# Would you watch this Olympic event? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 26, 2009, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-watch-this-olympic-event/519002 "2009-11-26T04:11:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-watch-this-olympic-event/519002/1 "2009-11-26T04:11:42Z")
I think so. Any ideas for others? > **[Rick The Great](https://rickthegreat.wordpress.com/)** > > The continuing story of Rick, the greatest human being to ever live ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-watch-this-olympic-event/519002/2 "2009-11-26T04:36:47Z")
I would enjoy the novelty the first time around and be sick of it by the third race. Watching people fall down a hill isn’t interesting…unless they’re chasing a wheel of cheese. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-watch-this-olympic-event/519002/3 "2009-11-26T05:17:44Z")
It would be improved by making it ski-jumping. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-watch-this-olympic-event/519002/4 "2009-11-26T05:20:35Z")
Oh yeah! ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-watch-this-olympic-event/519002/5 "2009-11-26T14:32:48Z")
Awesome idea! \ And **Kid\_A** , there would be so many ways to fall down the hill!!! > [@](#): > > It’ll be quite something else to see N!Ginta from Namibia, who loses his nerve at the last minute and has to be thrown from the starting gate by hired thugs, sailing backwards down Mount Laceration waving his arms and shrieking like a little girl while a billion people watch, unable to tear their eyes from the TV, thinking, “This guy might die, or he might win. Either way, this is fricking awesome.” 😃 Priceless ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-watch-this-olympic-event/519002/6 "2009-11-26T22:17:17Z")
In the 88 winter Olympics, Eddie" the Eagle" Edwards represented Great Britain. He came in dead last at both heights. He was scary to watch because he was not very good and you were rooting for him not to break his legs. It sure added some excitement. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-watch-this-olympic-event/519002/7 "2009-11-26T22:29:23Z")
But Eddie actually practiced beforehand - practiced quite a lot, actually. He was too big to be a ski jumped and hadn’t a hope in hell of winning, but he jumped thousands of times before the Olympics. He just wasn’t world class at it, and got to go to Calgary only because of the qualification rules at the time (basically, he got to go because nobody else in the UK was a serious ski jumper, and under the rules of the time the UK was allowed to send at least one jumper even if he wasn’t very good.) They changed the rule afterwards. For all the talk about how he was going to kill himself he really didn’t have any more a chance of killing himself than any of the other competitors; he was too practiced. The Men’s Downhill Ski for Men Who Don’t Ski, however, requires the competitors have NO previous experience at all.