Day 23: There are things

I was watching the Olympics the other day and Women's Speed Skating came on.  The one woman they were talking about having a great chance at winning (I think she was from the Netherlands) was wearing one of those things that can only be described as a sports-minded body glove that hugs you tighter than gold lycra Disco pants ever did.  Of course they all were wearing them...but she was...to put it nicely -- "less endowed" than the others.  To be more accurate (from where I could tell from my vantage point on the sofa), she was nearly concave in her chest...where, normally, breasts would be.

The video clip of Russian, Olga Graf, unzipping her suit after her bronze medal win -- well, she was busty in comparison.

There are things you notice and there are things you don't...and I don't know if anyone else noticed...but many of these women appear to be very flat chested.  I mentioned this to my Facebook friend with whom I was private messaging at the time.  I also brought up (no pun intended) the fact that Tom Daley, from the UK men's diving team, probably had the opposite effect in the Summer Olympics.  Seriously, you want to enter the water with as little splash as humanly possible...but since you can only hide just so much inside a Speedo...and...um...built like he is...well, I'm figuring it make a splash all its own. 

He didn't want to hear that part, so I went back to talking about boobs.

I got to wondering if only the ones naturally built this way end up making it to this level (which might happen), if it's because the suit squishes you in so tightly that you appear to have no boobs...or if some actually go under the knife and get breast reduction surgery so they can be more aerodynamic.

I Google'd up a photo, as by then they had switched over to Women's Downhill Skiing...and noticed one skier after the other...were all flattish.  Don't believe me...look at this photo:

(Women's slalom medalists, from left, Austria's Marlies Schild (silver), United States' Mikaela Shiffrin (gold), and Kathrin Zettel (bronze) at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 21, 2014)

Now it only goes to make logical sense that the bigger the boobs the more they get in the way of sports...so again, I Google'd and found an ABC news clip about breast reduction surgery in women's sports...which, if you're interested, is here:  ABC News Story: Female Athletes Get Breast Reduction to Improve Performance

While I don't know, of course, if these women had surgery...and, I'm not implying any of them really did...but if you can slice a full second off your skiing, skating, running, swimming, etc., time, which, in today's competitive field, sometimes means the difference between tenth place and first...what's to stop them from -- slicing a little more off?

And, I really have to wonder what type of message that sends out to girls taking up a sport in which boobs are really frowned upon.  Do these girls (like in the ABC video above) think they are going to be a much better athlete if they get them reduced from the get-go?  How much more value do we place on winning vs being okay in our own bodies?

Young girls already face a lot of self-image issues when they are growing up...do these coaches and other sports people who surround "potential future champions" encourage them to get such things done?  I'm actually very interested now...and will probably do a bit more research.

Sadly, I think I'm probably right in thinking what I'm thinking here...and there are things people shouldn't rush into doing. Some things, such as life-long, body altering decisions -- they should just slow down and take a lot more time thinking about it before they start.

All these female Olympians are extremely hard-working, phenomenal athletes who have the utmost of my respect.  I do not imply any of the ones I've mentioned/shown here or who are participating at the Sochi Olympics have had breast reduction surgery.  To do so would be idiotic of me...and I don't like being an idiot more than I have to.

My intention in choosing to write this blog was only to point out to people that it does indeed apparently happen, and in my opinion, it should be thoroughly and carefully thought out. Surgery hurts...and sometimes (as far as I can tell, from my own experience) the pain remains for years -- and possibly for life. Not all surgery is a piece of cake and without risk...don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise. 


Now go on over to "We Work for Cheese" and see what everyone else came up with for today's writing prompt which is: "There are things".

Day 13: Incommunicado

 

 

The tiny East European nation, Slovenkia, has filed a formal protest against the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after allegedly overhearing several Olympic Committee chairpersons stating "They hoped Slovenkia would not win any gold this Olympics because they didn't want to sit through an extended version of their rendition of 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida'."

 

Slovenkian President, Milton Ilochovyk, filed the protest after learning of the distressing news regarding the playing of their 17-minute long national anthem. Ilochovyk stated the two Slovenkian players also overheard three Olympic Committee members saying that "...they wouldn't want to deal with members of the audience walking out partway through the ceremony nor would they expect the other two medalists to remain on their podiums the entire way through it."  Ilochovyk also contended there was "eye rolling" and "laughter" exchanged between the IOC members.

 

"While it is the longest national anthem on record, we would, naturally, play it in its entirety." Olympic Committee spokesperson, Cameron Greer, reported.  "We take the games seriously, and as such, will look into this matter, but we feel this is unwarranted...plus, considering the delegation from Slovenkia has three athletes, we feel this is a matter which will not even be an issue."

 

In an Olympics which has been plagued by controversy, Russia is also steadfastly denying the allegations. "We are, as we speak", a Russian parliament member, who spoke in anonymity, relayed, "scrutinizing the footage captured by the 72 cameras we had installed in the small room where this allegedly took place. We feel certain at least one of them would have captured this considering this allegedly took place in the Men's Room located just off the Grand Ballroom of the [name withheld] Hotel." 

The Republic of Slovenkia recently gained their independence from the Czech Republic in 1995 and this is the first Winter Games in which they are participating.

 

"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is a 17:05 minute song recorded in 1968 by rock group "Iron Butterfly"...the Sovenkian National Anthem, in comparison, clocks in at just shy of 18 minutes and bears no resemblance to the aforementioned tune.




(I just might have to go incommunicado if this one goes viral.  Oh, please, please...let me have one of my silly things go viral.  Maybe not this one...considering I love the Olympics and all...but, something...and in a good way.  Nothing embarrassing or causing injury or death.  Please go to "We Work for Cheese" for today's writing theme, which is "Incommunicado".)

Day 9: Dylan

Okay, I promised I wouldn't - but I totally forgot about this post until now...and, if I haven't said it by now, here goes:  I LOVE the Olympics!

 

I mean, I love them.  I so incredibly love them. 

 

And, one of the things you see all the time...when waiting for the scores to go up is "body language" -- the difference between one score and the next are so incredibly slim sometimes, and watching the thrill of victory bestowed upon one and the agony of defeat thrown on to another, is sometimes quite difficult to watch. And, what it all boils down to is getting a medal. 

 

And medals made me think of this post I did back on 4 August 2012, which I hope you enjoy.

 

 

 

Challenging the Gold

When I was younger, one of my dreams was to write a book...the other was to win a gold medal at the Olympics. So far, I'm pretty much 0 for 0...which isn't bad considering some people out there who won a gold medal in the Olympics didn't really win gold ones...and some...they probably just keep in the box on their mantle behind that commemorative plate of Charles and Diana. (Hey...it's being held in London...I thought I'd "Brit" it up a bit.)

Each Olympics they basically give someone the incredible honour of designing that year's Olympic medal...and when you think of gold medals, you usually (if you are old like me) have the image of Mark Spitz' gold-laden chest indelibly stamped into your brain.

Some Olympic medals...eh...not all that photogenic.

This got me thinking (when I was talking to a friend) that I remember one of the medals a few years back which basically was this chunk of crystal. Yeah, crystal might be nice in chandeliers and fancy wine glasses...but, me personally, would have been highly let down if I won a gold medal predominantly made of high end glass. "Cheers!" Sigh...it's not only made of glass...but it's ugly. I spent a dozen years of my life training to win something I might break if I drop it?? Great. Thanks Olympic medal picker people...thanks for shattering my dream and making it look like something the luge gouged out.

After talking about that...and finding out how difficult it is to find a pictorial history of Olympic medals while the Olympics are in progress...I managed to find all the medals given out since the onset of the Modern Games...dating back to 1896. Talking about a let down - they gave the winner a silver coin and a laurel branch. The runners-up...only got the branch.

While branches wither and die...unfortunately, these medals live on...

Designed by Lalique -- Albertville's 1992 Winter Olympics medal:

I didn't know that "crop circles" was a Winter Olympic event...I'd have guessed it was a Summer one -- Grenoble 1968:

Sapporo, if I remember correctly, was where those cute little snow monkeys liked sitting in the hot springs. Apparently, they also designed their wacky Winter Olympics medals as well:

You thought monkeys designing medals was a bad idea, right? No, you are wrong...having your two-year-old kid design one on their Magna-Doodle is worse. I present to you, Lillehammer's 1994 Ski Jumping medal...if you look at the jumper as if they are going in the other direction...it looks like a Zombie on skis. While I'm thinking that would have been a really awesome medal design...they had others...for each of the Winter events. This one is, by far, the best:

Hey, cool...I always did wonder what they did with all those old Korean coins...kind of odd they gave them out at the 2006 Turin games in Italy, tho:

You can't really tell - but these Vancouver 2010 medals were all misshapen and did not lie flat...they were also made with recycled electronic waste materials for their base. I guess that's one way to get rid of your country's toxic garbage:

Nothing screams Olympic games like "naked guy on a medal", as after all, the ancient games were played in the nude. London's 1908 and Stockholm's 1912 games both featured identical full metal porn:

Not to be outdone in the porn category, the medal in the 1924 Paris Summer games...well, I'm sorry -- I'm just hoping that they are only shaking hands:

There was a long stretch of time where the medals showed more tasteful depictions of winning...but then the 1972 Munich games came and went with much heartbreak. While they will also be remembered by stellar performances by American swimmer, Mark Spitz, and Soviet gymnast, Olga Korbut, they will, unfortunately, always be marred by human tragedy and not "naked aliens on a medal" only tragedy, like they rightfully should have been:

Thanks to "BBC News - London 2012: Olympic Medals Timeline" for all the Olympic medal-abilia.  Go and check out the link -- it's absolutely fascinating and fun!

 

(I have been wondering if the 2012 London games' medals are the largest in diameter [85 mm], as they certainly take up a lot of chest space...but they are not -- the 2009 Turin games takes the top spot with 107 mm medals.  Also, not to take any glory away from Michael Phelps...but in my mind, Mark Spitz will always be remembered first.)

 

 

Now, go on over to "We Work for Cheese" to see all the other entries for today's prompt, which is "Dylan" -- I think I cleverly worked it in up there if you managed to catch it.  If not, read the third paragraph again.