Olympic sports cull

[Reed John]

Olympic sports cull

Ringette is a bit like that. Ringette is ice hockey except instead of a puck, it's a rubber ring and instead of a hockey stick with a blade on the end, it's just a straight stick. To control the ring, the player has to "stab" the ring in the middle.

I suppose that could be considered Freudian. However, it is only played by girls. Apparently, there still is an international ringette championship and I guess there's still some interest in Canada, but apparently the game is on the wane now that women's ice hockey has taken off at the college and high school levels.

In Iowa, high school girls basketball used to play with goofy rules whereby each team had six players but only three from each team were allowed to be on either side of center court at at at time. That ended relatively recently.

[Wyatt Earp]

Olympic sports cull

HoH, I think you skim-read what I wrote, maybe? I'm on about the entry-level costs for cycling, which are fairly low. Costs rise rapidly as you approach elite status, but in rich countries, money often begins to flow in those circumstances too.

The fact of the matter is that elite racing cyclists are, in Europe, mainly from working-class backgrounds.

[ursus arctos]

Olympic sports cull

It's also worth pointing out that the percentage of footballers who are from non-working class backgrounds is higher on the Continent (though not as high as in North America). The relative homogeneity of players' socio-economic backgrounds in Britain is one of the things that imports often comment on when describing differences between the respective football cultures.

[Duncan Gardner]

Olympic sports cull

Netball isn't quite localised (I mention a trip to the World championship on the Irish Olympians thread).

Interesting comparison between the backgrounds of footballers and cyclists. Eddy Mercxx and co may well tend to be from predictably poor backgrounds, but the suburbia of Vlaams Brabant isn't exactly the third World. These things are relative.

[Banana Banana]

Olympic sports cull

The third world is full of chinese bicycles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Pigeon, second hand bmxs and the like. It is only in the most destitute places like Sierra Leone that they are rare.

[loose cannon]

Olympic sports cull

I am going to propose a new Olympic discipline where I have a good chance of a medal - the new sextathlon

Cycling
Swimming
Fiddle playing
Singing
Set dancing (ok that needs 8 people but that will have to worked around)
Preparing accounts from incomplete records

I could average a pretty good average score in those disciplines and probably see off most contenders. Roll on London 2012 - I'll take yiz all on.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Olympic sports cull

where do you play the fiddle Lc?

[loose cannon]

Olympic sports cull

At the very odd session in Luxembourg or environs and of course annually on 17 March. There are at least 3 fiddle players here and I'm probably the second best...

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Olympic sports cull

nice stuff. I find Playing for ceilis is a right pain in the arse, but the money is usually good. getting a session outside of Ireland is very awkward, and it was something I missed in london. there was a decent session in the auld triangle right beside highbury, but it was the same three people every week, and that can get a bit depressing.

Surely you can do a half set in your sextathalon

[Bored Of Education]

Olympic sports cull

Anything with more events than triathalon can fuck right off

[jason voorhees]

Olympic sports cull

Loose-cannon-is-onto-something.

We-need-an-alternative-Olympics.Just-like-Slamdance-was-made-for
those-who-didn't-make-it-into-the-Sundance-Film-Fest.

(I-mean,thats-what-the-X-Games-are,but-you-know-what-I-mean.)

Dodgeball
Kickball
Bowling

[Ek weet nie]

Olympic sports cull

From today's WSC article:

The journalist and former British table-tennis representative Matthew Syed has argued that many of the sports at the Olympics do not deserve their place there, or at least should offer fewer medals. He believes the three criteria for an Olympic sport should be: that is not the preserve only of rich and technologically advanced countries; that it is popular across a wide range of countries; and that the Olympics is the highest, or at least equal-highest, level at which that sport is played.

That's pretty much my view. Although I'm not sure about the limiting of the number of medals awarded per sport.

[Reed John]

Olympic sports cull

By that criteria, the only sport left will be track. I don't even think field would make it in. All of those events seem to be won by Americans and Europeans.