Bobsledding Vs. Ultrarunning

[image credit Wikipedia]

I heard this quote while I was watching some Swiss bobsledder during the just-concluded Winter Olympics.  Evidently he was expected to do well at these games.

I wrote it down, it tickled me so:

"He's got the weight of a great sledding nation on his shoulders."

Wow.  Makes me really glad that all I do is trudge or slog or mosey through the backcountry trails, just me and no other responsibilities to others or to my country.

Please note that I am in no way making fun of this guy, the Swiss, or the sport of bobsledding.  We all--myself included--specialize in some pursuits that others think to be odd. 

It just struck me as a peculiar comment, one that I cannot ever imagine being applied to me or to Ultrarunning.

 

Women in the Olympics: Separate and Unequal...and Ultrarunning

This is worse than I thought.  It's morally and physically egregious, and is solely a sad and disgusting legacy of our male-dominated society.  Via Slate, here:

On Tuesday [11 Feb 2014], Germany's Carina Vogt became the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal in ski jumping. Ninety years after men jumped at the inaugural Winter Games in Chamonix—and five years after female jumpers unsuccessfully sued the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the right to join them—women were finally allowed to jump from the same hill that men do. Except that the men are also allowed to jump from a bigger hill. And then teams of four men can all jump off the big hill together. Women still aren’t allowed to do that stuff.

Now that ski jumping has gone (partially) co-ed, only one winter Olympic sport still completely bars women from competition. (That’s the Nordic Combined, which incorporates both a ski jump and a 10 kilometer cross-country race.) But across Sochi,women are still skiing shorter distances, launching from more diminutive hills, and competing on teams of smaller sizes. In cross-country skiing, men can race up to 50 km, but the female courses top out at 30 km. The women’s long-track speedskating event is 5,000 meters, half that of the men’s race. Distances in the women’s biathlon are similarly stunted. Though female bobsledders made their Olympic debut in 2002, they’re still limited to a two-person contest, while male bobsledders compete in a four-man race as well. And while women have been luging in the Olympics since 1964, there’s still no doubles event to match the men’s.

Let me pull out one quote above--and, by the way, PLEASE go and read the whole Slate article:

In cross-country skiing, men can race up to 50 km, but the female courses top out at 30 km.

In Ultrarunning, the "women's barrier" was shattered long ago.  I don't know of any sentient Ultrarunner who seriously believes that women are incapable of running the kinds of distances we run.  So why in the Olympics do we still treat women as second class citizens?

Olympic Observations...and Ultrarunning

First off, the mandatory joke about the primitive bathroom accommodations in Sochi, Russia (via Southern Beale, here):



Your bowel movement got a "10" from the German judge

 

 



I love the Olympics and am glued to the TV.  The drama, the impossibly hard work, the exuberance and, well, the disappointment, all represent a microcosm of life itself, all played out in a few short days.  So here are a few of my thoughts:

--Ultrarunning is not yet an Olympic sport (yes, I realize it'd be a Summer sport) but the longest running event is the marathon.  I'd love to see a 100K.

-- Snowboarders don't just slide down the hill doing tricks--they "throw down" a run.

--I have never yet seen a plain or homely looking Olympian.  I wonder if the process of selecting athletes somehow biases for the good-looking ones.

--The announcers continue to assume that the audience has a higher level of familiarity with a sport than they actually have (I'm thinking about figure skating in particular).

--The announcers also seem almost obsessed with making certain female athletes the darlings of the games or the face of the Olympics.  When Lindsey Vonn had to bail due to injury, the Today Show cast (on NBC) seemed apoplectic beyond all reason...till I realized they had lost their poster child.

Tone Deaf, and Sexless

My local paper—the Chambersburg Public Opinion—had a good opinion piece on Thursday this week by Jason Stanford.

Concerning Mitt Romney’s recent European trip and the gaffes he committed, the one single action that tells anyone all they ever need to know about Romney is this one:

For my money Romney’s worst blunder was when he said he might not watch his wife’s dancing horse Rafalca compete in the Olympics.  “I have to tell you, this is Ann’s sport.  I’m not even sure which day the sport goes on.  She will get the chance to see it, I will not be watching the event,” said Romney. Translation, he’d rather be elected president than ever have sex with his wife again.

 

Olympic Swimmers...and Ultrarunning

These men and women (though some are but teenagers) are water equivalent of runners.  Some sprint, some do middle distance, and some--our kindred spirits--do long distances.

But the one thing the swimmers all have in common with each other, in sharp contrast to the stereotypical lean Ultrarunner, is that they are all shaped like seals.  Or maybe sea lions (I can never keep them straight).

Not that there's anything wrong with that.  Just an observation.

As for me, I have done lap training in pools for cross-training, and I'm a decent enough swimmer, but I Just. Don't Like. It.  At all.  There's no worse feeling in the world for me than being out of breath in the pool.  I liken it to waterboarding, if to which I were subjected I would sing like a canary before the first drop even hit.