Sunday, July 8, 2012
MERE MOUNTAINS OF FAT: The Summer Olympics has now suffered a more than one hundred year drought of a Plunge for Distance competition. Despite criticism that the sport favors "mere mountains of fat who fall in the water more or less successfully and depend upon inertia to get their points for them," the 1920 rules remind the beginner that "it is not necessary to be over 200 pounds to be a good plunger."
Here's a handsome Russian swimmer demonstrating a good technique and who seems to do well despite not being a "stylish-stout" chap.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Still more of a sport (objective scoring) than gymnastics.
ReplyDeleteThis blog does have a thing for abandoned sports from the 1904 Olympics.
ReplyDeleteOlympic event I'd like to see, and I may expand this into a full post: Gold Medalist Dodgeball. Everyone who wins gold, in every event, on the field at the start of the closing ceremonies. Helicopter drops twenty balls onto the field. Glorious chaos ensues.
ReplyDeleteDo Equestrian medalists get to use their horses? And do teams have to choose a representative, or do they all participate?
ReplyDeleteBecause this sounds awesome!!
'Cause otherwise, I'm a little woried about <span>Hiroshi Hoketsu's chances!</span>
ReplyDeleteI'm waiting for Modern Pentathlon to be replaced by Post-Modern Pentathlon. Still trying to figure out what the events would be, but it's safe to say it would be deconstructed in some way.
ReplyDeleteI was going to suggest that the target pistol competition would be replaced by Laser Tag, but then I read this in Wikipedia:
ReplyDelete" Beginning with the Rancho Mirage World Cup (Feb 2011), the pistols have changed to a laser instead of an actual projectile. There is a slight delay between the trigger pull and the laser firing, simulating the time it would take for a pellet to clear the muzzle." That's plenty post-modern right there.
Do I want to know how one falls in the water "less successfully?"
ReplyDeleteThe modern pentathalon was supposed to emulate warfare at the time, so conceivably we would [NO POLITICS].
ReplyDelete