Winter Olympics Eletist?

Is it just me, or is this blathering nonsense?:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...020302280.html

Obviously there is some true to the idea of elitism in the winter
olympics. It cost quite a bit more money to prepare an alpine skier
for the downhill than a runner for the 10,000 meters. I
Doug Taylor wrote:
Is it just me, or is this blathering nonsense?:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...020302280.html

Big ugly flame to follow up a big ugly whine.

This article mentions that there are far fewer countries in the winter
Olympics than the summer Olympics. And I quote...
'In fact, I'd suggest that the name of the Winter Games, which start Friday,
be changed. They could be more accurately branded "The European and North
American Expensive Sports Festival."'

In other words, wahhhhh... it's mostly attended by those countries that
actually have a SNOWY WINTER season. And alpine skiing would be very
expensive to practice in the middle of the desert, no fair!
Inflammatory and blathering article by yet another whiner who was picked
last for team sports at school.

Another quote from this article.
'As always, the biggest delegations, and the big winners, will come from a
familiar pool. In the history of the winter competition, dating from its
inception in 1924, competitors from only six countries -- the Soviet
Union/Russia, Germany (East, West and combined), Norway, the United States,
Austria and Finland, in that order -- have won almost two-thirds of all the
medals awarded.'

So now he's complaining that the people who practically grew up on skis and
skates have an unfair advantage over and win more medals than those who
didn't. I know Norway will probably kick the US's behind in X-C skiing,
again. I'll live with it. I will not whine and complain about how unfair
it is that they have snow for a longer portion of the year or that skiing is
a bigger part of their general culture.

How many days of good skiing in Chicago this year? Two or three weekends all
winter. Perhaps I should complain that my parents didn't move us to
northern Canada or Norway, glue skis to my feet and hand me a gun, otherwise
I could have been a biathlete Olympian.


"xcwhite" wrote in message
ups.com...
Obviously there is some true to the idea of elitism in the winter
olympics. It cost quite a bit more money to prepare an alpine skier
for the downhill than a runner for the 10,000 meters. I
Doug Taylor wrote:
Is it just me, or is this blathering nonsense?:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...020302280.html

"Doug Taylor" wrote in message
...
Is it just me, or is this blathering nonsense?:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...020302280.html

Well at least our Ethiopian Lake Placid buddy gets a mention.

So what's your point?

Gene

"Jessica Chadwick" wrote:

Big ugly flame to follow up a big ugly whine.

This article mentions that there are far fewer countries in the
winter Olympics than the summer Olympics. And I quote...
'In fact, I'd suggest that the name of the Winter Games, which start
Friday, be changed. They could be more accurately branded "The
European and North American Expensive Sports Festival."'

In other words, wahhhhh... it's mostly attended by those countries
that actually have a SNOWY WINTER season. And alpine skiing would be
very expensive to practice in the middle of the desert, no fair!
Inflammatory and blathering article by yet another whiner who was
picked last for team sports at school.

Another quote from this article.
'As always, the biggest delegations, and the big winners, will come
from a familiar pool. In the history of the winter competition,
dating from its inception in 1924, competitors from only six
countries -- the Soviet Union/Russia, Germany (East, West and
combined), Norway, the United States, Austria and Finland, in that
order -- have won almost two-thirds of all the medals awarded.'

So now he's complaining that the people who practically grew up on
skis and skates have an unfair advantage over and win more medals
than those who didn't. I know Norway will probably kick the US's
behind in X-C skiing, again. I'll live with it. I will not whine
and complain about how unfair it is that they have snow for a longer
portion of the year or that skiing is a bigger part of their general
culture.

How many days of good skiing in Chicago this year? Two or three
weekends all winter. Perhaps I should complain that my parents
didn't move us to northern Canada or Norway, glue skis to my feet and
hand me a gun, otherwise I could have been a biathlete Olympian.


"xcwhite" wrote in message
ups.com...
Obviously there is some true to the idea of elitism in the winter
olympics. It cost quite a bit more money to prepare an alpine skier
for the downhill than a runner for the 10,000 meters. I
Doug Taylor wrote:
Is it just me, or is this blathering nonsense?:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...020302280.html

Doug Taylor wrote:
Is it just me, or is this blathering nonsense?:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...020302280.html

Countries with snow participate in the Winter Games. Some countries
with snow are "rich". I guess that means that if Saudi Arabia were as
rich as Estonia or Kazakhstan, they would have lots of medals. Or maybe
it means that if it snowed in Mexico, Mexico would become rich? I'm
confused. I guess the huge number of medals won by India in the Summer
Games explains it.

Joseph

And while we were fighting amongst ourselves......
Korea and took gold and sliver in Short track. China always has
contenders if not medalists in figure Skating and I believe I recently
saw a Chinese Nordic racer win a world cup event. The Winter Games are
filled with non-euro/amer winners and athletes.
Maybe things are not so simple.

And in MHO;
"The European and North American Expensive Sports Festival."
This line should read; "The European and North American Corporate
Sponsorship and Media Sports Festival."

On a personal level the Winter Games about sports and competition -
no doubt about it. On a wider level it is about products and selling.
Why else would half pipe snowboarding take up so much air time? Now
there is a sport that makes curling look like gripping drama (personal
opinion).

/john

a related article:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...NG16H7I551.DTL

jgs wrote:
And while we were fighting amongst ourselves......
Korea and took gold and sliver in Short track. China always has
contenders if not medalists in figure Skating and I believe I recently
saw a Chinese Nordic racer win a world cup event. The Winter Games are
filled with non-euro/amer winners and athletes.
Maybe things are not so simple.

And in MHO;
"The European and North American Expensive Sports Festival."
This line should read; "The European and North American Corporate
Sponsorship and Media Sports Festival."

On a personal level the Winter Games about sports and competition -
no doubt about it. On a wider level it is about products and selling.
Why else would half pipe snowboarding take up so much air time? Now
there is a sport that makes curling look like gripping drama (personal
opinion).

/john

I wouldn't say the Games are about products and selling. The commercial
TV coverage may be, but not the games themselves. They have a fair
amount of commercial content, but that is more of an enabler, than the
main point.

That commercial TV choses to air snow-board over curling is
understandable. But I guess it depends on te market. Here in Norway,
70% of the coverage at least is XC. I have to tune in to Eurosport to
get any figure skating (after I have watched all the XC, and the XC
recaps!)

Joseph

If you want to see elitism, how many countries have been able to win
soccer world cups? when you consider how many countries play soccer,
its extremely low. its funny that about as many countries have as good
a chance of winning an olympic mens hockey medal as they do a soccer
world cup...