I enjoy the oddball sports, I have to admit it. The first thing I did was look up when synchronized swimming happens, because there’s nothing better for greasing the comedy wheels than a good synchronized swimming final. (That’s the 22rd-26th, I think. I’ll let you know when it’s closer.
I did watch synchronized diving too. Hell, anything synchronized has to be good, right? On one of my mailing lists we were having the “where do they think up these events” conversations, and my thought is that the people at the highest levels in these areas (is there a World Diving Commission?) try to come up with another way to get more coverage at the Olympics, by having more events. More events means more people can become involved in the sport.
But as one person pointed out, did any little kid every have a pickup game of synchronized diving? No. He feels that Olympic events should only be things that little kids do for fun when left to their own devices. Basketball, soccer, swim races, running races, etc. Anything that isn’t subjective in judging. You either came in first or you didn’t. Anything that the average person could judge from their living room. Not whether or not a diver reached a full extension, or if a gymnast did enough dance in her floor routine, but which guy threw the shot put the furthest. It’s the difference between speed skating and ice dancing, you know?
I like this idea. It will never happen, but I like it.
