I absolutely need to see an Olympic tug of war event. I also approve the mix and match nationalities approach for this event! Seems like this could be a good step toward world peace.
I voted for tug of war with the proviso that they pull spectators out of the crowd, randomly assign them to teams and hand them "pinnies" to wear. "Everyone reach under your seat to see if you got one of the coveted pinnies and come on down!"
Justice for Plunging for Distance! Think of the generations of athletes who could hold their breath for a long time, were not fast swimmers, and were too afraid of heights to dive off of the really tall diving platforms that missed out on their chance to complete on the international stage!
I voted in the poll for "tug of war," but with ambivalence; the other three events are so much more delightfully absurdist that I'm kind of having second thoughts. I think I want to change my vote to "Plunge for distance," if I may. If not, I wanted to at least salute the preposterousness of the passing fads in old-timey Olympics "sports!"
BTW, I am only now able to join in the discussion and the fun because of dastardly technical difficulties, but I will endeavour to make up for lost time.
While I applaud the inclusion of tug-o-war for bringing a old-timey, down-home country picnic vibe to the proceedings, I feel like failing to immediately reinstate obstacle swimming is a missed opportunity. From what I've been reading about Paris' wayward efforts to once again hold swimming events in the Seine, it sounds like they wouldn't even have to introduce any additional obstacles. There is apparently enough flotsam, human waste and like floating in the river, it seems more efficient to just declare ALL swimming events obstacle swims and call it a win.
Bring back obstacle swimming but with actually good obstacles!! 13 seconds is in fact a decent chunk of time in swimming (equivalent to an additional lap in a short course pool or approximately 20-30 meters) but the obstacles were so boring - I want like swimming but there's American Ninja Warrior esque walls to climb and rings to swing from while sopping wet!
I think obstacle swimming definitely has the most potential as a spectator sport and "athletic" event, but then we're just adding Ninja Warrior to the olympics, which maybe we should...
I absolutely need to see an Olympic tug of war event. I also approve the mix and match nationalities approach for this event! Seems like this could be a good step toward world peace.
I voted for tug of war with the proviso that they pull spectators out of the crowd, randomly assign them to teams and hand them "pinnies" to wear. "Everyone reach under your seat to see if you got one of the coveted pinnies and come on down!"
Justice for Plunging for Distance! Think of the generations of athletes who could hold their breath for a long time, were not fast swimmers, and were too afraid of heights to dive off of the really tall diving platforms that missed out on their chance to complete on the international stage!
I voted in the poll for "tug of war," but with ambivalence; the other three events are so much more delightfully absurdist that I'm kind of having second thoughts. I think I want to change my vote to "Plunge for distance," if I may. If not, I wanted to at least salute the preposterousness of the passing fads in old-timey Olympics "sports!"
BTW, I am only now able to join in the discussion and the fun because of dastardly technical difficulties, but I will endeavour to make up for lost time.
While I applaud the inclusion of tug-o-war for bringing a old-timey, down-home country picnic vibe to the proceedings, I feel like failing to immediately reinstate obstacle swimming is a missed opportunity. From what I've been reading about Paris' wayward efforts to once again hold swimming events in the Seine, it sounds like they wouldn't even have to introduce any additional obstacles. There is apparently enough flotsam, human waste and like floating in the river, it seems more efficient to just declare ALL swimming events obstacle swims and call it a win.
Bring back obstacle swimming but with actually good obstacles!! 13 seconds is in fact a decent chunk of time in swimming (equivalent to an additional lap in a short course pool or approximately 20-30 meters) but the obstacles were so boring - I want like swimming but there's American Ninja Warrior esque walls to climb and rings to swing from while sopping wet!
I think obstacle swimming definitely has the most potential as a spectator sport and "athletic" event, but then we're just adding Ninja Warrior to the olympics, which maybe we should...
Please hang onto that thought and keep an eye out for this coming Thursday's newsletter!
Thank you for this swimming intel and YES re: wet swingy rings!!!