A Horse Named Stranger

I don'T have an issue with those archery events. It's not merely the concentration aspect, the bows are not easy, and you also need quite a bit of strength and they are quite difficult to draw. It's those pistol/gun shooting events and effing golf, where I draw an (admittedly rather arbitrary) line.

Those shouldn't be there either. Certainly less of a sporting activity than say, laser tag or paintball. But like I said, once you start to consider e-sports as a potential sport, then you might as well go with golf. For the Womens, I am not sure that is actually true. AFAIK they've always wanted to compete there. It used to be at least as big a stage as the womens' World Cup (outside the US). Last couple of years, the governing football bodies started to put more money and attention to it. Guess we could ask Rapinoe what she values more her Olympic Gold, or her World Cup win. So if anybody happens to know her, I am genuinely curious. On the mens' side. No argument. The Olympics are not really a priority by any stretch for them. Just ask Stefan Kuntz how much fun he had to recruit players for the Olympic squad this year (there was a reason why the squad consisted of less than 20 players). As for the Tennis players also like to have one of those gold medals afaik. That's why I think Djokovic rage quit the Olympics after he lost to Zverev.

1. Golf isn't a sport, and thus shouldn't be at the Olympics anyway. But since they apparently considered adding e-sports in the near future, the term sport has become rather meaningless for the IOC anyway. 2. For your list of events. Boxing. You totally forgot Boxing. As for football. You should be a bit more specific. That's only true for the Men's game. The Women teams rate the Olympics quite highly if I am not mistaken.

Meanwhile the Polish Goverment has voiced concerns over the standard of the rule of law and freedom of speech in Germany. Background: A Polish Prof. for Theology, Dariusz Oko, has been fined 4.800 € over a Homophobe Hate Speech by a German court. In an op-ed in a newspaper/journal called Theologisches he called homosexual priests parasites and a cancer. I don't know that paper, but going by its name, it's obviously some faith publication. Either way, a priest has decided to press charges against Oko. And the court inflicted that on him. Oko has filed an appeal, so it looks like he will have his day in court. I hope the court upholds the fine, and he ends up having to pay legal fees on top of that fine.

Moved this from the Covid thread. Since this is the thread with the adult fun bits... Small story from the Adult Film Industry. One guy who was in that business (basically failed actor need to eat too) explained that STDs are really not as uncommon as one hopes. So he basically used to wipe his cucumber with an disinfectant after the shots. I've no idea how effective that method was. Just had to think of that when you mentioned your ex wiping down his groceries. Figured you might find this idea amusing.

Opps* Nevermind, thought this was the Dating thread. Will drop teh adult content there.

The individual atheltes would lose out. The national sporting federations and local clubs would also lose out, as the olympics are kinda their way to lure kiddies in. The Olympic flair is sorta the candy, if you will. And one of the rare occasion (or sole occasion), where they can compete with King Football in terms of attention. At least around here. That's particularly true for niche sports. E.g. the summer olympics are pretty much the only time you see those bow shooting events around here. That stuff is quite big in Asia (esp. South Korea). If we follow your proposal, that competition would be held there. Somehow I don't think national news outlets would send their reporters there just for those bow events. Thus no interviews, thus no face attached to that sport, thus lower recruitment drive/appeal. Again, King football is hardly a niche sport that would just fall by the wayside. King Football rules supreme in Europe. It'S one singular sporting event. The Olympics are different Sports bundled together into that big event. Splintering that would hardly hurt the big sports. If you want a more UKish example. Think about someone like Jade Jones. Somehow I don't think Taekwando gets that much attention outside the Olympics in the UK (esp. not the ladies). If you just shipped that one off to Korea every four years, it would get as much coverage as the Taekwondo World Championship.

Yep, silly money. However, that saves City the embarassment to re-sign a player from their academy that has made it elsewhere. And for some reason, those stories tend to end up kinda disappointing more often than not. Pogba (United -> Juve -> United) let's say this is kinda mixed story, not glowing a success story, but also not a total bust. But I don't think in hindsight United would spend that money on Pogba again. Fabregas (Barca -> Arsenal -> Barca) This was one of the more disappointing home comings S. Wagner (Bayern -> various clubs -> Hoffenheim -> Bayern) He was signed as a rotation/back up option, but he thought he'd get more game time. And in the left for China. Hummels (Bayern -> Dortmund -> Bayern) Also rather meh. Like Pogba not total bust, but also not exactly the missing piece for a CL run. And him just moving back to Dortmund with his head in hand was probably also not what Hummels himself had in mind. G. Pique (Barca -> United -> Barca) is one of the few stories with a happy ending for the club and the player. Oh almost forgot another story with a happy ending. M. Reus (Dortmund -> Ahlen -> Gladbach -> Dortmund). Yes, Reus was judged as too small for a succesful career at Dortmund, and thus he was more or less kicked out of their academy aged 16.

The stage would be much, much smaller. Bad analogy time. It's a bit like moving an event from MSNBC, CNN, Faux News, to CSPAN. Sure, the more interested fans in Canada will find it buried in between the coverage of the case of Mitch McConnell's stolen dentals. But in effect, it will get as much attention as a World Championship of Curling. That's one argument. The other one, is really taking out quite a bit of togetherness of the Olympics. There are only that many opportunities for the Jamaican bobsled team, to hang out with the super stars of Curling (I assure you I tried very hard not to grin writing that) or with the NHL superstars. Ideally you see parts of those teams visting other events and grow some appreciation for the work and ability of the other athletes (who are never going to earn milions with their sport). The media exposure for taking home a medal from those niche events can be quite helpful for those non-milionaire athletes. Maybe dropping some minor sponsorship deal at home. But for that they'd need the media exposure on the big stage. The bigger stage also helps draw kids into those niche sports, they otherwise might not know about. I mean how many kids would accidently tune into Curling on CSPAN.

Well, Fuentes (the doping doc in the centre of the Tour de France/Lance Armstrong scandal) said something similar back then. Track and field events, cycling and swimming competitions are just lost and are never going to be clean, so they might as well just legalize everything. He went on to say, that some athletes (like Usain Bolt) have innate advantage over their competitors due to their genes [some people just grow muscles easier], and doping was basically a way to level the playing field. And obviously, it's better to administer performance enhanching drugs under medical surveillance, so that there's no long term damage to the health of the athletes. So Rodchenkov is not saying anything new. Ofc, those arguments are usually coming from the people that are heavily linked to doping. It's basically whataboutism. Doping is distorting the competiton and violating its integrity? What about genetics? It's ofc bare nonsense and a way to try to justify doping.

Also not a legal expert. However, while this is merely a lower court (no idea how low in the legal food chain that court actually is), I wouldn't place much hope on higher courts overturning it. Tradiotionally politics have turned a blind eye to professional football and left things more or less alone. That allowed some legally questionable practices to stay in place. At least until somebody decides to take things to court. To borrow a phrase form the late Helmut Schmidt, for as long there's no plaintiff, there's no judge. E.g. clubs were allowed to demand a fee for players, who were out of contract. That worked, until John Bosman took things to court. That has fundamentally changed the transfer market and players wages in the mid 90s, and the retrictions for foreigners from other EU countries also came to an end as a result. That should serve as a warning/reminder on things. The anti-trust/competition laws are probably a weak spot for football (and pro sport) in general. So I can very well see that those three bastard clubs could blow things up, if their case eventually reach the ECJ.

So you are saying that Pelosi is actually a competent politician and effective Majority Leader? What a blasphemous thing to say.

The court ruling while legally correct, will have shitty consequences down the line for football as we know it. It will embolden the clubs in their pursuit of their stupid super league. UEFA should just ban the three rebel clubs from their competition. Fuck Barca, Juve, and Real. Right. I thought Xhaka wants to get away from the toxic club culture of Arsenal FTV. So I don't see him signing that extension.

Just like the Brits when they looked at places to allow vaccinated visitors to enter, I don't think I've missed anything significant. On a second thought, I couldn't possibly think of anything more Canadian than cleaning a piece of frozen water with a broom.

Yes, there is. The idea is to showcase all of the sports equally, regardless whetehr it's something mainstream likesay Basketball or track and field events, or really something niche like this synchornized/artistic swimming. It would lead to less marketable sports simply falling by the wayside. Hell, I think even the traditional wrestling tournament, which is one of the oldest competitons, was (or is?) in danger of getting axed from the Olympics. It's probably even more extreme with the winter olympics. The most marketable event there is undoubtedly the mens' hockey tournament, next down the line is then probably something like figure skating (not my thing, but it's apparently quite popular). I don't think anybody really cares for stuff like Curling. This coming together of all kinds of athletes sharing the same stage is really one of the few saving graces for the Olympics.