Re: race walking - yes, it's an Olympic sport, used to know a competitor. There's a 1966 Cary Grant movie (Walk, Don't Run) that is set in Tokyo during the 1964 Olympics and features a race walker. The US, unfortunately, isn't a race-walking powerhouse.

And you'd really limit the winter Olympics if you took out every sport that has a subjective element. Even ski-jumping has a style factor.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they choose the sports for Olympics? Why not bowling or race walking?

Walking IS an Olympic sport, FYI.

For reals? How is the US doing in that category?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean by 'edge work'?

The bottom of a skate blade is not flat. It's concave. Very skilled skaters are always on either one edge or the other. It take tremendous control to skate on those edges. The little movements, twists, are particularly hard. If you've ever seen a figure skater doing actual figures, you will see the results of the edge work in the patterns they lay down on the ice. Most figure skaters can't really do this stuff any more. Ice dancers still do.

Remember when the Olympics required not just the short and long programs but also the compulsory figures?
Lol! Those were the good old days. I still remember how we all held our breath in 1984 when it was Katarina Witt vs Debbie Williams and how Debbie had like a .008 advantage (or something equally ridiculous) going into the actual skating. God, the pressure that built up on some of these Olympians bc of manufactured geopolitical drama was unreal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anything that is based soley on Judges shouldn't be a sport. That goes for the snow board contests that are not based on time too. Just because something requires athleticism, doesn't mean it is a sport.

So no gymnastics, diving, skating, ski jumping, dressage, soccer , volleyball or ice hockey ( the sujectiveness of the referees is among the most critical elements of the game.)

Bascially you are down to Running, swimming, bobsled, luge, Xcountry, downhill skiing, speed skating....

Soccer, volley ball and hockey have points. They also have refs not judges. Refs are totally different than judges. I agree about diving, figure skating, dressage. Ski jumping is on the border.

Anonymous wrote:How do they choose the sports for Olympics? Why not bowling or race walking?

Walking IS an Olympic sport, FYI.

Ice dance should be thrown out of the Olympics. The judging is corrupt and doesn't even reflect what happens on the ice. Lets stick to sports that can't be so obviously rigged results-wise.

Olympian that makes it look easy = very talented

Anonymous wrote:All I know is that this event is a bore fest. Put the slope style back on.

Now THAT was a bore fest.

Different strokes.

How do they choose the sports for Olympics? Why not bowling or race walking?

Anonymous wrote:Anything that is based soley on Judges shouldn't be a sport. That goes for the snow board contests that are not based on time too. Just because something requires athleticism, doesn't mean it is a sport.

I've heard this before, about diving and gymnastics, as well as snowboard and figure skating. The thing is that the scores aren't based solely on the judges. Tricks, jumps, dives, vaults, whatever are assigned a degree of difficulty. You do that trick and then the judges give a point score for how well you did it. The final score is based on the degree of difficulty AND on the judge's evaluation of how well you do it.

Personally, I'd open it all up and add ballroom and other dance events to the Winter Games, along with the rest of the sports.