Add Golf and Rugby to the Olympics

This week, the International Olympic Committee recommended that rugby and golf be added to the 2016 Olympics, while maintaining that baseball and softball be left off the roster of Olympic events.

As a big baseball fan, I’m disappointed that the sport won’t be included in yet another Olympics, but I understand why.  Especially with the World Baseball Classic in its three year rotation, there isn’t a reason for Olympic baseball.  The big name stars don’t play and its inclusion in the Olympics doesn’t really improve or promote the sport.  I’ve never watched an Olympic baseball game and wouldn’t in 2016 either.

Rugby is probably a good selection for the Olympics because it’s more of a world game, but what I’m really excited for is the prospect of watching golf in the Olympics.  I’d imagine that it would be an individual tournament, a fifth major of the year, rather than a Ryder Cup team-style event.  High level golf, like a major, is entertaining and compelling television.  It’s even better when Tiger is in the hunt.  Can you image how psyched up Tiger would get for an Olympic golf tournament?  Especially with an opportunity to be the first ever golf Olympic champion?  I think he’d destroy the field… unless it’s the PGA Championship…  Even if he doesn’t, golf is a global sport with competitors from many different countries.  The big names would be out there on the course, unlike baseball, and that alone would help grow the game, making its inclusion in the Olympics significant.

Usain is Insane

I have absolutely no idea who Usain Bolt is, but he is very impressive and a great showman… not to mention  he’s one of the quickest people I have ever watched.  I’ve drifted away from watching the Olympics recently, as gymnastics and swimming have been over, but I have unintentionally put on the Games when Bolt was racing in the 100m and 200m sprints, both gold medals, both new world records.

I think his performance, while overshadowed by Phelps, may be equally impressive.  In the 100m, he got so far ahead, he started celebrating early on and cruised to victory over the last 15 meters.  He set a new world record, but if he had kept running, it would have even been lower.  Before his race in the 200, he was posing and just looking cocky.  I loved it.  He looked like he was having a great time.  His arrogance was playful and reminded me of Cincinnati Bengals Wide Receiver Chad Johnson, who taunts just about everyone, is over-the-top, but has a good time and is funny.  So Bolt was acting much in the same way before the race, but when he took his mark, he crossed himself and put his game face on.

On the gun fire, the guy sprinted forward – the entire way – and broke Michael Johnson’s previous world record (dubbed insurmountable by the color commentator) of 19.32 with a new record of 19.30 seconds.  Wow.  The color guy said he never thought he would see anyone beat Johnson’s record in his entire life and Bolt took care of business.  After the race, he looked into the nearest camera, got up close to it and said he was number one.   After the race, NBC’s reporter spoke to him and mentioned the posing before the race to him and asked if he thought he would break the record.  Bolt said he did not think he would break the record and is just there to have fun.

I love it.

What’s up with the Gymnastics Judges?

Ok, there’s something wrong here.

This evening or morning or whatever it was (I saw it this evening on NBC), I was watching women’s gymnastics and saw the second terrible scoring by the judges this week.  American Alicia Sacramone completed her vault routine, which looked pretty good to my untrained eye and earned a respectable score.  Then, China’s Cheng Fei does her vault and doesn’t land it – she fell to her knees – and she STILL scored better than Sacramone, edging the American out for the Bronze Medal.  Wait a minute.  How the hell does a girl who falls on her routine still beat someone who executes their landing?  I get the whole difficulty of the routine thing, but that just makes zero sense to me.  The degree of difficulty wasn’t that different either.  From what I can gather from the results on China’s Olympics website, Fei started with a 6.5 and Sacramone a 6.3.  As for execution scores, Fei scored a 9.575 and Sacramone a 9.450.  Wow.  I don’t know too much about gymnastics but that does not seem fair at all.

Now, in the Women’s Individual All-Around, the judging didn’t look too fair either as China’s Jiang Yuyuan had AT LEAST 4-5 balance checks on the beam and If I remember correctly she fell on her vault routine and still managed to hang in there with the leaders until about the third routine, when Americans Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson set the medal pace.  Yuyuan earned a 14.825 whereas Liukin scored a 15.025 which is in no way indicative of the difference of their performances – Liukin, the eventual gold medalist, was much better.

So cast aside the All-Around if you will because the individuals who deserved medals earned them, but I’m not sure if I can say the same for the women’s vault.  It seems to me that Sacramone was robbed.  Not knowing much about that sport, if there are any thoughts from people with knowledge of the sport, submit them in the comments section.