[Mowicz]

Originally Posted by reeves

Theres no other sport in the Olympics, summer or winter, where there is as little competition as womens hockey.

"Since 1992, Chinese players have won at least one medal in every event. At the 2008 Games, China achieved an unprecedented medal sweep in both the men's and women's singles tournaments."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...n_table_tennis

But no, you can't take away the event that the Chinese are dominating...that would be racist.

[lawleypop]

The chinese are good at everything. And that's a scientific fact.

[reeves]

Originally Posted by Mowicz

"Since 1992, Chinese players have won at least one medal in every event. At the 2008 Games, China achieved an unprecedented medal sweep in both the men's and women's singles tournaments."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...n_table_tennis

But no, you can't take away the event that the Chinese are dominating...that would be racist.

I didn't even know ping pong was an Olympic event. I don't watch summer Olympics. I fully support the removal of this too.

[sew12]

I didn't even know Ping Pong was considered a spot.

[lawleypop]

Originally Posted by sew12

I didn't even know Ping Pong was considered a spot.

It shouldn't be. Frig, next thing foosball will be in the olympics.

[Lois]

Kajskdjasd. Gold!!!

[kamalprasher]

I Think We Should Make Our Flag - Red, White & Gold!

[mike_2133]

Originally Posted by sew12

If they drop Women's Hockey from the Olympic level they are essentially delivering the death blow to Women's Hockey programs in many countries.

If they can't compete in the Olympics their Countries will not continue to fund Women's Hockey programs and therefore they will never get better and Women's Hockey will never be allowed back into the Olympics again.

Eliminating Women's Hockey from the Olympics is not the way to create a more even playing field. Keeping it in and allowing it a few more years to develop is the only way things will change.

Also yes I do think think this is somewhat sexist, if this were a Men's sport or Men's hockey was not on a level playing field I don't think they would be calling for its removal after only 4 Olympic games.

The Olympics are a place for developed sports, not for sports to develop. Canada and the US have won every tournament since women's hockey existed, there's no competition.

The only small glimmer of hope was Sweden winning the silver medal in 06', but they then lost to Canada 13-1 and the US 8-1 this year, so to me, women's hockey is pretty irrelevant as an Olympic sport.

If your sport can't survive not being in the Olympics, then it doesn't deserve to be in the Olympics at all. It's just not competitive enough to be there.

[arathbon]

Originally Posted by mike_2133

The Olympics are a place for developed sports, not for sports to develop. Canada and the US have won every tournament since women's hockey existed, there's no competition.

The only small glimmer of hope was Sweden winning the silver medal in 06', but they then lost to Canada 13-1 and the US 8-1 this year, so to me, women's hockey is pretty irrelevant as an Olympic sport.

If your sport can't survive not being in the Olympics, then it doesn't deserve to be in the Olympics at all. It's just not competitive enough to be there.

If it wasn't competitive it should not have been added in the first place. There is no overcrowding of sports during the winter games and so there is no reason to take women's hockey away except to defang Canada and the US.

Just a thought, but there are a collection of seriously noncompetitive teams in the Men's Hockey Tournament as well.... Should we reduce the size to 8 teams based on that logic, giving Norway, Latvia, Belarus and Germany the boot?

[mike_2133]

Originally Posted by arathbon

If it wasn't competitive it should not have been added in the first place. There is no overcrowding of sports during the winter games and so there is no reason to take women's hockey away except to defang Canada and the US.

Just a thought, but there are a collection of seriously noncompetitive teams in the Men's Hockey Tournament as well.... Should we reduce the size to 8 teams based on that logic, giving Norway, Latvia, Belarus and Germany the boot?

Norway lost to Slovakia 4-3 and almost had the game.
Latvia lost 3-2 to Czech Republic in OT.
Belarus lost 3-2 to Switzerland in a shootout. (don't forget the 02' QFs with Sweden either)
Germany was the only real poor team of the tournament but don't forget they lost 3-2 to Canada in 2002.

Yes, they all lost, but I watched each of those games and they could have gone either way.

These are not even comparable situations, let alone the fact that reducing to 8 teams is not the same as getting rid of a sport.

Men's hockey has 8 teams who could easily medal, and 6-8 more that stand a chance to upset at any time.

Women's hockey has 2 teams, the rest are competing with each other. Gold and silver should not already be set in stone prior to the tournament.

[Mowicz]

Originally Posted by arathbon

Just a thought, but there are a collection of seriously noncompetitive teams in the Men's Hockey Tournament as well.... Should we reduce the size to 8 teams based on that logic, giving Norway, Latvia, Belarus and Germany the boot?

I don't think we should...if we were to use this logic (ie. the performance in a single Olympiad), you should just declare the gold medal match to be between Canada and the USA every year.

The 4 teams you mentioned are still solid teams who just had some kinks to be worked out...Norway's a decent team, Belarus had a shot, perhaps not at the medals but maybe at the quarters or semis, I didn't catch Latvia's matches unfortunately, and Germany just happened to be the weakest team of the tournament (there has to be a team in 12th place if there are 12 teams...). It isn't like they got completely obliterated across the board like the women's teams, so it's a different issue entirely.

Keep in mind that the Olympics are, and always have been, about entertaining the masses moreso than the athletics themselves. It's not something to be embarrassed of, or try to defend, it's just tradition! The parthenon and all that jazz...So when something stops being entertaining, it hits the chopping block...that's the real reason why women's hockey is under fire. As long as it draws audiences, it will remain an olympic sport...but I don't know if it will continue at this rate.

[sew12]

If they're going to go about removing Women's hockey from the Olympics on the basis that its not competitive enough (and therefore kill the sport and make it so its never competitive again) then its time to remove other sports too.

There are other motives behind removing Women's hockey imo as there are other sports that are seemingly not very competitive either but there's no talk of removing them.

Did anyone actually watch Men's or Women's halfpipe? I could have told you Torah and Shaun would win weeks before the half pipe competition even occurred. Talk about a sport that isn't competitive enough for the Olympics.

Don't see them removing Cross-Country Skiing events anytime soon either despite the fact that one group of European nations pretty much owns these events.

Russian domination of figure skating? This is the first time in like decades that Russia hasn't won Gold medals in most of the figure skating events. Not to mention all the issues with subjective judging they've had over the years. Oh that's right, they've worked to fix the issues with figure skating without calling for its removal from the games. Why is it they can't do the same thing for Women's Hockey?

[sky_xox]

Hey guys if you aren't aware there is an article on www.inquirepublicatio n.com on the olympics that you can reply to and have your response published in march's issue!

If you aren't familiar with Inquire Publication its a newspaper with articles written by Mac and Queens students that publish the responses of students from both schools so you can see what students here and at Queens have to say about a diverse range of articles ranging from the Olympics, to the prorogation of parliament, economic recovery and capitalism, and more!

Also if your response gets published you're elible for a discount of $200 on a princeton review course, they offer MCAT, GMAT and LSAT prep courses!

[sky_xox]

Hey guys if you aren't aware there is an article on www.inquirepublicatio n.com on the olympics that you can reply to and have your response published in march's issue!

If you aren't familiar with Inquire Publication its a newspaper with articles written by Mac and Queens students that publish the responses of students from both schools so you can see what students here and at Queens have to say about a diverse range of articles ranging from the Olympics, to the prorogation of parliament, economic recovery and capitalism, and more!

Also if your response gets published you're elible for discount of a $200 on a princeton review course, they offer MCAT, GMAT and LSAT prep courses!

[reeves]

Originally Posted by sew12

If they're going to go about removing Women's hockey from the Olympics on the basis that its not competitive enough (and therefore kill the sport and make it so its never competitive again) then its time to remove other sports too.

There are other motives behind removing Women's hockey imo as there are other sports that are seemingly not very competitive either but there's no talk of removing them.

Did anyone actually watch Men's or Women's halfpipe? I could have told you Torah and Shaun would win weeks before the half pipe competition even occurred. Talk about a sport that isn't competitive enough for the Olympics.

Don't see them removing Cross-Country Skiing events anytime soon either despite the fact that one group of European nations pretty much owns these events.

Russian domination of figure skating? This is the first time in like decades that Russia hasn't won Gold medals in most of the figure skating events. Not to mention all the issues with subjective judging they've had over the years. Oh that's right, they've worked to fix the issues with figure skating without calling for its removal from the games. Why is it they can't do the same thing for Women's Hockey?

I get what you're saying, but again, I dont see how it's the same. None of these are remotely close to the situation in women's hockey.

In Cross country skiing, yeah, Norway is pretty dominant. I even said to Lawley one night at the bar, when it flashed to cross country between periods: "Lemme guess - Norway wins". She laughed, but wouldn't you know it, Norway won by a landslide. When you look at the stats though, Norway is very consistent, but it's not a monopoly. Theres a difference between domination in a sport vs. complete lack of competition. Historically, 16 different countries have won gold in Olympic cross country events. Compare that to womens hockey, where 2 have won gold. 19 different countries have won silvers in skiing. 3 have won one in hockey. See the difference?

Snowboarding (all events), which made its Olympic debut at the '98 games, just like womens hockey, has had 7 different countries win gold, and 10 win silvers.

Forget about figure skating. Way too many countries have won medals there. You say Russia dominates, but going by the numbers, the US does. Russia and the USSR (including i dont know how many now-separate countries) combine for a total of 44 medals, equal to the US.