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Misconceptions About Olympic Sports
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- čas přidán 9. 07. 2024
- From diving to gymnastics to the strange world of curling, there are a lot of Olympic sports that we don't fully understand. Seriously, why do curlers yell so much??
Join host Justin Dodd (@juddtoday) as he breaks down some common misconceptions about the Olympics, just in time for the Paris games in 2024!
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Curler here! We do indeed yell those things and more. However sometimes the volume is simply out of necessity. A curling sheet is about 150 feet long and there are usually games going on next to you (not to mention at pro games when there's a crowd)
It's also not just the skip yelling. The sweepers communicate to the skip the speed of the rock or the place they think the rock will come to rest. The skip is directing the sweeping based on the curl of the stone. (there's way more to this but I'm trying to keep it simple)
Teams come up with their own unique calls all the time. My team has special names for different weight calls (that's take-out speeds) if you play me you're likely to hear us yell about a hurricane, or a hairball.
The Biathlon is one of a number of "military" events. It's based on winter warfare, where you would ski to where your enemy would be, take a few shots, then ski away before they could react. This was a big part of WW2 era combat.
Until the 60s a number of events where dominated by military officers. Equestrian, Shooting, all the Athlons. etc.
The most confusing olympic sport to me is one that I just learned existed: “modern pentathlon”. It’s apparently one of the only sports that the US has never won an Olympic medal in, and it’s a mix of fencing, swimming, show-horse jumping, pistol shooting, and cross country/long distance running
it's easier (not easy, easier) to be REALLY good at a single sport, it's much much more difficult to be just good at 5 different ones at the same time. So it's actually very impressive as an event.
And they keep talking about replacing the riding because the sport is full of people with unsafe riding abilities.
Imagine getting a Gold Medal in Olympic James Bond
The US has won Olympic medals in modern pentathlon
Patton competed in the 1912 Olympics in Modern Pentathlon
10:55 "what skills are we honing?"
Cross country skiing and rifle shooting.
"What are we preparing for?"
War
I think it is weird though that there is no summer version of it where you run and/or bike between shooting targets
it's obviously training for a james bond action scene
@@fish3977there are summer versions, both with running and roller skis, which is how they compete in summer or non mountainous terrain, it's not olympic though
@@fish3977 That's actually now part of the modern pentathlon. (Before, the shooting was a separate event.)
Ice dancing is so insanely technical. When I ice skated I learned some ice dancing and it was so frustratingly picky i dropped it fast. Theyre judging where your edge is, foot angle, timing with the piece, etc. It's another level of difficulty that has a lot of small details involves. Wasnt for me
Judges sports like gymnastics and figure skating can also be very subjective and political. Whether you win or not can depend who your coach is, what sporting club or country you come from, whether they like your music, how expensive your costume is, your reputation,.how involved your parents are etc.
3:12 "it makes the water extra wet" lol
Biathlon is one of the sports with the most obvious and direct non-sporting applications of anything done at the Olympics. Skiing and shooting has clear applications for both hunting and warfare. When are you going to use ice dancing and curling outside of competitions? A lot less often, if ever.
Biathlon is the most spectated winter sport on the planet. The skills of skiing and marksmanship were critical in winter warfare during WWII and still important today. One of the post practical sports of you think about it. Also consider that the Olympics itself evolved out of military competition and sports in most countries are managed by respective militaries.
That love you at the end, so wholesome
Wait though. The sprinklers in diving also help to reduce injury by breaking the surface tension of flat water. Landing wrong on flat water from any height is basically like landing on glass.
Love you too, Justin. ❤
Love you too!
I got taken off-guard by him saying "love you" at the end of the video 😂 love you, too, Mental Floss
I feel like the Diana DeGarmo joke was for me specifically 😂
There was once a swimmer who slowed down in his heat because he wanted an outer lane in the final - and then he didn’t qualify. He swam in the B final for 9th place - and, I believe, set an Olympic Record.
I teach in Idaho and one of my high schoolers is a serious Junior Olympian for the ski biathlon, so now I’m super invested in it. 😅
A+ video!
Awesome sports and explanations of their misconceptions!
Katie Ledecky is actually Australian, we adopted her years ago.😊 Men's speed skating, you only have to be last man standing, re: Stephen Bradbury.
That chest hair tho...
10/10 -ign
Biathlon is awesome.
The one I don't get is Equestrian. The bloody horse does all the work!
You have never ridden have you? You have to be very strong,.have good aerobic fitness and muscular endurance, be very patient and be very fearless.
yeah Equestarians are as Athletic a E-Sports "Athletes"
Then why is it that horses don't run races or jump obstacles without riders the way that dogs do? It's because the horse needs a rider to give it direction and to tell it where to go. Also the rider keeps the horses from running into each other and getting hurt. I swear, I've never been so tired as I was after riding a horse.
@@tessat338 Even just a basic lesson on trotting is very tiring on the leg muscles and very aerobic for the lungs unless you're fit
So I used to swim competitively as a kid, and the middle lanes having an advantage never crossed my mind, especially because I did see a couple of upsets in the pool myself. I honestly thought that the bigger advantages, if there were any, there those in 1 and 8 because they got someone ahead that was breaking up the water like how goose at the bottom of the V had the least amount of air resistance, and they only had to look in one direction to see where their competition was. I also question why there was that extra lane between the outer lanes and the wall, and why we couldn't use those to stay warmed up if there was no extra pool, but figured it'd just be too distracting for everyone.
Also, you can be DQed in a Freestyle event. I actually did it when I was like 6. Goggles fell off while diving in, I swam to the other side, hit the wall, put my feet down, put my goggles backed on, and swam back. Came in like first or second, but was DQed because my feet touched the bottom. But there's no rule about saying you can only use the front crawl in a Freestyle event, it's just the fastest stroke for most, so Free has become synonyms with the front crawl.
Love you too
Huh? Biathlon obviously relates to hunting and war. Just like the Pentathlon. Can't imagine why this would confuse anyone.
Biathlon used to be called Military Patrol
@1:00 Who else was expecting Seaman to be said as part of the experimental liquid for Male Gymnasts
Part 2
x 4:44 About swim contests, specifically to a small-town public school:
o Since we knew everyone at the public swimming pool in elementary school (not initially, but years after we started going there), there were a lot of swimming contests.
o For swimming contests at the public pool, it was generally just until one of the two or three swimmers made it to the other side.
o Even the lifeguards at the public pool would sometimes have swim contests during breaks!
o Sometimes, depending upon how knowledgeable the swimmers were, there would be different types of swim contests like the backstroke, breast stoke, or sidestroke.
o Contrary to popular belief about contests, these contests (like many contests in a small town) were more based on participation than the drive to win (losing a contest like that was simply no big deal, it was widely understood that it was better to participate than to avoid so because of the idea of losing).
o There were also swim contests to see how many things like those weighted sticks or rings a person could grab at the bottom of the pool.
o Though I wasn't a fast swimmer, I was fortunate enough to be trained by the best swim instructor in that entire area and was the favorite student.
† Since I was the only kid who initiated conversations with adults, I started to talk to one of the lifeguards regularly and bonded very quickly with her (she wasn't that much older than I was but she has an angelic quality to her).
† Part of the bonding process was the fact that she knew about the incident where the lifeguards had to dive in to get me.
† She taught me how to swim well, especially with all the techniques, and later she took on the profession of a public school teacher (she later taught 6th grade at public school, the last grade for elementary school and is extremely beloved).
x Curling was a topic of conversation with the Canadian girl I went on a date with...:
o That was the three or four day long date that started at Bainbridge Island!
o Minus the Secret Agent part (at least I think so...), the date had A LOT of similarities to the movie Ghosted (highly recommend the film if you get the chance).
o It was an incredibly complicated ordeal that involved an extremely limited window of opportunity, her mom dropping her off in the forest and calling me terrified, the supernatural, spending all the money I had, staying at a Llama Farm Bed & Breakfast, a curiousity shop, a Bolivian restaurant, an improv club, a wall of gum, a book store, a record store, the most bizarre hollywood kiss fail, an imposter-style couple switch on a bus while reading the local paper for its events, sitting in a park under a bridge..it was like there was such a string of events that I could go on forever but it ended with the waiting illusion at the finale, ending my window of opportunity.
o The big question is: Did I succeed or fail? I, and everyone else I know, was shown every physical sign that I had similar opportunities that I failed in BUT:
† I approached a girl when I was a freshman in college and she responded in a way that clearly showed she was not interested...16 years later I ran into her again and we were a couple for five months afterwards!
† There was a girl from high shool that I was set on but never really had a second opportunity to see if we could be together...fast forward three years later and she not only transferred to my college but was around my social network the entire time from day 1!
x Speaking of bikinis:
o Is it a bad idea to give your girlfriend a bikini for her birthday? (That is a half-joke)
o I am surprised that some of those professional beach volleyball players aren't also bikini models!
o Bikini Bottom is a place on the tv series SpongeBob Squarepants.
o I would imagine that going to the beach with your girlfriend while she is in a bikini is a common fantasized moment.
o In the movie Naked Gun 33 1/3, Anna Nicole Smith wears one of those old-fashioned bikinis for a scene!
o Bikini Kill is an American Punk band (the album Reject All American is awesome!)
o The bikini is named after Bikini Atoll (a largely uninhabited island now, but maybe it should be an island that sells bikinis).
x About state track and dropping the baton:
o When I went to state track in high school, the star 4 x 400 relay team of our school dropped the baton while tied for first place!
† The baton actually went off the track and was picked up by the next leg, but they were so far behind that there was no way for them to place.
† To say that was significant was an understatement, three out of four of those in the relay ran track at college and the miss was devastating as it was the only time I had ever seen anyone drop the baton in that relay.
o I ran on the 4 x 800 relay and we received 5th place.
† After that I could then say I medaled at state in a sport.
† My older brother was on the relay and he medaled too.
† One of the other guys was the guy that dropped the baton on the 4 x 400, which was also the last race of State Track!
o When we were travelling down to Omaha for state (a long 3 or 4 hour drive), I caught flack for only bringing one CD.
† The CD was the 'humble' Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette!
† The song I listened to the most was "U Oughta Know," which was the introduction, on the first episode, to the character Gwen on the tv series That '90s Show!
o There is actually a wild 4 x 400 story attached too:
† Years later I met a girl that I was interested in and I tried to start up a conversation which she clearly showed no interest in and she didn't say anything (so that talk was short).
† When I was on stage for a hypnosis show, the hypnotist brought her onstage and he had us do a scenario where she was my wife!
† Later that school year, she was the last leg of...that's right...the women's 4 x 400 (the last event) at nationals and made a spectacular come-from-behind performance to gain the position for the track team to win its first national championship by ONE POINT...that was also the first national championship in any sport Doane had ever won in its 120 year history!
Good thing cricket is not an Olympic sport.
It will be at the next games!
Part 1
x Speaking of gymasts:
o There is an 80s animated series called Mr. T., he is a coach to a gymnastics team.
o I have the Wheaties box with Simone Biles on it, I am cutting off the boxtops for the other Wheaties I eat and putting them in that box.
o There are a lot of gymnastics on the awesome music video "Love In The First Degree" by Bananarama.
o One legendary gymnastic performance is Kerri Strug's broken ankle vault.
o In Hollywood, it is common for Ninjas to seemingly be gymnastics experts.
o There are a lot of shows of gymnastics in the movie Buffy The Vampire Slayer, a very underrated movie!
o There is a film called Gymkata, an action thriller that mixes gymnastics with combat fighting.
o The main character of the movie The Peaceful Warrior is an accomplished gymnast.
o For street performances, most people seem to be most impressed with handstands and doing a full flip.
o One of my nursing coworkers broke both her wrists while trying to do a handstand during gymnastiscs.
o The University of Nebraska used to be the top gymnastic team in the country, but they haven't won a national championship since 1994 (the year I graduated from junior high).
o Doing a cartwheel was the most impressive gymnastic-style move my classmates in elementary school could do.
x About dives:
o When I was in elementary school and at the public pool, a woman convinced me to jump off the diving board to overcome my anxiety about being in the area of the pool that I could not touch with my feet.
† I jumped off the board, immediately knew I would not be able to swim to the side, barely raised my mouth above the water to yell help, and had to be rescued by the lifeguard...the woman was no where to be found when I was pulled to the side.
o A dive bar is one that is considered to be dark, dirty, and not respectable (Collins Dictionary)
o Taking a dive in a boxing match is pretending to be knocked out (Collins Dictionary).
o The biggest general challenge at the public swimming pool in my hometown was to jump off the high-diving board.
o I refused to dive off of a cliff when some grad students and I went on a canoeing trip in The Ozarks because I was concerned about a freak head injury (I jumped off the 20-30 foot cliff but did not dive).
o The movie dive that I remember seeing the most is a Swan Dive.
o I remember Looney Tunes Cartoons where the swimmer dives from a great height into a glass of water.
o In the movie The Sea Inside, the real-life story of Ramón Sampedro (played by Javier Bardem) is about him being paralyzed in a diving accident.
o Those diving suits with the helmuts are very memorable!
x Speaking of showering and germs:
o At one point, the United States was the only culture that has such a high value on cleanliness (to the point of obsession).
o I remember taking three showers a day in public school (Grades 1 - 12) , one after morning weightlifting, one after gym class, and one after sports practice after school.
o In public school, hardly anything would make a person a pariah faster than smelling bad because of not showering or bathing.
o Showering with others in a communal shower apparently was a terrifying experience for some people as they literally never showered when others were around (I hear those stories exclusively from non-athletes who would just put water over their hair and say they didn't need to shower).
o In my public school for grades 7-12, there was a communal shower for the males but both a communal shower and private showers for the girls.
o It was common to use the soap dispensers for soap for the showers and to either use your own shampoo or ask for some from someone else (they would squeeze some out in your hand from their bottle...which sounds filthy but that is what they would do!).
o Apparently Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis go days without showering simply because they don't feel like it.
o In the old west, germs were a huge deal as some would go months without bathing and it would potentially give them disease.
o There was once a "squatter" that did not bathe for some months before stopping by a friend's house.
† They told him he had to shower as the first thing he did when he arrived, then told him he had to shower again after that because he still smelled terrible immediately after finishing his first shower!
x For the topic of 80s experiences like that of going to see ice dancing:
o The arcade was an 80s tradition!
o Going to the roller rink was a popular social.
o Summer camp was huge in the 80s.
o Some artists would make splatter-paint t-shirts.
o Listening to tapes was very popular!
o Carrying around a boom box was a cool thing to do!
o Neon and fluorescent colors are one of the strongest traditions of the 80s.
o Synth music is another of the strongest traditions.
o Going out for pizza at Pizza Hut was a popular outing in the midwest.
o Some tv shows were distinctly 80s like Thundercats, He-Man, She-Ra, Rainbow Brite, Pee-Wee's Playhouse, G.I. Joe, Transformers, Go-Bots, and Gem.
#FireJustinDodd
It will be interesting to see how much longer the modern olympics hold up with fewer and fewer people able to afford the travel to the events, or even to train as athletes. 🥲