Olympic Judging and Other Impressions

Has anyone else noticed the seemingly endless parade of screw jobs in the Olympic judging concerning the Chinese athletes? Don’t get me wrong, some of them are just awesome. The guy on the still rings looked like Conan the Barbarian and did stuff that seemed impossible. The female springboard diver was clearly the best. But, when a Chinese female does a vault and falls to her knees and gets the same score as the All-Around Champion who sticks her vault, something stinks. Before the gymnastics fanatics go crazy, yes… I understand start values, deductions, etc. and the way the system works. Nastia Liukin also nailed her uneven parallel bars routine and scored lower than the Chinese female with multiple obvious faults. One judge scored her execution 9.0 and the Chinese girl 9.3 despite many more obvious mistakes by the Chinese gymnast. I don’t think it is a conspiracy but may just be a bunch of judges trying to please the home fans. The overall impression stinks like old fish. Bela Karoly did have an excellent point when he suggested that the Olympics get rid of the 16-year-old rule. The Chinese girls were clearly not sixteen but certainly were good enough to be in the competition. Why make governments falsify passports when everyone can clearly see they are underage? If they are good enough to compete, let them.

This brings me to the larger point. I absolutely detest any sport requiring judges. Over the years, I have seen so many screw jobs in: diving, gymnastics, boxing, and absolutely worst of all, figure skating. I much prefer the sports like swimming and track & field. Here is a line. Everybody line up on it. Whoever gets to that line over there first is the winner. Simple and pure. Or, whoever throws this heavy thing the furthest, wins. Simple and pure.

There are a lot of Americans complaining because softball and baseball are being dropped from the Olympic Games. I don’t believe they should have ever been there. I know there are professional track athletes but I would generalize that any sport with popular professional leagues probably shouldn’t be an Olympic sport. Olympic tennis? Give me a break. I was as excited as anyone to see the American/Russian hockey game back in the day but those were college players. I don’t want to see the NHL, NBA, NFL, MLB, or FIBA rehashed like another set in a series of pick up games. Some sports only get attention during the Olympics, like rowing, real wrestling, weightlifting, badminton, etc. Despite the sacrifices made by those dedicated athletes who don’t get big endorsement deals and huge contract salaries, all of the TV coverage seems to be of the NBA stars, and the bikini-clad beach volleyball players who are making a fortune regularly. I guess the up side to beach volleyball is that the outfits piss off a bunch of fanatic Mullahs.

On the positive side, there was some great sportsmanship and attitude among the swimmers. Dara Torres, who granted has more maturity than others, had the head official hold the start of a heat so another competitor could change into a non-ripped suit. The girl did not qualify for the final. If she hadn’t swum in that heat, she would have had years of preparation and training and not even had the chance to swim. She was not a teammate of Torres. It was a class move by a class athlete. Torres also showed her class with her reaction to losing the 50-meter freestyle by .01 seconds. She is a real role model. Milorad Cavic, the swimmer who lost to Michael Phelps by .01 seconds showed great class after the race. There were several American swimmers, I believe Rebecca Soni and Katy Hoff, who swam American record times and did not win their races. Instead of whining about it, they expressed joy at swimming their best times ever. That is how it should be. If you do your best and someone else is better, congratulate them.

Another interesting thing I haven’t quite figured out is the disparity in distance versus sprint athletes. Almost everyone in the sprint finals was from the Caribbean area and almost all the distance racers are from Africa. It causes one to wonder if it is a cultural thing or if it is the altitude training in Kenya versus the sea level training in the islands. I have to admit that is was fun to see Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser celebrate their wins because they were so happy. Bolt cared nothing for the world record. He just wanted to win the race. The United States doesn’t seem to have any significant distance runners. Even the ones like Bernard Legat are from Kenya and he did not qualify for the final.

All told, the Olympics, to this point have been schizophrenic. The greatness of Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt’s accomplishments have been stirring but the judging and lack of coverage of the lesser-known sports is disappointing.