- The weirdest Olympics events of all times (singles synchronized swimming? Are you kidding?)
- In the same vein, 12 sports that were cut from the Olympics (rugby could make a come-back!)
- Strange paths to multiple medals - my favorite is the Yale/Harvard/Oxford grad who won gold in boxing AND bob-sledding!
- Cassius Clay throwing his gold medal into the Ohio River is one of '13 Medal-Worthy Olympic Performances'
- For those of you obsessed with the structures of the Olympics, like Arup's Bird's Nest, Water Cube, and Nick Burdette's Amazing Bridge of the 2012 Games, here's a story on how past Olympics venues are being used now.
- And if that's still not enough, here's 7 completely random Olympics stories that you've probably never heard before (seriously, how could you NOT get a perfect 10 in the gymnastics event of rope-climbing?)
20 August 2008
Olympics Fever
Very soon I'm going to do a post on what it's like to watch the greatest international sporting event in another country. To whet the appetite of those of you who share my complete Olympics obsession, here's a string of links to interesting, often funny and sometimes poignant trivia from the history of the games. Most of these come from mental_floss, which has a great blog full of random trivia and brain teasers.
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5 comments:
Is MentalFloss worthy of a daily read?
Land O'Leary
I have another building to add to your list from mentalfloss - the athlete's quarters for the Olympic games in Lake Placid in 1980 was turned into a prision. I guess that's exactly what you need in a small skiing village who has the most visitors in the winter and one crazy week in July.
Patrick - I think so, every day they do this random 'morning cup o' links', and there's always something interesting. Today I learned about 'photos that changed the world' and drug-fighting ninjas.
And Laura, are you serious? That is completely bizarre! And...sad...but hey, how lucky are those prisoners? I bet they never thought they'd end up at the Olympics!
I love when blogs have links to other fun things that we faithful readers can learn about! Thanks for the crazy Olympic facts...if they can have singles synchronized swimming, they can certainly have blog writing as a sport. The two of you will certainly earn gold. Of course, what country will you represent? You're the Yao Ming of England! Especially since the next Olympics is in London (I assume blog writing is a summer sport, not sure why).
I also notice that you've said "realise" instead of "realize" in your profile...what next?!? Lord!! Perhaps you're the British Burdettes rather than the Yanks in the UK!
Or when you return home you'll be the Brits in the Burgh?
(Please excuse this ridiculous comment as it has been influenced by sleep deprivation)
Good to see the spelling is improving.
When in Sarajevo recently they had a rollerblading competition down the disused bobsled course from their 1984 winter olympics. Wouldn't fancy doing that one.
Unfortunately large areas around the course still contain landmines which adds another element to spectating
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