Field Theory: And they're off!
43 Responses
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Hmmm. Your list is a bit rich for my liking. You are lumping "Technical judges" with "beauty judges". The difference? Judging when a shuttle or ball is on the line or not is a technical assessment. Judging if someone is competing illegally is a technical assessment. There are no "beauty" points in those games. If you smash the living shit out of it and it goes out = 0. If in = point. If you "beautifully" hit it out = 0. If in = point. If your javelin has a motor in it = illegal.
But those sports where a "beauty"criteria is the sole (or major) judge: gymnastics, diving - unless bellyflopped :-) - dressage, synchronised swimming, (and Winter Os - free style anything: ice dance, figures, snowboard and skis) they are the ones to rid the place of.
Oh...and Rugby is we listen to Ted and his immediately retracted "thought" of game fixing.
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I was actually choosing sports where the judges have to make a decision about the action. Unlike field events where a foot over the line is easily noticed, a foul call in basketball, a low punch in boxing, a straight arm in weightlifting is a judgement.
Also what you call "beauty" can also be described as accuracy.
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That logo is everywhere.
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Historically my (highly limiting) rule of thumb for "it should be in the Olympics" has been "getting yourself/an object as far as possible (vertically or horizontally) and/or as quickly as possible". However we would lose both the Daft Punk joustery and beach volleyball so perhaps not...
Re Sky, as mentioned in another PAS thread - three of the Sky Olympic channels are not available to you unless you pony up the infuriating $10 for HD that I abhor about Sky. This also meant I had to put up with the ad-interrupted version of the Opening Ceremony as I wanted to see it in HD so had to view the Prime HD channel. I can't stand that Sky make you pay (even more) extra to receive in HD, and now they've completely blocked channels with it...
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Jeremy Andrew, in reply to
Historically my (highly limiting) rule of thumb for "it should be in the Olympics" has been "getting yourself/an object as far as possible (vertically or horizontally) and/or as quickly as possible". However we would lose both the Daft Punk joustery and beach volleyball so perhaps not...
I think you should add "as accurately as possible" so as to retain the archery...
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Russell Brown, in reply to
That logo is everywhere.
Having read that the logo is a deconstructed "2012" I'm finally able to make some sense of it.
I'm still not sure it can displace the Lisa Simpson thing from my consciousness though ...
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Aren't the judgey sports sort of the point of the Olympics, though?
It felt wrong yesterday watching S. Williams v Jankovic at Wimbledon. Switching over to the gymnastics felt more Olympic.
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Oh and like 2.5 hours of rugby and league on Sunday morning.
I’d put money on Prime being contractually required to air that semi-final. Part of the agreement between SANZAR and Sky for the Super 15, including free-to-air replay rights will include Sky guaranteeing that they will air certain matches free-to-air. Sky will not be permitted to pay for the free-to-air rights so that they can then not air games free-to-air in order to encourage people to pay for Sky.
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Sacha, in reply to
the logo is a deconstructed "2012"
ah
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Could people really not see a "2012"? Or are you all havin' a larf?
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Not saying I agree with removing particular sports, but if a sport needs multiple judges, in order to ensure some type of fairness, or if the highest and lowest scores get dropped, maybe that's more the type of judging which is concerning.
A tennis line judge can make a wrong call, but it can be pretty easily shown to be wrong with a replay, or something like that. A sport like diving, or gymnastics, where you add together the scores of a bunch of different judges, removing the outliers, or boxing or weightlifting, where it's best 2 out of 3, is in a different league.
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Graeme Edgeler, in reply to
Aren’t the judgey sports sort of the point of the Olympics, though?
Citius, Altius, Fortius?
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Sacha, in reply to
I genuinely missed it #notashamed
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As for crap coverage, I was watching China vs South Korea women's hockey last night. At a random point in the middle of play half way through the second half of a game I was thoroughly enjoying, CCTV5 played a few ads then switched to diving. I wish I could say this was the first time CCTV5 had down this kind of thing, but no, in the midst of a very exciting women's volleyball final between China and Russia they suddenly switched to some shooting match because a Chinese guy stood to get gold there, too.
So I'm wondering if it's possible to get decent coverage anywhere. At least, without paying an arm, a leg and your left kidney.
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izogi, in reply to
Aren't the judgey sports sort of the point of the Olympics, though? It felt wrong yesterday watching S. Williams v Jankovic at Wimbledon. Switching over to the gymnastics felt more Olympic.
Maybe this is an argument for bringing back Olympic events in sculpture, painting, music and literature (including drama, epic and lyric literature), all of which were part of the original modern Olympic vision? :)
It's hard to believe those athletes would be any more professional these days than someone like S. Williams.
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There's also this, um, bizarre conspiracy theory about the logo.
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Which Jon Stewart has, of course, made fun of.
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Lilith __, in reply to
Not saying I agree with removing particular sports, but if a sport needs multiple judges, in order to ensure some type of fairness, or if the highest and lowest scores get dropped, maybe that’s more the type of judging which is concerning.
Why? As long as it's fair?
And why shouldn't sport have a judgeable aesthetic component, if it's relevant? I'm thinking of gymnastics, where style and panache are clearly part of the skill of elite athletes.
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Graeme Edgeler, in reply to
Why? As long as it’s fair?
The bit where I begin with “Not saying” was important as a means to divine my views on this matter.
why shouldn’t sport have a judgeable aesthetic component, if it’s relevant
My point was that I didn’t have a problem with that, but the type of sport where judging is so subjective that multiple judges are needed in order to balance things out is different from sports where one judge (of any particular aspect) is considered sufficient, or where what they are judging can be objectively stated (like an LBW, or the offside rule).
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Lilith __, in reply to
but the type of sport where judging is so subjective that multiple judges are needed in order to balance things out is different from sports where one judge (of any particular aspect) is considered sufficient
I hear controversy on a regular basis about referee decisions in rugby matches. Perhaps they too could benefit from a team of judges giving balance!
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Mark Todd is within a sniff of victory
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I noticed, last night, that the gymnasts are a lot bigger this year, enormous shoulders every one. Is it something in our food, steroids in the chicken, Human Growth Hormones in the beef? or something more sinister. Send in the Clones, well maybe they're here.
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Lilith __, in reply to
that the gymnasts are a lot bigger this year
The women's gymnastics? The age requirement is now 16, not 14 as previously. The women are women, not girls.
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Hadyn Green, in reply to
The women are women, not girls.
Hell, some of the women were in their late 20s. Daiane Dos Santos of Brazil is 29!
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Lilith __, in reply to
Daiane Dos Santos of Brazil is 29!
Good lord! And a fine specimen she still is.
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