With the time I had off last week, Momoko and I (and to an extent, Akanè) watched a good bit of Japanese Olympic coverage. I could bitch about how their coverage focused almost so exclusively on Japan that if they got 5th place in an event, you might not know who got the gold, silver or bronze until several minutes later. I have seen American and Australian coverage, and while it is obvious a country would spend more energy covering their respective country’s results, at least they would interview the winners - regardless from which country they came. Not Japan. 

But, this is not my main complaint. No, this time I want to complain about a broader aspect of the competition. Hurdles, pole-vaulting, swimming, jumping, cycling and others are sports where a victor is so easily a decided that even 5 year olds who can’t speak the same language as one another can agree who is the victor in each instance. Who crossed the finish line first? Who jumped the farthest? Who scored more goals / homeruns / baskets? Who lifted the most weight? There are definitive criterion that leave little room for debate who comes out on top. But then we have synchronised swimming, some equestrian events and the bulk of gymnastics. How the hell can these be considered competitive sports?

Don’t get me wrong. I watched some and found these guys to be talented - especially the people who didn’t fall. But the fact that it takes a panel of judges who don’t always agree with one another to determine the score for each contestant makes me think these events need to get dumped. When I watched the men’s horse event (the gymnast bar with two handles, not the animal) last night, I thought all the gymnasts were great, and pulled off some scary manoeuvres. But I fail to see how there can be a clear set of objective criteria which dictate inarguably who was better than whom (aside from the people who obviously messed up their routines).

Perhaps if there was something set up like who can do the most number of backflips in X amount of time, who can keep their body at a 45° incline on the rings the longest or other things of this sort, then I could see a more easily defined competitive aspect to most gymnastics upon which everyone could agree who would be the victor. As it stands, though, we’re mostly left with little girls flipping around parallel bars, and guys twirling their bodies on horses.

Anyway, that is my take. I don’t expect everyone to agree, and I am sure there will be some people who have valid arguments as to why these events should remain. Just consider me to be one of the judges who would give your argument a lower score than other judges might. ^___^