That part of figure skating was removed from the Olympics starting with the 1992 Games.
I vote for:
-RACE WALKING: what idiot invented this “sport”?
-Ribbon Dancing: stupid !
-Graeco-Roman Wrestling: boring to watch
I also think that the opening and closing ceremonies are too damn long! Is it true that the greeks are losing their shirts on this olympics? Supposedly, half the tickets are still unsold. 
I hate hate hate gymnastics. OK, it’s mildly interesting sometimes, but it inevitably gets 90% of the coverage of the entire games. There were a few Olympics that had genuinely compelling stories in gymnastics, so now they have to cover it every time with extreme detail, whether it’s worth it or not.
Big train?
The latest figures I have seen (sorry, no cite) is that ticket sales in the US are down in excess of 50% over previous Olympics. I would expect the figures world-wide to echo this. No-one, and I mean no-one, wants to be sitting at a World-Class Target in a country that has poorer security than your local Wal-Mart. The Greeks are going to take a bathon an Olympics that, I predict, will set new records in transportation gridlock, unready facilities, and general bureaucratic bullshit.
Anything other than track and field. Running, jumping, throwing things, etc, all good. The rest of it, boring. Including shooting, archery, and all team sports. Especially boring though, is figure skating. Not the skating you see on tv, but the other one, where they try to skate in their own tracks and make designs. Hence the name “figure” skating.
I think they should build a permanent compound in Athens and hold the abreviated, track and field events every couple years so the athletes can have a better chance to return. They could still choose the nation that hosts the event, jusr quit wasting money and resources every four years, and let less than rich countries host.
Peace,
mangeorge
Oh, yeah. Get rid of wrestling and boxing and have bare-knuckle fighting instead. I say this in case anyone who read my last post thinks I’m a sissy 'cause I want to get rid of shooting. I am not a girlie-man.
I would like to add that wrestling, in any form ( except the bedroom/foreplay event) is really really creepy to watch men ( and now women) wearing those spandex thingies and grunting around the floor like that.
I have no idea what it is called, but there is a bicycle event where the point seems to be to go a slowly as you can until the last possible second (before what?) And then peddle like hell. It’s not that it’s boring, it is that it makes no sense and is therefore boring.
On the equestrian events, which I enjoy no end, one of the fun things to do is watch the riders change the horse’s lead so that it is on the correct foot to finish a jump – look for the horse to do a little change step shuffle as it turns toward the obstacle. Maybe a little subtle but great fun to watch.
The XGames are a hell of a lot more fun to watch.
Tell me I’m wrong.
Forget the actual sports. There is nothing worse than the endless television coverage of the athletes’ “heartwarming stories”. (Where’s the puking smily?) Every single athlete has to have faced some dramatic trial for us to be interested enough to watch him.
I’m here to watch sports. If I wanted to see “Joe’s mother had toenail cancer”, I’d watch the Lifetime network.
Strange. I’ve never seen that type of thing.
Just about any Olympic sport will hold my attention.
I just wish they’d cover more actual sports, and keep those personal profiles to a bare minimum.
I’d also much prefer to see a more even handed coverage of the games, rather than the “All Americans, all the time” coverage that we typically get in the United States. Actually cover the wrestling events, and show all of the finals, not just those matches involving Americans. Show the team handball semis and finals, even though no American team will ever stand a chance. Show the Tae Kwon Do semis and finals just because they’re fun to watch.
The last Olympics featured the final international competition of the greatest greco-roman wrestler who ever lived. Were his matches followed and broadcast live? Nope; no mention was made of him until after the final match, and then only because he lost to an American, and even then the broadcasters told you before showing the tape delayed match that the American had won.
Track is absolutely my favorite, especially the running events. In no other sport can you so easily see the direct competition between one competitor and the other. I like swimming for exactly the same reason. Relays, in both venues, are the highlight of the games for me.
I’m an Olympics freak, so I loooove watching 90% of it. My least favourites would be:
- boxing
- wrestling
- martial arts
- shooting
- softball and baseball
- handball
- badminton
Although, I’ll watch the Aussies in anything!
I specifically look out for:
- GYMNASTICS! (I’m a coach and ex-gymnast, so I know what I’m looking at and I’m always glued to the telly when it’s on.)
- swimming
- athletics (inc. triathlon, marathon and walking)
- cycling
- diving
- equestrian
Spavined Gelding - Isn’t it cool during the dressage when they do 5 or 6 changes of lead in a row and it looks just like the horse is skipping? I love it all.
StG
Due to a completly boring set of circumstances, my child and I have to move in with my mother (for a couple of months).
Herein lies the problem. My child is totaly and utterly addicted to and in love with his cats. My mother is madly in love with her dog (she has a cat too).
Today she “laid down the law”, we are welcome but the cats are not (well by the end of the phonecall it seemed like none of us were welcome but would be taken begrudgingly…with no cats)
Tonight my boy went to sleep crying at the thought of his best friend spending a couple of months in a cattery.
I rang my mum and pleaded to be allowed to keep one (out of two cats) with us. As is usual here they are indoor/outdoors cats. I offered to make the one cat we HAVE to keep an inside only chap (we will be living in a self contained flat under her house). She believes that is impossible. She also believes that said cat will beat up her precious doggy (it’s a frigging Airedale not some handbag dog).
Do I chose to live in a caravan park (and hope I can take the cat there), tell my mum she should have more respect for her grandchild’s feelings or give the cats away (and know the child would hate me for it).
Because I have very little choice right now and I want my child to have a secure place to live, whose feelings matter most…cat loving child, or cat hating mother?
Ahhhhhhhhhhh that was supposed to be a new thread. Sorry. I’m to emotional to be allowed to type right now. BUGGER.
I am an equestrian, and oh man I can’t watch dressage. I love stadium and cross country jumping, but yes, as stated elsewhere: dressage is like watching paint dry. Even the “freestyle” (set to music) just looks like more of the same to me. (I bought a video of dressage at the 1996 Olympics. I’ve never been able to finish it.)
I’ve learned some basic dressage principles and found it to be a very. very demanding and difficult discipline. It provided a sensational foundation for my riding, and I am in awe of those who compete at almost any level and have that kind of communication and control of their horse. I do not disparage the sport at all.
But holy crap, I can’t watch it.
I’m amazed by gymnasts, because, damn, they’re strong and graceful. But there tends to be so much of it aired and nowhere near enough of the martial arts events aired, which I could sit and watch all day - not judo as much as karate and TKD, but that’s where my martial arts loyalties lie, I guess…
Lucky you. They seem to be an American fixture.