Another Olympic Travesty

I'm generally no longer a fan of the Olympics. I see it more and more as an opportunity for other countries to feel good about themselves in comparison to us. "We might not have even close to the standard-of-living or economic or political freedom you have, but we beat you in winter biathlon, you stupid Americans!" I also grew tired of the inclusion of too many subjective athletic competitions; if your "sport" requires the subjective judging of some guy sitting and watching you, rather than a concrete set of criteria that everyone can see, measure, and acknowledge, your "sport" is no such thing. Figure skating, ice dancing, synchronized swimming, freestyle skiing and snowboarding, rhythmic gymnastics (or just about any of the gymnastics disciplines, for that matter), and trampoline(?!) are just a few of the travesties to be included in the Games. It's just too easy for judges to shaft competitors because they don't like their country or just don't like them personally. And it happens all the time. Finally, I think the TV coverage, with its endless searching for human-interest garbage and its naive "We Are The World" nonsense (if world peace were gonna happen, it already would have, and no Olympic games are ever gonna change that).

Well, chalk up another fine moment for the Olympics and specifically the International Olympic Committee. Go check out this video (via Instapundit):

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/35320777#35320777

(My favorite line of the whole thing: "Are uteruses gonna fall out or something?")

I think this would upset me less if ski jumping (at least for men) hadn't been included in the Winter Games since 1924. It also clearly meets the "sport" criteria, as you basically measure the distance jumped...there's no "style points" involved. If you have bad form, you don't fly as far. Ski jumping is also one of the most widely-practiced winter ski sports worldwide, so it's not like most traditional Winter Olympics countries would have trouble fielding a team. (Note here that the Wikipedia article lists several well-known female ski jumpers.) Nor would any additional facilities or slopes need to be built; they exist for the men's events already. And for Heaven's sake, we have curling...CURLING!!! We can't we add three women's ski-jumping events?

I'm also really angered by the IOC's Dick Pound "shut up little girl" attitude..."if you embarrass us, we'll just keep putting you off." Well done, Mr. Jerkwad, well done. You just made these ladies' case for them! And YOU competed in the Olympics yourself, you say? Well, you already got your moment in the sun.

So what exactly IS holding up the IOC and the rest of the skiing world? Perhaps uteruses really ARE going to fall out.