Winter Olympic thoughts

[jse]

After watching some of the olympics - i can't handle all the commercials, so I just tivo'd and watched snippets of the stuff I like - I kept thinking about freestyle windsurfing. I realize it's beyond the average viewers capability to tell the difference between a flaka and a grubby, but really, who can tell the difference between a 900 and a 1080 on the half pipe? Who's eyes are quick enough to tell the difference between a triple and a quad in figure skating? Ski jumping and bob-sledding? zzzzzz. Don't get me going on curling.

I think there's some fantastic stories to be told about freestyle windsurfing, and if there were a summer olympic event with real wind, and good announcers, slo-mo replays, etc... it could be interesting for a lot of people. Add in the color stories of kids coming out of Aruba, Bonaire, Venezuela, Maui, etc...

Yeah, I know. Dream on.

Cool that Canada kicked ass tho.

Steve

[human_catapult]

I concur wholeheartedly.

The issues I see with this ever happening are:

1. Freestyle windsurfing would be a summer olympics event. There is a lot less room for summer Olympics events since there are so many more. It seems like the Winter Olympics scratch to find more icy disciplines. 4 different categories of Bobsledding? Ice Dancing? Who actually bobsleds for fun and where could one go to ride a bobsled course recreationally? If you look at the bobsled teams, those are athletes from Summer Olympics disciplines who want a chance to compete in the Olympics somehow, and the Winter Olympics seem too be hungry for more content. Clearly an invented event, in my mind, maybe someone more educated could correct me. Long distance ski jumping? Do people do that for reasons other than to get medals? Please educate me on this, I'm from Florida.

2. The whole "wind thing". The kind of freestyle windsurfing we want to see is performed in >15kts of wind. I don't even know if the wind hit 10kts in the last summer Olympics. The IOC hasn't demonstrated the ability to be flexible about things like sailing site in order to score really good conditions, they're always pinned down by host-city location.

3. There is tons of competition about getting new sailing events. Every one of those boat classes in the Olympics has to fight and scrape to continue to be a class, and there's lots of political battles to keep every hull in the competition. We don't have the resources a lot of the one-design boats do to try to get a Freestyle one-design approved. It could also really mangle things up for the ws'ing industry if there was a one-design freestyle windsurfing board/rig.



I'm sure there are a lot more barriers, but those are just a few that I could think of... It is awesome to dream, and I bet if it was an Olympic event, the exposure and the amount of young kids wanting to try it would explode.

All this said, I always think the Winter Olympics are kinda goofy because I don't really think these are the best athletes in the world. They are the best athletes of the upper crusts of the world of people who can afford things like lift tickets and gear, and live somewhere snowy. Windsurfing is the same way. But you see what can happen when the very best athletes from small countries participate in WSing vs. other sports in Bonaire (Frans's etc) and Margarita (Gollito). The results can be amazing.

[jse]

When I was a kid, I used to watch ski jumping and bobsled end-to-end. That's been relegated to back-burner viewer status now with the cool new sports. The recent trend is to incorporate more thrill events. Like Half Pipe, and Ski/Snowboard Cross - awesome sports to watch. And I really like the short track skating. I find that while I'm watching a race, I am physically leaning over way to the left. I'd love to learn that sport. Downhill still rules, but slalom, kinda boring to watch.

I bet if they had a good windy session freestyle event as a demonstration event, it would catch on. Might even replace WS course racing.

You're right about the host city. There will always be lack of wind for the summer sailing venues.

Steve

[U2U2U2]

I started a Olympics thread and they moved it to OT,
anywho..

the snowboard half pipe was amazing, but for bad luck the USA women "could" have swept the top 4.

the hockey Gold medal USA vs Canada was the best hockey game I have ever seen, their were no losers, but Canada did deserve the gold.

quite a lot of drama in these games, Joannie Rochette very poised under difficult circumstances. Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili's tribute was very touching, especially from the small home town.

I thought the coverage was good, and the announcers excellent.

since the winning goal was from a Pittsburgh Penguins player, how could we lose, Sidney Crosby

[nw30]

I can't see windsurfing ever going past racing only, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if it got eliminated all together someday, due to the declining popularity. But don't get me wrong, that would suck, I'm as dedicated as always, back to the point, a racing venue is easy to come up with, waves, not so much. See this.
http://www.olympic.org/en/content/Sports/All-Sports/Sailing/All-Sailing-events/RSX---Windsurfer-Men/
I can also see standup paddle surfing getting into the Olympics someday as well, but it would be racing only for the same reasons. SUP is now experiencing the same growth of popularity that windsurfing did back in the late 80's early 90's, which is why it got in there in the first place. Now it's SUP surfing/racing, it's only a matter of time.

[letushka]

I agree with lots of people. Slalom is boring to watch. It was funny when fog came in and it started snowing after a few women runs and result times added 5-10 secs.

And don't get me started with bobsled. Who the hell came up with it. It has the most expensive structures built to let the coffin slide down the pipe to see if the cover needs to be nailed down, figuratively speaking.
I would merge bobsled with bowling - much safer.

[WindsurfUtah]

Winter Olympics are cool.

Many of the Olympic sports are big in other countries. like ski jumping.
Ski Jumping is big in Europe. It is an old discipline.

Even though Steven Colbert would have you believe the world revolves around the USA it doesn't.

Also I have taken a skiing jumping clinic and it was fun. Looking down the run way and being told to spring up and dive forward down the hill will get anyones blood pumping.
IMO more fun than bobsled but that scares the poop out of me.

I also bet it won't be long until snow kiting will be added.

There is a lot to do in the mountains besides skiing at resorts.

[Arrgh]

[feuser]

[PeconicPuffin]