And to me, frankly, all sport is but one stepped removed from punching your opponent in the face. The competitive nature encouraged in males by the indoctrination into the world of sport makes me ill.


Perhaps that's why I like gymnastics and diving best, where the competition comes from doing one's best just happening to be better than someone's else's best performed at a separate time or place, decided by another human being via imperfect means. I find this kind of stuff comfortably TWO steps away from punching each other in the face.



But it's still less admirable to me than the fella who hands a dollar to the homeless dude.



Sports. Feh.

I'm a boxing fan of long standing, which I will from time to time feel bad about. However, Olympic thievery occurs in all sports, e.g., the 1972 men's basketball final. If Roy Jones, Jr. had been a gymnast, he still would have gotten screwed in Seoul.

At the pro level, I think the biggest problem is that boxing has no natural season. Hence, there is the temptation to create controversy to justify rematches.

Sometimes it pays to be gay
 

Nearly two thirds of Out gay athletes medaled

In other words, go gay and win a medal! ;)

Congratulations to Iceland, Bahamas, and Australia for taking the gold, silver, and bronze in total medal count, adjusted for national population. Sadly, the good old USA came in 29th but the evil Chinese came in a horrible 57th.

I've decided that to the degree I care about medal counts it is the number of physical medals (gross number of medals adorning necks from each country; e.g., winning the a basketball medal counts as 12 since 12 people get a medal) as a proportion of national population.

And thanks to a four hour conference call I have to be on but don't have to participate in, a table of the results:

Spoiler:

Code:

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            TOTAL MEDALS (Events)  /MM Pop

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I always love the Olympics and this thime around was no different. There were some spectacular moments that I will remember always and I'm glad I got to experience them. Some of my favorites include: Women's Beach Volleyball, Bolt's 100 meters, Men's indoor Volleyball final, Men's 4x 100 swimming relay, Men's close call butterfly, Opening Ceremonies and the taste of London (I LOVED the look of it and am hoping that Matthew Bourne will have something to do with it).

I'm actually rather sad it is over, but I'll be happy to have my nights back. I have a list a mile long to catch up on.

Is it hockey season yet?

Aww, isn't he cute?!
:)

I'm hoping the London Olympics will have quidditch.

It may be a natural tendency towards pessimism on my part but the way I'd interpret that is that in athletics you don't come out unless your position at the top of the sport is very secure and can't be easily challenged.

In other words, the strong performance is, perversely, an indicator of discrimination in sports.

I find it fascinating that if Michael Phelps was a country he would have tied Italy for 9th place in the gold medal count. Finishing ahead of France, Japan, Spain and a host of other countries.