Friday, February 12, 2010

A little bit of sunshine!

Is it just me, or does anyone else feel like this has been a weird quarter?  Between holidays that aren't being celebrated on the correct day, snow days, and days that should've been snow days, I feel as though I have revised the syllabus more times than I can count.  So this week, I decided to take a little break from the regular blog post, and post something lighter, just for extra credit.

The Winter Olympics begin tonight!  For those who know me, you know that I am a HUGE fan of the Olympics.  I love the artistry of the opening ceremonies. I get all caught up in the emotional stories of the athletes who have struggled so hard and overcome so many obstacles just to make their Olympic dreams come true.  I watch sports I've never even heard of before (like curling) and I always, always cheer for the underdog.

So my question to you this week is, "What is your favorite Olympic sport and why?"  This question is voluntary and is for extra credit only.  If you don't have a favorite Olympic sport, you don't have to answer it.  Answers are due no later than Thursday, February 18th, 2010. For those of you in my Friday night class -  enjoy your night off.  For those of you who celebrate - Happy Valentine's Day!  For everyone else - have a great weekend!  The regular blog post will resume next week.

29 comments:

  1. I love track and field! I also like winter games. In junior high school the track coach saw me outside one day racing with the older kids and out running them. He asked if i wanted to join the track team and i said yes. Oh boy i was hooked. Every summer my uncle started a track team to run the white river games. That was so much fun. I got to meet people around the country. I also ran in the Wilma Rodulff Invetationallys.I ran the 100m high hurdelsand the 300m low hurdels.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good thing I saw this, I thought there was class tonight......my favorite olympic sport is snowboarding, I think that's in the olympics? I don't get too much into the hype of the olympics but I do enjoy watching snowboarding since it closely relates to skateboarding. I just heard one of the Georgian lugers hit a metal pole during practice and passed away at the hospital.....that sport always seemed a bit dangerous for how fast they go. Actually Ping Pong is cool too if that's in the olympics.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My favorite sport is figure skating. It amazes me how young so many of the athletes are. You can see their dedication and passion for the sport when they are skating. Their performances are so artistic and just beautiful. I love to see athletes that stray away from the typical classic routines and songs and perform something totally original and unique. The sport can also be intense to watch. Every time some jumps, I hold my breath. I am so afraid that they will fall. I am amazed when they for one don't get hurt from the fall, but that they get back up and keep going. They are incredible to watch, plus the outfits are so cool!
    ~Kyndall Friday night

    ReplyDelete
  4. My favorite sport is defiantly the jumping skiing thing. Im not sure whats its called but I LOVE watching people wipe out and just roll down the hill. Its also kinda cool when they land. I dont really watch the olympics. Any sport where people can get hurt I like... Not because Im mean, just because thats the nature of the game.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Well I would say that my favorite Winter Olympic Sport is any event involoving snowboards or skis. I don't have any in particular that stand out, but it always amazes me how quickly they are moving. It is also interesting to watch all the tricks they can do.

    Sarah Cason Firday Night

    ReplyDelete
  6. Snowboarding! I dont watch much of the olympics, but I always seemed to turn it on when snowboarding came on. I always wanted to snowboard and seeing them do it on tv encourages me more. Like doing flips and what not, awesome! It is def. one of my goals. I also think its cool that they are just like standing on one single board and with that one board can move and flip and spin. Its awesome.
    Jessie Buechler friday night

    ReplyDelete
  7. I think my favorite Olympic sport is the gymnastics. It's amazing how those individuals can balance, flip, twirl, and jump in all sorts of interesting ways. But I also do really enjoy the winter sports. I tend to watch those a lot more, I just envy people who have those types of skills for a person who can't even begin to balance on a pair of ice skates.

    Nicole Welty - Friday Night

    ReplyDelete
  8. I technically don't watch the Winter Olympics, because I'm always so busy with school and work I seem to miss the Olympics every time they happen. However, if I had to choose which of the sections is my favorite I would have to say Gymnastics. This happens to be a sport that I participated in when I was 12 years old until I was in High School. Gymnastics is a very interesting sport, because it involves rhythm and routine and is something that has interested me my whole life. Therefore, when I get a chance and flip through and see the Gymnastics Olympics on I will stop to watch a few minutes of it.

    My opinions are that these girls are very talented and work very hard at what they do. I know from experience that I would be in the gym for hours at least 5 days a week for gymnastics practice, so I'm sure they spend a lot more time for the Olympics. In other cases, I don't particularly find interest in the other sports. If I had more time in the day to watch them I might give them a look.

    Taylor Northam
    February 14, 2010

    ReplyDelete
  9. I think for my favorite Olympic sport would have to be all the Track N Field Events. I just love to run even when I was a kid I use to race up and down my street with friends and my brothers all the time. I ran track in field while in Middle School and High School. Plus My cousin Marion runs the track in Field Events. So I have to watch her! Its would just have to be the most intereseting.

    Radine Smith
    Saturday Morning

    ReplyDelete
  10. If i'm not mistaken, the Olympics started as a sort of 'show of force' or 'talent show' of various city-states of ancient Greece- including some combat/gladiatorial events.

    If i had to pick a favorite, I think it'd be the pentathlon- I really think it's cool how each individual phase really relies on the previous phases going perfectly or at least as close to perfectly as possible.

    during the jittery phase when the adrenaline dump kicks in just before the real body-moving starts, the athletes have to shoot, a sport that really requires split-second-to-split-second focus, and when the athlete is likely thinking about the challenges ahead, the focus required is truly a challenge.

    then there's running, which leads to swimming- running and then getting a bit winded, and then going into swimming which gives fewer opportunities for breaths- and then there's throwing, a javelin throw, after being winded, and then more running.

    The athlete can't dump all their effort out on any single event- i think resisting that temptation is a lot more challenging than any single event.

    Demian Stevens
    Saturday Morning

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anna Wilson Friday Night Class
    My favorite Olympic sport is gymnastics. The section of this sport that I enjoy watching the most is the floor routines. The part of gymnastics that I enjoy doing the most is the uneven bars or vault. These tie for me in second place. The balance beam is my least favorite to do and to watch. My reasoning behind this is probably because I have watched many of my friends growing up get hurt the worst on the balance beam. I also know that I have had many faults on the balance beam as well, which is why when I was younger and competing the balance beam was my not my strongest section of gymnastics. That is why I enjoy the gymnastics part so much. it is also my favorite sport.

    ReplyDelete
  12. My favorite sport in the olympic is swimming. My reason the fact that I have swam competitively my whole life from USSA Swim Team,middle school, high school,and college swimming. I have went to nationals in swimming and won so many awards. I love swimming because I is one of the sports that challenges your body mentally and fiscal training. My favorite swimmer in the Olympics is Micheal Phelps.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I enjoy all aspects of gymnastics. The floor routines, uneven bars, parallel bars, balance beam, pommel horse, etc. I was extremely interested in gymnastics when I was younger, though I never got to actually pursue it. I honestly think I would have hated actually participating in gymnastics, so I'm glad I didn't, or I wouldn't be able to enjoy watching it today. When it comes to the winter Olympics, I'm not nearly as interested, but I would have to say curling. It doesn't even seem like curling is a sport, but it's rather fun to watch them sweep the ice with their little broom-like contraptions. So bizarre. I wonder how the inventor of curling even came up with that idea...

    Carina Street
    Friday Night Class

    ReplyDelete
  14. I’ve been watching the Olympics since the 84’ games in L.A. For a good time basketball was my favorite sport, the dream team was during my youth. As the games come and go more so now I would have to say swimming has taken over my interest. I really got into it during the Sidney games and of course the whole Michael Phelps story had me all wrapped up. The gymnastic also had my attention with the competition between the U.S.A. and China for the gold. I guess I’m a fan of good competition there is so many sports that I enjoy watching just for Olympic value like hockey, swimming, swimming relay, track and field, soccer, of course basketball, and I personally wish golf was an Olympic sport.

    ReplyDelete
  15. It's funny that you mentioned curling because just today I saw it for the first time. I had never seen it before and didn't even know what it was. After watching some of it, I really found it to be interesting and fun. However, I'm still not sure why it is called curling. I think it should be called something like ice disking... Not sure but something like that would seem to fit it better because I thought "curling" had something to do with lifting weights not rocks on ice. Other then that I don't really have a specific sport that I enjoy over the others but I do like to watch ice skating. I love how the skaters bring so much emotion to their routine. It's like they are telling a story through their movements. It's very graceful and emotional.

    Carolyn Carden Friday night

    ReplyDelete
  16. i have to say i dont know very much about the winter olympics but i do know that i love figure skating. i've been watching it since i was a little girl and i seriously love it. its extremely beautiful to watch and i love it even more when there are couples performing together. unfortunately for me i am a terrible ice skater, but from all the times that i've been out on the ice i've learned that not only are figure skaters extremely talented, but soooo physically fit! how can they have so much control when they are standing on those two skates! anyway, a lot of respect from me thats for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I am a huge fan of the Olympics. It seems like the Olympics is the one sport that the world can agree on and just compete.... where we are not arguing about who is right or who is wrong we are not at war. It is just pure human vs human ( or human verses nature ).

    While I am glued to the tv to see what is going next, it always cracks me up on how much of a critic I am on the athleets who have spent their lives competing. I sometimes say oh they just slipped or that was not a double barrel back flip, that was only a single. Quite funny actually.

    My favorite sport has to be the down hill snowboarding. It is a very difficult and fun sport for me to watch. Going at those speeds with a single board under you forcing you to launch yourself down the mountain. I think that snowboarding is one of the most refreshing sports out there. It is just amazing how high you could get (I have snowboarded in Washington and Oregon) and just look around and it is just you and nature and a whole lot of snow.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I forgot to mention that I really like curling curling also. A sport I would never really get into unless it was on TV.
    Dave Brown
    -Saturday Morning Class

    ReplyDelete
  19. My favorite Olympic sport is gymnastics. It's probably the only sport in the Olympics I watch. What those athletes do is amazing. Track and field is my second favorite. There isn't a whole lot about the winter Olymics that I watch too closely.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Aaron Ford, Saturday morning

    I have posted my blogs from the previous weeks today.

    ReplyDelete
  21. i would have to say that my fav. is wrestling because i was a wrestler in high school and that is every kids dream when you are going up through high school that you will be good enought to go on. and there is just great talent in wrestling and great battles.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I like track and field...I've always watched it with my dad since i was little. I also like bobsledding because "Cool Runnings" was an awesome movie lol...before I saw that movie, I didnt even know bobsledding existed.

    Michelle SYkes Saturday Morning

    ReplyDelete
  23. My favorite sport to watch during the Winter Olympics is figure skating. Watching the athletes do tricks on ice that i can barely skate on normally blows my mind. Then watching them do quad twists is unbelieveable considering i cannot even spin once on the ice.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Hands down speed skating! I LOVE watching people crash! Thats about it. Any sport where people are gonna crash and burn I like it.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Kati Melcho
    Friday Evening

    Honestly in my opinion, most of the winter sports are interesting to watch. For example, most people believe skiing to be an easy task because it is just someone getting on two sticks and "floating" down the mountain. In all actuality, just by the way they distribute their weight, how they move their legs, or even how slightly they are leaning can determine, not only whether they win or lose, but also if they break a couple of bones or not. Now that I have ranted a little, ice skating has always been a favorite. It is a tradition that, as a child, my whole family would sit down and watch it. Therefore, it is my favorite.

    ReplyDelete
  26. My favorite Winter Olympic is ice skating! I remember when I was little my mom and I would always watch ice skating together. My favorit ice skater was Michelle Quan.

    ReplyDelete
  27. My favorite Winter Olympic sport, or just plain favorite sport period, is Hockey. In my opinion other team sport requires the level of team work that hockey requires. Also during a game the players on the ice have to switch on and off without the play stopping to accommodate their exhaustion. Of course there is the fighting, now I'm not saying I like hockey because of the fighting or even that it makes the game better; I like that by allowing fighting it keeps the players more honest. The reason why fighting is allowed in hockey is because it discourages players from taking cheap shots and injuring opposing players. In a sport where you don't have to worry about retribution you may feel that it is worth a penalty shot or yard loss if you can injure a teams star player; however in hockey if you go against the rules to injure an opposing player you know that it will be your neck on the chopping block next. I also like that in hockey a goal carries a lot of value. 5 goals for one team in a hockey game is an average HIGH scoring game, compare that to basketball where many games scores border on 100 and the value is so much greater. It creates a lot more suspense if every goal may be the game deciding goal or my turn the tide of the game. There's a reason why there's a celebration after almost every goal in hockey.

    As far as Olympic hockey goes, I like to see it because the teams are made up of people who usually don't always play together, which means that they have to work harder. Creating more exciting games.

    Michael Moore
    Saturday Morning

    ReplyDelete
  28. i didnt watch much of the games this year but i did watch some of the snow boarding where Shawn white kicked some butt and his coach going on a cussing rampage. That my point being I probably have to say i like the snow boarding the best. its a really cool sport that have a big variety of moves and tricks that always keep it exciting. and i snowboard my self in the winter.its just a cool sport.

    Zazzetti
    Saturday morning class

    ReplyDelete
  29. My favorite is the ice skating because I just think is pretty and I love seeing all the tricks they do.

    Nicaury Guerrero

    ReplyDelete