League of their own: There's no crying in baseball!

I think I have to agree with your F-i-L about watching a sport with judges. I have seen some of the gymnastications and been baffled by the scores, while being amazed at the gyrations of the little people.

League of their own

That was too easy. I don't mean to denigrate your obvious skill of course, but I think you will probably only tie for the gold due to the lower start value of your routine.

I just still have vivid memories of the East German judges :P

Yeah, there's no doubt that the system has been abused, sometimes in amazingly obvious ways.

I can't recall whether back in the days you refer to, judges were prevented from participating in events where they had citizens competing. Even so, the East Germans were probably just puppets to the Soviets anyway, so it didn't matter whether there were actually any East German athletes or not.

Thanks for the reminder that it could always be worse. ;-)

As a former collegiate gymnastics coach, I can tell you that the judging now is much better than in the past, when it was all "subjective" judging. It still is not perfect, but believe me, it's improved tremendously. I do agree that the commentators, especially the one who is not allowed to "coach" the Olympic athletes, just fuel the fires. Nastia was elegant and gracious on the podium. She's undoubtedly the best!

Jen, Nastia is definitely the epitome of grace and good sportsmanship. I've also been impressed with Shawn Johnson on that latter aspect. The American girls have nothing to be ashamed of.

But enough of gymnastics. Let's discuss women's beach volleyball. ;-)

I will whiningly submit to your judgement as I have neither the grace nor the vocabulary to be whatever the formers would allow. As for beach volleyball, I am altitudinally challenged when it comes to 6 foot plus women. I do like those string uniforms they wear, though.

Is this any different than having to go to the 3rd or 4th tie breaker in any sport. While I would have certainly enjoyed a different outcome or "joint gold", the process is in place to break the ties. I am not a fan of "judged" events anyway. Let's line up and see who is runs or swims fastest, strongest, jumps highest, or scores more points.

Your quote is from "A League of
Their Own". I believe Tom Hanks said "Crying! There's no crying in baseball!"

Let's line up and see who is runs or swims fastest, strongest, jumps highest, or scores more points.

No argument there. But even those types of events are subject to human judgment and intervention. Didn't at least one swimmer lose a medal due to a false start? And one of Phelps's close finishes was scrutinized by the judges who apparently had the ability to override the touchpad results based on what they thought they saw on the cameras.

Still, all of those things are more objective than scoring-by-judging.

And while you're right about the movie reference, you're also a few comments late. ;-)

I don't like the judged events either preferring to stick to the Olympic motto - "Higher, Stronger, Swifter". But with that said, it was a simple tie-breaker and as long as everyone understands it is fair.

Eric, the false start in swimming was determined by judges but it is not a judgement call - she moved before the gun - the video proves it. As to Phelps race, it was the timing pad that determined the winner - the other country protested it but the protest died due to the timing pads AND the camera view.

Susan, you're absolutely right. I wasn't implying that the scenarios are equivalent, just trying to make the point that it's increasingly difficult to find a "pure" sporting event where head-to-head competition is absolutely free from some level of potential external arbitration.

And, just to be clear, I'm not arguing that such arbitration is necessarily a bad thing.

Wait... I thought the movie was Beach V-ball Bingo.

No?

In vault, poles beat a lot of athletes – not just the French.

Foo, that wasn't a pole vault joke, was it? Because, seriously dude, I'm just not in the mood.