I was making a joke about it. I work with horses, kinda sometimes, and I've been to some events (Fantasia at the Equine Affaire in Columbus) that were pretty cool. I get that there may be tradition and I was refering to a time before the horseless carriage. The history behind it is cool but I'm going to agree to disagree with you about the history being enough to qualify it as an Olympic sport. This is my opinion and amounts to a big steamy shit, I know. They may have some of these sports to draw from a larger audience pool and that might be enough in and of itself to include them in the games.
As a long time rider who grew up around horses... I see the argument against it being an Olympic sport. It's not because it's easy. It's not because the person doesn't have skills. It's not because you only sit there. It's not because the riders are "coaches with good seats." None of those things are true, and only ignorant people claim them. It's because the horse plays a large part in the overall outcome, and not all horses are equal. The Olympics are about human athletic accomplishment. So, while taking a gold medal horse and putting a different rider on him will likely not result in that rider winning the gold... neither will putting that gold medal rider on a different horse. At least the machines used elsewhere in the Olympics (guns, bikes, kayaks, etc.) can be measured, duplicated and made to adhere to certain restrictions. It's hard to measure and duplicate an animal.
Serious question: Do they test the horses for PEDs? I know most of the race horses are pumped full of steroids, but what about these horses?
Does anybody know when the boxing events start? I won't normally watch boxing but for some reason enjoy olympic boxing. Reference the horsies, are olympic calibre horses tastier than your garden variety horse?
Yes - The above is a valid point and I agree. Hell yeah - they will fart butterflies and rainbows if you're extra special nice to them.
Couldn't agree more with the bolded. Some of the things I'm referring to: The Hope Solo thing. Shut the fuck up. You're somewhat hot. You ain't that hot, and you ain't that smart. Keep the ball out of the goal and shut the fuck up. The men's basketball team. You needed to run up an 83 point lead over Nigeria? Were you in danger of losing? Before you all jump over me, check out the charter at olympic.org. The point of the Olympics is to celebrate sportsmanship and fair play of sport. I find it just as loathsome that a bunch of pro athletes (who are egomaniacs to begin with) felt that it was sportsmanlike to run a score up like that on an opponent. In pro sports, it's fair game. In the Olympics, show some fucking class. Same goes for the women's team. You didn't need to run the score up by 50+ points. After the second quarter (I was watching the game) there was no serious challenge. Serena Williams after her victory, with the fucking dance. Rub it in, why don't you. Gracious winning is just as important as gracious losing. Lochte has been mentioned with his ridiculous grille. The bitch face was mentioned. The main guy that I see a lot of who has actually showed a lot of class was Michael Phelps. Good on him, seems he's matured since the last Olympics, so that's nice to see. In short, my representatives - don't represent me that way. Show some dignity, sportsmanship and class. If you really care about representing me, instead of adding another line to your hall of fame career and racking up endorsements. You know how other countries think we're douches? It's because of shit like this. And you know what? They're right. I'd rather not 'win' the almighty medal count if it meant that our 'representative' (their word, not mine) athletes didn't act like a bunch of self entitled hard ons. /end rant.
I don't understand this argument. What are they supposed to do? Stop making shots? The USA teams are just that much better. The worst American player is better than the best Nigerian; there is only one player on the entire team that isn't an NBA all-star, and it's because he hasn't played a professional game yet. The Nigerian team features only two guys who have every played in the NBA, one of whom isn't on an NBA roster right now and one who is a bench player for one of the worst teams in the league. They had a banner day and shooting at NBA-Jams levels (73% overall, 63% from three. Carmelo made 10-12 three pointers). LeBron and Kobe both only played 11 minutes, and Carmelo Anthony, and the second half featured only one shot made by a starter. When the ball goes in the hole, the ball goes in the hole. The US team did all the things you're supposed to do as far as not running the score up, and it happened anyway. If you are playing a sport, it is disrespectful to stop playing it in the middle. You owe your opponents a game. What you are suggesting is like saying Usain Bolt should walk the last twenty meters in his qualification heats for the sake of decorum. It's disrespectful to everyone involved.
Really? They did everything? I'm assuming you've played basketball at some point in your life. Hell, watch an NBA game. You know what they do in the last few minutes with a lead? They run the clock out. You're seriously telling me they couldn't have slowed the game down to a point where they were only up 50 points? Or 40? C'mon. There's a huge difference between giving someone a game and pounding on a defeated opponent. If you believe that the ball magically just happened to keep going in the basket on its own volition to the tune of an 83 point lead, then you're right, there's nothing they could do. And whether it was a starter or non-starter is irrelevant. They continued taking a fuckload of shots when it wasn't necessary to winning the game. I guess we'll just have to differ. Sportsmanship to me means you don't go out of your way to humiliate a defeated opponent. To you, anything less than absolute maximum effort by the guys on the court would be humiliating. And the Bolt analogy is just retarded. He doesn't know how far ahead he is, and those races are in seconds, not minutes. Totally different.
Personally I'd be more humiliated if they slow walked it and half assed it all over the court because they felt sorry for me. Finish the game.
I guarantee you none of the USA players were giving their maximum effort. Absolutely zero. Sure, they weren't loafing, but no one was treating that game like it was Game 7 of the NBA Finals. I watched parts of it, and the players were essentially treating it like they were playing pickup. My point is that the USA team DIDN'T go out of their way to humiliate anyone. Trust me, they could have. LeBron could have stayed out there all game, and recorded a quadruple double. They could get all AND-1 Mixtape Tour and start dribbling between the players legs. They're certainly good enough. Every possession must end in a turnover or shot, by definition. There is no such thing as "taking a fuckload of shots." You either turn the ball over more, or take exactly that many shots. You can control pace (thereby leading to fewer possessions for both teams) but you can't stop shooting. In fact, the USA did slow down the pace: they took fewer shots in the second half, they just were making over 75% of them. When Carmelo started hitting all his shots, Coach K's reaction was to take him out of the game after 14 minutes. And you can't run out the clock for a half. Have you ever seen or played in a game when a team is running out the clock for more than a few minutes at a time? Because I have. If you're the opponent, it's incredibly irritating, far more so than if they just casually play on. I've been on the other side of blow out basketball games. Not to the tune of 75 points, but games where it was decided by half time. And if you're on the losing side, you want to play. You want the other side to give it at least a casual effort, because it's really patronizing to have the other team treat you like a four-year-old playing against his father. They owe you a good-faith effort and an opportunity to play a legitimate game of basketball. Similarly, I've been there in baseball. That's when you get some playing time for the guys who can't hit or pitch (although you want someone who can at least throw strikes to move it along). You don't start intentionally taking third strikes or bunting every at bat. I didn't play football, but I imagine it feels the same way: you don't want them to spend the second half kneeling three times before punting. Send in your second-tier players, get more conservative in your play calling, but if a running back breaks through, he should keep running. You keep playing the game, because the Nigerians are participants just like you.
And are you telling me you'd rather whatch them run out the clock for 20+ minutes? Just passing the ball back and forth wasting time with no real action? Fuck if it's between that and the Nigerians feeling disrespected I say fuck em, at the end of the day this is supposed to be entertaining.
Your gold medalist for every Dressage event ever: I really don't understand this mentality at all. If you're less embarrassed when someone goes easy on you than when they run up the score, you don't deserve to be representing your country in the Olympics. I have an easy solution for running up the score: play defense. /Pats fan
This is a no win (so to speak) either way. If they had dog fucked it w/ a huge lead, they likely would have gotten pegged as arrogant assholes. Bottom line is that they are there to play and play their best. This again. Fuck off already. At least some of them are black. edit: fix quote.
In high school, we had one of the best, if not the best wrestling team in the state for three years. My senior year, we were fucking stacked. Multiple returning state champions, some of whom placed in New England tournaments. Even our mediocre guys (myself included) were decent to good. Thanks to some really stupid school politics in other towns, (I want THIS guy to be the coach because he's my friend!) we found ourselves in one of the worst sections in the state. The crap schools were garbage, and the normally decent schools found themselves in either rebuilding years or dealing with idiocy. As a result, dual meets were blowouts. In matches where a pin is six points, we were beating teams 66-0. We were facing teams that had first-timers on three quarters of their varsity spots. When it became apparent that this was how the matches were going to go for the whole year, our coach had a very serious discussion with us. "I believe in going all out, all the time. You will NOT cheesedick a match. You will go for a pin with every move you do, and you will work to dominate every second of the match. That being said, you will not toy with your opponent, and you will win with class. And you will NOT go easy on him. That kid facing you has worked damn hard to get into the ring with you, and it's insulting to him, it's insulting to me, it's insulting to his coach who prepared him, and it's insulting to yourself not to give your best. And if I see any of you being little fucking faggots out there or on the sidelines, I will kick your ass off the team. Period." We did our best, and we won with class. Later on in the season, we went down to New Jersey and got completely slaughtered by team after team, and we lost with class. It is NOT demeaning to lose by a lot. If you're giving an honest effort and happen to be slaughtered by an opponent who is giving an honest effort, that's the way it goes. You did your preparation, and he did he. His happened to be a lot better for whatever reason, and all you can do is play out the game. Going with that, the other team should be winning with as little fuss as possible. The American team could have dunked on every play, talked smack, and pulled some Harlem Globetrotters shit. Instead they played quietly, and it was still a blowout. Mismatches happen, and there is a perfectly dignified way to keep playing and still win by a lot.
My highschool was weird at sports. We had some of the best rock climbing, orienteering, downhill mountain biking and canoe polo highschool athletes in the country. But we were fucking awful at conventional sports that other schools actually played. We got slaughtered every time at every team sport we participated in. I got a fair bit of experience in losing by massive margins. I'd much rather get my ass kicked the way US Basketball beat Nigeria, than by a team that phoned it in and condescended to us. We knew we weren't as good as the other teams - but it was nice when they had the respect to treat us like we were still a threat and play like they were taking us seriously. That said, I still don't think elite professional athletes should be at the Olympics. At the very least, athletes who earn more than 200% of the average wage for the country they're representing, for playing their sport, shouldn't be eligible for the Olympics squad for that sport. I'd be fine with NBA/NFL players competing in track and field for example. But if we are saying that we're going to expect to see the Olympic Creed (The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.) honored by the olympic teams we field, sending in an American team that collectively earned $230 (would have been $255 if not for the lockout) million in the last 12 months, to play Angola for playing basketball? is just counter productive.
As someone who went to UConn, watching the US women's team is like watching March Madness. It's awesome.
Yeah I agree. It's kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don't kind of thing. I think it's silly how some sports are so ridiculously lopsided. Women's hockey at the winter Olympics comes to mind, where Canada and the US could win without sticks against most of the other teams. I don't know what could be done about it, but it takes the prestige out of an event when the majority of the teams are several orders of magnitude worse than the top two or three.
When you have totalitarian dictatorships who build massive academies, training gyms, and training staffs for their "amateur" athletes, it tends to become a bit of a joke.