Comments on: Sell Me On: The Olympics

By: Cafrine

Cafrine — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 04:53:50 +0000

I don’t know. The two weeks during the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney are quite honestly two of the top weeks of my life (well, they are in the top ten, anyway). I didn’t attend them, but we did watch it all on TV everyday and everynight, and I remember a real sense of being a member of the team (the team, of course, being Australia and not the Olympic team, since I can’t even stand up without falling over) and how much fun it was. It was a huge time in our history, even though it’s basically a bunch of ball games.

That said, I have no clue why people watch the Winter games. I know everyone goes for the Curling joke, but seriously. WTF with that?

By: evilla

evilla — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 03:52:04 +0000

You are right, Paul. How could I forget the light Blades of Glory shed on this sport?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-FMYL6MgLk

By: Paul DeLaurentis

Paul DeLaurentis — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:39:47 +0000

Have you ever twirled around your partner at about 25mph with his razor sharp skate blade millimeters from your face? Have you ever been tossed 5 feet into the air and then caught by a crazy man skating around like a demon?

Ice skating is very dangerous.

Curling is not dangerous. Screw them.

By: evilla

evilla — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 20:55:34 +0000

The olympics is a collection of completely insane people, er, athletes, doing ridiculous things. Everything they do is ridiculous. One day someone thought, I wonder how fast I can hurl myself down this mountain cliff and then jump off of it on skis. And that person found a bunch of other crazy folks who said, I can do that faster. And that is the olympics. People doing ridiculous, potentially paralyzing, death defying feats and calling them sport. We sadly got an early taste of that this week with the luger death.
And what is refreshing is the olympics aren’t just Americans being crazy, it’s a collection of the world’s most extreme people. I just watched some dude called the Polish Pilot take first place in ski jumping. Plus, for globe-o-phobes like me, it’s a geography lesson—Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Canada?
Olympic athletes have balls.* The olympics put regular everyday sports like baseball and basketball to shame with their time outs, chewing tobacco, personal fouls and such. I mean, seriously, where else can you see a “sport” called skeleton:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/skeleton/insidethissport/rules/newsid=260520.html
So that’s why I tune in to the olympics—to witness people look death in the face and say, eff you death, eat my snow dust grim reaper.

*This description of the olympics excludes curling and ice dancing, which while entertaining to some degree, ice skaters do not fall into the above category of crazy death chasers and curling is just dumb.

By: Lugh

Lugh — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 18:35:54 +0000

Well, there is the biathlon event. You know how the triathlon combines swimming, biking, and running? The biathlon is the same thing, except it combines cross-country skiing and SHOOTING STUFF!! Yup, you zip along with icy sticks strapped to your feet while also target shooting with a rifle.

(In Eric Flint’s excellent novel 1632, one of the Americans sent back to medieval Germany is a teenage biathlete Olympic hopeful. She introduces the world to the concept of “sniper.”)

By: Josh

Josh — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:41:28 +0000

We recorded the opening ceremonies. Then spent most of the evening on the X-Box.

By: Scionical

Scionical — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:13:21 +0000

I am in Canada, I am not -from- Canada. These people are fucking insane, and I try to avoid their hockey-crazed eye and Tim Bit-scented breath at all costs.

By: John the Great

John the Great — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:31:59 +0000

Watching the Olympics gives praise onto the Greek Gods, for whom we owe our continued existence in our fight against the Titans.

Do you want our world to fall apart? What could you have to gain from this madness? DO YOU WORSHIP TYPHON???

By now you have surely figured out that I’m joking and honestly don’t watch the Olympics. Sorreh.

By: Julie

Julie — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:15:28 +0000

Olympic Hockey, Downhill skiing, and Snowboarding. Screw everything else with an olive tweezer. Bleh all over the opening ceremonies.

Goddamn those mascots are cute. I had no idea. I covet a t-shirt now. NOW. *clicks on Amazon*

By: Chuck

Chuck — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:01:44 +0000

@Bill — Man, I should’ve known that if anybody would point me in the right direction, it’d be you.

@Paul — the wife is more the hockey fanatic, but I will watch any game of hockey that plays out in front of my eyes, because it’s a goddamn exciting game. It is, in fact, one of the most exciting sports to watch. Shit happens. Constantly. It’s rad.

– c.