BEST MALE PLATFORM DIVER OVER 250 POUNDS: If you don't listen to Slate's Hang Up and Listen sports podcast, you should, and they have a particularly good idea this week for sprucing up the Olympic Games—almost as good as my Closing Ceremonies Gold Medal Dodgeball proposal. Why not take the concept of athlete size classes, which creates multiple medal competitions in the fighting and lifting events, and expand them into other disciplines? Who wouldn't want to see the best high jumper who's 5'5" or shorter, or the best gymnastic floor exercise from a man the size of an NFL tight end? How far can an 110 pound woman hurl a discus, and what nation can amass the best 6'0" and under men's basketball team?
Open thread for today's Olympics, including the ladies team gymnastics final, and the best in NBC censorship of male divers.
especially if the IOC brings back plunge for distance . . .
ReplyDeleteThey're doing the unnecessary censorship all wrong. The missus and I were stifling giggles every time they put up a diving score, 'cuz it made it look like the guys were naked.
ReplyDeleteAlso, synchronized diving should have a 200 kilogram minimum weight, to be divided by the pair in whatever ratio works.
ReplyDeleteWait, what's the spoiler policy here?
ReplyDeleteFor major events which will be broadcast on NBC tonight, we are not discussing the controversial results until they are broadcast.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I had the exact same reaction. Heh.
ReplyDeleteIs anyone else reading the AV Club recap/reviews of the nightly NBC coverage? I'm really enjoying them.
ReplyDeleteThis just sounds a little like Shaq Vs. Frankly, I never really thought about the weight classes, but this sounds interesting only from a novelty standpoint. As I have said before, I watch sports to see feats of superhuman prowess, not ordinary humans doing things ordinarily. Once I've seen a tall guy high-jump 8 feet, I don't really need to see a tiny guy high-jump 7-feet.
ReplyDelete(Short tangent: I believe that a Japanese-American guy named Rick Noji, who graduated from Franklin High School in Seattle a couple of years before I graduated from a different Seattle high school, either holds or held the second-best "height-over-head" mark among high jumpers. He was 5'8" or 5'9" and jumped something like 7'5" in college. So I was lying -- I do think that is amazing. But I still don't think it's Olympic.)
What I really want to say is that the person who designed the US male divers' uniforms probably could go to jail for obscenity in half the states in this country. I think the name of those uniforms is "abstracted red penis."
Being off for the summer, I have been able to watch these Olympics live (when the app doesn't freeze that is). Since the news of the result is all over the web and tv, I was wondering if you were watching the nightly broadcast without knowing the results, or watching it anyway?
ReplyDeleteWhat's the point of watching a weightlifter who's neither tiny nor ginormous?
ReplyDeleteIt may well be irrational to have weight classes in the sports that do have them. That is an argument for getting rid of weight classes in all sports. It is not an argument for adding weight/height classes in sports that do not have them.
ReplyDeleteHey, Adam - are we Wire Wednesdaying tomorrow or are we on Olympic hiatus?
ReplyDeleteGood question. I'll ask it.
ReplyDeleteYou're still going to spoil for the west coast, I take it. Please do me a favor: nothing in the post title.
ReplyDeleteThere is a shot as our third vaulter Kayla Maroney lands of a judge literally gaping. Awesome and hilarious.
ReplyDeleteNo new thread. We'll discuss below here.
ReplyDeleteI've been trying (completely unsuccessfully) to be spoiler-free. I'm avoiding any internet use during the day but at least once a day I end up looking something up and getting results I don't want. For example, today I went to npr.org to look up a completely unrelated article - the ukelele world record - and had the swimming results thrown in my face. Why can't everyone do the Yahoo thing where they show you the subject and you click only if you want results??
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