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Сочи 2014 (Winter Olympics Thread)

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GarandMarine:
Not surprised in the slightest?

jwhouk:
The two best hockey teams in the world will be playing on back-to-back nights. The winner of both games will be guaranteed a medal - but the loser of only one will get a silver.

By the way - there are 400 total events between the summer and winter Olympics, in 44 "disciplines" (their term, not mine), split 29/15 between summer and winter games. There are eight "team" sports - six summer (Basketball, Field Hockey, Football - aka "Soccer" - Handball, Volleyball, Water Polo) and two winter (Curling and Ice Hockey). Of the team sports, Handball is about the only one I have a serious issue with continuing in the Olympics. It is pretty much a non-existent sport outside of Eastern Europe, because instead of playing that, they play that "other" game - basketball.

Skewbrow:

--- Quote from: Akima on 19 Feb 2014, 14:16 ---Style and physical beauty, as assessed by very culturally-specific standards, is certainly a big part of the marketing appeal, I think. By curious coincidence: On subjective judging, racism, and injuries in figure-skating.

--- End quote ---
Marketing appeal certainly plays a big part as to why figure skating is a sport rather than art. Racism I'm not very sure about. Possibly? The case of Surya Bonaly (France) came to my mind, too. She made her debut at European championships at the age of 15 or something, and earned the reputation of "a teenager doing acrobatics on skates". Not surprisingly she scored high on technical merit, but artistic impression was a bit lacking. My eye is largely untrained, but even to me she did not seem to quite have the grace of a grown woman. Circus stunts like back flips did little to help that. She did mature quite a bit as years ticked by, eventually winning a few medals, but the old reputation stuck. That may have affected some of the judges, and is actually a thing that has been bothering my untrained eye - in figure skating you apparently need to make yourself known in advance to earn top marks. But I'm not ruling out the possibility that Miss Bonaly's initially unsatisfactory style marks were partially affected by the unfamiliar sight of black legs on ice. At the level of World Championships I would think that judges have grown out of racism. After all, women's figure skating in particular has lately been dominated by athelete/artists from Asia or in Michelle Kwan's case (US) of Asian heritage - and justifiably so, they have earned their good marks.

But how do you objectively define the difference in artistic impression made by an athletic perky teenage girl and a more mature woman? It is difficult to entirely avoid cultural standards. By "culture" I here mean the culture that has evolved in the world of figure skating, and the judges who have taken it to their hearts to keenly follow the sport and its evolution.

Is it sexist of me to concentrate on women's figure skating here? Is it sexist to emphasize the diffrence between a teenager and an adult? Women's gymnastics was also forced to deal with similar problems. It is a disturbing thought that a rule change would be even partially motivated by the spectators' and judges' (or media's) desire to see a bit older girls in skimpy gymnast's outfit.

Method of Madness:
Wait, how is a back flip a "circus stunt" compared to "jumping up in the air and spinning"? A back flip on skates sounds ridiculously awesome!

Edit: Sounds and looks awesome. Seriously, how does this not win?

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mVVy25e-vk

Skewbrow:
IDK, ask a figure skating judge. Some possibilities:

* Tradishun.
* Awesome =/= artistic.
* Looks more dangerous?

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