After more than a week of Olympics coverage, there are several events that are hard to understand how they made it into the Olympics.
5. Dressage » There is something amazing about watching a horse skip, side-step and strut on command. But after the first few minutes, boredom takes over. While it’s apparent the training for this event must be extensive, a horse walking in place is just not that interesting.
4. Badminton » Any event you associate with playing bare foot in the backyard at a cookout shouldn’t be an Olympic event … unless it’s beach volleyball.
3. Trampoline » From “The Man Show” send-off segment to an Olympic event. Who knew all of those years of nearly breaking your arm jumping uncontrollably on your friend’s rusty trampoline could have been classified as Olympic training?
2. Synchronized swimming » Some see this as art — water ballet if you will. But others may have a difficult time getting past the weird makeup and gunk in their hair to understand what’s going on.
1. Race walking » This may be the most painful Olympic event to watch. Participants spend the entire race fighting off the urge to run. But race walkers take it seriously, as shown by 2008 gold medalist Alex Schwazer admitting to using performance-enhancing drugs. Could you imagine seeing one of these “athletes” training along with senior citizens at 6 a.m. at your local mall?
– Jeffrey Tomik
