February 12, 2002
need new words. I want to subcategorize the word "Sports" into
2 sub entries. First is the common sports we know and love. Things that
are measured by finite things happening. A puck or ball crossing a goal
line, a man running around the bases before someone tags him with a ball
that has been hit and not caught before it hits the ground, a person,
horse or car running faster than all other competitors in the same race.
The second category is the sports that have a component of judgment to
the scoring. Ski jumping, ice skating, snowboarding, anything that has
"style points" would be included here. Some sports would come
under both headings (think biathlon).
Of course, this brings to mind the travesty that I saw last night at the Olympics (travesty being a relative term, mind you) in Ice Skating. In my mind, knowing absolutely nothing about how to appropriately score ice skating, it was rather clear that the Canadians skated a much superior show than the Russians. I understand that the Russians may have been technically more difficult, but in a sport where style appears to be important, I thought that the Canadians were much more "in control" than the Russians, the flow of their program seemed more natural, where as in my opinion, the Russians seemed to be much more of a "whew, we got that one done, let's take 10 seconds to skate while we get our nerves up to do the next one" kind of thing. I thought the landings they did were much less polished, the aerials seemed forced...I guess I just don't understand the scoring. I was pleased that the crowd reacted well at the medals ceremony, but I just couldn't get over the thought that as a total performance, I thought the Canadians looked more polished.
Don't ever count on me for being a "style" judge, it seems I don't have it in me.
On a separate subject, when I took the test, I was Frodo.