{"id":4074,"date":"2012-08-11T09:02:27","date_gmt":"2012-08-11T14:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/?p=4074"},"modified":"2012-08-11T09:02:27","modified_gmt":"2012-08-11T14:02:27","slug":"eliminate-sailing-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/?p=4074","title":{"rendered":"ELIMINATE SAILING FROM THE OLYMPICS?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following article is from the New York Times.<\/h1>\n

Sailing Is a Sport Apart<\/h1>\n
\"Bomani<\/div>\n

Bomani Jones<\/a>\u00a0is a contributor at\u00a0SBNation.com<\/a>, where he writes and stars in a YouTube show called “Bomani & Jones.” He’s also a regular contributor to ESPN’s “Around The Horn.” He is on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

UPDATED<\/strong>\u00a0AUGUST 10, 2012, 7:05 AM<\/p>\n

\n

After seeing the majestic diversity of the Olympics\u2019 Parade of Nations, a visual representation of the best of the Olympic ideal, the last thing I want to watch is a sport where the biggest determinant of success is being rich. I could ask for many sports to be removed on this basis, but I\u2019ll go with sailing because … well, who wants to watch boats that don\u2019t make lots of noise?<\/p>\n

O.K., I can do better — what does sailing embody that anyone loves, specifically, about the Olympics? Where is the simplicity of the event that gives the impression that anyone could participate?<\/p>\n

\n
\n

You need to be of a certain class with special access to sail. In an event that celebrates inclusion, it is the most exclusive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Even with sports like swimming and rowing, which cost too much for many, anyone could, theoretically, participate. There\u2019s nothing stopping someone from doing backflips and the other staples of gymnastics.<\/p>\n

Sailing? The name of the game is access. The touching human interest stories that buoy NBC\u2019s ratings for the Olympics are somewhere between rare and nonexistent. It\u2019s clearly an activity for a particular class stratus and, given how overwhelmingly white the Olympic participants are, it\u2019s clearly not the world\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

If the Olympics is going to wrap itself in touchy-feely stories, it\u2019s hard to get behind sports that are so obviously exclusive. If the Games are supposed to bring the world together, we can do without sports that do the opposite.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We revisit this subject frequently, but after the performance of the American sailors, who are very good, by the way, but were clearly out classed.Not even close to medal contention. Anyone who followed the team leading up to the Olympics would have seen that the team never won any major events. They were never really in contention in the previous three years.<\/p>\n

Fingers must be pointed; but in which direction? Was their preparation so far askew? Is US Sailing<\/a> the governing body in the United States missing the mark? Are the coaches so bad? What to do?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following article is from the New York Times. Sailing Is a Sport Apart Bomani Jones\u00a0is a contributor at\u00a0SBNation.com, where he writes and stars in a YouTube show called “Bomani & Jones.” He’s also a regular contributor to ESPN’s “Around The Horn.” He is on\u00a0Twitter. UPDATED\u00a0AUGUST 10, 2012, 7:05 AM After seeing the majestic diversity … Continue reading ELIMINATE SAILING FROM THE OLYMPICS?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1058],"tags":[2556,2503],"class_list":["post-4074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-olympics","tag-olympics","tag-sailing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4075,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4074\/revisions\/4075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}