Census Olympics which are better winter or summer?

I don't think you actually know much about gymnastics and figure skating....

 

Actual champions in both sports have shared my complaints.

 

I voted winter

though there’s definitely sports I like in both and a lot about the business side of the Olympics I don’t like

 

Winter all the way.

Hockey. Speed skating. Biathlon. Curling. I love curling. All that sweeping.

 

But the modern system absolutely does have a system with set difficulty values for different tricks. And the current complaints in figure skating are actually that it's not artistic enough and is too much focused on quads and athletic feats.

 

Only sport that utilizes practical life skills.

 

I was thinking of adding nether as an option, but I think most would pick it

 

Current complaints are only relative within the context of the sport, which is as I've described.

You're so blind to the normalities of both sports that you have no idea what I'm talking about. You can't see the sport other than relative to itself. Both sports involve, and actually require, a bunch of bs poses and swan like movements to satisfy a sense of feminine aesthetics. Artistry, music choice, style, and entertainment factor are literally part of the official scoring, they're very transparent about this.

This

was the biggest sensation in US gymnastics. It involves a bunch of bs dancing, hair flipping, jazz hands, and cheerleading. Significant fractions of her time pass without her doing anything remotely athletic. This was massively celebrated. This is the sport, it's exactly what I've described, and it's complete bull****.

 

She was irrelevant in competition. The American sensations who actually win things are superb athletes. Simone Biles could kick your ass.

 

Simone Biles has to do the same bs in her floor routines. I see you've conceded the argument in favor of straw men and some insecure, irrelevant comment about Simone Biles' ability to hurt me.

They are superb athletes, but imo, their athleticism is demeaned with nonsense, but obviously lots of people don't mind it and don't find it demeaning. Obviously, lots of people like it. So maybe I should leave it alone.

Idk, I guess I'm just disgusted with a supposed sport that judges young women (often minors) by their feminine beauty as part of the official scoring. It's just offensive to my conception of sports, which are supposed to be objective and entirely based on athleticism. It seems like gymnastics and figure skating are in stark conflict with the idea that women don't like being judged based on their looks, which is what women's gymnastics (not men's) and figure skating obviously do. There are lots of examples of this conflict, but this is one that flies under the radar, from what I can tell.

I guess this is just me recognizing the privilege that boys have, that I had, to be raised by society with the expectation to compete in objective athletics. If the sports I was expected to play judged me by how pretty I was, I would not have played sports, and it would have had a major negative impact on me. I can't imagine losing an athletic contest because I wasn't as pretty as my opponent, I can't imagine how devastating that would be to my self-esteem.

Why not just cut the artistic requirements from women's gymnastics? Probably because fans want to keep them. I'm not sure anything needs to change, or that change would be welcome, I'm just expressing my disgust with something other people enjoy and don't need my approval to do so.

 

I mean you know men participate in figure skating and gymnastics too....?

 

While we're talking what shouldn't count, we should really sack equestrian.

 

Yes, I do know that.

Men's gymnastics don't have (the same) artistic requirements. You don't see men dancing during floor routines, their floor routines are no nonsense, basically packed with as many athletic feats as they can squeeze in. They're pure power. Men's floor routines aren't even allowed to use music, they certainly aren't graded on it. There are a number of gender differences in the sport. The gendered expectations couldn't be any more clear.

Similarly, male figure skaters aren't as demeaned or judged on their looks as women, but the "sport" is still bs, even for men.

 

There are issues with the differences men and women are perceived to have throughout society. Very bland observation.

It doesn't negate those athletes or an entire sport.

 

Being judged for subjective garbage means it's not a sport, at least to me. Just reading the judging system makes it's clear it's not a sport.

Figures skaters are judged on "emotional and intellectual involvement", "individuality/personality", "the principles of musical phrase, space, pattern, and structure", "purpose (idea, concept, vision, mood)", "the personal, creative, and genuine translation of the rhythm, character and content of music to movement on ice", "use of finesse to reflect the details and nuances of the music", etc.

Like I said, it's not sport, it's art.

 

Same for me.

I might actually like watching the winter games more as well. Outside what I like, the summer games are better.

#1 in theory any county in the world could train athletes to compete in the summer Olympics Winter Olympics sports can naturally only be played in limited parts of the world.

#2 All the classic Olympic competitions from ancient times are in the summer games.

#3 Every Winter Olympic Sport requires the use of technology to participate in the sport, effecting the outcome. The summer games have a large number of events that only require the human body.

Mainly the Summer Olympic Games allow people from everywhere to compete together. It’s a better embodiment of the Olympic spirit. "The important thing is not to win, but to take part"

 

Fully agree. And yet my mom will spend the whole two weeks glued to the figure skating.

 

It's both, that's why it's so interesting.

 

Today's top athletes aren't competing naked and barefoot. So even if you can start learning to play football/soccer with a ball of rags in a barrio, all sports at the Olympic level are highly dependent on equipment. The running surface on the Tokyo Olympic stadium is so hard on the feet that athletes are banned from training on it to prevent injury, but it helps to ensure fast times in the short distance races.

There's also a reason why the middle and long distance races are so dominated by Africans who have lived their entire lives at a moderately high altitude, although I'm glad they've eliminated the white eliticism that plagued the first 3/4 of the 20th century and prevented non-Caucasians from competing on an equal basis.

That said, I'm a Finn, and got my first pair of skis at about the same age as I got my first trike. One reason why I like watching cross-country skiing is that I have some idea how it feels like to do it, even if at a much lower level. It takes me about as long to do 10K as it takes for the top athletes to do 50K, and I can't manage the steep and curvy hills that they take in their stride, but the point is that I'm physically able to do it. The longest distance I've ever run is 1.5K (pathetic, I know), and in my current physical condition I wouldn't attempt even that. With luck, I could maybe jog 100 meters...

I do like the fact that during the Olympics, we get to see sports that otherwise are never shown on TV, like curling and luge, and I'm very happy that they've accepted younger sports like snowboarding and skateboarding into the Olympic family. Sure, the athletes are judged on "style" but it's not about the beauty and grace of the athletes, but about the technical perfection of the jumps. I'm even happier that in these sports men and women are judged to the same standard. Sure, men get higher points because they're stronger and can jump higher, spin faster, etc. but the esthetic standard is the same for everyone, and men's and women's classes are judged by the same judges, and they compete at the same competitions. Ski jumping is similar, in that the athletes are judged on the style (technical perfection) of the jump as well as the length, but it's got nothing to do with the athlete's physical appearance. I do agree that there are problems with the way girls and women are judged in gymnastics and figure skating, but I don't think anyone can doubt that it takes real physical prowess to be able to perform in either of those.

I enjoy both the summer and the winter games about equally.

 

Right. What’s wrong with a little art in sport? This idea that every sport must be solely about power, power, power, and that anything else is garbage or nonsense, has an odd tinge of social Darwinism to it.

 

As a runner and swimmer I couldn't agree more. Swimming back and forth in a pool is the # 1 most boring thing in the world. I'd rather run around a track, for whatever reason running gives you more endorphins and just makes your body feel better.

But I still like to watch swimming because I am amazed at how fast the fastest swimmers in the world can swim. Ditto with running around a track or along a 26.2 mile stretch of road. That's why I voted summer. Because I wasn't born in a cold weather area and my parents never sent me on a single ski trip. (Don't blame them, they were expensive).

Edit: Oh I forgot Butterfly. Swimming Butterfly is not boring. It is the most athletic thing my body can do. I challenge myself to a lap of it every now and again, sometimes I can make a full 50m but I am always too wiped out to go more than that. I think when I was younger I could do 100m.

 

I used to swim county level here in the UK, never had the speed for running but I was fast in the water and from a fitness perspective, I'd rather swim than run.

I'd also rather scuba dive than do either.

For now I just need to deflab a little or else all I'll do is float and be unable to move in the pool

 

Swimming is so much more fun than running, IMO, but especially if you can swim in the ocean.

Which is also why snorkel-swimming should be a sport. There’s nothing better than being able to swim hard without having to turn your head to breathe, and while seeing all the fishes and underwater world while you’re doing it. Can exercise for hours that way.

But I like the underwater world better than the land world, so that’s me.