Juggling in the Olympics
ba...@ac.grin.edu
I am sure that this idea has been discussed in the past, but I was
wondering how people on Rec.Juggling feel about making Juggling an Olympic
sport. I have been mulling this over in my mind for a long while and I can
think of a number of pro's and con's to making Juggling an Olympic event.
Pro's:
1. Juggling is truely an activity practiced around the world and
universally known. Although large percentages of the population do not juggle
in any one country, juggling is found almost everywhere.
2. Making juggling into an Olympic sport would bring greater exposure and
interest to the activity. Thus, more people would hear about juggling and more
people would want to learn. In my mind, the more people juggling, the better.
3. If juggling were an Olympic event, you might be able to see clips of
the competitions on TV (if you have cable.) And every juggler with a VCR and
Cable would make tapes and those tapes would circulate. In short, people would
get to see truely spectacular juggling with out spending the time and resources
to go to a major festival. The cost of attending an IJA convention is
prohibitively expensive. (As a college student, I can barely muster together
the money to buy props, much less pay IJA dues.) Although the local
conventions are generally very cheap, it is very inconvenient for most people
to drive huge distances just to see juggling.
4. Making juggling an Olympic event would bring greater prestige and
recognition to juggling. It might even make some jugglers into minor-stars.
It would make juggling more respectable. It would probably make it easier to
get gym space at the YMCA and in the local schools. Possibly Johnny and Jane
would have an easier time convincing their parents that they would rather
juggle after school rather than play baseball and tennis. People are obsessed
with sports and are willing to donate time and money to sports, whereas they
are not willing to do the same for other activities. Making juggling into a
sport would encourage its growth as an activity.
Con's:
1. Many jugglers (e.g., Michael Moschen & Sergei Ignatov) feel
that juggling is an art. Trying to judge and compete in juggling is anathema
to the essence of juggling. Style and creativity is more
important than how many balls you throw into the air and how good you are
technically. Juggling should not be turned into a sport because it would force
uniformity and stifle inventiveness. Everyone would start practicing with
props of the same size and weight because they were the Olympic standard.
Juggling would be strickly defined to only include certain activities. For
instance, would juggling include diablos, canes, devil sticks, large urns,
suitcases, vases, salad bowls? Standards would be set and juggling would not
have as much flexibililty or creativity. For instance, Mixing tap dance and
juggling might not be acceptable in competitions.
2. Juggling is simply not an activity which should be competitive.
Juggling is about personal acheivement and exploration--not about winning and
loosing. People should juggle in a cooperative and friendly environment.
3. It is impossible to judge juggling. Juggling is done to entertain and
awe an audience. How does one judge how deeply an audience appreciates an act?
Juggling is not measurable and not gradable. Having judges assign numbers to a
performance, ranks and categorizes jugglers in a way which does not make sense.
Furthermore, jugglers practice with different props and different styles, it
would be impossible to judge between different types of activities. (Are 5
clubs better than a good cigar box trick?)
Anybody have any feelings about this topic? How about any other pro or con
arguments?
I suspect that many of the best jugglers probably despise the idea
of judging juggling and ranking jugglers. They probably would not like making
juggling into an Olympic event, because their reputations would rest upon
whether they won a medal or not. For instance, the Raspyni Bros. might not get
as many shows if they chose not to compete or if they do badly.
On the other hand, most ordinary jugglers would probably be very excited
by the concept of gathering together the best jugglers in the world.
I was trying to think about how a juggling competition would be organized.
Like ice-skating, gymnastics and many other olympic sports there would probably
be two rounds. A compulsory round in which everyone does the same tricks.
For instance everyone does 5 clubs and 7 balls. There would be a lot of
disagreement about which tricks must be performed. Most can probably agree
on catching and throwing lots of objects, but what about other activities suchas
unicyling, cigar boxes, diablos, devil sticks, and rola-bolas. Jugglers would
argue about which of these activities should and should not be included in the
compulsory round. In the end, I think that the best solution would be to make
three or 4 toss juggling tricks mandatory and let the juggler choose what to do
with the rest of his/her time on stage.
The compulsory round would weed out most of the jugglers and the top 30 or so
would advance to the finals round in which they could do whatever tricks they
wanted.
Creativity and style would probably be given a score as well as technical
difficulty.
Well, I am sure that many people have problems with the ideas expressed above
and I hope that you will express them. I personally would like to see juggling
as an Olympic sport, but I would also like to see what other people think about
the topic.
Juggle on,
Amos Batto
ejb...@teleport.com
A very misguided soul at <ba...@Ac.Grin.Edu> wrote:
>I am sure that this idea has been discussed in the past, but I was
>wondering how people on Rec.Juggling feel about making Juggling an Olympic
>sport.
Terrible! It makes me feel just awful. Especially right here, under the
ribs, near my (what *is* that) oh, uh, my spleen.
I can already hear Andrew Conway calling for an audit of the Olympic
Organizing Committee. And think of what fun the Committee For Rastelli
would have, petitioning and bulk-mailing everyone. Of course the IJA and
EJA Boards would have to be put on salary (snork!) And I can see Lukas in
Nike commercials and Anthony touting Coke (or maybe pushing Rold Gold.)
Think of the improvements we could make in Olympic security with our
own stealth security festival guy! Why, we wouldn't even have to
officially hire (or even acknowledge) him!
And don't worry about scoring and judging events. If they can rank
synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics they can (spoil) rank
anything.
I much prefer things as they are now; as screwy as it all is, it has to be
better than that nine-headed monster with the leaky colostomy bag we call
the Olympics. Take a peek at the first piece in this week's New Yorker
for more reasons why any sane society would junk the whole mess and walk
away.
=Eric
TDMSpupils
Hi, batto,
My family have been talking about this for quite a long time, but couldn't
work out how to do it. The idea about the compulsory round, and a free
round is a great idea! well done for taking the time and effort to think
about it.
mail me on:
thedouaymarty...@campus.bt.com
Luv 'n' stuff
James Brownsell
--------------------------------------------------------
"LSD melts in your mind, not in your hand"
PS - What about 'Gladiators' as an Olympic event?
Bjorn Gedda
I think this is a stupid idea. First of all I dont think that one should try
to make it a sport at all.
You bring up most of the important con's in "con's
1". IMO juggling would go the same way that climbing has gone: from
being nice sport with who can enjoy what thy are doing to a bunch of
sportsfanatics (allright I know I'm exagerating). When something becomes a
sport people take it far to serious. Nowadays, most jugglers seem to think
that the meening of juggling is to go to the pub afterwards, you'd see
(proportionally) less of that.
Then again, it would be nice with more jugglers.
>The cost of attending an IJA convention is
>prohibitively expensive. (As a college student, I can barely muster together
>the money to buy props, much less pay IJA dues.)
This is more a problem with IJA. Does it have to be N times mor expencive
than, say, the Eurpaean convention?
>4. Olympic event would bring greater prestige and
>recognition to juggling
Wrong. Some would get better prestige, but if youre not called boppo or
Ignatov you would just be another 15-seconds-100-m-runner (Not that it
matters to me, not much anyway ;-), and how many adults do you see practising
100 m sprint? (how many adults do one see juggling? none yugglers usualy dont
qalify as adults:-).
> It might even make some jugglers into minor-stars.
I'd say major stars.
>It would make juggling more respectable.
Do you really want that?
>Con's:
>1. -snip-
No problem, you just standardise!
>2. Juggling is simply not an activity which should be competitive.
>Juggling is about personal acheivement and exploration--not about winning and
>loosing. People should juggle in a cooperative and friendly environment.
Pffft... This is NOT how I see it. I think it is highly competitive, although
in a friendly way.
>3. It is impossible to judge juggling.
see nr 1.
But last, you will have to make it a large standardised sport before you can
enter it as an Olympic Sport, thus: the Olympics would not raise the interest.
BG
Shaper
This reminds me... I caught a glimpse of an article in one of those joke
newspapers (Weekly World News, I think)...
"FAN PUSH YO-YO AS OLYMPIC SPORT"
MB
"The difference between the Enlightened and the terminally confused is
apparent only to the latter."
- The Enlightened One
Jason Forbes
I like the idea of juggling being an Olympic sport, but not yet. There
are not enough competitions and stuff for it to be recognized as a sport.
Just how long did it take for beach volleyball to be a sport? I'm not
so sure about the judging either, but I think joggling would be a great
addition.
I can think of one very good pro:If ping pong's a sport, why not?
Anyway like I said, not yet. If we organize a lot of competitions and
things, we might have a chance, but not for a few years.
___________________________________
JASON FORBES MNK...@prodigy.com
:(-:*
___________________________________
Ken Zetie
In article <4t0j8e$l...@franklin.math.grin.edu>, <ba...@Ac.Grin.Edu> wrote:
>I am sure that this idea has been discussed in the past, but I was
>wondering how people on Rec.Juggling feel about making Juggling an
Olympic >sport. I have been mulling this over in my mind for a long while
and I can >think of a number of pro's and con's to making Juggling an
Olympic event.
Well I guess the British entry would fail the drugs tests... :)
Ken
drugs test? Let me see, no. 1 is moroccan gold, no 2 is red leb, not sure
about no 3..hmm, south slope for sure....
--
===============================================================================
k.z...@physics.oxford.ac.uk = The opinions expressed above are
ze...@minerva.cis.yale.edu = not necessarily those of any person
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~zetie = living, dead, undead or the subject
ejb...@teleport.com
Shaper <bas...@rintintin.Colorado.EDU> wrote:
>This reminds me... I caught a glimpse of an article in one of those joke
>newspapers (Weekly World News, I think)...
>"FAN PUSH YO-YO AS OLYMPIC SPORT"
Makes a lot more sense than `juggling' as an OS: one piece of equipment,
history of uniformly judged competition, established heirarchy of tricks
and combinations, standardized scoring system. (Hint: JIS Committee on
Numbers Juggling.)
But as Stuart Celarier reminded me, they'd just have to get in line (and
there *is* a line) with the many other sports that have been applying for
years and years.
=Eric
>"The difference between the Enlightened and the terminally confused is
>apparent only to the latter." > - The Enlightened One >
Works better without the attribution, caps, or `terminally';
otherwise, perfect. Thanks.
Matt F. Cary
In article <4t5l07$1o...@usenetp1.news.prodigy.com> MNK...@prodigy.com (Jason Forbes) writes:
>I like the idea of juggling being an Olympic sport, but not yet. There
>are not enough competitions and stuff for it to be recognized as a sport.
> Just how long did it take for beach volleyball to be a sport? I'm not
>so sure about the judging either, but I think joggling would be a great
>addition.
I've never quite understood the obsession among people in certain
activities to be declared a sport. Is juggling a sport? Does it
matter? Just because something requires speed, coordination and
stamina does not make it a sport.
The physical skills displayed by Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly are
as spectacular as those displayed by any gold medal athlete, but
no one seems to think it important to classify it as a sport.
>I can think of one very good pro:If ping pong's a sport, why not?
>Anyway like I said, not yet. If we organize a lot of competitions and
>things, we might have a chance, but not for a few years.
Don't get me started! If you have never seen world-class
Table-Tennis played, you shouldn't take potshots at it. Most
Americans think table-tennis is something you play while holding a
beer in the other hand, but the rest of the world knows better.
Don't try to build up juggling by knocking other activities.
Juggling can manage just fine on its own merits.
Matt Cary
--
* "A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable, *
* but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing." GBS *
Barton Chittenden
> Makes a lot more sense than `juggling' as an OS: one piece of equipment,
Makes a lot more sense to me, too. But even then, that would belong in
comp.sys.juggling ;-).
Blueboy
> The physical skills displayed by Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly are
> as spectacular as those displayed by any gold medal athlete, but
> no one seems to think it important to classify it as a sport.
Just for your information (I'm not trying to flame you or be indignant, even if
it sounds that way) Ballroom Dancing has been added to the Olympics (as an
exibition sport, in otherwords, they're trying it out and if it goes over well
then they'll have it for here on out). I personnally think that it is a great
addition to the Olympics and it is sorta classified as a sport. I don't know
about other places but at BYU, I believe that Ballroom Dancing is in the P.E.
department.
--
/============================================================\
| Michael Bailey A.K.A. Blueboy |
| blu...@bmt.net |
| "If a mime fell over in a forest and no one was there, |
| would it make a sound?" |
\============================================================/
TOM HARMON FAMILY
As cool as it would be if juggling were in the Olympics, isn't part of
the coolness of juggling that there is no one way to do it? If it
were in the games, there would have to be for scoring.
"The Boy Scouts mistook my signal,
and have killed the postman."
-SAKI
T-Set
Blueboy
On 7/29/96 11:46AM, in message <4tiq53$b...@news.corpcomm.net>, TOM HARMON
FAMILY <t...@iw.net> wrote:
> As cool as it would be if juggling were in the Olympics, isn't part of
> the coolness of juggling that there is no one way to do it? If it
> were in the games, there would have to be for scoring.
>
Then again, gymnastics is much the same way. The big problem I see with
juggling in the Olympics is the fact that one of the cool things about juggling
is that no one does it. (then again, that's also one of the drawbacks when
trying to pass)
dln...@imap2.asu.edu
ba...@Ac.Grin.Edu wrote:
: I am sure that this idea has been discussed in the past, but I was
: wondering how people on Rec.Juggling feel about making Juggling an Olympic
: sport. I have been mulling this over in my mind for a long while and I can
: think of a number of pro's and con's to making Juggling an Olympic event.
: Pro's:
-snip-
: 3. If juggling were an Olympic event, you might be able to see clips of
: the competitions on TV (if you have cable.) And every juggler with a VCR and
: Cable would make tapes and those tapes would circulate.
Do you really think this? My other "sport" hobby -IS- an Olympic sport;
badminton. I have yet to see any badminton coverage at all on TV (even
on the three channel, 24 hour coverage of 1992), and have only been able
to find out results by listening to BBC.
Also, how many Olympic handball games have you seen?
: In short, people would
: get to see truely spectacular juggling with out spending the time and resources
: to go to a major festival. The cost of attending an IJA convention is
: prohibitively expensive. (As a college student, I can barely muster together
: the money to buy props, much less pay IJA dues.) Although the local
: conventions are generally very cheap, it is very inconvenient for most people
: to drive huge distances just to see juggling.
If you can't afford to go to a convention, you can still buy the video
of the competition.
: 4. Making juggling an Olympic event would bring greater prestige and
: recognition to juggling. It might even make some jugglers into minor-stars.
: It would make juggling more respectable. It would probably make it easier to
: get gym space at the YMCA and in the local schools.
Ice skaters usually practice at 4:00 or 5:00 am to get ice time. It is
hard to imagine that jugglers would get better treatment.
-snip-
: Juggle on,
: Amos Batto
:
Even if juggling gets into the Olympics, I will go to conventions.
David Carper
David Berg
Matt F. Cary wrote:
> The physical skills displayed by Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly are
> as spectacular as those displayed by any gold medal athlete, but
> no one seems to think it important to classify it as a sport.
>
Matt, I hate to break this to you, but the Sydney 2000 olympics will
feature ballroom dancing, with many styles of dancing being judged as
separate events.
Jugging is already creeping into the olympics. Rythmic Gymnastics IS
Contact Juggling.
ejb...@teleport.com
David Berg <db...@dynacon.com> wrote:
>Matt F. Cary wrote:
>
>> The physical skills displayed by Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly are
>> as spectacular as those displayed by any gold medal athlete, but
>> no one seems to think it important to classify it as a sport.
>Matt, I hate to break this to you, but the Sydney 2000 olympics will
>feature ballroom dancing, with many styles of dancing being judged as
>separate events.
My reaction to Ballroom Dancing is brilliantly covered in the movie
"Ballroom Dancing," where the sport/art form is shown as a cultural niche
and phenomena, with mixed parts of love and ridicule--or at least
recognition of the essential absurdities. Most interesting was the
exploration of the boundaries of the form, as when a ballroom dancer tries
to incorporate his naive idea of flamenco, and then meets a Spanish family
who do the real thing, and then tries to get that form accepted by the
Ballroom Dancing establishment.
Then there's everyone's favorite target, Synchronized Swimming. Martin
Short's wonderful sketch on Synchronized Swimming (on Saturday Night
Live), is wonderfully hilarious. Short captured its essence by
emphasizing the way in which the participants become transformed by their
perception of themselves "doing it."
Not being a part of either culture, the absurdities hit me first. But
because I've participated in any number of sub-cultural activities (TRS-80
hacking, contact juggling, folk dancing, & netsuke collecting) I also
recognize the transformational properties of the activities and the
simultaneous love for the activity that consumes the performer.
Certainly juggling or some part of it (numbers, passing, contact) is like
that for many of us.
>Jugging is already creeping into the olympics. Rythmic Gymnastics IS
>Contact Juggling.
On Tuesday, NBC showed a the gymnasts in a free-form performance of their
various "skills." Included was Lilia (something), winner of the World
Games in Rhythmic Gymnastic for the last 4 years. She used a R.G. ball,
and was (for me, of course) outstanding. (Look for more R.G. coverage in
the next 4 days.)
At the same time I could see how someone who had no interest in ballet or
modern dance, and no particular interest in contact juggling, would find
it absurd, boring, and pretentious.
The question is, what is it that makes some people react with hostility
and ridicule (or at the least, boredom) to a form of activity that they
don't understand? I think there are at least two major factors:
1. Sexual anxiety. (Here are people doing things with their bodies that
obviously give them and others a great deal of pleasure, and I don't
understand it and certainly couldn't do it.)
2. Fear of not knowing "the rules." (I'm seeing something that has a
range of esthetic and artificial values and I don't know how to rate
anything and therefor I don't know how to behave or respond appropriately
to it.)
=Eric
Peter Floodstrand Blanchard
Hi folks,
I don't really have time to get into this, and sorry if this
has already been mentioned, but juggling _is_ in the Olympics. It is
called rhythmic gymnastics, and competition begins on Thursday night.
The juggling events are i) (two) clubs ii) ball iii) ribbon. If this
doesn't fit _your_ definition of juggling, that may change. Looking
at how much Artistic Gymnastics (the better known variety) has
evolved in the past decades, it seems to me perfectly plausible that
they may eventually allow more balls, clubs and ribbons in rhythmic
gymnastics.
Peter Blanchard
Don Scott
The RG ladies jam. I love the ball and club manipulation in the RG.
I've never seen stuff like that before. Those little clubs they use are
kind of cool - the ultimate #'s club. Does anyone know where to get them
- Just for Ha Ha's
Don
Ice Princess
In article <4tohoh$h...@nadine.teleport.com> ejb...@teleport.com () writes:
>David Berg <db...@dynacon.com> wrote:
>>Matt F. Cary wrote:
>>
>>> The physical skills displayed by Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly are
>>> as spectacular as those displayed by any gold medal athlete, but
>>> no one seems to think it important to classify it as a sport.
>
>>Matt, I hate to break this to you, but the Sydney 2000 olympics will
>>feature ballroom dancing, with many styles of dancing being judged as
>>separate events.
>
>My reaction to Ballroom Dancing is brilliantly covered in the movie
>"Ballroom Dancing," where the sport/art form is shown as a cultural niche
>and phenomena, with mixed parts of love and ridicule--or at least
>recognition of the essential absurdities. Most interesting was the
>exploration of the boundaries of the form, as when a ballroom dancer tries
>to incorporate his naive idea of flamenco, and then meets a Spanish family
>who do the real thing, and then tries to get that form accepted by the
>Ballroom Dancing establishment.
For the record, the movie is called 'Strictly Ballroom', and I highly
recommend it. In fact, I just watched it for the 3rd time a week ago.
There's some great dancing in it, and the movie makes great fun of the
'politics' involved in Ballroom Dancing. My favorite scene is when
the young man's mother is seen bawling as she tells the story of her
son's fall from grace because he decides to 'dance his OWN
steps'...'*sob* Did I FAIL him as a mother? *sob*'.
Good thing juggling doesn't have any politics, eh? *cough, choke*
Objuggle: A gang from Baltimore just got back from seeing Michael
Menes in 'Circue Ingenieux' in Atlantic City. Decent show, though a
bit repetitive in that there was a lot of similar contortionism and
balancing in each scene. But Michael did his usual stuff all
throughout the show--that ring thing he does, the hippity-hop thingy,
and the 'elevator gag' thing. We had a great time, and we ran into
Jackie Erickson who was there (independently) for the same reason we
were. Small world, eh?
I'd like to thank some gal named Sky who originally posted that
Michael Menes was going to be in Atlantic City this summer. Without
that post, I would never have known. Thankyouverymuch!
Glad y'all had a great time in Rapid City, even though I couldn't make
it...grumble grumble. (:
Donna (:
Mr. Phillip
Well, if they had added one more club to the rythmic gymnastics
routines we could've had juggling. Two more balls and they could've
given Moschen a flexibility complex.
Qjuggle: Where do they get those clubs...I've never noticed them before.
.sig thinks they (the clubs) look particularly wicked.
Mr. Phillip
http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/1855
G.S.Sinclair
In article <4tiq53$b...@news.corpcomm.net>,
t...@iw.net (TOM HARMON FAMILY) wrote:
>As cool as it would be if juggling were in the Olympics, isn't part of
>the coolness of juggling that there is no one way to do it? If it
>were in the games, there would have to be for scoring.
There _was_ juggling at the Olympics. In the final of rhythmic gymnastics
a member of the Bulgarian team did a three ball cascade. Blink and you'd miss
it, but it was there. The rhythmic gymnastics certainly has a lot of similarity
to juggling, if you remove the prancing around and stuff. Equal amounts of
skill and object manipulation, and it works with a scoring system. Unfortunately
the BBC's coverage was spoilt a bit by Des Lynam's over-defensive almost
apologetic introduction to it. Seems it's not sporty enough to be considered
a 'proper' Olympic event.
But if enough people were bothered I can't see why juggling couldn't be in the
Olympics.
-~'~-..-~'~-..-~'~-..-~'~-..-~'~-..-~'
/ G.S.Sinclair. /
-~'~-..-~'~-..-~'~-..-~'~-..-~'~-..-~
Andrew John Conway
In article <00001f80...@msn.com>,
mr_ph...@msn.com (Mr. Phillip) wrote:
:Qjuggle: Where do they get those [rythmic gymnastics] clubs...I've
:never noticed them before.
:
I believe Sportime (the parent company of JuggleBug) carries them. Call
800-523-1776 (in the US) or write for a catalog to
Sportime International
One Sportime Way
Atlanta, GA 30340
Andrew con...@juggling.org http://www.juggling.org/~conway/
"...apparently, they like to fool the new people in the newsgroup by pretending to swap complicated tricks using a secret numerical notation..."
CMJ New Music Monthly describing rec.juggling
Matt Peterson
> My reaction to Ballroom Dancing is brilliantly covered in the
Not to nit-pick, but the movie was "Strictly Ballroom." I highly
recommend it and only post this correction so that those
interested may know what to look for.
Matt
Iain Wilson
David Berg wrote:
>
> Matt F. Cary wrote:
>
> > The physical skills displayed by Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly are
> > as spectacular as those displayed by any gold medal athlete, but
> > no one seems to think it important to classify it as a sport.
> >
>
> Matt, I hate to break this to you, but the Sydney 2000 olympics will
> feature ballroom dancing, with many styles of dancing being judged as
> separate events.
>
> Contact Juggling.
I hate to break it to both of you but they are also considering contract
bridge for the olympics. I am interested to hear that other people have
thought of juggling in the olympics.
I was practicing a behind the back toss the other day and I threw the
ball a bit wide. I had to take a step with my feet. Ahh...a tenth
deduction perhaps.
There could be compulsory and there would be artistic. There could also
be events like 3 balls, four balls, five balls, and then rings and clubs
and so on...Maybe even team juggling.
Iain (with two eyes)
Nigel Grove
In article <4u4fe0$2ck...@pgm.gla.ac.uk>, g...@pgm.gla.ac.uk
(G.S.Sinclair) wrote:
>In article <4tiq53$b...@news.corpcomm.net>,
> t...@iw.net (TOM HARMON FAMILY) wrote:
>There _was_ juggling at the Olympics. In the final of rhythmic gymnastics
>a member of the Bulgarian team did a three ball cascade. Blink and you'd miss
>it, but it was there. The rhythmic gymnastics certainly has a lot of
similarity
>to juggling, if you remove the prancing around and stuff. Equal amounts of
>skill and object manipulation, and it works with a scoring system.
Unfortunately
>the BBC's coverage was spoilt a bit by Des Lynam's over-defensive almost
>apologetic introduction to it. Seems it's not sporty enough to be considered
>a 'proper' Olympic event.
>
That's right - rythmic gymnastics shouldn't be in the Olympics. Juggling
neither.
Did you know that ballroom dancing is going to be in the Sydney 2000 Olympics?
-----------------------------------------------------------
Nigel Grove.
Baker Gregory G
Iain Wilson (iwi...@cwconnect.ca) wrote:
: I was practicing a behind the back toss the other day and I threw the
: deduction perhaps.
I can hear John Tesh now--"Oops, a little step on the catch"
Greg
ejb...@teleport.com
Nigel Grove <ngr...@cs.auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
>That's right - rythmic gymnastics shouldn't be in the Olympics. Juggling
>neither. Did you know that ballroom dancing is going to be in the Sydney
>2000 Olympics?
I can still hear John Tesh:
"Yes, even though Marisa had her left eyeball amputated, and both of her
parents are on crack, she practices on the balance beam daily, thanks to
her coach, and her amazing faith in God. But now with her ankle inflamed,
and the swordfish stuck in her left side, she's facing one of the biggest
challenges of her short career . . . and we'll return to the competition
after yet another commercial from a rapacious multinational conglomerate
with really outstanding graphics." (From alt.dance.ballet)
This year the U.S. got rhythmic gymnastics only because NBC figured the
majority of viewers were women. (Interstingly, retail sales & movie
attendence were reported down almost 10% during coverage.) And, though
they should be damned for refusing to hire Luganis for diving commentary,
NBC wasn't nearly as jingoistically flag-waving as previous years'
coverage. (Bad nuff, tho)
I can hardly wait for Tesh to do ballroom dancing.
=Eric I was going to say something about juggling
but my ob rolled under the couch.
Stephane Saux
ejb...@teleport.com wrote:
>
> Nigel Grove <ngr...@cs.auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
>
> >That's right - rythmic gymnastics shouldn't be in the Olympics. Juggling
> >neither. Did you know that ballroom dancing is going to be in the Sydney
> >2000 Olympics?
ballroom dancing being in the olympics. All three activities are
physical, require great skills, and arguably lend themselves to some
scoring system or another.
In any case, the presence of an activity in the Olympics games doesn't
circumscribe the activiy. In other words the "Olympic juggling would be
a subset of the activity itself.
Olympic juggling might result in an increase in the public interest for
the activity.
Finally, Juggling is unlikely to become Olympic sport because jugglers
won't move their little finger to make it happen (mostly they're either
against or don't care), and the rest of the world doesn't even care
about juggling per se.
>
> This year the U.S. got rhythmic gymnastics only because NBC figured the
> majority of viewers were women. (Interstingly, retail sales & movie
This may be but it doesn't mean that rg has no athletic merit.
> I can hardly wait for Tesh to do ballroom dancing.
I could do without Tesh as well.
Stephane.
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O Stephane Saux ss...@netscape.com 937-6952 O
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