A quick and easy way to improve the Olympics
Whenever I watch competitive swimming, I can't help thinking that it's strange they have different races for so many "strokes." You're in the water and the idea is to swim a certain distance faster than your opponents. Obviously, the fastest way to do this is the crawl ("free-style") so why mess around with the backstroke, butterfly, and breast strokes. There are lots of ways to move on land as well: you can walk, you can run, you can run backwards, you can hop; but we have the sense not to invent events based on these methods of locomotion ("the winner in the 200 yard skip is .....) So let's drop all these silly strokes from competition and just swim, already. Agreed?
posted by unca | 8:17 AM
6 Comments:
ha! agreed. why aren't you running the Olympics anyway?? C'mon people.
And what about that "walking" race (do they still have it?) where the men look like robots. But at least I could enter because I can't run with artificial knees, so there!
....oh, my google name won't work, but you know who I am. :-)
Anonymous, Dave Barry calls it "Walking Like a Dork." You have talked with me about this before, Unca. Have you considered contacting USA Swimming?
Hmmm. I can't say I'm with you on this one, Uncle. For one thing, it makes it more interesting that there are different strokes to watch. It also probably allows different athletes to do well because different strokes probably favor certain body types or whatever. Also, if you continued on with that theory, you could do away with a lot of things. I mean, why have hurdles? It takes longer to run when you have to jump over them. Why have balance beam? Everyone knows it would be easier to just jump around on the floor...and no one would ever fall off. ;) Just sayin'...
Sorry, Anya--I think your analogies are a bit faulty. A better analogy for the hurdles/sprint thing would be to have a few swimming races where the swimmers had to dive under water to get under a barrier or something. I think this would make more sense then the current backwards swimming, butterfly etc. which is more analogous to a backwards race foot race or a hop or skip. By the way, I'm pretty good at the sidestroke, how come, no sidestroke (or dog paddle for that matter)? As for the balance beam, I don't think you've got a leg to stand on there (Bwaaa-hha-ha-ha!!).
Haha, you're funny, leg to stand on. I have to admit that your analogies are probably a little more exact. Hmmm. I guess I just like all the different events. For instance, doing the butterfly is sort of impossible so it's cool to see people who can do it, fast.
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