Winter Olympics=Celebration of rich-kid hobbies?

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.

They'd catch all they need on a bouncy castle. and train outdoors on a dry day, stupid.

Indeed, the US Jr Development system is the reason why our medal count is virtually zero. Although XC is cheaper than Marathon running at the adult level, the asinine Jr National system seems almost designed to hand victory to the wealthiest and turn-away any talented kid without very rich, very dedicated parents.The summer Olympics aren't much different. Lessons and equipment aren't cheap for sailing, equestrian, triathlon, and rowing. At the end of the day, running stands alone as a sport that virtually anyone can do regardless of geography or wealth.

crafty and nefarious wrote:

starf wrote:

So, you could have said:

To answer the question -

One sport - cross country skiing.

Speed skating.

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.

[/quote] CC non-runner wrote:

The summer Olympics aren't much different. Lessons and equipment aren't cheap for sailing, equestrian, triathlon, and rowing.

At the end of the day, running stands alone as a sport that virtually anyone can do regardless of geography or wealth.

[/quote]

That's it really. There should be a running games as running is the ultimate sport in terms of accessibility and global competitiveness.

It not only that most Olympic sports are expensive, they are also not really accessible to most of the world's population. What proportion of people, even in a country like the USA ever have the opportunity to take part in a sport like rowing, horse back riding, sailing, track cycling, or even swimming?

The winter Olympics is at least more exciting to watch but at the end of the day the entire Oympics is mainly a competition for wealthy people with more than enough time on their hands.

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.

Don't know about the States, but in Canada it's very unusual for a high school to have its own hockey team and the gear costs a fortune. Not to mention, mom and dad could say goodbye to their social life or to ever sleeping in on the weekends because they will ALWAYS be at the rink.

Why is the Winter Olympics known as the poor man's Olympics then...

At least where I'm from, all the high schools have teams, and it is where 99% of the competition is. If you play for a non-HS team for the winter, you'd be mocked heavily and targeted by enforcers.

I've heard things are different in states without much natural ice, where it's a pay-to-play system.

I've heard hockey coaches in Canada are pederasts.

Not saying the US is perfect, but hockey is still played for the love of the game here.

Still very curious

Tad Poal wrote:

Bad Wigins wrote:

. . . and frog baseball.

pray tell

Still very curious, and learned how to quote shit

Turd Boomerang wrote:

Tad Poal wrote:

pray tell

Still very curious, and learned how to quote shit

agahwajaeja wrote:

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.

On the flipside, if the northern countries had the year round nice weather, the trails, and clean air, they would dominate running just as they are cycling (as well as 100s of other sports).

Just think...millions of Jakob Ingrebrigtsens popping out of everywhere.

White people's olympics

CC non-runner wrote:

Indeed, the US Jr Development system is the reason why our medal count is virtually zero. Although XC is cheaper than Marathon running at the adult level, the asinine Jr National system seems almost designed to hand victory to the wealthiest and turn-away any talented kid without very rich, very dedicated parents.

The summer Olympics aren't much different. Lessons and equipment aren't cheap for sailing, equestrian, triathlon, and rowing.

At the end of the day, running stands alone as a sport that virtually anyone can do regardless of geography or wealth.

Well not exactly, but I hear you. Our women have been cleaning up at World Cup and World Championships for the past 5 years or so. Norway is still the best, but the US women have been right in there especially with the sprints, sprint relays, and relays. I have known several up and comers over the past decade and yes, to get to the US ski team you need to be incredibly talented and/or have some pretty good financial backing. They do have foundation support for travel, but often the development athletes (juniors/U23) are on go fund me trying to raise a few thousand dollars so they can get to championship races in Europe. Meanwhile, I think the system is somewhat to very much fixed in favor of established members on the senior (Olympic, World Cup, World Championship level). An up and comer can win 2 or 3 races at the national championships and still not make the Olympic team because they don't have enough World Cup points from the previous 18 months.

Moo Goo wrote:

White people's olympics

Yes, the countries/states where snow is more readily accessible are predominantly white. Norway, Sweden, Finland, Minnesota, Michigan, New York other than the city, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, New Zealand, Russia, Kazakhstan, Europe entirely.

All this said, the cool thing about the idiocy of the Winter Olympics is that it's easy if you really want to be an Olympian, to be an Olympian!

Let's take Skeleton. Sure, there's skill in sledding down a hill. But yeah, you sled down a hill! You'd think there would be a million young adults trying for greatness here, but there isn't. No offense to the US team members in Skeleton, who no doubt work hard. But come on. Really?

Not quite the same things available in summer. Other than badminton, skateboarding ...

Harambe wrote:

Only if they add cross country.

Never understood why they haven't added Snowshoe racing.

National champs in March

World records are pretty impressive

Snowshoe mile WR

https://youtu.be/A_-xdyUMbdY

I don't think "equality" should be an objective, goal or desired result in most aspects of human activity. That's a communist mentality, communist values. There are obvious exceptions, of course (e.g., equal treatment under the law), but for the most part, equality is not a worthy goal. It's unnatural.

So what if people from the poorest nations can't compete in sailing events? Seriously, so what? People should stop sailing because others people can't sail? That's insane.

crafty and nefarious wrote:

starf wrote:

So, you could have said:

To answer the question -

One sport - cross country skiing.

Speed skating.

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.

World class XC skiing is ridiculously expensive. Each member of the Norwegian and Swedish national teams travel with 60 pair of skis. One waxing on those skis cost 100-150 dollars. The Norwegian team has 20 full time wax technicians travelling with them.

The Norwegian waxing bus:

Rich kids of Ethiopia wrote:

agahwajaeja wrote:

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.

On the flipside, if the northern countries had the year round nice weather, the trails, and clean air, they would dominate running just as they are cycling (as well as 100s of other sports).

Just think...millions of Jakob Ingrebrigtsens popping out of everywhere.

^This. Why do many people on LR have this silly idea that East African distance runners are the greatest athletes in the world and would dominate any sport if they just tried?