Will Olympic surfing r@pe Japan?

Well dude I didn't click on the clickbait, but if it pertains to what I think it is then the fact that governments "waste" billions of dollars, yen, shekels or ducats on buildings, logistics and infrastructure towards an event that lasts 2-4 weeks hasn't been a secret for at least 20 years.

It used to be profitable to hold an Olympic event. Not so much anymore. Romney pulled off the most successful (financially) Olympics ever. Most, if not all, have allegedly lost money since then. And to make it worse, most of the buildings and infrastructure are practically abandoned quickly thereafter.

But very little research shows that the smartest and most successful nations have found ways to repurpose all that infrastructure, while banana republics like Greece and other countries with lousy economies fail to fund all the stuff they built and it falls into disrepair and eventual total abandonment.

Not very many countries are competing to hold the Olympics anymore. And due to the whole Covid thing, Japan will probably wind up losing billions or trillions in lost revenue.

As far as surfing being an Olympic "sport" for the first time, I don't care much about it...but I've never been a fan of competitive surfing. I don't think that The Rest Of The World is much ready for it yet. It will probably be a passing fancy for an Olympics or two, then eventually fall by the wayside like Synchronized Swimming and the 10,000 meter walk race.

Maybe I should just click on the clickbait

 

Summer Olympics sucks balls. I've always liked the winter Olympics much better. Between all the skiing events, the bobsled, and my favorite, the luge... even the boring sports like curling are more fun to watch.
So I might tune into Olympic surfing out of curiosity, otherwise I wouldn't have any interest. I'm curious if Hawaii will represent itself as they do in surf comps or actually will be part of and represent America. Also there may be some international drama. Israel and Palestine gets waves. Lots of poor ass African nations get waves. Germany is landlocked but have some big wave charges that do Nazare on the reg. Then there's Russia. If America will have a team you know the Russkies are splicing humans with dolphins right now and jacking them up with uber steriods.
Yeah, I'm curious. Otherwise summer sports are all golf, tennis, and baseball. Yawn.

 

Payola, as well as taxpayers funding the ride then getting the dry shaft, is and always has been typical. The degree of shafting depends on the host country's political and economic status.

Norway for example probably did well in Oslo and Lillehammer, and the subsequent profits were reconstituted evenly and equally, while anything held in Russia, Mexico or Africa means the people who literally break their backs contributing to make the event possible all get a long, hard, un-oiled shaft rammed in their doodoo holes once the profits are divvied up.

I imagine Hawaii will represent themselves because of their hatred of America and "Americans". Yet their best surfers will no doubt be blond haired and blue eyed lol. But it won't make any difference because I can guarantee that Brazil will win the Gold medal in Surfing.

In a continuing trend which I personally abhor, many American participants will choose to "identify" with another country like Italy or Uzbekistan and represent that country, as opposed to the actual country where they were actually born and raised. Makes me wanna puke.

I also prefer the Winter Olympics, but admit my main attraction to the Summer Games are the Track and Field events.

I wonder if our biggest and best track athletes will ever choose to represent Ethiopia or Niger?

 

Unpopular opinion I guess, but I love watching the Olympics. Summer and Winter.

I don't even care about the actual sports for the most part, but I'll take any opportunity to say "F*** YOU" to all other countries and root for the US of A. It helps that we kick ass in most sports and have athletes competing across the board.

My first Olympics memories are watching the "Dream Team" wipe the floor with pretty much the entire earth in Atlanta. That s*** wasn't even fair. Then watching Michael Johnson win with his gold shoes. I was young and really into sports back then.

At the last Olympics in Rio I took particular pleasure in watching the USA swim team beast out on the ruskies, and watching my fellow ganja smoking Marylander, Michael Phelps, rack up gold medals. Dude's a freak of nature.

This last Winter Olympics was dope. Snowboard big air and halfpipe are always intense. I watch the downhill ski stuff too. The 2018 Burton/NASA Team USA gear was pretty cool, until I tried to buy one of the jackets and it was like $1000. I will say that it seems like 80% of winter Olympics coverage is some sort of figure skating which is a bummer. I prefer the adrenaline stuff.

Going back to the topic of the thread, it's well known that countries lose their ass preparing for the games. When you consider that land owners, developers, and politicians use it as a tax dollar cash grab it makes sense. Unfortunately in the end it's working class people that shoulder the burden of the corruption. Even the selection process for the host city is corrupt as s***, but then again, not nearly as bad as the World Cup.

Surfing in the Olympics seems stupid to me. There is only one reason for it: the action sports conglomerate is trying to get in front of more faces and sell more t-shirts and bikinis. Period. At least they're actually in the ocean this year. Next time around will be in a sterile wave pool with "perfect" manufactured waves, in some over priced and under built facility, while 4 or 5 assholes rake in the loot.

 

LOL,I'm just being a cynical A hole HH. I think supporting The good old USA is awesome in the Olympics. I'm old enough to remember the 84 winter Olympics and USA beating the Soviets in hockey. That was insane.
I would like America to beat Brazil, Australia, S Africa in surfing. Even if Americans don't take it seriously, those guys will. And will flaunt that gold if they win.
I don't like the idea of wavepools for the Olympics, the wave seems so perfect and regular, I don't know how you can score that, anyone with skills will dial that in and it will be the same wave after wave.

 

Yea I hate to say it but it's the Brazzo men's contest to lose. I don't pay that much attention to pro surfing but seems like Italo and company are a notch above the rest on tour right now. We should get the ladies title with Carissa Moore and Caroline Marks though. East coast represent!!

I would surf the s*** out of a wavepool but I can't stand watching a contest in them. Maybe someday if I hit the lottery I'll take us all to Lemoore.

 

If you think about it, Surfing would be more suitable as a winter event. I remember there was a summer stop in Japan on the Tour in like '81 or '82 and the surf was absolutely putrid. I think it was called the Marui Pro. There was even a shark sighting. Everyone bitched about how lousy it was, so they dumped a bunch of sites and reorganized everything again for the umpteenth time. If a wave machine were ever appropriate for competitive surfing, Japan would be the place.

I am a big fan of Olympic figure skating. The women are gorgeous and have perfectly proportioned mud flaps. My wife gets pissed because she know I'm ogling the hell out of them. I played peewee hockey into my teens and grew up as a rink rat. Figure skaters were always around the ice, and were my first stinkfinger conquests.

And Manik, the Miracle On Ice was in 1980.

 

Competition is acceptable. It's human nature to compete. Hell, it's animal instinct to compete. All animals compete by nature, whether it's for food, shelter, mating or whatever. Sports competition is nothing more than a human extension of those basic animal traits.

What seems the most distasteful about organized competition is that there is inevitably a bunch of Shylock-type parasites that brilliantly find a way to extract gobs of $$$ for their own personal benefit, usually at the expense of the athletes and everyone else who actually contributed.

It's not just Capitalist Pig First World countries, either. Even Tibet exploits their human capital.

It's all about Circuses and Bread, baby.

 

i'm down for olympics. Something to watch on tv here and there. I never preferred summer vs the winter, both offer sumtin. Now i don't plan my day around it. It sux ppl will be bitchn about it in Japan. I don't think it's a guarantee that US will get top spot in surfing, so i'll be interested to see if it looks interesting

 

And Manik, the Miracle On Ice was in 1980.[/QUOTE]

Yes it was!! I should have wikpedia checked first, I believe 84 the soviets boycotted.