Today came the shock news that a swimmer, Michael Phelps, has won every, I repeat every race they have entered, and mostly in new world records to boot, and now has an all time record 'zillion' gold medals, making him/her the greatest Olympian in all time ..... well since the last Olympics swimming.
It appears that every few years there is a Mark Spitz or Ian Thorpe or .... well the list goes on, and it occurs to me that the reason for this, is because there is no longer any difference between the 50 metre freestyle, and the 1500 metre freestyle, so the guy who is fast at one, can be fast at them all, which is why one good swimmer can win everything they enter.
Maybe its time to really cut back on the distances on offer e.g. 100m, 400m and 1500m only?
There is one other area of the Olympics where golds are like confetti, and that is Gymnastics, where every thing from prancing about with a stick and ribbon, to crashing headlong into a wooden 'horse', qualifies as an Olympic sport. The worst of this is that its "judged" subjectively i.e. the 'judges' vote for the Russian, or the US etc etc based upon who knows what criteria, with no way for the layman to know who is really the best.
The only way to sort out the Gymnastics, is to only have one Gold medal awarded after all the little events (that currently get a gold), and then give the Gold to the Gymnast who has the best aggregate points. At least that removes the fluke element that one event can currently have, and if you stopped the five leading nations from the last Olympics having a judge at the current Olympics, a lot of the politics is removed as well.
The whole Olympic list of events is littered with Gold Medals that are not true sporting tests, and often favour feats of winning multiple medals that are not feasible in proper events.
I cite as examples of this
Funny Sports
Real Sports
It appears that every few years there is a Mark Spitz or Ian Thorpe or .... well the list goes on, and it occurs to me that the reason for this, is because there is no longer any difference between the 50 metre freestyle, and the 1500 metre freestyle, so the guy who is fast at one, can be fast at them all, which is why one good swimmer can win everything they enter.
Maybe its time to really cut back on the distances on offer e.g. 100m, 400m and 1500m only?
There is one other area of the Olympics where golds are like confetti, and that is Gymnastics, where every thing from prancing about with a stick and ribbon, to crashing headlong into a wooden 'horse', qualifies as an Olympic sport. The worst of this is that its "judged" subjectively i.e. the 'judges' vote for the Russian, or the US etc etc based upon who knows what criteria, with no way for the layman to know who is really the best.
The only way to sort out the Gymnastics, is to only have one Gold medal awarded after all the little events (that currently get a gold), and then give the Gold to the Gymnast who has the best aggregate points. At least that removes the fluke element that one event can currently have, and if you stopped the five leading nations from the last Olympics having a judge at the current Olympics, a lot of the politics is removed as well.
The whole Olympic list of events is littered with Gold Medals that are not true sporting tests, and often favour feats of winning multiple medals that are not feasible in proper events.
I cite as examples of this
Funny Sports
- LARISSA LATYNINA - Gymnast (Nine golds out of 18 Olympic Medals)
- NADIA COMANECI - Gymnast (Five golds out of 9 Olympic Medals )
- MARK SPITZ - Swimmer (Nine golds out of 11 Olympic Medals)
Real Sports
- Sir Steven Redgrave - Rowing (Five golds out of 5 Olympic games and 6 Olympic Medals)
- Al Oerter - Discus (Four golds out of 4 Olympic games )
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