Greg In The Desert

If there was ever any questions that the International Olympics Committee was a corrupt money grubbing organization just look at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Actually, lets start with the 2002 Winder Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. Where gifts were given to the IOC members, “two top officials who led Salt Lake City’s 2002 bid, paid more than $1m to 24 members of the IOC panel which chooses the venue.” Apparently this sort of thing has been going on since at least 1991 if not sooner.

Perhaps they have cleaned up their act, that remains to be seen. They have clearly taken the American method of sports promoting to the next level.

Let’s talk about coverage. Basically it sucks, as is the theme of this article, and in the US it sucks the most. Bla bla bla bla… SHUT UP already. The constant talking during the events by whatever NBC correspondences needs to stop. I have a very good friend from Turkey, a massive sports fan, who doesn’t even want to watch them because he can’t even hear himself think while it’s on. It would be nice if they at least had intelligent things to say. In Europe you can watch almost every event on multiple channels, they are even broadcasting it on the internet. We are stuck with NBCs one channel, and it’s tape delayed. By the way, my Turkish friend tells me that they will show an entire event in Europe without anyone saying anything.

They won’t let the athletes blog or post pictures. This is new today and what has inspired me to write this (thanks slashdot), “The International Olympic Committee is barring competitors, as well as coaches, support personnel and other officials, from writing firsthand accounts for news and other Web sites. The IOC’s rationale for the restrictions is that athletes and their coaches should not serve as journalists — and that the interests of broadcast rightsholders and accredited media come first.” Sucking up to the “real” journalists. Frankly I could care less what the “real” journalists say. I want to hear the real dirt from the people actually there.

No linking without their prior approval, “By introducing a link to the ATHENS 2004 official Website on your site you are agreeing to comply with the ATHENS 2004 Website General Terms and Conditions.” You have to get written permission from the to link to their site. Not likely legally enforceable by the way.

I went to a Albuquerque Isotopes game a few months ago. They made me take the label off my bottled water because they weren’t an advertiser. The olympics is doing a similar thing, better not wear a shirt with a Pepsi logo on it, “Spectators attending the Athens Olympics could be forcibly removed from stadiums if they wear clothing bearing “obvious logos of competitive companies to sponsors,” according to rules released by games organisers. The restriction will extend to hats, T-shirts, bags and other “commercial items”.” Oh but they say, “It will only apply to groups. If we see 20 people, all sitting in a row wearing hats of a [non-sponsor] company then, yes, they will be removed.” Sure sure. They don’t want to piss off their advertisers because they spent so much money on this event, but what about the fans who spent a sizable amount of money on their tickets, travel and what not.

I admit to not being much of an sports fan but I have watched coverage in the past. Each year though it seems something missing to the point that I just don’t care. And apparently a lot of other people don’t either.  

I’m tired and I’m in pain. My butt and my arms hurt. Despite my pain I had a good time because today I made a feeble attempt at snow boarding. I already know how to ski, more of a advanced beginner – no where near a professional, I thought I could use that experience to snowboard. It turns out that the experience of each foot having a board strapped to it is far different then having a bigger board strapped to both feet at the same time.

When I first learned to ski I fell down a lot. Having to pick yourself up a couple of hundred dozen times in less then 8 hours with muscles that don’t get used a couple of hundred dozen times in less then 8 hours is where the pain comes from. I suppose if I exercised more (or fell less) that wouldn’t be a problem.

Speed equals control, more or less. The faster you go the more you can control your skis. But if you do loose control your going really fast into a tree or something. When your first learning to ski it’s scary to go fast because you (or at least me) are afraid of loosing control, so you want to try to take is slow. Then there’s that whole balance thing, however I believe that you only get good at that with practice. So your slow and you have no balance. You fall a lot. It’s the same deal with snow-boarding. But balancing on a snowboard is different from balancing on skis (as I learned the hard way). I had no balance and was afraid to go fast. And I fell a lot.

I went out with a good friend from work who is also learning to snowboard. He’s a bit farther along then me as in he doesn’t fall nearly as much. He has been going out with his 7 year old son who also went with us today. Since we spent our time on the bunny hill we didn’t need to buy a lift ticket because you can hike up the hill in snow board boots with relative ease (relative being the key word). His son did get a lift ticket and as he passed me up while I was lying on my back he said if I need help just holler. Uh that’s ok, I’m nice and comfortable here.

Ski Santa Fe was the location of this trip and it costs $32 to rent the snow board and boots.