Winter Olympics=Celebration of rich-kid hobbies?

trollism wrote:

Harambe wrote:

Only if they add cross country.

Most of the winter sports are exciting to watch.

Why would you add something that's dull as dishwater?

Because I enjoy watching it and I'm selfish

zohan wrote:

Most of the events in the Winter games aren't even sports. They're things you'd dare your buddies to do.

"becha won't go down that hill real fast."

"becha can't do a flip on ice skates."

"becha won't lay down on that sled and go down that big hill."

Same as track and field....

"Becha can't run in a straight line from here to there faster than me"

"Becha can't run from here around that house, down to the neighbors, around it and back in X time"

"Becha can't throw this stick 100 feet"

"Becha can't hop over that fence"

"How far do you think you can throw an object that weighs X pounds?"

Why is a track 400 meters? It's a completely arbitrary length.

WINTER

Alpine Skiing

Biathlon

Bobsleigh

Cross Country Skiing

Curling

Figure skating

Freestyle Skiing

Ice Hockey

Luge

Nordic Combined

Short Track Speed Skating

Skeleton

Ski Jumping

Snowboard

Speed skating

SUMMER

Archery

Athletics

Badminton

Basketball

Beach Volleyball

Boxing

Canoe Slalom

Canoe Sprint

Cycling BMX

Cycling Mountain Bike

Cycling Road

Cycling Track

Diving

Equestrian / Dressage

Equestrian Eventing

Equestrian Jumping

Fencing

Football

Golf

Gymnastics Artistic

Gymnastics Rhythmic

Handball

Hockey

Judo

Marathon Swimming

Modern Pentathlon

Rowing

Rugby

Sailing

Shooting

Swimming

Synchronized Swimming

Table Tennis

Taekwondo

Tennis

Trampoline

Triathlon

Volleyball

Water Polo

Weightlifting

Wrestling Freestyle

Wrestling Greco-Roman

What do you think Rupp (or anyone running 100mpw) shoe bill is for a year?

The poorer the country, the richer their athletes.

asdfasdfa wrote:

What do you think Rupp (or anyone running 100mpw) shoe bill is for a year?

I think Rupp gets his shoes for free.

MeHereYouWhere?! wrote:

asdfasdfa wrote:

What do you think Rupp (or anyone running 100mpw) shoe bill is for a year?

I think Rupp gets his shoes for free.

Rupp paid far more for far longer for his 'free' shoes than I pay for mine.

Cycling is in five sports (including triathlon)

Sno-MartisSnowSMART wrote:

Seriously, is there any sport on the winter olympic list that doesn't require $500+ in equipment and access to a $1,000/year specialty facility? What's the deal. Most summer sports participation can be funded by a lemonade stand.

Agreed, that's why they really need to introduce new winter sports that are accessible to the average joe, like:

DownHill Slide on a Garbage bag for time and distance (aka redneck bobsled).

Team Snowball Fight (operates like paintball, but teams can use ice balls)

Standing barefoot in the snow for time (self explanatory)

Ice fishing (just get 10 feet of twine and a hook)

and for the ladies watching enjoyment (yes, that's sexist):

Snow angel making.

Any other suggestions? has to be some other great ideas out there.

Traveler wrote:

MeHereYouWhere?! wrote:

I think Rupp gets his shoes for free.

Rupp paid far more for far longer for his 'free' shoes than I pay for mine.

I'll bite. What the heck is that supposed to mean?

uh

curling has upped its game for watching the ladies

oh canada

winter olympics is prejudiced for the northern climes where it snows at winter. Southern areas have winter too, even if it just rains instead of snowing.

So there should be rain events. I can't think of any rain-based sports though, other than mud wrestling, tough mudders, and frog baseball.

Bad Wigins wrote:

. . . and frog baseball.

pray tell

racket wrote:

I feel like hockey is relatively blue collar if you're in the north and your high school has a team. Maybe work your ass off at a part time job and get great skates, high school provides the rest.

I dno there is a lot of programs to help kids get in the game but the gear still adds up and needs to be replaced every time a kid grows and god for bid your kid wants to be a goalie...

Skiing is quit expensive as well but there are many good skiiers/biathletes who come out of the cadets and they a they get to use top notch gear for free.

The correct answer to this question is snowboarding. You can be an amazing snowboarder on pretty much any board. Better gear helps but those who have the talent can pick up sponsors with just about anything and you dont need to visit mountain resorts to get good at park, in fact you see better park guys on shtty local hills than you do in the mountains because all they do is rip up and down the tow rope all day. You get like triple the amount of runs in at least and there is nothing to do on small hills but hit the terrain park.

crafty and nefarious wrote:

Nordic can get very expensive. You need two pairs of race skis with boots/bindings for each and poles. In high school you can get by with hand me downs and hard work and maybe make a college team. But to get to Junior Nationals and be competitive there (and that's usually where you get noticed/recruited), you'll need good equipment, which will cost about $2000 for a decent set of everything, and up to $4000 or $5000 if you have warm/cold skis and a pair of Zeros for classic technique when it's right at freezing and no waxes work. And travel to JNs is about $2000 or $3000, not to mention 3-6 qualifier races to get there.

My girlfriend made it to Junior Nationals back in the late '90s with some of the crappiest and slowest skis I've seen - free skis from her high school. In college, she got some free pairs of skis from the team, but most of them were really bad too. She had a teammate that was a former national team member of another country and later multiple NCAA champion, and would sometimes get to borrow a fast pair from her. Unfortunately skis of the same brand and model can vary greatly in speed - the top skiers get their picks from the factory. I learned from experience that often the ones in the stores, especially mid-season and end of season sale skis, can suck really bad even if they are the top models.

My fastest classic skis are a pair of barely used Fischer RCSs from about 1993-1994 that I got last year at a ski swap for $35. I actually showed up to the ski swap at the end because I hadn't planned on buying anything, and it was one of the ones that hadn't sold. My two best pairs of skate skis are also from around 1992-1994 too. After deciding that having a dozen skis or so no longer made sense for how much I ski now, I sold several of my slower but more valuable skis from the 2000s, so now my skis are all old school.

Depends where the kid grows up surely.

A lot of Winter Olympic sports are possibly 'rich kids sports' where I live as we don't really get snow.

If it rained bicycles in East Africa for six months of the year, Kenya and Ethiopia would likely be dominating cycling too.

If it rained bicycles, the Kenyans and Ethiopians would be out of shape from sheltering inside hardened bunkers half the time. And the bikes would mostly be mangled beyond repair.

Bad Wigins wrote:

If it rained bicycles, the Kenyans and Ethiopians would be out of shape from sheltering inside hardened bunkers half the time. And the bikes would mostly be mangled beyond repair.

Yeah man

Sno-MartisSnowSMART wrote:

Seriously, is there any sport on the winter olympic list that doesn't require $500+ in equipment and access to a $1,000/year specialty facility? What's the deal. Most summer sports participation can be funded by a lemonade stand.

Do you believe that access to $500+ makes you rich?

Do you believe XC skiing to NOT be a sport but a hobby? Nobody can help you man ...