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WorldWeird: Olympic Disqualification

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    • CommentAuthorharchangel
    • CommentTimeJan 17th 2008 edited
     (541.1)
    ...found the combination of man and machine to be too much...
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      CommentAuthorAlexis
    • CommentTimeJan 17th 2008
     (541.2)
    I'm sure we're just going to be seeing more and more of this. Technology is getting good enough that being part machine will start to be an advantage, rather than a handicap. Conventional thinking is changing.
  3.  (541.3)
    If it were up to me, there'd be a "fringe" Olympics specifically for people who take steroids and bolt new bits on to themselves.
    • CommentAuthorharchangel
    • CommentTimeJan 17th 2008
     (541.4)
    A Shotput where the crowd in the stands actually has to be warry of excessive distance.....man that could be cool seeing the stands get rocked by shotput....javelin might be a bit too....scewery for some. But the shotput...heck yeah!!!
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      CommentAuthorbranjo
    • CommentTimeJan 17th 2008
     (541.5)
    pace car? bonus prize for catching him?
    • CommentAuthorharchangel
    • CommentTimeJan 17th 2008
     (541.6)
    Oooohh a nice take on the 100m Dash

    The 100m Chase.
  7.  (541.7)
    @Warren-
    That would be interesting. And then you could compare the data from the Fringe Olympics to the Natural Olympics and...
    Scientific goodness! You could write peer reviewed journal articles for AGES.
    ...I miss Biology.
    • CommentAuthorFlabyo
    • CommentTimeJan 17th 2008
     (541.8)
    They actually had to change the weight of the javelins used in international competition a few years ago because people were within a couple of feet of being able to chuck them past the end of the field and onto the track.
    • CommentAuthoracacia
    • CommentTimeJan 17th 2008
     (541.9)
    I bet that "normal" olympics will quickly become the fringe, without much of a transition period.
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      CommentAuthorhowyadoin
    • CommentTimeJan 17th 2008
     (541.10)
    If it were up to me, there'd be a "fringe" Olympics specifically for people who take steroids and bolt new bits on to themselves.


    Wasn't that a Saturday Night Live sketch?
  11.  (541.11)
    Since the Olympics already blurs the line between 'amateur' and 'professional' thoroughly, it wouldn't shock me to see the enhanced/unenhanced boundary get smudged - especially with a bit (more) of corporate sponsorship from pharmaceutical corps.
    • CommentAuthorNecros
    • CommentTimeJan 17th 2008
     (541.12)
    I just think we should stop pretending that we want natural athletes, and just let athletes use the drugs or technology available. In reality it seems we aren't interested in natural performance so much as better performance.
    • CommentAuthorlex
    • CommentTimeJan 17th 2008
     (541.13)
    Cyborg Olympics would indeed be cool.
    But i don't agree that we (as a public in general) don't want natural athletes. We want to believe that they did something superhuman, without actually 'cheating'. If we knew that Lance Armstrong used drugs to win the Tour de France several times in a row (which we don't know, but still suspect), his glamor would be gone. He would suddenly stop being a superhero and become an evil underwear pervert.
    So I doubt that an official 'fringe' league would be commercially viable in the short run, especially since it is far too probable that many athletes would probably just die by consuming their enhancement drugs in an irresponsible manner. We also would have to watch women with penises. No thanks.
    I feel sorry for Pistorius though, I think he should have been given a chance, it would have been a great gesture towards all disabled (or enhanced?) people.
    • CommentAuthorMacgyver
    • CommentTimeJan 17th 2008
     (541.14)
    George Carlin talks about this on one of his CD's (I think anyway). The equipment that athletes use is constantly being improved. Running shoes, tennis rackets, you name it. If your business is sport then your body is essentially another piece of equipment, so why not let them use science to improve that too?

    If someone wants to turn themselves in to a steroid fueled monstrosity just so they can throw a weight half a mile or run like a cheetah, why the hell not let them? Would probably get me watching the olympics again...
  15.  (541.15)
    Speaking of cyborg olympics, why do they bother requiring the cast of American Gladiators to pass weekly steroid tests? Not the competitors, the cast of giant thugs. The point of banning performance-enhancing drugs is theoretically to promote a level playing field, a fair chance. On a reality show? The contestants are supposed to be the protagonists of the story, not the cast of American Ogres. I mean Gladiators. Whatever. They're the adversary. It's ok if the bad guys cheat, it's expected. Why expect that the huge thugs are required to stay clean?
  16.  (541.16)
    Iex- thanks. I will now think of Lance as "an evil underwear pervert. "
    • CommentAuthorKosmopolit
    • CommentTimeJan 17th 2008
     (541.17)
    IIRC, the winner of the first marathon run at a modern Olympics was being dosed with rum and strychnine during the race.

    Obviously the concern with artificial aids came later.

    I can sort of seeing where the IOC is coming from though.

    Firstly, a lot of these drugs and supplements are harmful and the Olympic ideal is supposed to be about promoting fitness and sportsmanship, not 'roid rage.

    Secondly, if you make it possible to in effect buy medals, nobody except the US, China and a handful of mostly European rich countries are going to bother to show up.
    • CommentAuthorKosmopolit
    • CommentTimeJan 18th 2008 edited
     (541.18)
    A further thought, and this is coming from someone who doesn't follow baseball in the least.

    Recent reports make it sound like for the last decade or so MLB pretty much was the cyborg (or steroid) Olympics.

    I know that a bunch of records were set during that time but did it make the game any more entertaining or interesting from a fan's perspective?
    •  
      CommentAuthorCDoring
    • CommentTimeJan 18th 2008
     (541.19)
    Theres one thing that tends to be forgotten in this whole discussion.
    Artificial Enhancement aside, what about those athletes who DON'T want to consume metabolic poisons and mood altering drugs to gain an edge and risk damaging their future health? Those folks are effectively screwed if we take a "Let them take what they want" approach to the issue of doping in organized sports competition.
    It depends on your perspective I suppose, but as someone who knows several "working athletes", I tend to view sports as more than mere entertainment. For some people, it is their life, their work, and their creative outlet.
    Additionally, from the perspective of a fan, I have a hell of a lot more respect for players who can achieve sports greatness within the rules of the game they play, not in some grey area that may or may not be fair.




    -CD
    • CommentAuthorMacgyver
    • CommentTimeJan 18th 2008
     (541.20)
    For the regular folks you have another level of competition. Essentially, roided out HGH Hulking monsters would just be a bizarre spectacle, like a modern day circus, and not a serious competition. Seeing a guy throw a discus out of a stadium and embedding it in a car in the lot isn't really sport, but it would be some fun telly

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