Sunday, August 17, 2008

Goldie Yawn

Phelps claims Olympic-record eighth gold medal

Meh.

The problem with swimming and a lot of other sports in the Olympics is, what can you do to stop this guy? Nothing. If he can swim faster, there is nothing you can do about it short of pulling a Gillooly. You can't play defense in swimming, or in gymnastics, or most of the track and field events.*

It's the same in golf. What can you do to stop Tiger Woods? It's basically reduced to an exhibition of one guy's skill at performing a particular physical activity.

So the first thing they should do with sports like this is give the competitors a chance to play defense. If Michael Phelps had to swim through a pool full of goons pulling him underwater while he tried to butterfly 100 meters, that would be a sport worth watching.

The other thing about the Olympics is, if they are going to play volleyball on sand, why not other sports? Why not the marathon or the floor exercise in gymnastics. Basketball would be pretty cool on sand, too. It would stop them from double-dribbling all the time, anyway.

* Yeah, yeah, there's some minor stratetegizatizing as far as setting a pace, knowing when to hold 'em, knowing when to fold 'em, knowing when to walk away, and knowing when to run... but it's just not the same.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The 10k open water swim is the event for you. Leg-pulling, yellow and red cards ... full contact swimming.