What is the easiest Olympic medal to win?

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Frequitude

Indeed. Locke, how the hell do you know that???

My sister works in horse jumping, I was visiting her when I went to Belgium last month and lo and behold, who was buying horses from the barn she is working at?

Eric Lamaze.

For all the people who dont understand how big a joke Equestrian riding is (dont tell my sister, she'd kill me) Eric Lamaze has been banned for Life from Spruce Meadows. Twice. But hes currently allowed to ride there so hes working on Ban #3 I guess.

Anyways, I met him, hes a jerk.

[Hack&Lube]

I remember Hugh Laurie (House) telling the story of how when he was 8 or so, his father took his family out in a boat on the lake. Hugh asked his mom with a sneer: "hmmp, does he even know how to row?"

Years later, he discovered his dad had an Olympic Gold Medal for rowing.

[Fire]

Non-human events like Horse Jumping should be gone.

Do we really need synchronize diving? Isn't diving on it's own not good enough?
Same goes for Speed Walking. Why?

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by The Ditch

Yea, that guy's terrible what a chump.

Golf should be an Olympic sport, there are other sports in the Olympics that are quite questionable so I don't see why they wouldn't add it.

Cause there's probably too much of it already.
Sports like tennis, soccer, basketball and baseball seems to be an afterthought in the olympics. Whereas the questionable sports you mention have the olympics as their biggest stage.

If golf were to be in the olympics then 1 tour event would have to lose out every 4 years (like the Canadian Open). It could be a logistic nightmare.

[Traditional_Ale]

Easiest medal to win is the one that comes with 24 beer. Please tell me SOMEONE has thought of that by now...

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by Fire

Non-human events like Horse Jumping should be gone.

Do we really need synchronize diving? Isn't diving on it's own not good enough?
Same goes for Speed Walking. Why?

Wait.. that's for real? #$^#$%&#$^*#$^*$%^!#$%!#$%!#$%~@#~!@#$@#%&$%&(%^&* &#$^@$%^!@$#!@#$%&^(%&^*&#Q%^ YOU OLYMPICS!! I HATE YOU!

[Hack&Lube]

Hey so in swimming, what are the advantages to getting the middle versus outside lanes?

In the relay today, they said the french swimmer made the mistake of going toward the line and the American dragged on him like an extra 200 pounds to the finish. What is this? Is this like drafting? How does it work?

[Ruttiger]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Hey so in swimming, what are the advantages to getting the middle versus outside lanes?

In the relay today, they said the french swimmer made the mistake of going toward the line and the American dragged on him like an extra 200 pounds to the finish. What is this? Is this like drafting? How does it work?

yes it's exactly like drafting. I was a competitive swimmer for years growing up. I can remember during our breaststroke workouts, we had done of the top breaststrokers (cue the jokes) in the province on our team at the time. I would immediately follow him during those workouts and he would just drag me along for the entire workout - I looked really fast with minimal effort. It works.

And that aside, the advantage to being in one of the middle lanes is:

A) Less wake to fight through from the waves bouncing back into you off the walls

B) The faster swimmers qualify into the middle lanes generally. It's easier to keep an eye on them during the race if you're right there with them. Plus the ability to draft.

[Frequitude]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Hey so in swimming, what are the advantages to getting the middle versus outside lanes?

In the relay today, they said the french swimmer made the mistake of going toward the line and the American dragged on him like an extra 200 pounds to the finish. What is this? Is this like drafting? How does it work?

It's exactly that, drafting.

As for how it works, think of a bridge pier in the river. Notice the eddy that forms in behind it? Well, parts of it are actually flowing back upstream for a few feet, right? Same thing for a swimmer. A stationary object in a moving body of water can be considered the same thing as a moving object in a stationary body of water. The object-water interactions are virtually the same, or at least analogous.

Since the French swimmer moved over, it allowed the American to move more into his eddy. This meant way less water resistance, almost to the point of a "downstream current" to swim with.

[arsenal]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Hey so in swimming, what are the advantages to getting the middle versus outside lanes?

In the relay today, they said the french swimmer made the mistake of going toward the line and the American dragged on him like an extra 200 pounds to the finish. What is this? Is this like drafting? How does it work?

Kind of. The lane ropes that are between each of lanes try to disperse any wave that is created. But it does not get rid of all of it. If a swimmer is to close to the lane rope, it could have little effect in dispersing the wave.
So if you are in the lane next to that swimmer, you can kind of tuck into the wave that is created, and sort of "draft" off him. Thus conserve a bit of energy.

As far as swimming in the middle vs the outside lanes, there really isn't much difference Theoretically, you will have "open" water to swim through, which is faster than choppy water. If you are lane 1 or 8, you do have a wall to deal with, and the water that you disperse hitting the wall and rippling back out into your lane. Again, this is a lot of water, but it can cut into your time (maybe 10ths of a second). Also, if you are in the middle, you can "see" the entire field.

Generally, when the races are set up, lane 4 is the person with the fastest entry time, lane 5 is the second fastest, 3 3rd fastest etc, until you fill out all 8 lanes.

This is also the case for the finals, and semi-finals.

[Frequitude]

Originally Posted by Fire

Non-human events like Horse Jumping should be gone.

Equestrian is a human event. The horse is the equipment. Some equipment is better than others, just like we're seeing in swimming...and really in most sports.

[Bertuzzied]

Short track speed skating. All you have to do is have the judges feel sorry for you every round and they can advance you to the finals. Then just wait for everyone to wipe themselves out and you have your gold!

It worked for that guy from Australia. I think it might have been only his 4th time on speed skates when he won that gold.


Or you can just get Bertuzzied and Todd will give you his medal(and tens of millions of $$). Even better.

[Hack&Lube]

I think Karate was voted into the next round of Olympics and baseball was voted out. They should have had Kung Fu in Beijing Olympics.

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

Short track speed skating. All you have to do is have the judges feel sorry for you every round and they can advance you to the finals. Then just wait for everyone to wipe themselves out and you have your gold!

well not exactly, he did indeed win the gold by that means but he was far from a amatuer skater. He was actually a favourite at the olympics in 94 but was involved in a collision. He won a bronze in the relay event at the same olympics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Bradbury

[Ford Prefect]

Why isn't rugby in the Olympics? It used to be, didn't it?

As for equestrian being in, that's fine with me as long as they add the Super Dogs too.

[HOOT]

I wouldn't mind seeing golf in the Olympics.