Favourite non-major Olympic sports

I was pissed when tug of war was dropped from the olympic program.

Oh yeah - and rugby as well.

I'd like to see cricket make a comeback come to think of it.

The current sports ..... hmmmm ...... I like synchronised diving - such an artform of symmetry. BUT maybe it's just me !!

I look out for the brief glimpses of sailing as I used to do a lot myself, and was Women's World Champion in the Solo class in 1990. Those were the days... *sigh*

Curling is always a favorite among the Northerners.

Richard

My husband's quite keen on beach volleyball.

Can't think why.

Seaclusion said:

Curling is always a favorite among the Northerners.

Richard

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Is that the one where it looks like they are swiffering the ice? I like that sport.

Filibustering.

*fwaps Richard just because* you never miss an opportunity to bring up curling do you?

Did I miss the weightlifting? I like that. I saw some women's weightlifting the first day, but haven't seen any of the men's. And I only caught a little of saber. Missed foil and epee.

I'm hoping this week is filled with track and field.

*laces up his PF Fliers*

I like fencing, kayaking, and water polo. Weightlifting is good, too. Beach volleyball is good, but I'm getting tired of it.

They are showing an awful lot of beach vollyball, aren't they?

And my wife wants to know why the women are in bikinis but the guys are in standard vollyball uniforms.

It would be much more interesting if they wore speedos, or maybe something skimpier.

Shadow_Ferret said:

They are showing an awful lot of beach vollyball, aren't they?

And my wife wants to know why the women are in bikinis but the guys are in standard vollyball uniforms.

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I read about this. Apparently, the guys would rather be shirtless since that's the way they play at the beach. They get sweaty and sandy and having a shirt on feels gross. But the Olympic committee makes them wear the shirts. Maybe because it's easier to see team logos on TV?

I like to watch the equestrian sports.

In 1904 they instituted the "All Around Dumbell Contest." It was discontinued after the 1904 games. Too many contestants?

TurkeyLurkey said:

I like to watch the equestrian sports.

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That sounds like an internet gameshow.

Welcome to eQuestrian! Where we ask the questions and you get to win this eggplant!

I caught "fencing" yesterday and was so interested! I couldn't catch on though, how one wins....just when I thought I'd seen the winning jab, he was actually the one losing. Were there targets they were supposed to hit??? Was super cool to watch. Damn Frenchies won.

At least it wasn't the Chinese...
After watching the vault last night I swear that they're buying judges some how, some way...

I was watching a little of the equestrian yesterday - why do they give the medal to the human when the horse does all the work?

I watch the diving - but the male synchronized diving creeps me a out a little. I gotta admit.

jennifer75 said:

I caught "fencing" yesterday and was so interested! I couldn't catch on though, how one wins....just when I thought I'd seen the winning jab, he was actually the one losing. Were there targets they were supposed to hit??? Was super cool to watch. Damn Frenchies won.

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My daughter fences. I'll generally explain the scoring. If there is a particular touch you question and you can identify it, I can have my daughter look at it for you. (We are going out of town for a few days so my answer would be delayed.)

All weapons and fencers are wired so that touches will show a colored light. Epee and foil are point weapons, so only touches by the tip will register. If the tip hits offtarget, a white light goes off and it doesn't count. For sabre, it is a touch if any part of the blade hits the target area (and there are no white lights unless your equipment is messed up). Touches that are essentially simultaneous will show two lights, but otherwise only the first one to hit shows a light.

Epee's target area is the entire body. So the only thing offtarget is the floor. Sabre's is the upper body, arms, or head (whatever is covered by the shiny lame or the mask). Foil's is the trunk.

For all three weapons, a fencer must be in front of or to the side of the other fencer. If you are behind the other fencer, a colored light might go off with a touch, but the point wouldn't be awarded.

Epee has no right of way rules. This means that all touches yield a point. If both colored lights go on, each fencer is awarded a point.

Sabre and foil have right of way rules. So when both colored lights go on, the director decides who was attacking. The rules for this are rather complicated. If who was attacking isn't clear, no point is awarded.

The final wrinkle is that a sabre fencer's legs cannot cross if s/he is moving forward. So any touch after doing that wouldn't count and would get a yellow card (first offense). Second and subsequent offenses get a red card, meaning the touch goes to the other person. My daughter actually won one bout without hitting the other person because he kept crossing his feet. This probably didn't happen in the bout you saw, though.

Fencing!

(duh)

Yngling. Fantastic name and won by three British lasses.