Terry:
In total agreement on curling. Why don't we have shuffleboard and even push-broom competitions in the summer games if we're going to have curling. It's not even half the "sport" bocce is, or croquet (and that's no compliment).
The bobsled, the luge, yeah, I see your point, but at least it's an objective race with clocks. Personally, I don't see the point of those races.
As for Nordic, it's pretty goofy and the "biathlon" is weird (why not have a cross country ski and then pause at an outdoor kitchen and prepare a pizza?), but in general it's a little like long distance running in the summer.
I guess the "new sports" issue boils down to whether you want to watch in the Olyms what you do in your recreational time. If that's the case, and youth is the point, then we should have skateboarding in the summer Olyms. Expand that point further, and we should just take all recreational activities and put them into the Olyms: hiking, rock climbing, fly fishing, snorkeling. We could make up some rules and institute judging panels.
It's all good with me, but I have less interest each year in watching anything that says Olympics. It's funny because I do downhill, telemark and backcountry skiing and my daughter is a snowboarder, so I'm the target audience (not some New Jersey suburbanite). If I can't get interested, then who can?
Kb |
