The Winter Olympics

[Bob Riebe]

           I watched , a lot of, the Winter Olympics for the first time in well over a decade this year.
It was good TV and I was amazed at how difficult Curling actually was.
Down hill skiing has always fascinated me and make me wish  had not stopped skiing thirty years ago.
            I watch the closing production and the Italians know how to put on a good show.
At one point there were dancers doing moves equal to doing gymnastics for 7-8 minutes; I know the Olympians train long and hard but those dancers had to bust their butts, seven days a week, hours on end to be able to do what they did.

            The Summer Olympics have never been much to me, even though I know they also bust their butts, but the Winter Olympics, especially Bobslead and Skiing has always fascinated me since I was a very young youth.

[Ranger99]

I haven't watched olympic anything in
years after they openly allowed professional
athletes to compete,  thereby shutting
out talented amateurs.

Also, adding the " new " events to the
regular olympics and eschewing the
" classic " events like were held a
century and more ago

[ironglowz]

 I don't play any of the "ball sports" or any of the popular Olympic style sports.  I perhaps played 3 baseball games in my life, a couple backyard football games and never did ever dribble a basketball.
  My sport life has been almost all outdoor pursuits, and almost all done solo, until my boys grew to go with me. I never got all wrapped up in the "fan life" thing!

  Perhaps I am too analytical,  "fan" being the root word for "fanatic" ! 

 Sports news comes right along with regular news, so when I heard that Canada had their expected gold cup taken from them by a US team, my mind went back to an incident that happened about 1 year ago. I think the Olympic gold was practically settled, about a year ago.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3GuPv0r_cA

   I understand they did it again at the Olympics..   So FAFO !   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBHhlydUkUs 

   Some folks are sending off this photo.  Sympathize or satirize, you decide !

[Bob Riebe]

I haven't watched olympic anything in
years after they openly allowed professional
athletes to compete,  thereby shutting
out talented amateurs.

Also, adding the " new " events to the
regular Olympics and eschewing the
" classic " events like were held a
century and more ago

         The first Winter Olympics were not until 1924 and to me, are far more interesting.
The biathlon  uses shooting more closely related to hunting than the shooting part of the Summer Olympics.

         As far as the professional part goes, it is annoying but an amateur in Europe is different from the ones in the U.S. -(As it was until after the recent turn of the  century at least)- there they were part of an organized sports club.
 Here they were mostly students who were doing this until they graduated from what ever school they were going to.
         No one backing them except what they could scrounge up through their own desire.

         Now , although football and basketball are the two that truly crapped on the amateur part,  some sports are still truly amateur while , money in  sports, including betting, and it is becoming another god to so much of the U.S. population,  is taking the sport out of sports.