Sochi Olympics Running Thread.

Or John Daly.

 

In China you start out with total distrust and build trust on top of that.
In Russia " " " " " fear " " distrust " " " ".

 

South Africa's lone entrant deemed not good enough:

http://wintergames.ap.org/article/south-africa-denies-teenage-skier-sochi-place

 

Yeah, different countries have different standards for making their teams. Some countries will enter the maximum number of entrants in every event (that's why you have 150 people in some of the races), while others won't for various reasons.

It seems a little ironic that someone from a small country (whether they actually live there or not) gets to compete, while the 20th best person from a large country doesn't make it, even if they have better times.

 

My one objection to so many of the newer winter Olympic sports --- snowboarding, moguls, aerials, etc. --- is that they have to get a judges' score. Not sure that there is any other way to do it, but I've always preferred sports where you are judged against a clock or scoreboard or something more objective.

I don't know how many judging controversies there are in some of these sports, compared to, say, figure skating, but I guess I always preferred the other sports.

 

Undeserved? Some think so.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/olympics-fourth-place-medal/bobsledders--lolo-jones-didn-t-deserve-her-spot-on-olympic-team-223058636.html

Money quote:

"I should have been working harder on gaining Twitter followers than gaining muscle mass," Emily Azevedo, one of three women fighting for the final spot on the U.S. women's bobsled team, told USA Today Sports.

 

The selection process for certain sports has gotten more complicated. Figure skating was like that, too. They are not contractually required to take the top two (or three) finishers at the Olympic trials any longer, the way swimming, track and some other sports do.

I see valid arguments both ways. On the one hand, it brings an element of subjectivity into the process that can leave some competitors feeling slighted. On the other hand, it gives a governing body the option of putting a deserving performer on the team even if they have an unfortunately timed injury or just an off performance at the wrong time.

 

The selection process should be about who's the best, not who's the most marketable.

 

Did anyone actually say otherwise? Or are we jumping to conclusions that Jones somehow doesn't deserve to be on the team?

 

Fwiw the skating event they had a few weeks ago where everyone flipped out when Wagner made the team was not the "Olympic trials."

The winter Olympic trials in many Olympic sports the last few Olympiads have been almost entirely for TV anyway. In Nordic combined, for instance, there was about 0.00001 percent chance someone not almost guaranteed to make the team would have won. If someone unexpected had won they would have been te alternate. (The alternate thing would have been true in 2010 anyway. This year there's no alternate so it could have been more complicated. As it did turn out the guy who won did make the team, but only barely. But that's another story.) They didn't even do a "trials" this year for some events they have had it for in the past.

Basically, it means a lot more in something like track and field.

 

There are a handful of events that interest me enough to actually sit down and watch; maybe 5 percent. After those, wake me when all this is over.

 

Sochi, pop. 343,334 (as of 2010), has zero gay residents. So say the mayor.

http://espn.go.com/olympics/winter/2014/story/_/id/10358250/2014-winter-olympics-mayor-anatoly-pakhomov-says-there-no-gay-people-sochi