A Conundrum

First of all, so we are all on the same page, please read ( or re-read if you are a long time reader of this blog ) this.

Done?

You don’t have to agree with me. But at least you know the parameters for the discussion.

As I mentioned, we have been watching a lot of the Olympics here at The Household. Those of us who like Sports upstairs, and those who like Competition downstairs. Which pretty much translates into everything-except-ice-skating upstairs, and ice skating downstairs. Although we did watch the Snowboard Half-pipe competition and the Freestyle Skiing competition upstairs. Shaun White just defies gravity doesn’t he? Anyway. We also watched Nordic Combined. Do you know what that is? It is a combination of ski jumping and cross country skiing.

Here is how it works: first the competitors do one/two ski jumps ( depending on the event ) and their points in the jumping determines the order they start the cross country. 1 point equals 4 sec, 15 points equals 1 minute. For the cross-country race, the winner of the ski jumping starts first followed by the others, at the intervals related to their jumping points. The first competitor across the finish line is the winner.

So it’s obviously based on distance/time which makes it a Sport, right?

Not quite. Because ski jumping isn’t a true sport. Ski jumping is scored based on distance AND style. And guess how you get points for style? Judges of course. Which means it’s subjective, which means it’s a Competition. Or is it?

Here is a nice description of how Ski Jumping is scored. The distance points matter quite a bit more than the style points. Obviously your style could be perfect, but if you have a short jump you aren’t going to win. But still, there is a subjective element here. So, Sport or Competition?

And with Nordic Combined the subjective part is even less. It is a small part of what determines where you start the cross country. But theoretically, if the best jumper is a bad skier, and the worst jumper is a great skier, the worst jumper could win, based on the time of his cross country, which is a Sport.

Thus the conundrum. How do you decide?

We officially declared free style skiing a competition. But here is the way the mogul skiing is scored:

Mogul scoring is based on Turns (50% of score), Air (25% of score), and Speed (25% of score). Certain judges only score turns, while other judges score only the two Air jumps. Speed is electronically certified. The skier's final score is determined by adding the average of the two Air jump scores to the total of Turns and the Speed score.

So 25% of the score is objective. But 75% percent is subjective. And the other event in freestyle skiing, Aerial Skiing, is totally subjective, so it’s definitely a competition.

I don’t know the exact percentage of the Nordic Combined the style points on the jump make up. Lets just say it’s about 10%. Is that enough to it knock out of Sports and into Competition?  Is there some arbitrary percentage we could come up with that would be the dividing line?

Perhaps you have already made up your mind on this. Here at The Household we have decided it will take a bit more discussion, and of course quite a few more cocktails, before a decision can be made.


P.S. Let me just state that all competitors in the Nordic Combined, Freestyle Skiing, and yes, even the ice skating, are, absolutely, athletes.

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