olympics
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soulcamp said, (139 days ago)
Yes, it's on Universal HD right now. It's been an official Olympic event since 1904.
Osteocephalic said, (138 days ago)
I know it looks silly, but that's a real sport with real rules.
The gold medalist won the 50 km walk in a time of 3:37:06. 50 km is about 31 miles. So, he averaged 8.58 mph.
That's a 7 minute mile. He did 31 continuous miles at a WALKING pace of 7 minutes per mile. The fastest I've walked, when I was focused on marching as hard and as fast over the course of a mile as I could, was 11:43 in one mile. In my last APFT, I ran a 14:32 2 mile time, which isn't bad considering that I'd done the same distance a year early ten minutes slower. That means that Italian gold medalist WALKS faster than I can RUN. My average speed on a 5km (3 mile) run is 8.0294 mph (That's 3.25 miles in 24:17.15, my personal best). So, I am slower running than he is walking, at least on a short distance 10% as long as he walked.
Silly or not, it's a real sport. Nobody that laughs at that sport can even RUN and stay with those walkers. Try it. You'll see.
Besides, if they don't show modern pentathlon (Run 3 km, Jump an unfamiliar horse, shoot a pistol, fight with a sword, swim 200 m), then the whole Olympics coverage is too pussy for any of us to cheer for anyway.
soulcamp said, (138 days ago)
I know they're serious. Shit, I'm pretty sure it would take me about 2 1/2 days to walk 50km. They're definitely athletes. However, I've never actually seen anything that makes a woman less sexy than racewalking. It simply looks ridiculous. I can't picture how someone would ever get started in the sport.
I really wanted to see some judo, but I've not seen it listed anywhere. To be fair, I've not really been paying too much attention, either.
I am most surprised this year by the serving in men's volleyball. Back when I used to play (14 some years ago), very few guys even used a jump serve. Now it seems like the serves are more difficult to hit than a spike from the 3-foot line. It's crazy.
soulcamp said, (138 days ago)
I have to say that ping pong is a pretty ridiculous second.
And @osteo, I noticed that either Universal HD or USA had pentathlon listed in the guide, but I didn't catch any of it.
Sarah von Pantyhose said, (137 days ago)
it's ridiculous because the women are unsexy??
I'm sorry I'm going to go and throw up.
soulcamp said, (137 days ago)
@SLP: Oh no, the men look just as ridiculously unsexy, too. It's like watching a Monty Python sketch. I don't doubt their athleticism - I just think they look funny.
Seriously, what the fuck is this all about?