The Olympics are pretty much the sports equivalent of someone else's sex life: the only people even remotely interested in the details are those direcly involved in the action.
I'd have to say this is fairly accurate.
I'm usually curious enough to tune in to the throwing events, since it's something I did competitively, but everything else is like watching paint dry.
My wife, on the other hand, has actually been considered for the olympic team a few times, and knows a good portion of the people competing and coaching the events she's done. So she's glued to it.
Thank god for the internet, otherwise I'd get no respite.
I admit, I do prefer to watch the sports I know more about and have complained (a lot) recently about the fact that the olympic sport where I know people personally isn't getting televised.
I admit, I do prefer to watch the sports I know more about and have complained (a lot) recently about the fact that the olympic sport where I know people personally isn't getting televised.
Hmm, I must have missed that.
(*says silent prayer in thanks to programming gods*)
I am still wondering if they're testing for STDs when people enter the country...
1) There is a break from coverage of other news stories. We will probably see less BS from the presidential candidates. There will still be some, but they know that their statements will be overridden by the Olympic coverage. You may notice that the closing ceremonies are on August 24 and the Democratic National Convention is on August 25th. I don't think that's a coincidence.
2) I get to read up on interesting things about the human body. I found an article about testing for gender. This lead to me looking up how often the XY chromosome is wrong.
3) We get some attention brought to light about various issues the hosting country is having.
4) It takes the sports lovers in the room and moves them to another TV so I can spend time watching my shows or playing Rock Band.
You know, official D&D board is probably not the best place to talk about sport. :D
I'm getting tired of hearing about the Olympics and the athletes involved with them. I have no interest in them at all, and wouldn't care if they stopped. I really don't see the point of them, except for countries to see who's athletes can **** the farthest. I know I'm being biased, because I find watching any sports boring, but I just wanted to know if nyone feels the same way as me? Or, if you enjoy the Olympics, explain why.
If they actually ever televised fencing I would watch it. The olympics in general though is a business more than a celebration.
I'm not a big fan of the Olympics either but there are some things that I do like.
1) There is a break from coverage of other news stories. We will probably see less BS from the presidential candidates. There will still be some, but they know that their statements will be overridden by the Olympic coverage. You may notice that the closing ceremonies are on August 24 and the Democratic National Convention is on August 25th. I don't think that's a coincidence.
2) I get to read up on interesting things about the human body. I found an article about testing for gender. This lead to me looking up how often the XY chromosome is wrong.
3) We get some attention brought to light about various issues the hosting country is having.
4) It takes the sports lovers in the room and moves them to another TV so I can spend time watching my shows or playing Rock Band.
Testing for gender? Cool, I wasn't aware you could do that;)
Ahh, the beauty of only having one TV, all olympics, all the time for the next two weeks:D
(or at least as much as they will show)
I'm pretty sure they did show fencing in 2004, or at least the finals, wasn't there a girl who was still in high school that won?
I've never seen fencing, but I think that would be a neat sport to watch. I've always wondered what a real sword fight would look like, and not one that was corographed.
Fencing is not a real sword fight.
Testing for gender? Cool, I wasn't aware you could do that;)
You have to due to the Kleinfelters syndrome. Basically this is a disorder in which you can have a trisomy on the sex chromosomes. XXY. The y chromosome always indicates male. The soviets put some kleinfelters into the women's swim team in the 60's, so now it is tested for in the olympics. A kleinfelter on a women's team, means you have entered a male on the women's team.
Ahh, the beauty of only having one TV, all olympics, all the time for the next two weeks:D
It beats reality TV. Fortunately I can DVR the stuff I want from History, science channel, and sci fi, and never have to really watch Live TV. I get all of my news from NPR.
I'm pretty sure they did show fencing in 2004, or at least the finals, wasn't there a girl who was still in high school that won?
Yes they did and I missed it. However I find actively fencing is much more interesting than watching it.
Fencing is not a real sword fight.
The closest you have is epee. No it is not swordfighting, but it is great how the muscle memory translates well into other forms of swordplay.
Fencing is not a real sword fight.
Yup. It's a linear action with boundaries. That's far from real. It's still fairly exciting to watch and even more fun to do. Though I did suck royally at it.
You have to due to the Kleinfelters syndrome. Basically this is a disorder in which you can have a trisomy on the sex chromosomes. XXY. The y chromosome always indicates male. The soviets put some kleinfelters into the women's swim team in the 60's, so now it is tested for in the olympics. A kleinfelter on a women's team, means you have entered a male on the women's team.
That was a joke... he meant sex not gender.
Though I guess you could test for gender... but it would be a long psychological questionnaire and I don't see how gender would matter for the olympics.
The Y chromosome does not always indicate male, the SRY or sex-determining region does. This usually occurs on the Y chromosome but through the process of homologous recombination it can be transferred to an X chromosome. In this case you can get perfectly normal XY women and perfectly normal XX men. The current tests look for SRY and ignores the X or Y nature of the sex chromosomes as a whole.
As I understand it the bigger issues (more recently) were with disorders that lead to a disagreement between the genetic, the physical and the physiological sex. Some examples include women with androgen insensitively syndrome (appear female but are genetically male and produce testosterone but most of their cells can't recognize it) or congenital adrenal hyperplasia(genetically female, but produce too much testosterone and have male genitalia). In addition, in sports where 12-15 year olds can compete you can also have issues with 5 alpha-reductase deficiencies where children appear to be female until puberty when they start to develop male genitalia.
Once they started drug testing disorders like kleinfelters really didn't matter. Men with kleinfelter's have male external genitalia... the judge would notice that while watching the collection of the urine sample.
That was a joke... he meant sex not gender.
Though I guess you could test for gender... but it would be a long psychological questionnaire and I don't see how gender would matter for the olympics.
The Y chromosome does not always indicate male, the SRY or sex-determining region does. This usually occurs on the Y chromosome but through the process of homologous recombination it can be transferred to an X chromosome. In this case you can get perfectly normal XY women and perfectly normal XX men. The current tests look for SRY and ignores the X or Y nature of the sex chromosomes as a whole.
As I understand it the bigger issues (more recently) were with disorders that lead to a disagreement between the genetic, the physical and the physiological sex. Some examples include women with androgen insensitively syndrome (appear female but are genetically male and produce testosterone but most of their cells can't recognize it) or congenital adrenal hyperplasia(genetically female, but produce too much testosterone and have male genitalia). In addition, in sports where 12-15 year olds can compete you can also have issues with 5 alpha-reductase deficiencies where children appear to be female until puberty when they start to develop male genitalia.
Once they started drug testing disorders like kleinfelters really didn't matter. Men with kleinfelter's have male external genitalia... the judge would notice that while watching the collection of the urine sample.
Wow, that was very interesting to read. Thanks.
From what I can gather from NBC's pain in the rear to navigate Olympic TV coverage all fencing events will be sporadic at best live coverage... which means it'll be on at the butt crack of dawn.
Anyway from the schedule this is what I can find.
Saturday, August 9th, Women's Individual Sabre. Finals will be around 8am (eastern) if I'm converting timezones correctly. USA Network.
Sunday, August 10th, Men's Individual Epee, will not be televised.
Monday, Augest 11th, Women's Individual Foil, will not be televised.
Tuesday, August 12th, Men's Individual Sabre, will not be televised.
Wednesday, August 13th, Women's Individual Epee, and Men's Individual Foil, will not be televised.
Thursday, Augest 14th, Women's Team Sabre. Medal Matches at 7am Eastern. USA Network.
Friday, Augest 15th, Men's Team Epee. Will not be televised.
Saturday, Augest 16th, Women's Team Foil. Medal Matches at 7am Eastern. Universal HD.
Sunday, Augest 17th, Men's Team Sabre, medal matches at 7am Eastern. MSNBC.
Why is Women's Sabre getting the most coverage? Its the only category the United States is expected to be able to medal in, and our coverage is based around watching 'our team' win. The US Women's Sabre team Mariel Zagunis, Rebecca Wars and Sada Jacobson finished second in this event at the 2006 World Championships.
I'm getting tired of hearing about the Olympics and the athletes involved with them. I have no interest in them at all, and wouldn't care if they stopped. I really don't see the point of them, except for countries to see who's athletes can **** the farthest. I know I'm being biased, because I find watching any sports boring, but I just wanted to know if nyone feels the same way as me? Or, if you enjoy the Olympics, explain why.
Meh. It only happens once in every four years. Allows athletes to compete physically as much as mathletes compete mentally. The same goes for roleplayers who flock to convention to see who is better in the so-called RPGA tournaments.
It's okay to not like competitive sports, but I hope you do something healthy by taking strenuous physical exercise, even something as simple as yoga.
I'm getting tired of hearing about the Olympics and the athletes involved with them. I have no interest in them at all, and wouldn't care if they stopped. I really don't see the point of them, except for countries to see who's athletes can **** the farthest. I know I'm being biased, because I find watching any sports boring, but I just wanted to know if nyone feels the same way as me? Or, if you enjoy the Olympics, explain why.
the gymnastics are fun to watch for obvioius reasons and some of the other sports are fun also.
sports can be fun to watch in moderation, thens of course there the fun of hopefully seeing your country beat an other country :P
The closest you have is epee. No it is not swordfighting, but it is great how the muscle memory translates well into other forms of swordplay.
i find the sabre fencing to be the most fun to watch
It's okay to not like competitive sports, but I hope you do something healthy by taking strenuous physical exercise, even something as simple as yoga.
What? Rolling d20s isn't considered a work out? Im just kidding, but I have no problem playing sports, I just can't stand to watch them. However, your concern touches me. Maybe its not true, but I heard yoga was quite difficult to start.
What? Rolling d20s isn't considered a work out? Im just kidding, but I have no problem playing sports, I just can't stand to watch them. However, your concern touches me. Maybe its not true, but I heard yoga was quite difficult to start.
I always thought yoga was merely glorified stretching. Then I tried some. That stuff can kick your butt. You will sweat. It's a workout, to be sure. It may seem kind of lame, but it works.
I always thought yoga was merely glorified stretching. Then I tried some. That stuff can kick your butt. You will sweat. It's a workout, to be sure. It may seem kind of lame, but it works.
I heard it is also a good way to meet women (wink wink). Maybe I should try it...
I heard it is also a good way to meet women (wink wink). Maybe I should try it...
My experiences don't really bear that out, though I might be an outlier.
The little Yoga I know I learned from my 6' 6", 280lb male Senpai and my ex-roommate's yoga instructor mother (who while fairly attractive was a little out of my age range and would have resulted in my buddy needing therapy so was better left alone).
Maybe you'll have better luck. ;)
That was a joke... he meant sex not gender.
I did mean sex not gender but I had just read the article that consistently interchanged the words so I inadvertently did the same thing. They still call it gender testing throughout the media.
Once they started drug testing disorders like kleinfelters really didn't matter. Men with kleinfelter's have male external genitalia... the judge would notice that while watching the collection of the urine sample.
That's one of the things that was mentioned. They also mentioned that there really wasn't any significant difference between how the genetically different athletes performed compared to their "normal" counterparts.
I would love if they entered larping into the olympics, that would be awesome to watch (and hilarious).
Join the SCA.
Join the SCA.
Too true.
I enjoy watching the Winter Olympics, not so much the summer sports. Blasting through ice and snow has always been more interesting to me than running around a track or swimming or the like.
I would support Women's Snow Volleyball, if there is one (and in bikinis).
Join the SCA.
Except SCA is not LARPing. it is full blown re-enactment. You have to have some form of fighting ability to fence, fight, or do archery. Larping you only need to swing light weapons that do not hurt anybody, along with bean bag spells.
Larping you only need to swing light weapons that do not hurt anybody, along with bean bag spells.
Yeah, but dood, the only thing more lame than "attacking" someone with a 3x5 card would be watching other people do it!
Except SCA is not LARPing. it is full blown re-enactment. You have to have some form of fighting ability to fence, fight, or do archery. Larping you only need to swing light weapons that do not hurt anybody, along with bean bag spells.
And you wonder why I ridicule them. :P
And you wonder why I ridicule them. :P
You can think LARPing is lame but their is not a gamer here that can actually ridicule them if they play D&D.
Difference with larping is, you actually get exercise when you roleplay, socialize, with many different people, and express yourself artistically by making props and costuming.
Sure LARPing is geeky. If you play WoW, or D&D though, there is no where to stand on ridiculing them.
Sure LARPing is geeky. If you play WoW, or D&D though, there is no where to stand on ridiculing them.
Oh fine, bring logic into this...
Don't you know the geek hierarchy? You see? We can make fun of them.
Wait a minute--that means WoW players are above us!!! DO NOT WANT!!!!11
Now what if you fit in more than one category?
Do you default to the lowest, or do you get redeemed by the higher echelon.
For example. I use the term Japanimation. That puts me in the 4th echelon. I also do the LARP which places me at 5th. However I am a fan of hard science fiction, which is 2nd. SO am I second echelon or 5th?
For the record I think anime fans should be below roleplayers. I think they need to extend that line a bit. They are definitely below video gamers. Especially anything on Nickelodeon.
Seriously though I kid. But we all thhink we're better than those fat guys that put finger paint on their stomach and go to sports games.
^ OMG sports geek. Are oh eff el. |0| |\|00|3
Seriously though I kid. But we all thhink we're better than those fat guys that put finger paint on their stomach and go to sports games.
I take comfort in being in shape.
The competition for the first medal to be awarded starts in 3 hours. Women's 10m air rifle.
EDIT: Congrats to Katerina Emmons!
You can think LARPing is lame but their is not a gamer here that can actually ridicule them if they play D&D.
Difference with larping is, you actually get exercise when you roleplay, socialize, with many different people, and express yourself artistically by making props and costuming.
When I play D&D, it's a mental exercise. Very cerebral.
Yeah how about that, the United States took Gold, Silver, and Bronze in women's individual sabre.
Yeah the US kicked major tail in the first fencing competition. I was a little shocked.
When I play D&D, it's a mental exercise. Very cerebral.
WEll then you must be on the first echelon!
Stuff which is arbitrary isn't particularly fun to watch. Races of the right length can be fun to watch - I particularly enjoy events like the 400m medley. Sports events, such as volleyball and soccer, can be fun to watch but they're only fun to watch when I'm doing something else as well.
I watch some events because they interest me, and ignore most others. Gymnatics, for instance, is boring and entirely arbitrary so should be ignored,
Would have been more interesting if the women athletes are at least 18 and over, wearing two-piece.
while stuff like swimming, track and field, ect. is interesting to see to see just how well people can do. I also enjoy watching events like fencing, because people fighting is fun to watch.
Too bad it's called the "Modern Olympiad." Traditionally, they'd compete nude.
Can't say I was that bummed.
But, watching skeet shooting on a 50-inch plasma is pretty dang cool.
*****
The Olympics, though, are just not sports. It's bigger then that. There is the international co-operation. There is the best from all over the world going and doing what they do best. The language barriers, the borders of the world, all the baggage, it's mostly left behind, and everyone comes together for two weeks.
I've been watching the Olympics for longer then I should mention. Just simply, there is nothing like it's events. All other sporting events tend to pale in comparison.
Missed the opening ceremony since we were playing D&D.
Can't say I was that bummed.
Trust me, there's nothing to miss. Man, wish I could switch place with you at the time.
Yesterday morning when I got home from work, I watched a great volleyball match between China and Cuba too. It was an exciting game.
I watched Michael Phelps swim for a couple more gold medals. That dude is impressive. I keep looking for gills or something.
I don't mind watching the tennis either, but it's been on while I'm sleeping.
I think the Olympics are awesome because the athletes aren't professional for the most part and they will go on and add more to the world through efforts totally unrelated to their sport of choice.
I'm also glad they decided to hold it in China. It's about time we tried to reach out and accept what they are instead of trying to force them to change. Hopefully the Olympics will help reach that goal.
Kensan_Oni got it right. The Olympics go beyond sport. I watched part of the Korea-USA baseball game. There was a Korean runner on first and though they don't speak the same language, enjoy the same customs or drink the same beer, he and the American first baseman were laughing back and forth because they are both baseball players and at that point, that was all that mattered.
Hooray Olympics! GO WORLD!!
I watched Michael Phelps swim for a couple more gold medals. That dude is impressive. I keep looking for gills or something.
Dude, he's the Man from Atlantis. :P
I watched Michael Phelps swim for a couple more gold medals. That dude is impressive. I keep looking for gills or something.
I will be impressed if he gets more gold than Mark Spitz in a single-games.
I still remember watching Spitz in 1972.
It was incredible.
*****
Man From Atlantis...I wonder...
I came along a little too late to see Mark Spitz but I have seen him in highlights.
Yes! I am the rare gamer that knows what channel ESPN is on my television without looking! XD
Seriously, has anyone else watched the Chinese volleyball team? I am rooting for them to win!