Does anybody else know a sport that seems to be missing from the Olympics?

[sneekula]

I like to see water polo with real horses.

[sneekula]

Did you see Venus and Serena Williams snap up the gold? That makes it two Olympic games in the row. Black chicks are hot!

I think they would have won more gold if they had forehand, backhand, two handed, one legged, backwards, blindfolded, 50 meter, 100 meter, 200 meter, 500 meter, half hour, one hour, two hour and wall tennis events in the Olympics.

[scru]

I think they would have won more gold if they had forehand, backhand, two handed, one legged, backwards, blindfolded, 50 meter, 100 meter, 200 meter, 500 meter, half hour, one hour, two hour and wall tennis events in the Olympics.

What, you mean they don't?

[GrimJack]

I dont have the time to watch, although i do like events on the gymnastics side of thing. people are more likely to fall and trip in front of million in these events. And that just gives me a weird feeling of embarassment for the person while actually laughing my a55 off (am i allowed to say that, hmmmm better safe then sorry).

That is like NASCAR - most people watch for the flaming crashes.

[Ene Uran]

I like to watch boxing, wrestling and underwater events.

[marketingworld]

When I'm at home and not busy, I do watch Olympics...

[murderotica]

No time to watch. I just read the results on ESPN and Yahoo Sports. If given extra time I'd like to see how the US Basketball redeem team redeem themselves. As for now they are undefeated which is of course expected. Hope the will win the gold, they really deserve it. And oh, Michael Phelps was amazing.

[ZZucker]

Looks like the USA is beating all the other countries easily again! We need something to make us feel good!

[murderotica]

China is doing well. They've got lots of gold medals. Sweet.

[Ene Uran]

Bye-bye, Beijing:
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/dave-barry/story/644789.html