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2021 Olympics

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Staff member
Never been much of a Pro Sports guy. I like the Chicago Cubs. I like the Chicago Bears if they are playing well. That’s about it.

More so than any pro sports coming back I’m looking forward to the 2021 Summer Olympics!

Supposed to be the 2020 Summer Olympics but we know how that turned out. I honestly didn’t get excited about any pro sports coming back. Sure, when baseball returned I watched because it’s baseball...hello...baseball, you gotta. But nothing get’s me pumped like the Olympics. Been watching Summer & Winter since I was a kid. The chance to see athletes and sports that you never see during the rest of the year. Gold freaking medals. National pride. Yeah, even if the USA doesn’t win it’s still exciting. You get to see the NUMBER 1 ATHLETE or ATHLETES of a particular country standing proud as their National Anthem plays. You only get to see that once every 4 years. It’s awesome.

You are THE BEST in the ENTIRE WORLD at your sport. Here’s a gold, silver, or bronze medal. That is remarkable. Even the countries that have absolutely zero chance of winning still participate. Can you imagine training your entire life for the chance to represent your country in the Olympics ALL THE WHILE KNOWING that you have ZERO chance of winning...yet you still do it. That’s why I love the Olympics. It’s the human spirit. The human aspect. Everyone is equal at the starting line.

Everyone in the world trained to the best of their abilities to get to the starting line and represent their country. I just really enjoy watching!

Anyway.
 

EclipseRedRing

I smell like a Christmas pudding
I agree it is a refreshing antidote to the corruption of some professional sports although sadly there is still corruption and cheating in some Olympic events and organisation, as usual due to money. I will happily stay up until the early hours to watch the most obscure and minor event contested by competitors from countries I have to look up on a map. The Olympics, is and should be, the absolute pinnacle for any sportsman or sportswoman and therefore I feel that sports for whom the Olympics is not the pinnacle, such as football (soccer), tennis, golf, etc. have no place being included. By contrast I now have zero interest in professional sports to which until now I paid attention. Recent events have made those sports seem sullied, vulgar, and dirty in some way; money driven businesses run by vultures that care not a jot for their fans. I will never watch football (soccer) or any other UK sport with the same interest again, if at all. Looking forward to the Olympics though - I love Japan which is by far my favourite country of those that I have visited 😁
 
Sorry, call me jaded . . . the Olympics movement is just a corrupt and rife with cheats as any other "pro" sport. Even as far back as 1988, when Ben Johnson finally got caught. 7 of the 8 competitors in the 100m final were drug cheats. Guess what position the lone clean sprinter finished in? Weightlifting, wrestling, fencing, biathlon (winter), track and field, swimming (GDR "women"), speed skating (again, winter).

The Olympics are just as seedy as everything else. I'll still watch, but I long ago gave up any notions of purity in sport.
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
Never been much of a Pro Sports guy. I like the Chicago Cubs. I like the Chicago Bears if they are playing well. That’s about it.

More so than any pro sports coming back I’m looking forward to the 2021 Summer Olympics!

Supposed to be the 2020 Summer Olympics but we know how that turned out. I honestly didn’t get excited about any pro sports coming back. Sure, when baseball returned I watched because it’s baseball...hello...baseball, you gotta. But nothing get’s me pumped like the Olympics. Been watching Summer & Winter since I was a kid. The chance to see athletes and sports that you never see during the rest of the year. Gold freaking medals. National pride. Yeah, even if the USA doesn’t win it’s still exciting. You get to see the NUMBER 1 ATHLETE or ATHLETES of a particular country standing proud as their National Anthem plays. You only get to see that once every 4 years. It’s awesome.

You are THE BEST in the ENTIRE WORLD at your sport. Here’s a gold, silver, or bronze medal. That is remarkable. Even the countries that have absolutely zero chance of winning still participate. Can you imagine training your entire life for the chance to represent your country in the Olympics ALL THE WHILE KNOWING that you have ZERO chance of winning...yet you still do it. That’s why I love the Olympics. It’s the human spirit. The human aspect. Everyone is equal at the starting line.

Everyone in the world trained to the best of their abilities to get to the starting line and represent their country. I just really enjoy watching!

Anyway.
The Olympics are my favorite sporting event as well.

And I agree, they aren't "clean" anymore. But I think of Eric Liddle(?) Of "Chariots of Fire" game. The 1972 Summer Games. The Miracle on Ice. Sugar Ray Leonard.
 

EclipseRedRing

I smell like a Christmas pudding
Sorry, call me jaded . . . the Olympics movement is just a corrupt and rife with cheats as any other "pro" sport. Even as far back as 1988, when Ben Johnson finally got caught. 7 of the 8 competitors in the 100m final were drug cheats. Guess what position the lone clean sprinter finished in? Weightlifting, wrestling, fencing, biathlon (winter), track and field, swimming (GDR "women"), speed skating (again, winter).

The Olympics are just as seedy as everything else. I'll still watch, but I long ago gave up any notions of purity in sport.
I know what you mean and you are correct about track and field which has lost all credibility; I still find it watchable although I prefer the non track and field sports. I have more faith in the minor sports where less money and sponsorship is available, but I suspect those are becoming fewer in number; perhaps I am being naïve. I still enjoy the Olympics though as the majority of competitors are not multi millionaires on obscene salaries. I am not sure why that should make a difference to my enjoyment but somehow it does, particularly in recent months.
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
I know what you mean and you are correct about track and field which has lost all credibility; I still find it watchable although I prefer the non track and field sports. I have more faith in the minor sports where less money and sponsorship is available, but I suspect those are becoming fewer in number; perhaps I am being naïve. I still enjoy the Olympics though as the majority of competitors are not multi millionaires on obscene salaries. I am not sure why that should make a difference to my enjoyment but somehow it does, particularly in recent months.
I can't watch the professional basketball and hockey games in the Olympics anymore. Ruined it for me.
 

EclipseRedRing

I smell like a Christmas pudding
"I have more faith in the minor sports where less money and sponsorship is available,"

While I want to agree with this sentiment, the cynic in me demands that I ask . . . name one.
I can't speak with any facts and figures to back up my case but I assume there is less money and sponsorship available to competitors in freestyle wrestling or the skeleton, that there is in golf or alpine skiing, particularly at the top level. Of course there will always be corruption and cheating on the part of competitors or teams in any sport, and on the part of the team managers, International Olympic Committees, and event organisers. I guess I prefer events between competitors who I do not know or recognise, but learn from the commentary are just every day amateurs with normal jobs who fade back into obscurity after the Olympics with or without a gold medal. This is in contrast to overpaid professional superstars for whom a gold medal is often just a route to yet more appearance fees and sponsorship and may not even be the pinnacle of their sport. Like I say, maybe I am being naïve but ignorance is bliss 😁
 

Owen Bawn

Garden party cupcake scented
I love alpine ski racing, especially the downhill. Men hurling themselves down the fall line of a mountain at 85mph with only a helmet to protect them. Actually they now wear airbag vests, but still.

By the time an alpine racer hits 28 they are essentially bionic men & women with all sorts of plastic and titanium holding them together. And they must get some chemical assistance. One woman broke her ankle around Christmas 2 years ago and by February she was back racing.
 

Lefonque

Even more clueless than you
My favourite Olympic event was in the 2002 Winter Olympics when Steve Bradbury won Gold for Australia in tne 1,000 short track speed skating. Australia had one collective laugh. An unlikely winner.

Australia’s first gold winter Olympic medal.


Well worth a watch.
 
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