Olympics

larmen

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Presumably you'll be entering the next skateboarding event to show us all how easy it is?
Great argument from one couch sports fan to the other couch sports fan. You do it better then!

Let me see if I find a post where you have ever criticised a professional golfer or footballer and I am right back with a counter point. Or I could just leave it.
 

Orikoru

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opens up a question

If they see themselves as Non Binary as is their wish - what category do they compete in ?‍♂️
I'm not an expert but I think gender and sex are considered as different, so their gender is non-binary but their sex remains female. It can be confusing though so I think it's harsh to attack the commentator for getting the labels wrong when they're ostensibly commentating on a female event. They might not have even been told this person was non-binary, who knows.
 

Orikoru

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Presumably you'll be entering the next skateboarding event to show us all how easy it is?
I get what he's saying though, we've all seen old Tony Hawk videos and seen some pretty awesome stuff, so if the Olympics is meant to be the pinnacle you wouldn't expect them all falling off every ten minutes like teenagers down the park.
 

BiMGuy

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Great argument from one couch sports fan to the other couch sports fan. You do it better then!

Let me see if I find a post where you have ever criticised a professional golfer or footballer and I am right back with a counter point. Or I could just leave it.

I haven't been skateboarding since I tore my achilles tendon whilst doing so 25 years ago and have no intention of going on one again.

You said they were rubbish. Surely is they are rubbish it would be easy to do better? The tricks they are attempting are extremely difficult and can easily end in serious injury.
 

BiMGuy

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I get what he's saying though, we've all seen old Tony Hawk videos and seen some pretty awesome stuff, so if the Olympics is meant to be the pinnacle you wouldn't expect them all falling off every ten minutes like teenagers down the park.

Thats the equivalent of saying all golfers are rubbish because they don't play like Tigers highlights reel.
Remember that we don't see most of the mistakes professionals make.
 

KenL

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I saw one round of the mens comp the other day and it was very much the same. They pretty much all did the same routine and all bar 1, I think, fell off at some point. Not that great is it? I suspect on youtube and the like we see take 37 or an edited version that is perfect and that is how we think. Reality is clearly very different. Disappointing.

Listen to all the experts/World class athletes!

How's your golf handicap? +6 or something? ?
 

GB72

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Presumably you'll be entering the next skateboarding event to show us all how easy it is?

I don't think he meant it was easy, jus that competitive skateboarding does not live up to the image of what can be done as seen bia youtube, films etc. I had the same wiht surfing. Still highly skilled, just sold out by its image being better than what actually happens in competition.
 

GB72

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Thats the equivalent of saying all golfers are rubbish because they don't play like Tigers highlights reel.
Remember that we don't see most of the mistakes professionals make.

I guess that this is the point. As golfers we know what is involved, that they do not hit every fairway and every green and nail the long putts as you see on the highlight reels. A casual observer may not know that and be a bit shocked seeng a pro golfer play a whole round. We are that casual observer for most olympic sports and so are just realising the difference between edited footage, seeing the very best on a good day and normal competition.
 

stefanovic

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What are these mental health issues?

If the pressure is getting to a competitor then may I suggest that they take up a career in an emergency service.
Like fighting a warehouse blaze, putting down a riot, or manning a lifeboat in rough seas.
 

SteveW86

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Didnt it take Tony Hawk almost 3 years to do the first 900 from when he first tried it to actually landing it an an X-Games. Elite athletes are pushing the limits of their individual sports, they are bound to make mistakes.
 

Fade and Die

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I don't think he meant it was easy, jus that competitive skateboarding does not live up to the image of what can be done as seen bia youtube, films etc. I had the same wiht surfing. Still highly skilled, just sold out by its image being better than what actually happens in competition.


I agree, the skateboarding and surfing have both been disappointing as a spectacle. The surf boarding especially, just someone surfing, trying tricks and falling off. Then a score appearing! ?‍♂️
 

Lord Tyrion

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Didnt it take Tony Hawk almost 3 years to do the first 900 from when he first tried it to actually landing it an an X-Games. Elite athletes are pushing the limits of their individual sports, they are bound to make mistakes.
I fully get what you are saying but is not staying on the board a basic element, like staying upright on skis, skates, not sinking in a boat, rowing straight, staying on the beam, bars etc in gymnastics, divers making a decent entry and so on. Athletes push themselves and the odd one will fall off but when every competitor falls off that is pretty poor. It doesn't matter that it is hard, it is meant to be hard at elite level. To win medals we, the spectators, want to see something special. If the competitors can't do that then maybe the sport (I say that very, very loosely for skateboarding) is not ready for the Olympics.
 

Orikoru

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I fully get what you are saying but is not staying on the board a basic element, like staying upright on skis, skates, not sinking in a boat, rowing straight, staying on the beam, bars etc in gymnastics, divers making a decent entry and so on. Athletes push themselves and the odd one will fall off but when every competitor falls off that is pretty poor. It doesn't matter that it is hard, it is meant to be hard at elite level. To win medals we, the spectators, want to see something special. If the competitors can't do that then maybe the sport (I say that very, very loosely for skateboarding) is not ready for the Olympics.
Yeah, imagine if you watched the 110m hurdles and every single runner tripped over at least one hurdle and hit the deck, had to get back up and drag themselves to the end and only two people finished. :LOL:
 

GB72

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Yeah, imagine if you watched the 110m hurdles and every single runner tripped over at least one hurdle and hit the deck, had to get back up and drag themselves to the end and only two people finished. :LOL:

I think that the comparitive is more a field event. The basic skill of the high jump is to jump over the bar but pushing yourself to the limits means that will not happen every time.

My problem is that I am expecting this long, freeflowing routine of tricks, flips, jumps and aerial twists and that is not what I get. Same with surfing, I was expecting massive waves with dozens of tricks and what it is involves a few turns on a wave, end of run, points randomly awarded.
 

SteveW86

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Yeah, imagine if you watched the 110m hurdles and every single runner tripped over at least one hurdle and hit the deck, had to get back up and drag themselves to the end and only two people finished. :LOL:

I dont think you can compare something like skateboarding to the hurdles, the hurdles are fixed and it is doing the same skill over and over again. I would imagine a lot of the athletes competing in the hurdles have tripped and fallen.

I've only watched very limited amounts of the skateboarding and I think every rider I saw had atleast a wobble, but they are pretty much always pushing to land a new trick and that leads to the mistake. Personally, I dont think skateboarding belongs in the Olympics. The tricks they are trying to land dont look particularly challenging ( I am sure they are), but it doesnt make entertaining watching.
 
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