[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Sport/Nonsport

[Andrew MacIan]

Greetings from Andrew!

"...and that move got a 5.7 from the Manx judge!  The
crowd is going crazy!"
--- cindysphynx <cindysphynx at home.com> wrote:
> MJollner wrote (regarding curling):
> 
> >I just don't get it!  And 
> > furthermore, I don't understand why it is an
> Olympic sport!  It 
> seems 
> > to me that very little physical exertion is
> required.  
> 
> Oh goodness!  I hope they don't open the floodgates
> and puff up the 
> Olympics with *more* non-sports.  I think physical
> exertion ought to 
> be important.  So golf can stay if you have to carry
> your clubs.  (I 
> understand golfers actually do get injuries and
> such, so that makes 
> it physical enough for me).

Per the American PGA, the players have to walk, but
can use caddys to carry their clubs.  The one
exception-- a gent who's name I am sadly repressing--
got the SC to grant a waiver under the Americans with
Disabilities Act so that he can use a powered cart.

So, if golf were to be a demo sport, the rules would
have to amended to include the players carrying their
own bags.  However, the argument can be made that
doing so will erode the quality of play after 16+
holes of lugging the bag will tire the players.

Wutsie-wutsie.

> 
> Is shooting a sport?  Nope.

Erm.  Given your basic definition below, permit me to
disagree here, and agree below.  In the old days, one
of the first modern events was then called the
Military Event, and is now Modern Pentathlon
(swimming, running, riding, fencing and, um, pistol). 
This was held to be the equivalent in modern terms of
the javelin, discus, archery, running and swimming
events from the original games, as those were required
skills for Hellenic soldiers. There was enough
interest in generic shooting to open up the range of
events.  These days, the weapons used, like the bows
used in the archery events, have lost all but the most
generic relationship to those used in combat as to be
ludicrous.  For example, the pistol used in Pentath is
a .22 cal, heavily counterbalanced weapon that masses
about 2 kg and little perceived recoil; the side arm I
carried was
the classic .45 cal Colt that masses 4+ kg and can rip
your arm of its socket (much like a Wookie).

I won't touch the relationship between an epee and a
rapier.

>  Board games (bridge and
> chess)?  With 
> all due respect to Andrew, no.

Thanks {grin}.  As mentioned, we have our own every
two years.  The IOC recognition was more of a support
thing than any effort to get into the Olympics.

>  Archery?  Well, OK,
> but only because 
> you probably have to have serious arm muscles, and
> you're essentially 
> using a device to throw something, which makes it
> completely 
> different from the "aim and shoot" of shooting.

Vide supra.  However, the draw weight of most
compititve bows, IIRC, is only about 40 lbs at 28
inches, per FITA regs.
 
> Bowling?  No way, 
> have you seen these guys?
> 

"I'm pleased to know you.  Ordinarily, to meet someone
of your quality, one would have to visit a bowling
alley."

> So IMO sports can stay in the Olympics if:
> 
> 1.  There is an element of risk that something will
> go wrong;

Concur.

> 2.  There is physical exertion (mental exertion
> isn't enough, because 
> if it were, there would be an Olympic event called
> "Cross-
> Examination");

Concur, but recall that playing chess at the top is a
*very* real test of endurance.

> 3.  It is something people might actually do in real
> life (this rules 
> out things like flinging a ribbon around while doing
> flips); and 

Thus, the Modern Pentathlon and shooting sports
(grin).
How about biathlon, BTW?

> 4.  People can watch it without snickering (this
> rules out 
> synchronized swimming). 
>
 
Indeed so!

> Cindy (didn't think much of synchronized diving in
> the last Olympics 
> because it was the same divers just doing much
> simpler dives)
Concur again.

I have written you a long response....

Cheers,

Drieux

=====
ICQ # 76184391

'Each game of chess means there's one less
      Variation left to be played;
 Each day got through means one or two less
      Mistakes remain to be made.'
      --'Chess' by Sir Tim Rice

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