More people go to art galleries than the football in Australia.
We play dodge the bullets.
I think that it is safe to say that more people in my country go to gambling casinos than to Art Galleries.
I think my nation would like to think that it's on the sporty side of things, buuut... We do enjoy "least effort" as much as "everybody else."
There is some body pressure among the mid-teens-to-early-twenties, so they tend to hit the gym more. Good for them, I say. If they are lucky, they may even postpone getting them back issues until maybe their fifties.
Hooray for Norway! A young Viking named Rooth has won the Olympic decathlon gold medal. That makes him the greatest athlete in the world. The Asmo can be proud.
Quote from: Icarus on August 03, 2024, 09:03:05 PMHooray for Norway! A young Viking named Rooth has won the Olympic decathlon gold medal. That makes him the greatest athlete in the world. The Asmo can be proud.
Hear hear, and an admirably apposite post,
Icarus! :bravo: ;)
I saw that live. Just plain amazing!
Femke Bol is a phenomenal athlete. I am one of her fans even if she is dutch and might sometimes wear wooden shoes.
I cant wait to see her go head to head with our superstar Sidney McLaughlin-Levrone. They will compete in the the 400 hurdles event. Both those women are rated as the worlds best at their craft.
Quote from: Recusant on August 04, 2024, 04:14:31 AMQuote from: Icarus on August 03, 2024, 09:03:05 PMHooray for Norway! A young Viking named Rooth has won the Olympic decathlon gold medal. That makes him the greatest athlete in the world. The Asmo can be proud.
Hear hear, and an admirably apposite post, Icarus! :bravo: ;)
Cheers!
although to be completely transparent about it, I knew nothing of the event OR who the guy was until I looked it up after reading about it here.
Happyatheistforum.com. Your source of sports-related news! ;D
*I don't follow the Olympics. While I do enjoy competitive archery, shooting, (sand-) volleyball and such-like, the differently-hued clouds of drama surrounding the whole affair are brain-corroding, even when the specific sports
I enjoy are mostly-spared them.
Yes. As Harry Shearer has been known to say: "The Olympics. It's a movement. And we all need one . . . every day!"
Quote from: Asmodean on August 05, 2024, 07:33:30 AMQuote from: Recusant on August 04, 2024, 04:14:31 AMQuote from: Icarus on August 03, 2024, 09:03:05 PMHooray for Norway! A young Viking named Rooth has won the Olympic decathlon gold medal. That makes him the greatest athlete in the world. The Asmo can be proud.
Hear hear, and an admirably apposite post, Icarus! :bravo: ;)
Cheers!
although to be completely transparent about it, I knew nothing of the event OR who the guy was until I looked it up after reading about it here.
Happyatheistforum.com. Your source of sports-related news! ;D
*I don't follow the Olympics. While I do enjoy competitive archery, shooting, (sand-) volleyball and such-like, the differently-hued clouds of drama surrounding the whole affair are brain-corroding, even when the specific sports I enjoy are mostly-spared them.
Some of the most accomplished archers do their sport at the Olympics. Shooting is a big deal at the Olympic event. They use super powerful air guns rather than powder guns but the demand for accuracy is the same. The Koreans seem to have the most talent for shooting paper bulls eyes. There were a lot of well covered volleyball games, both hard floor and beach volleyball with womens categories as well as mens.
The Olympics are one of the few places, perhaps the only place and time, when different people, from different cultures, all over the world get together in peace and harmony and mutual respect and admiration.
Yeah, it's that harmony and mutual respect what he missing, if the tabloids are anything to go by.
What I do find abhorrent is that a Dutch beach volleyball player is a child rapist (https://apnews.com/article/olympics-2024-beach-volleyball-rapist-471cab52441719cc64ace97682d388bb#)
How very insensitive of you! Them's called "minor attracted persons."
Meming aside though, if he done did his time, then I don't have much of a problem with him doing his sports things on TV. Everyone's got a past - some darker than others, but prison time is supposed to be somehow paying that debt to society, so... Yeah... After you do your time, you... Get to have a job like everyone else, I guess. Personally, I would just not go to/watch his games... Or trust him with babysitting my hypothetical kids. Booing from the stands seems a bit virtue-signally, even though there may indeed be actual virtue in the signal. It diminishes it somehow. "I would have you know, good sir, that I am appalled by everything that you are!" Well, good for you... Then what?
I suppose there is a argument to be made that athletes are role models, but the concept of a role model never quite hit the mark with this god of compartmentalisation. In my book, you can be a piece of shit AND a kickass guitar player, and I can respect your skills as the latter with no regard to the former, unless it's practically relevant.
Our women are formidable, the blokes, not so much.
I avoid watching sport, I HATE listening to sports commentators.
White water kayaking though, and pole vaulting is extraordinary and we had a 14 year old skateboard girl win.
I probably could have watched those bits.
What is with them forcing athletes to swim in the open sewer that is the Seine?
I have managed to avoid almost all of the Olympics this time around. Which given the wall-to-wall coverage there has been is fairly impressive although I do say so myself.
Indeed, that describes me as well - down to the pride with the accomplishment. :smilenod:
My source of Olympics-related news has generally been this forum right here. I just scroll past everything sports-related in papers and do my best to ignore HBO trying to insist that I watch me some... Bicycling? Boat-rowing? Some-such nonsense they push like their financial future depended on it.
At least the Australian female breakdancer was hilarious to watch.
I noticed quite a lot of chatter about that on the Internet, though I must admit having skipped right past the lot. Is that something worthy of being looked up? ;D
Best athlete of the Olympics
:rofl:
I've looked up the actual performance. Looks like a badly choreographed seizure. And she's been doing it "professionally" for fifteen years, they said.
Quote from: Asmodean on August 14, 2024, 02:54:34 PM:rofl:
I've looked up the actual performance. Looks like a badly choreographed seizure. And she's been doing it "professionally" for fifteen years, they said.
:smilenod: Bolding mine. My sentiments, precisely. This is a lame enough "sport" that most people in the industry of promoting the Olympics are saying "Never again". At least that's what I am seeing around the internet.
Yeah... Sure, break dance can be quite technical and demanding both in terms of skill and strength/endurance. However, a competitive sport... Yeah, I dunno'.
Gorgeous young lady from Norway. The Asmo should be proud of her.
pole vaulters are insane. its an impossible thing to do, and they do it.
A tagalong you tube vid from the pole vault vid shows a Ukrainian drone busting up a Russian landing boat.
There are a gazillion YT videos out there. Some of them are clearly made by bullshit artists. My question is whether we can believe videos like the one here? What with AI,any sort of tale can be invented. In this case we are rooting for the Ukranian drone, but are we being merely entertained?
Label me as the naive one............
Idunno.
OK back to sports. Is this bicycle rider an athlete or a dumbass?
https://imgur.com/gallery/jumpy-f9b2jXX (https://imgur.com/gallery/jumpy-f9b2jXX)
my son plays the winter sports
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI0qPNrq8NYBPwDQA3z2QnwvoomukxJUF&si=h9qL54ffW9K9aIX7
i dont know how to extract just a few
Quote from: Icarus on March 06, 2026, 03:28:53 AMOK back to sports. Is this bicycle rider an athlete or a dumbass?
https://imgur.com/gallery/jumpy-f9b2jXX (https://imgur.com/gallery/jumpy-f9b2jXX)
That was "What the crew saw" of the Red Bull sponsored stunt. A YouTube of the same thing with a slicker presentation:
The biker is doing fairly standard stuff for that version of show-off competitive bike stunts, except on a train. Those guys are undoubtedly athletes in my opinion. He clearly was confident enough in his skills to take it on, but I can see an argument for describing it as a dumbass thing to do. One mistake and he could be in a world of hurt, though perhaps only briefly. :smilenod:
I shudder when I recall some of the dumbass things I did when I was 18 to 23 years old. The episodes of stupidity occurred mostly motorcycles.
Another recollection of unspeakably bad judgement involved an older woman with whom I should never have allowed myself to become involved. Youthful fools often believe that they are immortal. Mea culpa.
I personally used to race my friends on mountain roads. Stupid, yes. There is one road that I used to go stupid fast on, with some corners marked for 10 MPH. I took that road many times without dropping below 25 MPH. One corner, I was a bit too exuberant and slid across the road (I had been on the inside of the curve) onto the shoulder and got a scenic view of the 500+ foot cliff drop off. :???: There were other roads that we raced on. I had a '64 Malibu that I had made to handle as best as could be done with shocks, tires and stabilizer bars. Most of my compatriots had big engines, and subsequently had to raise the rear ends with air shocks. Their corner handling was a joke. I had a 283 CI engine in my Malibu and could out-corner them all. If I had installed a bigger engine, I probably wouldn't be posting here. Some of those associates ended up dead from getting a little too competitive.
A link to the road I nearly slid into eternity, if you're interested. The bikers obviously drove slower than I did, because they seem to have been looking at he scenery instead of the road.
Little Tujunga Canyon (https://www.pashnit.com/ca-little-tujunga-canyon-rd)
A link to the road where associates (people I knew but who were not all friends).
We raced from Santa Clarita to Quartz Hill. Some people died in this competition. I watched my boys (3 of them) like a hawk so that I didn't bury them.
Bouquet Canyon Road (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bouquet+Canyon+Rd,+California/@34.5241264,-118.441441,506m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x80c2623226b536c9:0x8d7aeb1a76bd51cf!8m2!3d34.5241264!4d-118.441441!16s%2Fg%2F1tdx8z84?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDMwNC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D)
very nice. dry curvy roads a re a gift.
i have hilly roads where i live but i dont go as nuts as i used to. im less interested in the edge of the envelope,i guess, and more in the scenery.
icarus i dont see how hanging out with older women can be a problem. i do it every day
^ Perhaps not on an equally questionable social arrangement as the one that I recall.
i ran off with the one i have now in an alarming workplace scandal. she was my most productive employee and we both divorced our respective spouses to marry each other.
five kids and over 30 years later it has sort of settled into place as a serious realignment.
it was the best mistake i have ever made.
Has any person here heard of speedway?
This is where motor bikes without brakes race around an oval circuit.
Once claimed to be more popular than football in England, but I guess health and safety stepped in.
https://www.theoldie.co.uk/blog/what-was-speedway-roddy-mcdougall
Tennis and rugby are in big decline now among younger people.
But football? It's manic.
Speedway racing used to be popular in the US. In the Midwestern states it still has some adherants. In the Northeast there is similar racing but on ice.
Motocross has pretty much taken over the motorcycle sports here and elsewhere. I have no interest in Motocross but I do admire the riders. That sport requires some skill but what is most required is physical endurance. It is a brutal sport that punishes the body unmercifully. Injuries, often serious injuries, are commonplace at Motocross courses.
Back in the day, when Speedway racing was popular, one of the most desired engines was the J.A.P. That was a British engine that was at the head of its class.
There was a time when motorcycle racing was a big deal for the Brits. They managed to capture many world championships and continued their dominance until the Japanese bikes began to arrive at the race venues around Europe. Italian bikes now appear in the winners circle with regularity. These bikes are closed course road racers that can approach speeds near 200 MPH. That kind of racing is so expensive that only factory teams can compete on an even basis.
LSR is relatkvely cheap, and there is a class for anybody.
i know a guy who races a motorcycle with a drop-in lawnmower engine. he never rebuilds the motor- when its worn out he just puts in a new one