Your Favorite Summer Olympic Sport?

kimberlyanne546

kimberlyanne546

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Kimberly
I don't even know if this is in the Olympics, but I love watching the gymnastics and apparently they do it on horses now too (jumping on and off):


What is your favorite Summer Olympic sport? I also like Diving and Track and Field, Equestrian (I ride horses), and Beach Volleyball.
 
Fencing.

Three college friends, one each from University of Texas, Baylor, and Texas A&M, decided to pool their funds and go to the Olympics in London. The airfare and hotel rates ate up most of their money so they didn't have enough to get into the stadium to see the events. So they stood around the gate watching all the other people get in and then noticed that some people didn't have to pay. Whenever an athlete passed the guard with his (or her) equipment, the guard would simply nod and let them through. So the three visitors quickly trotted off to a nearby hardware store and came back shortly to try to get in. The Baylor student walked up to the guard and gestured at the long pole he carried. "Pole vaulting," he said, and the guard waved him through. The University of Texas student, having rigged up an ax to a length of chain, approached the guard next and showed off his wares. "Ax throwing," he said, and the guard shrugged and waved him through. The Aggie came last with a roll of chain link on his shoulder. "Fencing."​
 
Or the horse could do this to humans instead:

horse-vaulting-man.jpg
 
Judging from some of the responses here and in the "hottie" thread, quite a lot of folks' favorite Olympic sport is ogling. Not that I can argue with that.... :)
 
Dumb question but why did they remove baseball and softball from the Summer Olympics, and yet leave in canoe-ing / kayak?
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
Dumb question but why did they remove baseball and softball from the Summer Olympics, and yet leave in canoe-ing / kayak?
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Not sure about baseball, but I think the softball deal had something to do with the US winning every game 26-0.
 
Which cable channel is carrying co-ed nude skydiving this year? The sport where the term maximum flap speed means something completely different than what we here at PoA think it means.
 
As of now, my favorite sport is anything not relating to the opening ceremony. So far, it sucks.
 
Swimming, both men's and women's. I also like all of the cycling events. I have never been a huge soccer fan, but several of the ISU women's soccer players work for me this summer, so I am a woman's soccer fan for now just because they are.
 
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Any sport without judges. If it doesn't have a finish line or a score forget it. I'm waiting for local Bend Oregon boy Ashton Eaton to kick butt in the decathlon.
 
I like stuff they seldom show. Indoor volleyball, archery, wrestling, pentathlon... Always fun to see tight races in anything.
 
I tend to follow competitive marathon running, the olympic marathon is just one of the many that are run. The Boston, Chicago, London, and Berlin marathons are usually more "exciting"* than the olympic marathon.

*relative term -- not everyone finds 2 hours of left-foot-right-foot exciting.
 
Re: Womens Softball.
Sure, USA dominated it, but that was changing. They only managed Silver in 2008. And World Cup play has been very competitive this year.

But, what's not to like?
The players are athletes, with largely the athletic body type, in loose fitting uniforms. So the ogle factor is small.
The skill level is very high, even on foreign teams. Error percentages are comparable to MLB.
The sport's popularity is growing rapidly. The NCAA World Series in OK City broke the previous attendance record by Sunday this year with 2 or 3 games (finals) left to play. It help that Oklahoma was in the final.
Commentators are excellent, most of them being ex-stars. They discuss techniques, mechanics and strategy as much as statistics, giving the watcher a better understanding not only of softball, but also of baseball. (How many of you know the 3 Bs of defensive responsibility?)
I wish they would bring it back.
 
ejensen said:
I like stuff they seldom show. Indoor volleyball, archery, wrestling, pentathlon... Always fun to see tight races in anything.
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Ditto. Add discus, javelin, shot put (the field events that are never shown), target shooting, weight lifting, etc.
 
Track, and to a lesser extent Field. Agree on the score. I enjoy male and female gymnastics but it is ruined by subjective scoring.
 
Shooting. Maybe because I competed against someone in college who went on to win a bronze at the LA Olympics in 1984. And I still shoot for fun.
 
Well, I've never been much for spectator sports. Sure, I learned to appreciate football when our son played... from grade school through four years of high school and four years of college. But by and large, I don't watch even the stuff I love to DO, like auto racing, shooting and .. um ... cigar smoking.

But I have to admit, I've recently become a BIG fan of women's beach (sand) volleyball. Wow, just... wow.
 
Watched the Olympics in Mexico once, and loved the coverage. They had like two people in it, so they showed interesting events with not particular focus. Very nice.

I can't stand the American focus, show the stuff Americans are winning, interspersed with the life stories of our favorite American athletes. Yuck.
 
steingar said:
Watched the Olympics in Mexico once, and loved the coverage. They had like two people in it, so they showed interesting events with not particular focus. Very nice.

I can't stand the American focus, show the stuff Americans are winning, interspersed with the life stories of our favorite American athletes. Yuck.
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Yes that is why there is a fast forward button. Oh and also yuck is the fact that my favorite is on at 2am (horses) and not in prime time. Oh well. I am actually enjoying all the sports - if only for a moment. For example I learned what "clean and jerk" is by watching women's weightlifting and it was fun to see their faces and enormous weight. Also fun to watch rowing for a race or two, as well as many other sports. Where else can I do that all in one sitting? I think it is pretty cool.
 
steingar said:
Watched the Olympics in Mexico once, and loved the coverage. They had like two people in it, so they showed interesting events with not particular focus. Very nice.

I can't stand the American focus, show the stuff Americans are winning, interspersed with the life stories of our favorite American athletes. Yuck.
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:yeahthat:

I'm firmly convinced all the BS "background" and "features" is merely to attempt to justify the, (I'm assuming), high ad rates by shipping a load of faces over to London to give us the "vital" deep inside info on how Johnny Jones ties his shoes just like his Grandma taught him. :mad2: I just want to see Johnny run/swim/jump/row, as well as athletes from other countries....there are other countries there.....right????
 
Ogling Slukova, Czech beach volleyball player.

http://www.kolocova-slukova.cz/
 
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