Sunday, February 21, 2010

New Ideas For Winter Olympics!

First of all, let me tell you that I really do like watching the Olympics. Winter, summer, doesn't matter, I watch many hours a day. I watch to the point where I walk around work like a zombie from the lack of sleep. That being said, I must admit that some of the sports could be a little more exciting to watch. After all, we are in the X Games era and it's hard to get people to watch some middle aged guy sliding stones down an icy surface, trying to get someone else's rocks off (so to speak).

With that in mind, I have thought about most of the Winter Olympic sports and tweaked them a little to make them more exciting to watch. Here is what I came up with:

Curling:

This was a challenge to spice up. However, I think that having the "sweepers" for both teams actually battle with each other while the stone is sliding down the ice may make it better for fans. Picture the sweepers swinging their brooms at each other like pirates with their swords! That would be exciting! I'd watch it!

Biathlon:

This sport combines cross country skiing and target shooting. The shooting helps, but not enough for most viewers. How about this? Replace the pellet shooting rifles, with paint ball guns! The skiers actually get to shoot at each other! If you get hit by a paint ball, you have to stand still for a 15 second penalty. That would inspire the participants to ski faster and they would have to shoot on the fly.

Speed Skating (long track):

First of all, we need to add more racers for each race. I would like to see 6 to 8 skaters per race. Then, change the shape of the race into a figure 8! This would increase the chances of crashes and near misses. After all, that is what many people watch this for in the first place.

Speed Skating (short track):

The only suggestion I have for this sport is to add a couple of racers since there are already a lot of crashes. Short track seems to know what we like already.

Figure Skating:

Have six competitors on the ice at one time! Assign one judge for each skater and have them all skate together. How hard would be be to land a "triple sow cow" with someone else doing a "Hamel Camel" in your landing spot?

Ice Dancing:

Just drop it.

Couples Figure Skating:

Only divorced couples can compete. Think how crazy the throws could be if the man owes child support woman.

Snowboard Half-Pipe:

Not much room to improve this exciting sport. So, let's pay a tribute to the original Olympics and have them perform naked! Those girls were pretty cute and they tend to be in better shape than the down hill skiers (Lindsey Vonn not included).

Snowboardcross:

A good sport, but I want it to be held in the luge track!

Ski Jumping:

Alright, this is one that is already exciting, but the jumpers are getting so good that there are very few crashes. Therefore, lets combine ski jumping with the aerial competition! Just raise the angle of the jump at the end of the 90 meter hill! By the time they get to the bottom, they could have completed 12 flips and 15 full rotations! Land that and you deserve a medal!

Luge and Bobsled:

Already crazy enough for me.

Ice Hockey:

Pretty crazy already, but the Olympics tries to take away the fighting! I say, every penalty leads to a one on one, old style hockey fight in the middle of the rink. After a minute or so, judges decide who won the fight and the loser sits in the penalty box for five minutes.

Well, that's all I have for now. If you have an opinion, or some ideas of your own, just drop me a comment! I'd love to hear from you.

Enjoy the Olympic Games!

3 comments:

SpeedBeagle said...

Hey- leave the figure skaters alone. Besides, they already do have a period with 6 skaters on the ice at one time. It's called warm-up, and while there is no formal judging during that time, the judges are watching and forming opinions of each skater- miss a jump in warm-ups and the judges will remember.

As for ski jumping, I seriously doubt that anyone will ever top the crash of (then) Yugoslavian ski jumper Vinko Bogataj(forever immortalized in the opening credits of ABC's Wide World of Sports)- nor should they try.

Bosox 61 said...

Bolt, You left out the "skeleton"! That has to be the craziest thing I have ever seen. The Luge is crazy but going down face first?

I'm still trying to figure out what the guy in back in the bobsled run does.

Living in sunny (sometimes) Florida, I don't know much about winter sports and it is never my intention to watch much of them. However I inevitably get caught up in it and, like you, stay up all night watching curling. It's kinda like shuffleboard on ice which i am very familiar with here in FLA.

Bosox 61 said...

Some things I have been very impressed with:

1. Ladies hockey. I didn't know that it was girls playing until I realized that there were too many pony tails hanging out from the helmets.

2. All of the winter X games events especially ski-cross.

3. Julie Mancuso! Lindsey Vonn maybe nice to look at but after hearing beacoup interviews from her I have determined that she doesn't have an ounce of humility in her, and one of me is enough. Julie is a breath of fresh air.

4. Ladies curling should be played in uniforms similar to NFL cheerleaders. At least the team from Denmark should wear them.

5. Sean White and Apollo Ohno! Each, on their version of frozen water and almost as important in front of a camera. These guys are Superstars and I have become a fan.