2022 Winter Olympics

[rhett7660]

What you were referring to actually was the ‘biathlon’. And the temperatures were so cold, athletes had to use medical tape over their nose and under their eyes to prevent frostbite on sensitive layers of skin that could set in under two minutes or less. That’s how extreme it was.

Some reports were saying -22 degrees with the wind chill in full swing. EEEEK. That is freaking cold.

 

[Madhatter32]

This year's Olympics has been a ratings disaster for NBC -- about down 50% in viewship since 2018. People are speculating whether this horrible performance has permanently damaged the Olympics in terms of revenue generation. It is probably safe to say that having it in China was a giant miscalculation.
Edit: typos

 

[icanhazmac]

I don't get the ingrained bias some folks have thinking that amateur automatically means less skilled/talented than professional.

There are of course outliers but in general one becomes better and peaks just a few years out of the amateur ranks (college level and age) into the professional levels. I guess this is more pronounced in the most popular sports where there is a very skilled amateur program or amateur leagues. Take US basketball for instance, players coming out of college can be phenomenal and in limited cases can be better than those in the pros for 1-5 years but again I see those as outliers, I would also say the same applies for US football, college is basically a "amateur league". When one looks at other sports like MMA, 20 year olds, for the most part will get absolutely crushed by their 30 year old counterparts. Golf is another instance of this, 20 year olds may have raw talent and stregnth but lack the nuanced game of 25-45 year olds. If you look at US baseball and hockey as a different example, a lot of players out of college spend time in the "junior" leagues if that is a better description, they are still being paid to play and not "amateur" in the strictest sense but will spend time there before reaching the pros indicating that 18-22 years of age and experience did not fully prepare them for the top tier of their sport.

Your opinion might differ but I stick to my belief that very few 18-22 year olds are better at most sports than a 25-30 year old who has reached the next level of excellence. Gymnastics might be the only (or one of very few) outlier sports that bucks this trend.