Thursday Thoughts: The Olympics – Part 4: Tired of them yet?

If you are not a sports fan, then the answer is yes. For these people, their favorite shows have been preempted, and every channel seems to have somebody racing or competing. If you are a casual sports fan, then you are probably getting a chance to watch some interesting sports.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that there are some sports that I enjoy watching during the Olympics that I don’t get to see any other time.

• Weightlifting – The strength it these athletes is just incredible.
• Men’s Gymnastics – I don’t go out of my way to watch, but if I happen to catch the rings, I’ll finish watching. Again, the strength is what is amazing.
• Mountain Biking – Yeah. You kinda watch for the crashes.
• Triathalon

There are always demonstration sports each year, some that make it, others that don’t. These are included to reach new audiences, usually younger, many crossing over from the X-Games. Some people may not think of them as sports (Ballroom dancing), but each discipline requires skill and strength in some form or another.

• Surfing – I watched a surfer waiting for the right wave that didn’t come. They lost.
• Skateboarding – Didn’t I just see these kids in the parking lot? No different from when snowboarding was introduced, and it’s still around.
• Rockclimbing – This is a challenging sport, I admit. When do they free climb?
• Ballroom Dancing – I think they tried this in the 90s. It’s Ice Dancing without the ice (and skates).

In the future, we may see gold medal winners in the sports Ninja Warrior and Wipeout.

Maybe not.

-Leon

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Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.