Remembering The Vancouver Olympics

A year ago today was the first day of the Vancouver Winter Olympics. I was downtown for the opening ceremonies and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. There was a vibe in the streets unlike anything I had ever experienced, a flood of Team Canada jerseys, not to mention riot police. I made the decision to emigrate from Ontario when Vancouver was awarded the Olympic Games because I wanted to be here for the build up, the event, and the aftermath. It was the best decision of my life.

It became apparent very quickly that we were not going to win the overall medal count, but after the first week we had a shot at taking home the most gold. Canadian athletes left Vancouver with more gold than those from any other country. Once upon a time they used to determine the winner of Olympics by who finished in first place the most. As the wise philosopher Ricky Bobby once said "if you ain't first, you're last!"

So a year later, what is the legacy? Well venues like the Olympic curling facility have been renovated into community centers with hundreds of patrons passing through their doors daily (and the renovation isn't even finished). The Olympic spirit remains, even if the games are in the past. It united the community and built an athletic infrastructure that will produce future Olympians for a generation to come. I am thankful to have been a part of it. Well done Canada! It was certainly worth proroguing parliament to host such a prestigious international event.

London's New Loveable Olympic Cyclops

Yesterday London's Olympic organizers unveiled their mascots for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Ladies and Gentlemen please behold, your Olympic Cyclops. This is too much! Considering how critical the British media were of the Vancouver Olympics, which I was here for and were spectacular, this stumbling out of the gate is an ominous sign of things to come. Sure, the Vancouver mascot looked like Gumby mated with a pile of rocks, but at least the rock figures have a more positive history than the Cyclops. I have a funny feeling that these figures will frighten many a children before their Olympics are over. They have 2 Cyclopses, one for the regular Olympics and one for the Paralympics.

Should Sledge Hockey be a Paralympic Sport?

I remember during the Olympics several media pundits were debating whether or not women's hockey should be an Olympic sport because Canada is so dominant at it. The debate goes, we are so much better than everyone else in this sport that it is not fair to hold a competition. I have been watching sledge hockey the past few days at the Paralympics, and Canada has been completely dominating. You have to ask if it is fair to other parathletes to be humiliated by our ability to kick their ass at hockey on a sled.

In all seriousness, I hope more people are watching the Paralympics. There are some great stories being told. I have a tremendous amount of respect for our sledgers, and I would encourage more Canadians to cheer for our parathletes.

The Canadian Flag Snuggie

I don't know if this product exists, or if anyone before me has suggested it. The Snuggie is the sweater/blanket hybrid and a home shopping sensation, turning blankets into clothes. We need these for Canadian flags. Having walked through the streets of Vancouver during the Olympics, I saw people everywhere wearing the Canadian flag. If everyone wants to do it, why not turn our flag into clothes? Then we can legislate that the first Monday of every month be decreed "wear your flag to work day".

The Prime Minister makes a statement about how Canadians should be proud of the Olympics, and suddenly he is accused of wrapping himself in the flag. In my opinion, if he is going to wrap himself in the Canadian flag, it may as well be in the form of a comfortable sweater-blanket.

Liberals Running Against the Wind

To see the Liberal party come so strong out of the gate immediately after the Olympics with their vitriolic fervor, you have to ponder the wisdom of trying to incite public anger at the Government when there is such a significant outpouring of patriotic pride. It begs the question; having had time to prepare their post Olympic strategy, did they have an alternate plan to follow if the Olympics were a success? Did they ever take a moment to ask if it would be difficult to piss people off when they are feeling so happy about their country?

Was the plan always to attack the Government right out of the gate regardless of the success of the Olympic Games, or did they only declare their "code red" last week when Evan Soloman was reporting "Dreams Dashed" about the Vancouver Olympiad? Was Donolo watching the Soloman Show when he said "unleash hell"? If they think that this is going to be an effective strategy then why not let the hamster spin the wheel?

Olympic Polling

The Olympics are over and politics has returned to normal. Well, at least as normal as politics can be when the country is feeling a groundswell of national pride. I think the opposition was expecting the Olympics to be either a failure, or that people would stop feeling proud of Canada the morning after the Closing Ceremonies. I'm not sure how the exact series of unfortunate events unfolded in Liberal strategy sessions, but nobody seems to have triggered the "what if the Olympics are a roaring success" contingency.

I ran a series of Olympic themed polls during the Games. Here they are.

WHAT IS THE APPROPRIATE FUNDING LEVEL FOR THE $117 MILLION OWN THE PODIUM PROGRAM?

$117 million (26%)
zero tax money (26%)
$300 million (18%)
$200 million (18%)
$25 million (6%)
$75 million (4%)

WHICH SPORT WOULD YOU RATHER WATCH?

Ice Dancing (37%)
Ice Boxing (31%)
Ice Dancing with hockey goons (31%)

WHO SHOULD PLAY GOAL FOR CANADA THE REST OF THE TOURNAMENT?

Roberto Luongo (83%)
Martin Brodeur (17%)

WHICH BY YOUR DEFINITION WINS THE OLYMPICS?

Most top 3 finishes (77%)
Most 1st place finishes (23%)

WHERE DO YOU STAND ON THE FUTURE FUNDING OF OLYMPIC SPORTS?

Maintain status quo (30%)
Shift existing funding to youth level (25%)
Spend less (23%)
Spend more (20%)

WHICH REQUIRES THE GREATEST DEGREE OF CONTROLLED INSANITY?

Skeleton (40%)
Ski Jump (18%)
Luge (18%)
Aerial Skiing (15%)
Hockey Goaltender (7%)

WHAT IS YOUR OPINION OF THE BRITISH MEDIA'S COLLECTIVE CRAPPING ON CANADA'S GAMES? *multiple selections allowed*

I don't care what they say (69%)
They're covering up Britain's poor athletic performance (25%)
They're lowering expectations for London 2012 (15%)
They're right, we suck (3%)

HOW MANY MEDALS DO YOU EXPECT CANADA TO WIN IN VANCOUVER?

less than 20 (43%)
20-25 (30%)
25-30 (22%)
30+ (3%)

HOW WOULD YOU RATE CTV'S OLYMPIC COVERAGE?

Better than the CBC (54%)
Poor (18%)
I have no opinion (14%)
Excellent (12%)

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE OLYMPIC THEMED MOVIE?

Cool Runnings (39%)
Chariots of Fire (33%)
Munich (18%)
Blades of Glory (5%)

DOES VIEWING CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MAKE YOU MORE LIKELY TO SUPPORT A CAUSE?

No (98%)
Yes (2%)

WHO DESERVED TO LIGHT THE FINAL CAULDRON?

Wayne Gretzky (51%)
Rick Hansen (20%)
Nancy Greene (12%)
Katrina Lemay Doan (10%)
Steve Nash (4%)

GIVEN TODAY’S TRAGIC DEATH, SHOULD THE FASTEST SLED RUN EVER BUILT UP IN WHISTLER BE CLOSED?

Keep it in Whistler (83%)
Relocate those events to Calgary (17%)

WOULD YOU LIKE THE MANY FOREIGN ATHLETES AND DIGNITARIES VISITING CANADA TO BE WATCHING LIVE COVERAGE OF QUESTION PERIOD IN THEIR HOTEL ROOMS?

No (91%)
Yes (9%)

Olympic Polling from January

ARE YOU EXCITED TO WATCH THE OLYMPIC GAMES?

Go Canada! (56%)
I won't be watching (44%)

WHICH STUNT WOULD YOU CHOOSE FOR THE LIBERAL PARTY TO GET ATTENTION DURING THE OLYMPIC GAMES?

Iggy/Rae chain themselves to Parliament until it resumes (58%)
Ignatieff "Jump the Caucus" on a motorcycle (11%)
Candle lit inner-tube leap over Niagara Falls (11%)
Ignatieff public reading of Tolstoy (11%)
Funeral for death of Democracy (8%)

SHOULD WE PROROGUE PARLIAMENT UNTIL AFTER THE OLYMPICS? *from early January*

Yes (82%)
No (18%)

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING SHOULD BE A SPORT IN THE WINTER OLYMPICS?

Pushing Smart Cars out of 3 Inches of Snow (35%)
Women's Ski Jump (29%)
Driveway Shoveling (19%)
Freestyle Snowmobiling (7%)

Proud to be Canadian!

Today is one of those days where our entire can rejoice on the splendor of being Canadian and living in the greatest country on Earth. I was driving home through the streets of Vancouver after we had won the game, and thousands of people were pouring into the streets dressed in their Canada gear waving their flags. People from across the country were calling in to the local sportstalk radio expressing their pride at this achievement in national unity.

I know the CBC was prepared to jump all over negative Olympic spin, or at least Evan Soloman was repeatedly on his program last week. "Dreams Dashed" read the headline at the bottom of the screen for most of his Olympic prognosticating. You may have jumped the gun on declaring the Games a failure Evan; because if you had the privilege of walking through the streets of Vancouver, of any Canadian city today, you can appreciate that sweet dreams are made of this! Never has our anthem played more on the podium than Vancouver 2010, and it will leave a permanent mark in our national pride , and Ryan Kesler you can't take that away from us!

About the game itself, I was really nervous the entire second half. Canada fell back into a "prevent" defense and just stopped trying to win races to pucks or forecheck. Once they gave up the offensive, it was all USA. Luongo was fantastic, and bore no responsibility for the second goal. Both D skated out to block the shot, did not block the shot, leaving two American forwards behind them alone with Roberto. The team came out flying in the overtime, and when Sid scored it was an outstanding experience!

Is anyone ashamed to be Canadian today? How about you Heather Mallick? It will be nice to have the entire country in such a happy mood when Parliament reconvenes.

Enjoy it Canada, Parliament is back in 3 days

As I prepare to depart for my friend's house to watch the big game, I'm wondering if there is any point to posting a blog post here this morning. Most of Canada is going to be watching the hockey game, not browsing political blogs. With the slew of medals Canadian athletes have accumulated in the last few days, we don't need a win in hockey to salvage a disappointing Games. No, we have already set the record most medals be Canada and most gold by a host country. We are tied for most gold ever at a Winter Olympics, and it is the icing on that cake which today is at stake. It would taste very sweet to say the least!

According to the ancient Greeks who invented the Olympics, the winner of the Games is the team that finishes in first place more than any other. They don’t play the star spangled banner when Americans win bronze. For 70% of the USA’s medals, they were listening to someone else’s anthem on the podium. More than half of our medals came complete with a playing of Oh Canada, and no song was played more while the athletes of the world were standing on OUR podium!

The only person in Canada unlikely to be watching the game is Kady O'Malley, who seems to harbour contempt for athletic competition. The only news she will report about the Olympic Games is bad news. When Canada was busy winning 3 gold medals yesterday, Kady had to do a rare emergency weekend post about a tantrum at an airport. Evidently being frustrated with Air Canada's poor service is evidence that you have contempt for the institution of Parliament. It warrants a running series of blog posts titled "ContemptWatch2010". I don't know who to tell to grow up first, Helena or Kady...

Setting Olympic Records

Displaying a magnificent finishing kick, it turns out that these Olympics will be a roaring success after all. We are setting records. First, we have guaranteed ourselves a Canadian record of 26 medals. We have tied the world record for Winter Olympic gold with 13 (with 2002 Norway and 1976 Soviets). Should we win the hockey game on Sunday, we will be all alone in the record books with 14 first place finishes. Our anthem has been played to more podiums than any other. Lest we forget, the ancient Greeks only awarded prizes for first place (at least according to my ten minutes of research in Wikipedia). Was it Aristotle or Plato who said "if you ain't first, you're last"?

Let me take you back to a poll that I conducted in the first few days of the Olympics.

HOW MANY MEDALS DO YOU EXPECT CANADA TO WIN IN VANCOUVER?

less than 20 (43%)
20-25 (30%)
25-30 (22%)  *answer 26
30+ (3%)

Thus 73% of my visitors at the start of the Olympics under estimated our eventual medal count. I would say that our athletes defied expectations. I declared on day 6 that we would not win total medal count and we should instead focus on winning the most gold. I took some flak, and yet here we are on the eve of the Closing Ceremonies with not only the most gold medals but also tied for the record for most gold ever by any country at a Winter Olympics with a gold medal hockey final yet to be played.

It is a great day to be Canadian! I remember earlier in the week, Evan Soloman was running the frequent headline "Dreams Dashed" when talking about the Olympics. How do we define dreams? Standing on the podium while everyone listens to your national anthem and your home fans are their singing along? You may have jumped the gun on that bad news story E-Solo.  Will Evan run the headline "Most Dreams Achieved Ever" on Monday? I doubt it.

Coming Soon: Canadian Parliament

My how time flies when you're having fun! I have been so consumed by the Olympics that the last two weeks has flown by like a flash. Suddenly I look at my calendar to see that Parliament is resuming next week, and I am actually excited. Maybe it is that I live in Vancouver and I would like to see things return to normal, or because Parliamentary discourse leads to an increased number of visitors to politically themed blogs. Blogging on a Team Canada Hockey game day is futile at best. When everybody wants to watch the Olympics (and certainly we witnessed monster ratings for the Vancouver Games) then poor little bloggers like me lose a large proportion of our audience.

People seem to have the greatest interest in my opinion when our politicians are yelling and screaming at each other on the floor of the House of Commons. This brief reprieve many people have enjoyed will soon be at an end, as politics as usual pops up again. Does anyone have any bold predictions for next week? I am expecting a tactical partnership between Layton and Ignatieff, I'm just not sure how they will play it and whether or not the Bloc will be included. I suspect that Iggy and Jack would like to force the government to solicit support for Duceppe.

What unexpected moves do you think we might see from the government?

Canadian Athletes Have the Midas Touch!

We are for the time being on top of the leaderboard for most playings of the national anthem. Our anthem has been played more than any other, with two days of competition remaining. We are in gold medal matches for hockey, curling, and long track team pursuit on Saturday. We also have two teams in the top six for the final two heats of 4 man bobsled. "People you know they can't believe" Canada we have two 4 man bobsled teams.

Whether or not we can stay on top of the gold medal leaderboard, only time will tell. I will say that my dissapointment at losing the women's curling gold was more than offset by all things Hamelin. Well done! Kevin Martin and Men's Hockey could clinch first place in gold medal finishes. Doesn't the IOC judge the winner of the Olympics to be most gold?

The Game of the Century

Canada versus the United States for Olympic Hockey Gold in Vancouver, it will be so. Their round robin game was the highest rated sporting event in Canadian history. You have to assume that the Gold medal game will draw a larger audience. If Americans tune in, this could very well be the most watched hockey game in history. Some might say that is excellent theatre. The USA won the first game, and celebrated excessively after an empty goal in round robin play doing the group gang tackle. This time the pressue is on Team USA, given that they should now be favoured to win based on earlier results.

I am not going to make a prediction for this game, but I would like to call to attention the likely historical match. The biggest sporting event ever hosted on Canadian soil?

Canada Vs Slovakia

I was listening to the Team 1040 Sportstalk here in Vancouver this afternoon, and I listened to the "estimable" Dave Pratt compare Jaroslav Halak to Dominique Hasek circa 1998. While the Slovakian netminder has played well in this tournament, it is ludicrous to compare him to Hasek. The Dominator was the NHL MVP in 1997 and 1998. He was already the best goalie in the world when he eliminated us at Nagano. Halak is just an above average goaltender who has played well in a couple of games in this tournament. Personally, I watch the Slovaks almost lose to Norway. I'm not concerned. I say Canada 5 Slovakia 2.

I will be watching this game at home instead of at a friend's house, so I will make a number of comments below as the game progresses and you are welcome to do the same. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm hooked on women's curling right now. The Prime Minister is attending along with the King and Queen of Sweden. CTV didn't mention if Ignatieff is there.

Gender Based Athletics Funding

With our Canadian women proudly winning a disproportionate number of our Olympic medals, I am beginning to see printed opinion that funding should be shifted to female athletics to maximize our medal output. If women get-err done, then should they get more funding? There are even suggestions that female athletes are better at handling pressure than their male counterparts. I don't want to be rude, but I have witnessed far more emotional volatility on the side of the female athletes (and that's not counting Joannie Rochette, her's was completely justifiable emotional volatility after a job well done)

The more that I think about it, if you really want to increase enrollment in male non-hockey sports is to divert them from hockey and disperse them to sports that don't compensate as well. There may be 20,000 - 40,000 people who get paid (in money or scholarship) to play hockey in the world. This is a guess, but I would estimate that at least 15,000 Canadian born and raised males are earning an income or a scholarship from hockey world wide. If you totaled up the sum of all their income or scholarships, you are likely looking at over a billion dollars of net benefit to Canadian male athletes.

A disproportionate number of them are playing hockey, even at a low playing level because it still pays more than a 15th world ranking in alpine or cross country skiing. In fact if you took the sum of all Canadian hockey incomes and matched it against all European ski incomes, I bet you our hockey boys are out earning all the skiers at least 100 to 1 if not over 1000 to 1. And yet there are what, 60 ski medals for each hockey medal?

On the female hockey front, there are much more limited opportunities to earn income after college/university graduation. We can produce top quality women at the youth level, but there really is very little opportunity to earn income from hockey as an adult for women. They tried creating a women's pro league. It didn't really work out.

Should we be diverting young athletic males away from hockey and into skiing? They are far more likely to earn a financial or scholastic benefit from focusing on hockey than virtually any other Winter Olympic sport. Unless we can encourage our young hockey players to seriously take up a second or third sport, I'm not sure how you resolve this proportional inhibition to maximizing medal output at Winter Olympics.

Olympic Battle of the Sexes

With Canadian women being responsible for 77% of our medals, I decided to look at the gender distributions of the four teams ahead of us in the overall standings. German ladies have won 62% of Deutschland's medals, but American women account for only 37% of Yankee podium finishes. The Norwegian ladies have contributed a paltry 28% to their country's keep. So what do Canadian women and Norwegian men have in common?

Is it all left to chance? Or if I examined gender distributions from past Olympics, would I see a similar pattern from these countries? Is it a simple calculation of youth enrollment rates in each sport multiplied by the probability of a young athlete rising to an Olympics level in each program for each gender? If 75% of Norwegians ski and only 10% of Canadians ski, then there would be more total skiers to choose from in Norway despite our population disparity. If more people in Norway ski, their ski programs would be more advanced and their entire country is made of mountains. How much of an effect does funding have on enrollment and probability of evolving into an Olympian?

In Canada, it is a fact that a disproportionate majority of our athletic male youth focus on hockey. Men's hockey counts for 1 podium at the Olympics. We have hundreds of high level male athletes wasting away on buses in the minor pro hockey leagues. We can't very well encourage more youth to hang up their hockey skates for speed skates. What is the total salary earned by our Olympic hockey team in 2009 compared to the sum of all the other sports? I would bet that Sidney Crosby made more money last year than all the other non-hockey Canadian male athletes combined. How many Canadian men withering in the ECHL could have been elite cross country skiers? Yet they can probably earn more money in the ECHL than they could as the world's 15th ranked cross country skier.

If there are 75 skiing medals but only 2 hockey medals, Norway would have a distinct advantage in total medal count despite the Canadian Olympic hockey players earning $100 million more dollars last year than the entire Norwegian Olympic team combined.  The best explanation for the disparity in female to male Canadian Olympic medals is likely a simple equation of higher enrollment rates at the sports more likely to produce a greater number of Olympic medals.

What do you think?

Owning the Podium

Through 13 days of competition with 25 podiums remaining, Canada is now tied for most first place finishes. Ironically enough, this is also tied for the most gold medals Canada has ever won in a Winter Olympics. One more gold and we will set a new record for most playings of our national anthem at an Olympics (1984 Soviet boycott notwithstanding). Does this qualify as choking under pressure? What happened to the days when pressure and fan support provided energy to athletes? What's up with the theory that athletes are going to screw up specifically because there is a lot of fan support?

When the USA jumped out of the gate with several 2nd and 3rd place finishes, I was among the first to suggest that perhaps "owning the podium" should be the most total playings of the national anthem. A few days ago I even joked that our focus for these games should be "if you ain't first, you're last", and a number of Canadian athletes have been propelled by the media reported pressure to finish in first place. Pressure leads to anxiety, which leads to adrenaline. It is a simple equation.

There will be more added to this story in the next few days.

Canadian Women Get-err Done!

Canada is now up to 15 medals won in the Vancouver Games, and 11 of them have been produced by female athletes, with one shared by a male and a female. Our women are out medaling our men 11.5 to 3.5 in an Olympics that is said to have more pressure than any other ever endured by Canadian athletes. Does this then suggest that female athletes respond better to pressure than male athletes? Are our ladies just in better condition than their male counterparts? I can't exactly explain the disparity.

We have already tied our record for most gold medals in a Winter Olympics, with 25 podiums yet to be decided. Of the 25 remaining podiums, 7 are in speed skating, 2 are in hockey, 2 are in curling, 5 are Nordic, 3 are alpine, 4 snowboards or freestyle, 1 figure skating, and the four man bobsled.

Moir and Virtue, I'm sorry, so sorry...

I watched the entire final round of ice dancing despite my pronunciation that the sport is just a dumping ground for figure skaters who can't land jumps. It was a fantastic performance of considerable difficulty, and I would like to say I'm sorry. I'm still not a fan of ice dancing, but I concede that I should not have written what I did. I watched their winning routine, and yes there was a high degree of difficulty despite the lack of jumping. The jumps are what I like the most about figure skating and I maintain that figure skating is more difficult, but the two of you did a magnificent job and deserved to own that podium tonight.

The Soloman Show today was repeatedly running the caption "Dashed Dreams" when talking about the Olympics, but you know what Evan, I can name a number of Canadian athletes who have lived their dreams. Sure a former drunk may have fallen on his face right before the finals finish line, our alpine skiers have sucked, and our speed skaters keep falling out of contention on the last lap, but there has been a reason to celebrate. We are now only two gold medals behind the USA with the 4 curling and hockey medals yet to be decided. Perhaps you define owning the podium as the most top 3 finishes, or perhaps you define it as most gold bullion?

I won't be cheering for Germany...

I would like to let everyone know that despite my 1/4 German lineage, I will not be cheering for Germany against my motherland of Canada in the ice arena on Tuesday. I will not brag about how my great grandparents had the good sense to get the hell out of Deutschland about 20 years before World War I for the dream of building a new life in the new world. I don't take any solace in Germany's 21 medals at our Olympics, and I don't feel any nostalgia that I share a common ancestry with many of the athletes dominating in Vancouver. The best compliment I can pay to the Deutschland today is that I watched an interview with Katarina Witt, and I still adore her. I also adore Angela Merkel, but not in the same way.

Should Canada defeat the Krauts and advance to the next round against Russia, I will be left wondering where Mike Ignatieff’s loyalties lie. Iggy has an obsessive compulsion with his Czarist ancestry that he "lost" to the Bolsheviks. As he once wrote himself "Between my two pasts, the Canadian and the Russian, I felt I had to choose. I chose the vanished past, the past lost behind the revolution. I could count on my mother’s inheritance: it was always there. It was my father’s past that mattered to me, because it was the one I had to recover, to make my own."  It is a curious obsession considering the massive failure of their governance, and the millions of deaths that Stalinism brought to the northern hemisphere.

So if Canada advances to the next round against Russia, will Iggy count on his mother's inheritance; or will it be his father's past that matters, that he has to make his own? True, he is half Russian and I am only a quarter German, but I am willing to turn a cold shoulder to my proud heritage. Well, am I proud to be 1/4 Kraut? I will at times take credit for their propensity to build top quality manufactured goods, but generally I like to blame all my mistakes in life on my Krautish ancestry. My ancestors chose to leave in pursuit of a better life; they weren't forced to leave because their own incompetence ushered in the Iron Curtain.

I am 3/4 Scottish with some Irish scattered throughout the family tree. There is surprisingly little British in my blood, despite several of my forefathers actively participating in the overthrow of a Catholic King from the British throne once upon a time. Orangemen I believe they’re called. Adam Smith was Scottish, and Karl Marx was German. I am an interesting breed.

Ice Dancing: Figure Skaters Who Can't Jump

I applaud the Canadian ice dancing pair for taking over 1st place heading into the final round, but I have to say that I can't stand ice dancing. While I am not a natural figure skating fan, I appreciate the difficulty of throwing your partner spinning into the air and landing the trick. That you can't jump in ice dancing ruins it for me. It is comparable to creating a sport that is basketball, except with the rule that you can't jump. You'd get a bunch of white guys passing the ball around without the excitement of slamming and jamming.

Despite my hockey roots, playing it my entire life and my father playing it professionally, I can watch figure skating. Many of those tricks are breathtaking in their difficulty and I respect the skill required to land them. Ice dancing is just two people screwing with clothes and skates on, without the extreme difficulty of figure skating. I watch a quadruple sow cow in awe. I watch ice dancing and think, these are just the figure skaters who can't land jumps. Why not have ski racing for skiers that can't go fast? Let's have contact and non-contact hockey. Why can't we add bobsled without the running start? Why not take any sport that we love, gut what makes it challenging, and create a new less difficult sport?

To me, that's ice dancing.