The subject for this meeting is the Olympics, but not just the current games in Rio. These are some interesting videos I found so far:
- The success of the Opening Ceremony in spite of Brazil's problems
- The Olympics as a showcase for diversity
- The Special Olympics
Since the games are still in progress, there may be other video that come out on YouTube before Thursday.
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Besides the videos on swimming, soccor and gymnastic, here are the other videos shown at the meeting:
- Problems at Rio
- The Refugee Team
Well, NPR beat me to it this morning. I had noticed that some sports have several events while others may have only one or two. Many swimming (32) and gymnastics events but only two soccer events. Secondly, for some sports, it is easier to compete and be good in more than one event - the 100m freestyle and the 200m freestyle (hypothetical) while the 50m dash and the marathon are quite different. And finally, NPR pointed out that everyone the world over runs, but Phelps was lucky to be American and to live in a swimming capital and to be able to afford pools - like golf and gymnastics, not all sports seem to be open to all people. (The same is true for dogs in conformation - there are separate classes for each color of cocker and each size of beagle and poodle and schnauzer but all lab colors compete against each other (yellow, chocolate and black). C'est la vie.
ReplyDeleteGood point. The number of medals is a circumstance of the rules and we should not give it too much importance.
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