Olympic BMX question...

[MontyVeda]

Do you reckon it was a man or a woman that decided the 'girls' should have shorter courses? I get the weight lifting analogy... but the BMX course and many other sports I find it more than a little patronising.

As far as recall, the men and women competed on the same snowboarding course a couple of years ago... unless they started further down the hill.

 

[Ajay]

There are no "men only" sports at these Olympics, yet there are two just for women. Equality still has some way to go.
I'm just off to the pool with my partner for our synchronised swimming session.

 

[VamP]

Do you reckon it was a man or a woman that decided the 'girls' should have shorter courses? I get the weight lifting analogy... but the BMX course and many other sports I find it more than a little patronising.

As far as recall, the men and women competed on the same snowboarding course a couple of years ago... unless they started further down the hill.

I think both the male and female competitors are happy to have the courses they have.

 

[PpPete]

I like the way the women's course pops up out of that tunnel under the men's course.
Good TV too - lots of slo-mos of riders against blue sky today.

 

[rich p]

I haven't actually seen any but am I to gather that adults riding childrens' bikes is an Olympic sport?

 

[theclaud]

I haven't actually seen any but am I to gather that adults riding childrens' bikes is an Olympic sport?

You catch on quick, grandad. Time for your cocoa now.

 

[lordloveaduck]

I would love to do BMX. But i can't justify getting a bike that can't do the shoping on
Still watching it and loving it.

 

[byegad]

I thought the question was going to be:- 'Are they all mad?'

The pile ups you see look positively dangerous, even compared to close quarter sprint stages of the big road races. Yesterday
they were talking about one of the competitors having had his spleen removed 2 months ago!

Great spectacle! I'll be watching from behind the sofa today.

 

[fimm]

I think the differences between what men and women do vary from sport to sport, are sometimes historical and sometimes a result of the differences in strength/power etc between men and women. BMX is a relatively "young" sport as far as I know, and I am happy to accept the explanation upthread that jumps that will really challenge the men are too big for women to negociate safely. (I'll bet that the riders are very safety focussed precisely because of the risks involved.) Another random example I was reading about the other day is that the women throw a much lighter hammer than men do.

On the other hand, it used to be that women were thought incapable of running further than 3km. Not any more. And I do wonder about the differences in some of the track events - is there a good reason that the women's pursuit is 3km and the men's 4km? (I'm going from memory, so I apologise if I have got the distances or races wrong.) I think the UCI is somewhat conservative in this area...

 

[VamP]

I thought the question was going to be:- 'Are they all mad?'

The pile ups you see look positively dangerous, even compared to close quarter sprint stages of the big road races. Yesterday
they were talking about one of the competitors having had his spleen removed 2 months ago!

Great spectacle! I'll be watching from behind the sofa today.

It's proper hardcore crazy-assed madness, isn't it?

 

[Rob3rt]

I think the differences between what men and women do vary from sport to sport, are sometimes historical and sometimes a result of the differences in strength/power etc between men and women. BMX is a relatively "young" sport as far as I know, and I am happy to accept the explanation upthread that jumps that will really challenge the men are too big for women to negociate safely. (I'll bet that the riders are very safety focussed precisely because of the risks involved.) Another random example I was reading about the other day is that the women throw a much lighter hammer than men do.

On the other hand, it used to be that women were thought incapable of running further than 3km. Not any more. And I do wonder about the differences in some of the track events - is there a good reason that the women's pursuit is 3km and the men's 4km? (I'm going from memory, so I apologise if I have got the distances or races wrong.) I think the UCI is somewhat conservative in this area...

It possibly comes from tradition, forged in past years. They will always match the distance of the female individual and team pursuit, but in past years due to the general population of people involved with the sport, with most being male, some nations may not be able to find 4 world class female riders due to the general distribution of male to females involved in the sport. They could probably find someone, but maybe not in the same league. So they have essentially assigned 1km per rider, ending up at 3km, then just said, individuals ride the same distance as the teams.

That may or may not be the reason, but to me it doesn't sound too far fetched.

 

[Boris Bajic]

I haven't actually seen any but am I to gather that adults riding childrens' bikes is an Olympic sport?

The NASCAR phenomenon was born of the need for moonshiners to outrun the law in hopped-up cars.

In a similar way, the UK crack cocaine and heroin industries developed a cash-and-commodities delivery system that relied on innocent-looking youngsters riding with speed and agility on BMX bikes to evade the rozzers.

I do not want to complete what might seem like an inappropriate analogy.

In fact, I didn't even start to see a connection there.

 

[lordloveaduck]

The NASCAR phenomenon was born of the need for moonshiners to outrun the law in hopped-up cars.

In a similar way, the UK crack cocaine and heroin industries developed a cash-and-commodities delivery system that relied on innocent-looking youngsters riding with speed and agility on BMX bikes to evade the rozzers.

I do not want to complete what might seem like an inappropriate analogy.

In fact, I didn't even start to see a connection there.

They were just the bikes that were the latest craze at the time (i blame ET and BMX BANDITS)
The BMX craze had started long before all of this.

 

[Boris Bajic]

They were just the bikes that were the latest craze at the time (i blame ET and BMX BANDITS)
The BMX craze had started long before all of this.

Sorry, I was being a bad troll.

You are right.