Saturday, August 11, 2012

That's an Olympic Sport?!




The other day, while catching up on some Olympic news, I came across an article about Olympic athlete Alex Schwazer had been disqualified from the 2012 Olympics for blood doping. It's alway sad to me when an athlete believes the best way to win is by cheating in an attempt to chemically enhance their athletic ability. I went on to  read that Schwazer, an Italian, had won the gold medal in 2008 in his event and he thought it necessary to blood dope in order to defend his title. Oh yes, I forgot to mention what his event is, it's race walking. Now if you're like me, you had never heard of race walking before. Maybe it's just me and I live in a bubble but I would have never guessed race walking would be considered a sport, much less an Olympic event! I had to Google "race walking" to make sure it was what I thought it was, and sure enough... it was! It's a little funny to watch but apparently it's been a part of the Olympics since almost the beginning of the official Olympic games. I can imagine, though it may seem easy, how hard it would be to race walk 20 km (12.76 miles) and you're trying to win so it would be irritating to me to watch someone wiggle past you (because that's what it looks like they're doing from behind) and you can't run to pass their wiggly butt! But seriously... blood doping?!








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On another note... so I can kind of understand how race walking can be an olympic sport but what about ping pong?! Oh, excuse me "table tennis". How can table tennis be an Olympic sport but softball didn't warrant enough votes from the IOC to remain part of the games?! I say softball is more of a sport. Ping Pong is more of a hang out in the basement holding a tourney with your college buds kind of talent in my opinion. What do you think?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

”wiggle past” great description, thats hilarious. :)