Olympics curling

[mko9]

I'd have to say curling ranks right up near the top of ridiculous Olympic sports. A middle aged fat guy holding a beer and smoking a cigarette could conceivably medal.

IMO, anything that has judging involved does not belong in the Olympics, no matter how physical it may be. Diving, gymnastics, figure skating, synchronized swimming, the form aspects of ski jumping, etc, etc. If nobody is doing anything nobody else can do, it is just an opinion contest. Hell even things like boxing and judo. If you can't knock the guy out or pin the guy, you don't win.

Also, get off my lawn.

[sidicks]

mko9 said:

I'd have to say curling ranks right up near the top of ridiculous Olympic sports. A middle aged fat guy holding a beer and smoking a cigarette could conceivably medal.

Spoken like someone who doesn’t have a clue about the complexities and skills of the sport.

Edited by sidicks on Thursday 22 February 17:39

[JuniorD]

mko9 said:

I'd have to say curling ranks right up near the top of ridiculous Olympic sports. A middle aged fat guy holding a beer and smoking a cigarette could conceivably medal.

IMO, anything that has judging involved does not belong in the Olympics, no matter how physical it may be. Diving, gymnastics, figure skating, synchronized swimming, the form aspects of ski jumping, etc, etc. If nobody is doing anything nobody else can do, it is just an opinion contest. Hell even things like boxing and judo. If you can't knock the guy out or pin the guy, you don't win.

Also, get off my lawn.

Long jump, triple jump* and race walking* have judges. What about those.

• bad examples of a non-ridiculous Olympic sport in fairness

[mko9]

sidicks said:

mko9 said:

I'd have to say curling ranks right up near the top of ridiculous Olympic sports. A middle aged fat guy holding a beer and smoking a cigarette could conceivably medal.

Spoken like someone who doesn’t have a clue about the complexities snd skills of the sport.

I don't doubt that there are complexities and skills involved. And before you bother, I am sure I would suck at the game. But that doesn't make what I said untrue.

Edited by mko9 on Thursday 22 February 19:36

[sidicks]

mko9 said:

sidicks said:

mko9 said:

I'd have to say curling ranks right up near the top of ridiculous Olympic sports. A middle aged fat guy holding a beer and smoking a cigarette could conceivably medal.

Spoken like someone who doesn’t have a clue about the complexities snd skills of the sport.

And don't doubt that there are complexities and skills involved. And before you bother, I am sure I would suck at the game. But that doesn't make what I said untrue.

It really does. It’s just nonsense.

[ReverendCounter]

sidicks said:

mko9 said:

I'd have to say curling ranks right up near the top of ridiculous Olympic sports

Spoken like someone who doesn’t have a clue about the complexities and skills of the sport.

High speed cleaning doesn't deserve or require Olympic recognition.

[Goaty Bill 2]

motco said:

You raise a good point with the brushers. Who wins the medal? Is it the person who casts the stone, the brushers for conditioning the ice most effectively, or the team of caster and brushers? Could a caster be disqualified if a brusher was on something?

In the land of the blind...

Each team member 'throws' two 'stones'.
The team captain is normally positioned at the business end, whilst the other three take their turns throwing and sweeping, and the captain takes the last turn at throwing.

The sweeping was a good deal harder work with the old style brooms


They needed to be continuously trod on and bent to soften them up for use.
Then a good sweeper could sweep back and forth at a rate approaching 120 sweeps per minute. With two sweepers, it sounded like a loud version of putting a playing card sized piece of cardboard in your bicycle spokes.
You can be assured; it was tiring.

ETA
The fine art of using a corn broom to curl

Edited by Goaty Bill 2 on Thursday 22 February 18:01

[anonymous-user]

ReverendCounter said:

sidicks said:

mko9 said:

I'd have to say curling ranks right up near the top of ridiculous Olympic sports

Spoken like someone who doesn’t have a clue about the complexities and skills of the sport.

High speed cleaning doesn't deserve or require Olympic recognition.

Or funding
Why use taxpayers money to support ice sweeping & jollies to far flung places. The local streets & parks need sweeping first if you have the skills

[motco]

Goaty Bill 2 said:

motco said:

You raise a good point with the brushers. Who wins the medal? Is it the person who casts the stone, the brushers for conditioning the ice most effectively, or the team of caster and brushers? Could a caster be disqualified if a brusher was on something?

In the land of the blind...

Each team member 'throws' two 'stones'.
The team captain is normally positioned at the business end, whilst the other three take their turns throwing and sweeping, and the captain takes the last turn at throwing.

The sweeping was a good deal harder work with the old style brooms


They needed to be continuously trod on and bent to soften them up for use.
Then a good sweeper could sweep back and forth at a rate approaching 120 sweeps per minute. With two sweepers, it sounded like a loud version of putting a playing card sized piece of cardboard in your bicycle spokes.
You can be assured; it was tiring.

ETA
The fine art of using a corn broom to curl

Edited by Goaty Bill 2 on Thursday 22 February 18:01

Thank you GB2, that makes some sort of sense. I hadn't realised that it was that kind of team effort.

[S11Steve]

Winter Olympics in general is just a load of medals being handed out for being good at slipping and sliding in various ways.

[Goaty Bill 2]

motco said:

Thank you GB2, that makes some sort of sense. I hadn't realised that it was that kind of team effort.

In Canada a good many small towns had a curling rink long before they had an ice hockey rink.
It was a good wheeze for a school PE session in the winter. (it sure beats rugby in the snow, though that happened too )

For each throw, the whole team should know where the next rock is supposed to go, so the sweepers can tell how much sweeping is required to keep up or lower the speed, and to encourage the rock to 'curl' to a different line if necessary. So in theory, you can steer the rock a bit depending on how/where you sweep.

[JimbobVFR]

motco said:

You raise a good point with the brushers. Who wins the medal? Is it the person who casts the stone, the brushers for conditioning the ice most effectively, or the team of caster and brushers? Could a caster be disqualified if a brusher was on something?

It's a team of 4 who all lob 2 stones each, all players with the possible exception of the team captain they all take a turn at the brushing. It's the team that win a medal so all 4 of them.

[Sheetmaself]

Why do we have such a thing as womens curling and me s curling? Surely this is the kind of sport which should integrate fully?

[Goaty Bill 2]

Sheetmaself said:

Why do we have such a thing as womens curling and me s curling? Surely this is the kind of sport which should integrate fully?

Sweeping is a key part. It's still very physical, giving men an advantage.

[Sheetmaself]

Fair enough if there is a real reason. Just dont like it when things are split up for no reason.

[loughran]

On a slightly different note, she looks pretty happy here but I'll bet Anastasia is about as hacked off as a wife can get.

Performance enhancing drugs for curling ???

Yer gert eejit.

[55palfers]

Any ideas why Bowls (Crown Green) isn't an Olympic "sport"?

It's only Curling on grass surely?

[XCP]

JuniorD said:

mko9 said:

I'd have to say curling ranks right up near the top of ridiculous Olympic sports. A middle aged fat guy holding a beer and smoking a cigarette could conceivably medal.

IMO, anything that has judging involved does not belong in the Olympics, no matter how physical it may be. Diving, gymnastics, figure skating, synchronized swimming, the form aspects of ski jumping, etc, etc. If nobody is doing anything nobody else can do, it is just an opinion contest. Hell even things like boxing and judo. If you can't knock the guy out or pin the guy, you don't win.

Also, get off my lawn.

Long jump, triple jump* and race walking* have judges. What about those.

• bad examples of a non-ridiculous Olympic sport in fairness

All events in track and field athletics have judges.

[crankedup]

55palfers said:

Any ideas why Bowls (Crown Green) isn't an Olympic "sport"?

It's only Curling on grass surely?

I was going to ask exactly the same thing, except not crown bowls but the bowls game / sport
that southerners play.

[motco]

JimbobVFR said:

motco said:

You raise a good point with the brushers. Who wins the medal? Is it the person who casts the stone, the brushers for conditioning the ice most effectively, or the team of caster and brushers? Could a caster be disqualified if a brusher was on something?

It's a team of 4 who all lob 2 stones each, all players with the possible exception of the team captain they all take a turn at the brushing. It's the team that win a medal so all 4 of them.

Is the one who casts the first stone the one without sin?