On 2014-01-09 11:14 AM, sf wrote:
> On Wed, 08 Jan 2014 21:21:15 -0600, DreadfulBitch
> > wrote:
>
>> Who remember the ski jumper from Scandinavia (don't
>> remember the country) who was expected to come in dead last, but was out
>> there giving it his best? Made for a great story and made watching
>> their coverage heads and shoulders above anyone else's before or since.
>
> I remember Eddie the Eagle, but he was British.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_%...gle%22_Edwards
>


Interesting that he somehow gained international celebrity by being a
loser. It highlighted one of the problems with some Olympic events.
People like Eddie were able to compete because he had no competition at
home. All he had to do was to be brave enough to go down that run and go
airborne.

There has been a controversy over women's ski jumping. Women ski
jumpers have been pushing for years to be allowed to compete. They even
took it to court for the Vancouver, arguing that it violated the Charter
of Rights and Freedoms because it was discriminatory. The IOC's
argument against a women's event is that there just aren't enough women
ski jumpers to make it a true competition. If you only have a couple
women in each of a couple countries all they have to do to make it to
the Olympics is to show up, and then the odds are that they will win a
medal.