Opinion

Simple Games

By Scott T. Hards

I love the Olympics, especially the Winter Games. Many of the winter events have a feeling of speed and action that you don't get with the Summer Olympics. The Nagano Games were great: easy to watch, being in the same time zone, and providing many moments of triumph for Japanese athletes. I'll remember the ski jumper "Smiley" Harada's great jumps, terrible jumps and tears for a long time.

Still, I must confess that there were some things about the Winter Olympics that I wasn't so excited about. First and foremost is curling. How did that ever get in the Olympics? Outside of Canada and a few European countries, hardly anyone has even heard of it. And frankly, that's not a sport, it's a game. I'm convinced that if you gave me 30 days, I could become an Olympic-class curler. But you could give me 30 years, and I'd never reach that level in any other Olympic sport. Before the Nagano Games began, I saw one TV station explaining curling and having one of their young female reporters give it a try. When was the last time you saw a television station putting a young female reporter at the top of a 120-meter ski jump or in a bobsled so she could "give it a try"?

The Olympics are supposed to be primarily a physical competition. However, if you take a look at the size of the waistlines, or the number of gray hairs on the heads, of some of the curling participants, you're left with the impression that pure physical ability is not the most important element of curling. Either drop it from the Olympics, or we'll have to start adding events like bowling, shuffleboard and darts to the Summer Games!

I had big problems with the figure skating, too. Sure, I enjoy watching it; it's beautiful. But it's a show, not a sport. Athletes are supposed to wear uniforms, not costumes. But modern figure skating competitions have a much more serious problem than that: the judging.as opposed to points or a clock. If the judges are fair and even, it might work. Unfortunately, they're not. First, of course, is the nationalism. Judges consistently give (too) high marks to skaters from their own country.

There are other bizarre practices, too. I recently learned that judges take into account how well the skaters do during practice when giving marks for the "real" performance! In addition, they have a system known as "leaving room." This refers to the practice of giving lower marks to early skaters because judges assume they will need higher marks for better skaters who come later. An early skater with a perfect routine might only get a 5.8, compared to a 6.0 if he or she skated later! What kind of competition is this?

And ice dancing is even worse. One Russian couple I saw got higher marks than a nearly perfect American couple, even though the Russian woman fell during the performance! I think it's time to have the skaters perform all portions in random order, wearing the same uniforms, and somehow to conceal their identities from the judges. Either these or some other measures must be taken to restore a semblance of integrity to the competition. Anything else would be a stain on the good name of the otherwise wonderful Olympics.

Shukan ST: March 20, 1998

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