I love watching most sports and have enjoyed the Winter Olympics. I wonder if I am the only one disturbed however by how important chance seems to be in many winter events. I am particularly thinking about short track skating and snowboard cross. The Olympics should be about being the best,not the luckiest.
Parents
Former Member
I strongly disagree with the column about judged events not being "real sports." I took gymnastics when I was much younger, and it is one of the most challenging sports to do. In swimming, you really only have to learn four "skills," plus a few starts and turns, and then perfect them. In gymanstics, as soon as you learn how to do one skill, you have ten more difficult ones to learn. In most judged sports, it's generally not too hard for an educated spectator to tell who did well, and the athletes who performed the best almost always win, even though the judging is slightly biased. Of course, there will always be a little bias in judging, but no sports competition is ever completely fair.
I strongly disagree with the column about judged events not being "real sports." I took gymnastics when I was much younger, and it is one of the most challenging sports to do. In swimming, you really only have to learn four "skills," plus a few starts and turns, and then perfect them. In gymanstics, as soon as you learn how to do one skill, you have ten more difficult ones to learn. In most judged sports, it's generally not too hard for an educated spectator to tell who did well, and the athletes who performed the best almost always win, even though the judging is slightly biased. Of course, there will always be a little bias in judging, but no sports competition is ever completely fair.
