2020 Summer Olympics

[thspfc]

I don't know how (human) judges deciding the winner in any sport is still a thing in 2021. It's really dumb. If anything just get robots to do the judging to ensure that there is absolutely no bias.

[NWI_Irish96]

So after the US won gold in 2018 in men's curling, a sport dominated by Canada, Canada won gold in 2021 in women's soccer, a sport dominated by the US.

I don't understand this world anymore.

[wanderer2575]

I don't know how (human) judges deciding the winner in any sport is still a thing in 2021. It's really dumb. If anything just get robots to do the judging to ensure that there is absolutely no bias.

But then we'd miss all the moves.

[kphoger]

When I was in high school, I used to go participate in music performance competitions.  Some aspects of playing music can be judged objectively:  did you play in tune, did you obey dynamic markings, were your notes and rests the proper length?  But a lot of it is subjective.  For example, did you vary your dynamics and tempo, were those variances subtle or dramatic, and were they appropriate for the piece of music?  In the quiet sections, could your playing be characterized as feeble or tender?  In the loud sections, as brash or strong?

And, for a band, orchestra, or smaller ensemble, there were similar objective criteria, but other subjective criteria came into play.  For example, did the ensemble do a good job of bringing out an interesting musical line by having everyone else backing off a bit?  Was the instrumentation appropriate for the piece, or were there just too many people playing first trumpet but not enough playing third trumpet?  And so on.

The judges scored us on the objective stuff, but there was also a lot of subjectivity involved.  I think most people understand that this is the way it has to be, because music is a form of art, art is characterized by beauty and emotion, and beauty and emotion are inherently subjective.  But what if sport also touches on art?  What if there is beauty and emotion in the actions of the athletes?

Such was certainly the belief of the ancient Greeks, on whose shoulders is supposed to rest the foundation of these modern Olympic games.  In ancient Greece, athletes trained at the gymnasium.  The root of that word is gymnos, which means nude, as athletes both trained and competed in the nude.  This was so people could appreciate the natural beauty of the human form at its finest, so people could clearly see men striving for the heights of physical achievement, as befitted the gods under whose patronage the games were held.  This appreciation–bordering on reverence or even worship–of the male human form is the same phenomenon that prompted so much of Greek sculpture [example] to focus on the same.

Thus, gymnastics–with the same etymology as that described above–is a sport not to be judged merely on such objective criteria as crossing a line first or hitting a target, but also on things like grace, poise, form, expression, and beauty.  Does the lady on the balance beam move between elements with fluidity, or are her movements mechanical, robotic?  Similarly, as the synchronized divers get into a handstand at the edge of the platform, do their arms quiver and tremble, or do they exhibit strength and ease?  Are the figure skaters embracing and releasing with emotive passion as they perform their routine, or do they appear cold and aloof?

These things, from the perspective of an ancient Greek, would likely be just as important as the technical, objective aspects of the sport.  Therefore, I'd suggest, there is no better place in the sports world to appreciate them than at the Olympic games.

[wanderer2575]

Seen on Imgur:

"Every four years the triathlon should be a different combo of three Olympic sports drawn out of a hat at the opening ceremony.

"Hold it the last day of the Olympics, and any athlete from any sport can enter.  Winner extinguishes the flame."

[Alps]

Seen on Imgur:

"Every four years the triathlon should be a different combo of three Olympic sports drawn out of a hat at the opening ceremony.

"Hold it the last day of the Olympics, and any athlete from any sport can enter.  Winner extinguishes the flame."

I would watch that.

[NWI_Irish96]

Seen on Imgur:

"Every four years the triathlon should be a different combo of three Olympic sports drawn out of a hat at the opening ceremony.

"Hold it the last day of the Olympics, and any athlete from any sport can enter.  Winner extinguishes the flame."

Also, javelin catching would be more entertaining than javelin throwing.

[kphoger]

Pushing the issue of subjectivity in the Olympics even further...

The modern Olympic Games were founded in 1896, and the founder had it as his intention that art competitions would be a part of the games.  From 1912 through 1948, they were a part of the Olympics.  This was totally in keeping with ancient Greek cultural values.

Here's a breakdown I made of all the gold medalists:

[hotdogPi]

Why is Germany GER and not DEU? The Netherlands appear to be in their local language (NED, not NET).

[kphoger]

Why is Germany GER and not DEU? The Netherlands appear to be in their local language (NED, not NET).

Most of them are based on French (note that Morocco is MAR), but you don't notice because the code also works for English.  NED is indeed based on the Dutch name for the country, but that's far from the norm (and used to be HOL).  Finland is FIN, Japan is JPN, Denmark is DEN, Croatia is CRO, Sweden is SWE, etc, etc:  none of these lines up with the native language.

[hotdogPi]

Denmark is DAN

This one lines up.

[kphoger]

Denmark is DAN

This one lines up.

Edited.  The IOC code is actually DEN.

[english si]

The modern Olympic Games were founded in 1896, and the founder had it as his intention that art competitions would be a part of the games.  From 1912 through 1948, they were a part of the Olympics.  This was totally in keeping with ancient Greek cultural values.

Here's a breakdown I made of all the gold medalists:

Must have been really annoying to be an entrant in a year where they felt nothing was worthy of the gold, and so the best entrant only got a silver (or a bronze)!

I believe that there had to be a sporting theme to the work submitted in most (all?) those categories. Which made it difficult to get entries.

The only reason to drop the r at the end is if your own accent does so. There's nothing about Qatar itself that makes the r silent.

I didn't drop the r, or make it silent, just deployed it differently than you would. The two 'a' sounds in Qatar are different in the BBC pronunciation, due to one having an 'r' as part of it - as I said "ka-ta" sounding similar to "catter". Perhaps it would have been better to write it k'-ta. The difficulties of trying to spell out a sound in a non-phonetic language (and trying to do it how it would sound to the US audience of my post's ears, rather than to my UK ears)!

You can throw in an over-pronounced 'r' if your accent does that, but there's nothing in the Arabic, AFAICS, that requires doing so.

[triplemultiplex]

Did I read correctly somewhere that the competition for music didn't actually include the music being played?  Like the judges only had sheet music to look at and decide a winner.
Televise that!

[kphoger]

Did I read correctly somewhere that the competition for music didn't actually include the music being played?  Like the judges only had sheet music to look at and decide a winner.
Televise that!

That's generally how music composition competitions work.

Back in the 1990s, I won the Kansas statewide piano composition contest on two occasions–once at the junior high level and once at the high school level.  The way it worked is that each entrant submitted a copy of the manuscript and a recording on cassette tape.  We were not judged on how well we played the piece we had written:  rather, the recording was just for the judges to hear how the music sounded as they followed along reading the manuscript.  In other words, we were judged on the piece of music we had written, not on our performance of that piece.  After the winners had been announced (not before), those winners were invited to perform our music.  The first time I won, we performed at one of the universities, with family members and university staff and the judges and whoever else in attendance.  The second time I won, we performed at the mall in Manhattan–on Halloween, which was rather strange, with people milling around and some of them in costume.  I recall that Santa Claus was nearby, too.  That last was an odd performance atmosphere, as there wasn't really an 'audience' per se–just people coming and going and the general white noise of a slow evening at the mall–and upon leaving I didn't really consider it worth the nearly-300-mile drive (each way) from my hometown.

The judges could just as easily have given the music to someone else and had them play it, and then we wouldn't have had to submit a cassette tape at all.

[Rothman]

That's as subjective as it gets.

[kphoger]

That's as subjective as it gets.

Exactly my point.  Subjectivity has been a part of the modern Olympic games since their inception.