Tuesday, August 17, 2004

The Backyard Games Are A-Commin'!!

I’ll admit it. I am a sucker for the Olympics. Every four years, I act like I don’t care about it….then I sit there at 4 am and watching badminton on Bravo.

The Olympics, to me, are pretty funny if you think about it. I categorize the Games in four columns. Mainstream sports, Ancient Olympic sports, popular Ancient Olympic sports, and sports added to the Olympics.

MAINSTREAM OLYMPIC SPORTS include all of the sports the world actually plays. Like soccer, basketball, baseball, tennis, boxing…..even water polo and vollyball. The problem with these sports are that they never are truly representing the culture of those sports. The NBA season is the true test of basketball. The World Cup is the true test of soccer. Would you really see Mike Tyson in these 2004 Olympic Games? The ATP tour is where tennis players earn their keep.

POPULAR ANCIENT OLYMPIC SPORTS are those sports whose origins come from the ancient games…but are still very popular today. Mainly track and swimming. I mean, one of the biggest honors that come out of the Olympics is the “World’s Fastest Man” given to the winner of the 100m race. I mean, what is more primal in sport than ‘who can run the fastest’??

ANCIENT OLYMPIC SPORTS are those that you can tell they originated from a simple time…but no one cares about except for that week that field events happen in the Games. You know…..hammer throw, javelin [stick throwing], shotput [rock throwing], fencing [sword fighting], weightlifting [pick up that big rock], archery [shooting animals], equestrian [look at my perty horsey], etc

SPORTS ADDED TO THE OLYMPICS is a category just as it says. Sports like badminton, handball, ping-pong, etc. Things that aren’t really “sports”.

I’ve said it before. We have these Olympic Games. We have the X Games, who seem to be more at the pulse of what the youth of the world is gearing towards. We even have Outdoor Games that involve cutting down trees and stuff. So why not just have the “Backyard Games”?? Games you can play in anyone’s backyard. Like badminton and ping-pong. You could add dodge ball, tag, “smear the queer”, hopscotch, shuffleboard, water balloon toss, potato sack racing, crochet, lawn darts, Frisbee and “red light, green light” to these Backyard Games. If curling is a winter Olympic event…then why can’t these “sports” make it.

Remember, it is called the Olympic “Games”….not the Olympic “Sports”.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Don't forget 'WHIFFLE BALL'.