Today saw the opening of
the Winter Olympics at Sochi heralding 16 days of televised sport which would
normally grip me but I’m afraid I find many of these events fail my criteria
for “real” sport – where the winner is objectively determined within the rules by
being (in the words of the Olympic motto) faster, higher, stronger, or (by
extension) winning a game of some sort - so that rules out anything that
incorporates a judges subjective (and sometimes politically or personally
motivated) opinion such as ice dancing, figure skating, freestyle skiing,
acrobatic snowboarding and even the ski jump where marks for style are
incorporated; other events while being objectively won or lost lack a head to
head competitive element being strictly against the clock – the various skiing and
sledging events – leaving for me only the speed skating, ice hockey, curling,
and the splendid snowboarding cross as events where the opponents share the
arena and compete for glory one on one.
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