I'd say that's partly because cycling doesn't involve any skill, just being fit. For the other activities you mention except archery, more skill is involved but that is not so obvious to the casual observer. You have to have done the activity yourself to notice.
+1
+1 again, except that it can sometimes be interesting to watch an expert footer player.
I'm another one, all this talk about we must reduce our deficit and it will cost us alot of money once the games are over. Judging by the sponsors it should be called the Diabetic Games Robbie
I would have said that the likes of Steve Redgrave getting 4 golds in 4 consecutive Olympics was a super human achievement and worthy of such recognition... certainly more deserving than those who receive them for brown nosing the incumbent politicos of the day.
I guess most of the activities (I wouldn't call them 'sort; in my usage) I typically get involved in revolve around using 'kit'. And that is really part of the appeal, using a machine or vessel to do what I want.
Years and years ago Dad signed a mate and I up for an open regatta on Oulton Broad and to my surprise we came 3rd out of a very mixed fleet of about 30 boats. However, whilst it was ok, I much prefer actually going from A to B by sail, rather than just racing round in circles. ;-)
But then it does seem to be the nature of some humans to want to bastardise everything, turning what should be transport into a race.
I've never been interested in racing full size bikes / boats / cars / cycles', however, I have done a fair bit of RC car and boat racing (I was even a sponsored driver for a couple of seasons) because I was the owner, driver and pit crew. ;-)
When I was racing RC cars (the second time around, when racing with our daughter), most of my time was spent helping those kids who were just dumped off at the track by their parents who were using it like a creche. They neither had tools nor the skills to use them so it was nice to be able to help and show / advise them how they could help themselves.
When it happened in Sydney Australia, every one whinged and moaned before the event but in reality when it started the traffic flowed better than ever, the buses and trains flowed faultlessly.
Nope. Left my Comprehensive when I was 15 as I hated it. Went onto a Technical College where I did a 'Trans Ed' course and loved it. English, Maths, Science or Technical Drawing in the mornings (to 'O' Level), welding, sheet metalwork, automobile engineering, catering and workshop practice in the afternoons (and after college I was on the Teletype to the PDP11 at Hatfield Poly till the caretaker threw me out). ;-)
I guess. However, not the sort of 'competition that people actively indulge in as with sport. ie, If I went to a job interview I was potentially up against other candidates but we didn't know about each other and it wasn't a 'sport' as such.
Doing the 100m (especially when you didn't want to) wasn't 'competition for those who weren't interested in competing.
True, but I still think there is a distinction between true active competition, where the whole point *is* the competition and those things where there is one 'winner' as such but whilst 'winning' is the destination it isn't the journey.
Oh, sure. I'm not saying I wasn't involved in that sort of competition directly, just if I am it's mostly unwittingly and often as a bystander rather than spectator. ;-)
When I took the 11+, it was explained to beforehand us that there was no "pass" or "fail", but it enabled The Powers That Be to give each of us the education to which we were best fitted. Academically bright chilren went to Grammar School, while those with practical skills went to the Secondary Modern.
All a load of BS, for sure, and it hadn't escaped us that Grammar School lads got the best paid jobs...
I have no problem with people doing this, provided they do it with their own money and on private land so the rest of the public is not inconvenienced.
That's an example of the usefulness of it happening at a track. It's a smallish well-defined space and those kids will gravitate to the stands/pits which is where you would be, I imagine, and able to do something constructive for them.
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