Olympic Swimming Thoughts

as i previously noted, i believe that "sports" can be categorized nicely into 4 categories, and that the olympics should be primarily about what i call "athletic feats" rather than "sports". as such, i believe that swimming is a perfect event for the olympics.

what i don't quite understand, though, is why the breast stroke and butterfly are separate events from the freestyle. shouldn't swimming simply be "swim from here to there" first one there wins. whether you choose crawl stroke (which most people mistakenly believe to called "freestyle"), breast stroke, side stroke, or butterfly is up to you.

why do you need a separate breast stroke or butterfly event? seems strange to me. you don't have a 100m sprint and 100m skip and 100m trot and 100m powerwalk. why not a side stroke event?

in addition, running has the marathon but swimming doesn't have something analogous to that. while swimming does have its longer events, there isn't something as extended as the marathon. here's my proposal:

olympic water treading - chin touches the water and you're out

i think this would be highly entertaining and certainly less ridiculous than synchronized swimming. how long do you suppose a world class athlete could tread water? 8 hours? 12 hours? longer?

Olympics Thoughts

- it's entertaining, but why is snowboarding halfpipe an olympic event? isn't that what the x-games are for? besides, if they allow snowboarding in the winter olympics, shouldn't the summer olympics bring in skateboarding?

- why is the men's downhill scheduled so early in the games? isn't that considered one of the glamour events of the winter games? why have it happen on the second day? is the winter games being run by the same group of rednecks that run nascar?

- every ski jumper should change his first name to matti