Commentary: Winter Olympic Games in Turin

[Millard Baker]

I admit it. I watched the Winter Olympic Games on TV recently. There were some spectactular performances. And despite what some Bryant Gumbel apologists may say, Turin hosted some amazingly gifted and talented athletes.

What struck me most was the inherent danger involved in most sports. Even moreso was the respect and admiration given to athletes for engaging in such risky and dangerous behaviors; the network gave considerable airtime to these stories while highlighting dangers during coverage. To hear of the regularity of torn ligaments, surgically repaired joints, paralysis and even death resulting from sports participation was enlightening.

Statistics suggest that the greatest risk to a participant's health and well-being is the sport itself. Well, after watching the Turin games, the risk must be 10x when it comes to the sports of the Winter Olympics.

At least it was nice to know that IOC President Jacques Rogge is committed to protecting the health of Olympic athletes. He reiterated his commitment to said cause in the closing ceremonies:

"Athletes, it is to protect you that the International Olympic Committee fights untiringly against doping. I promise that we shall continue to fight for a pure and healthy sport."

Shortly, thereafter, Jacques Rogge transferred the Olympic flag to the mayor of Vancouver, Sam Sullivan. Vancouver will host the next Winter Olympics.

The thing is Sam Sullivan is a quadriplegic. Rogge placed the flag in a special holster on his motorized wheelchair. Sullivan was paralyzed as the result of a skiing accident when he was nineteen.

Sam Sullivan received a standing ovation from the 35,000+ crowd. I'm certain he was cheered as a most remarkable man for his triumph over adversity.

But the unescapable fact that his adversity was the direct result of participation in a winter sport seemed something of an absurdity when juxtaposed with Jacques Rogge's message about his commitment to protecting athletes from what "everyone knows" is the true danger of competitive sports: doping.

[ag-guys]

Some great points made in this post. Dangers taken by athletes in the olympics are great.

Nick @ AG
www.ag-guys.com

[Bob Smith]

Not only that, but just yesterday an Olympic snowboarder died in NY while training for a World Cup event.

[Millard Baker]

Originally Posted by Bob Smith

Not only that, but just yesterday an Olympic snowboarder died in NY while training for a World Cup event.

Predictably, a new bill was introduced in the Senate today, most definitely a knee-jerk response to the death of this guy.

Swedish snowboarder, a Turin competitor, dies in training accident, Senate responds immediately

Posted on Mon, Mar. 13, 2006
ASSOCIATED PISS

WASHINGTON --- Today Sens. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced the Competitive Snowboarding Prohibition Act of 2006, which would ban Olympic snowboarding competition within the United States, after the recent death of Swedish snowboarder Jonatan Johansson during training for an International Ski Federation World Cup competition in the Adirondacks in New York state.

Snowboarding has been popularized recently with a sometimes-controversial history as it evolved from a fringe hobby to a full-fledged global phenomenon and hotly contested Olympic sport in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.

"Despite some of the misgivings I have, this law on balance is an enormous step forward in the fight against unacceptable risks sanctioned by sports bodies," says Tom Kelly, a U.S. Ski and Snowboarding Association spokesman. "This has potential for major, major impact and will save innumerous lives assuming the act is not eviscerated in the legislative process.

"In a global view, snowboarding is a bigger story than steroids because of the numbers, the sheer ubiquity of it. Possibly hundreds of people die annually from snowboarding. Now really, who do you know that ever died from steroids? The fact is a kid can currently buy a snowboard legally. They don't have to go to the back door of a chemist. They don't even need to use a needle."

In Kelly's view, the proposed legislation's biggest flaw is that all sports involving the snowboard are not prohibited directly unless there is a special ruling by the Association of the International Olympic Winter Sports Federations. Neither does the bill include all known variations of snowboarding competition, such as parallel slalom, parallel giant slalom, halfpipe, snowboard cross and big air, as prohibited events. "The lack of clarification on snowboarding is a concern," Kelly says. "The caveat on snowboarding doesn't make sense."

Kelly's other concern: all forms of non-competitive snowboarding are still permitted by state, national, and international sports bodies including the Olympics. "For all practical purposes, this is inconsistent," he says. "It's considerably disingenuous, if you think about it.

http://www.snowboarding.../newsdeath.html

[greyowl]

Back when I used to be a sports reporter, we used to say that the winter games were about survival, whereas as the summer games were about performance. By that we meant that a higher proportion of sports in the winter games involved a serious risk of major injuries (e.g., alpine skiing), or were purely about endurance (e.g., long distance nordic skiing), and that a higher proportion of sports in the summer games were about running faster / jumping higher etc.

[Bob Smith]

Originally Posted by greyowl

Back when I used to be a sports reporter, we used to say that the winter games were about survival, whereas as the summer games were about performance. By that we meant that a higher proportion of sports in the winter games involved a serious risk of major injuries (e.g., alpine skiing), or were purely about endurance (e.g., long distance nordic skiing), and that a higher proportion of sports in the summer games were about running faster / jumping higher etc.

Gotta love the sports where the athletes actually put their bodies on the line (hockey, ski jumping, etc). Summer athletes, IMO, arent nearly as tough.


As far as the new legislation, what a load of shit.