The true hardcore Irwin fans out there know that I love the Olympics more than just about anything. You have to be hardcore to remember my flurry of Olympic posts 4 years ago. Sadly, this is the first Olympics where I've had the audacity to be employed while they are being played. It sucks. Well, except for the paychecks, those are nice.
It's insane how invested I get in these sports for 2 weeks every four years, and I'll inevitably lose my mind when swimming doesn't capitalize on the spotlight the Olympics shines on it.
(quick swimming tangent: I've been surprised by the hating on Lochte and Phelps. If anything, what has happened this year, especially with Lochte, only proves how incredible Michael Phelps' performance was 4 years ago)
And then there's gymnastics. Me getting outraged about gymnastics and it's scoring system is truly a tradition like no other. I always forget how mad it makes me until I see it again, and now it's 2008 all over again.
The one thing this sport was known for was the perfect 10. It's something everyone can understand. Heck, it even created a saying, the perfect 10. And they threw that away. It's like football deciding to get rid of touchdowns, or baseball getting rid of home runs, or hockey getting rid of headlocks.
Is anyone paying attention to this sport? Do they not want it to be good? Any sport with judges is flawed, I suppose. But it doesn't seem that hard to make it better for the fans, or guys like me.
I defy you to tell me what the Russian girl did wrong on that final floor routine tonight. You can't do it, and neither can the judges. It's completely stupid. She couldn't have done it better.
You know your sport sucks when the best part is watching the girls watch the scoreboard.
I've railed against the scoring at length, so let's move on to the announcers. If I have to hear "Catastrophe!" one more time, I swear to God, Tim Daggett.
But again, that's neither here nor there. I really just wanted to mention something that is bothering me that I hadn't noticed before:
The noise.
These asshole tennis players need absolute silence, and yet these 12 year olds are flipping around on a 4 inch beam and there's music, clapping, cheering directed at other routines, beeps, buzzers, Bela Karolyi, Good Lord!
Hitting a golf ball doesn't need silence. You can't break your neck hitting a golf ball. So keep it down. I need to hear if a "Catastrophe!" has just happened, because honestly, I can't even tell when it does.
10 comments:
I completely agree about the background noise for those gymnasts! There were people screaming "go gabby!" or "go ali!" or whatever every freaking step those girls took! If I were performing, I would have wanted to scream STFU!! I have no idea how the hell they concentrate at all with that distraction. Also totally agree about the silver medalist's floor routine - not an error to be seen, but deductions!! I saw a funny onion headline to the tune of "if you love to watch girls cry, gymnastics is the sport for you!"
Excellent point Irwin! I couldn't agree more. I have no idea how they concentrate. The worst offenders are the parents.
Irwin, finding out new and wacky things about you is pretty fun, and picturing you glued to the screen for gymnastics is the best one so far.
From what I understand, the Russian girl did a faceplant on the floor and basically lost right there. NBC edited it out, and her teammates reactions to make it more suspenseful when USA won. Kinda deceptive, if you ask me.
"Tim Daggett" sounds like a swear word in itself. I might have to start using that around The Sensitives.
cody, that russian thing was in the team competition 2 nights ago, not in the all around.
still deceptive, but not what i was referring to here.
original heidi is back!
My bad. So, are we going to get any blogs about what it's like in the witer's room?
Irwin, please do some research on Lochte and dedicate a post about him. I feel you would have an enjoyable field day with his awesomeness and more importantly it would entertain me.
Preach on, brother! The gymnastics is just ridic. But I can not stop watching it. It's like a bad accident that I just keep driving past...aaaaah. TURRible. But, I love it.
They TOTALLY need to bring back the perfect 10. The scoring is totally jacked now. And that whole tie-breaker rule...What the?? I mean, I hate the fact that soccer allows ties, but ties in the Olympics, completely acceptable (especially if it comes w/ some sort of sob story)!
Last...Irwin, I know close to nothing about you aside from your Bachelor posts, but the mental picture I had did not include you hearting gymnastics. It's actually pretty awesome.
As a former gymnast I can tell you that when you perform on beam, you don't hear ANYTHING. Your concentrarion is INSANE (when I stopped doing gymnastics I diverted my zombie concentration to the tv--- good luck getting my attention unless you are standing right infront).
But I agree, those tennis players are just big crybabies with regard to the noise level... I mean, come on!
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