And a congrat to Vinokourov

Getting past the past

I remember back in 2007 when the entire Astana team quit the Tour de France because Vinokourov felt the need to cheat.  He was banned for 2 years.  Yesterday he won a gold medal for cycling and just about every article I've read mentions he used to be a cheat.  I'm doing it.  They used to say "cheaters never win and winners never cheat."  That's not necessarily the case.  A number of American cyclists did not go to the Olympics, among them Levi Leipheimer, one of our best.  Rumor has it he was kept back, along with 4 others, because he happened to have been riding on the same team as Lance Armstrong during the period of time authorities are investigating.  It's almost unAmerican to think Armstrong could have been a cheat, yet it may be true.  If he was, is he still a cheat today?  I'd like to think not, just as I'd like to think Vinokourov has cleaned up his act.  So, I'm going to congratulate him on winning a gold medal.

Holy Crap! I missed the Dressage Team Event... not really

As the summer Olympics play out I find myself wondering if some of the categories are actually sports, or are they perhaps art forms.  Does being competitive make it a sport, or are the games meant solely to demonstrate competitive spirit?  From what I've read I gather the original games were, while being called games, were more exhibitions of war-like behavior, people didn't just throw javelins for the hell of it, they used were used in combat.  Perhaps the confusion is that I want to see them as sports and they really are nothing more then competitions.  Take synchronized swimming which might also be called water dancing and is more of an art form then it is a sport.  One surely wouldn't use it in battle unless you were entertaining your enemy.  Still, these are human swimmers involved and they use precise muscular behavior, and they need to control their breathing.  This is a lot more then I can say for those participating in dressage which reminds me an awful lot of the trained horse acts you see in circuses; with one you get water dancing, with the other you get horse dancing.

Horse Dancing

Another thing, when a synchronized swimmer wins a medal they get the medal, who gets the medal in dressage.  I doubt very much if the rider gets to hold on to that.  I'd say more likely it goes to the owner of the horse even though he or she is rarely ever, and most likely never, the rider.  I'd like to see the owners riding their own horses, but a rider is, after all, nothing more then an employee, a hired hand.  As such, should he not win a medal, I'd say there is a very good possibility loss will lead to termination of employment.  How many people actually watch dressage?  I don't.  In fact when I saw it listed on Bravo I decided that was the perfect time to load the dishwasher.  Since I didn't watch it I have no idea who was in the stands, millionaires I suppose, and a lot of people who thought it was something else when they were buying their tickets.  To be honest, I equate dressage to another horsey sport, polo, both of which are mostly enjoyed by the rich and famous and those rich and famous wannabe's.