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To: Terry D who wrote (95268)	2/13/2002 9:13:59 AM
From: Wowzer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

I will second that!! I love to watch that event amazing stuff. The way they keep their knees together and going straight down is incredible. To say that is extremely hard is an under statement. My legs hurt just watching.....

To: Terry D who wrote (95268)	2/13/2002 11:26:06 AM
From: kodiak_bull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Terry: There are 3 main complaints about the "post-modern" Olympics (when commercialism and professionalism crowded out practically all of the values of the modern Olympics (not to be confused with the original Olympics, of course). We can date the advent of the post-modern Olympics to Barcelona and Magic Johnson and the Dream Team, imho. The complaints are: 1) commercialization and cheapening of amateur sport (I know that's a hard one to define, even pre-Barcelona, but for broad strokes compare the NC4A tournament with the NBA) 2) a proliferation of "new sports" to attract a wider audience, or just to have more "stuff" 3) generalized corruption (Olympic style bribery, judges' issues, doping) Clearly, #2 is the least of the issues, but it is an odd one. I recall reading a letter by Rainer Maria Rilke (see Letters to a Young Poet) where he said something like, "do anything difficult, because it is difficult it is good to do it." I was only about 20 but I thought that some of the stupidest advice I'd ever heard. Skiing moguls while juggling sabres would no doubt be difficult, but is it worth while? Running a marathon after fasting for 3 days would be difficult, too, . . . The addition of all sorts of "activities" and "competitions" to the Olympics (see synchronized swimming, ice dancing (not figure skating), kneeling canoe races, velodrome, karate, taekwondo) is befuddling to most viewers. I never thought basketball or baseball or tennis had a place in the Olyms (well, maybe tennis), but if you let them in, you should let in football, badminton, ping pong. Modern archery, with its high tech bows, and riflery (is it an Olympic summer sport? I don't even know) makes you wonder why chess and bridge shouldn't be Olympic sports. As long as we admit competitive games, why not poker, blackjack, chemin de fer? And what about Monopoly and Clue? No one will ever take my suggestion, but I think Olyms should be limited to objectively determinable races and jumps (without judges, just timers and clocks) and competitions which herald back to some form of martial or military art: javelin, shot put, wrestling, boxing (karate, okay, taekwondo, okay, tennis???) where one person is pitted against another. Rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming, diving, even figure skating--they can have their forums, just as ballroom dancing and international music competitions do, but not the Olyms. JMVVHO, Kb

To: Terry D who wrote (95268)	2/13/2002 12:31:55 PM
From: Warpfactor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

I am a skier, Terry. Don't ski as much as I used to, but still make it to Tahoe a couple times a year. I know how tough moguls are. Been planted on my ass many a time. My beef is with the creation of new events, as KB indicates. You have mogul skiing, and you have freestyle ramp jumping. Mogul skiing - the winner would be declared by the fastest time to complete the course. The freestyle ramp tricks are judge based. Merging the two activities seems a stretch - a creation of an event simply to lenghten the Winter Olympics and add medal count.