Those Olympic things are here.
Aug. 20th, 2004 01:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gemfyreI just realised there's another sport I like to watch, which is kind of different from the usual stuff I'm into.
Weightlifting.
It's quite an awesome sport, seeing people lift these huge weights. How they yell and scream and make faces to psych themselves up. How they must get every element of the lift right and have their body lined up properly or gravity will just take over and they'll drop the weight. I was watching guys that weight a little less than me lift 200 kilos! Pretty damn speccy.
After that I watched a bit of dressage. From what I understand these horses are the ones that exclusively do dressage rather than the eventers who compete in all the equestrian sports. I could see the difference, the movements were so much more defined and complicated. It's amazing how a horse can be trained to carry out such bizarre moves and how the relationship between horse and rider allows them to be carried out with the subtlest signals from the rider, perhaps even a bit of "mind reading".
Of course you all know I like gymnastics. That perfectly aesthetic sport. People with perfectly toned bodies, showing off the epitome and strength and balance and flexibility. They make me so jealous. And the arms of the male gymnasts... *phwoar*
Diving is neat, once again for it's aesthetic value. You have to have all the movements precise or you'll lose points. Sometimes in severe fashion like that pair that hit the water totally wrong. Physical pain, embarassment and low scores. You'd have to have some pluck to do a sport like that.
I also love figure skating in the winter Olympics for the same reasons. And I think ballroom dancing so should be an Olympic sport. It's not far removed from gymnastics or figure skating.
And of course the swimming is always good to watch with someone like Thorpe or Hackett in the pool (1500m is today). An ad here in Australia for the playstation game of the Olympics says something like "Good Aussie babies learn to swim before they can walk." Too true. And we certainly kick butt at the swimming. The U.S. are our equals now, not our betters.
I saw a per-capita medal tally a few days ago. First is not Australia, it's the United Arab Emirates, who I believe only have one medal so far this Olympics, but only about 3 million people. Australia are second with one medal per a little over 3 million.
The U.S.A. and China are in the mid teens on the tally. Just goes to show how much we Aussies excell at our sports. We seem to be good at whatever we try - even the handball. :)
Weightlifting.
It's quite an awesome sport, seeing people lift these huge weights. How they yell and scream and make faces to psych themselves up. How they must get every element of the lift right and have their body lined up properly or gravity will just take over and they'll drop the weight. I was watching guys that weight a little less than me lift 200 kilos! Pretty damn speccy.
After that I watched a bit of dressage. From what I understand these horses are the ones that exclusively do dressage rather than the eventers who compete in all the equestrian sports. I could see the difference, the movements were so much more defined and complicated. It's amazing how a horse can be trained to carry out such bizarre moves and how the relationship between horse and rider allows them to be carried out with the subtlest signals from the rider, perhaps even a bit of "mind reading".
Of course you all know I like gymnastics. That perfectly aesthetic sport. People with perfectly toned bodies, showing off the epitome and strength and balance and flexibility. They make me so jealous. And the arms of the male gymnasts... *phwoar*
Diving is neat, once again for it's aesthetic value. You have to have all the movements precise or you'll lose points. Sometimes in severe fashion like that pair that hit the water totally wrong. Physical pain, embarassment and low scores. You'd have to have some pluck to do a sport like that.
I also love figure skating in the winter Olympics for the same reasons. And I think ballroom dancing so should be an Olympic sport. It's not far removed from gymnastics or figure skating.
And of course the swimming is always good to watch with someone like Thorpe or Hackett in the pool (1500m is today). An ad here in Australia for the playstation game of the Olympics says something like "Good Aussie babies learn to swim before they can walk." Too true. And we certainly kick butt at the swimming. The U.S. are our equals now, not our betters.
I saw a per-capita medal tally a few days ago. First is not Australia, it's the United Arab Emirates, who I believe only have one medal so far this Olympics, but only about 3 million people. Australia are second with one medal per a little over 3 million.
The U.S.A. and China are in the mid teens on the tally. Just goes to show how much we Aussies excell at our sports. We seem to be good at whatever we try - even the handball. :)
