Olympics Talk: A brief discussion before it goes away

[briggart]

Are they drop kicking the guy with the ball?

My understanding is that the rules prohibit:

• hitting other players in the head or neck
• punching, headbutting, and elbowing from behind
• kicking other players
• tackling other players using straight arms or legs
• blocking an opponent so another teammate can hit him
• hitting players on the ground (the rules also explicitly forbid jumping on players on the ground, so I guess there is some latitude on what constitute 'hitting')

Some of this restrictions are relaxed during open fighting which is allowed only on a 1-to-1 basis, and only if both players involved have manifested their intention to fight.

 

[Tonguez]

Are they drop kicking the guy with the ball?

yep everything is allowed except sucker punches and kicks to the head, only one tackler per man though

if Florence ever hosts an Olympics lets hope these is added to the roster, even if its just an exhibition match

 

[Bedrockgames]

Okay, I have to ask ... why?

I admit that I am open-minded about this. AFAIC, if people compete, then why not? And I think that some of the niche sports (or ... events if you prefer) are far more interesting than some of the other events that take more time.

In addition to the traditional standout sports (track & field), I find that the weird niche sports are usually the most interesting. I would much rather watch Breaking than Golf- if only because Golf is always on TV, and the best players don't care that much about the Olympics, while the Olympics is the biggest things for almost all these tiny sports.

(That said, I know someone who absolutely hates any sport that is scored on judging only, so I can understand that.)

I don't see why breaking can't be a sport but gymnastic can. Both seem physically very impressive to me and beautiful to watch

 

[Deset Gled]

Okay, I have to ask ... why?
...
(That said, I know someone who absolutely hates any sport that is scored on judging only, so I can understand that.)

That's the main thing I didn't enjoy about it.

I don't see why breaking can't be a sport but gymnastic can. Both seem physically very impressive to me and beautiful to watch

Gymnastics (and figure skating, etc) have largely shifted to be much more quantitative and focused on technical moves and difficulty ratings rather than subjective scoring. I didn't catch that much breaking yet, but from what I saw it seemed very subjective. But to be fair, rhythmic gymnastics is still a thing (that I don't really care for, either). I'm willing to give breaking a few rounds to see how it evolves.

 

[Tonguez]

I referenced this in my post above.

I watched the whole thing. She was noticeably worse than many of the competitors. But nothing so bad that it deserves hate. Life is too short.

I have heard that her explanation is that she knew she was not as good, so she tried to do some different things. But it's not like that women who conned her way into the skiing at the last winter Olympics.

ah, checking the scoring system I see that Performativity and creativity are given the most weight (60%) when scoring Breaking with the other criteria - personality, technique, variety, and musicality accounting for 40%. So yeah I can see that Ray Gunn might have been trying to increase her creativity score.
no idea what Performativity is though (or any of those other criteria either)

In contrast Rhythmic Gymnastics is scored on technical value, body difficulty (jumps, leaps, balances), apparatus mastery, originality, dynamic elements and dance step combinations - it also uses averaging and system of deductions which probably helps to even out scores based on a perceived standard (10).

Breaking has resisted standardizing but it probably needs some if its to remain a viable sport rather than a performance art

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Finally found a short clip sampling Ray Gunn’s performance:

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

What the Olympics really need is Traditional Florentine Football

I’ve heard of hackey sack, but never hockey soccer.

I don’t see that getting an Olympic nod before pankration.

That said, it reminds me somewhat of how some punk friends of mine described their version of Ultimate Frisbee back in the mid/late-1980s.

 

[Clint_L]

Okay, I have to ask ... why?

I admit that I am open-minded about this. AFAIC, if people compete, then why not? And I think that some of the niche sports (or ... events if you prefer) are far more interesting than some of the other events that take more time.

In addition to the traditional standout sports (track & field), I find that the weird niche sports are usually the most interesting. I would much rather watch Breaking than Golf- if only because Golf is always on TV, and the best players don't care that much about the Olympics, while the Olympics is the biggest things for almost all these tiny sports.

(That said, I know someone who absolutely hates any sport that is scored on judging only, so I can understand that.)

I don't like it when disciplines that are essentially subjective are scored as if they are objective. I would exclude any "sport" that has an artistic mark. Or remove the artistic mark. I'm okay with judging in the sense of refereeing, but I think they should stick to measurable aspects. So there are a lot of Olympic categories that I would exclude.

I don't hate the disciplines - I thought the breaking was fun. I similarly hate the idea of awards shows and so on for art, at least insofar as they declare something or other "best."

 

[Deset Gled]

I similarly hate the idea of awards shows and so on for art, at least insofar as they declare something or other "best."

Personally, I don't mind the idea of awards or contests for art. I just don't think the Olympic's is a good place for it. Part of it is the tournament-style methods they use, which IMNSHO are fine for some sports but don't really work for many artistic works (breaking, in particular, has a battle method and crowd hype aspect that I don't really understand, but doesn't seen particularly fair).

But an even bigger problem is the political aspect. From SkateGate in the early 2000s, to cold war era judging complaints, as far back as the 1936 games, and everything in between, I have learned to despise when politics get involved in judging sports. And the Olympics really seems to struggle with keeping politics out. Which I understand isn't anyone's fault in particular. But the only effective fix I see is to keep things quantitative.

 

[trappedslider]

Finally found a short clip sampling Ray Gunn’s performance:

and the mem makers are on top of it