Now that the Olympics are over (and I've filled my sport-free afternoons with Shark Week), I've been thinking a lot about the games:
1. Is it really fair to call Phelps the winningest Olympian? Sure, he's fabulous at what he does, but isn't it unfair to name him champion when he's in a sport in which he can win so many medals? Track stars are going to win, what, maybe three medals per games if they're lucky? Discuss.
2. We (as a human race) have spent the last several million years evolving away from monkeys. And yet here we are awarding top honors to the folks who have managed to combat evolution and do with their bodies what monkeys can do. Exhibit A:
I had the same thought about Michael Phelps. I've also wondered how it's possible that every Olympics they keep smashing the previous World Record. Is it possible to just keep getting faster and faster? At some point it has to reach a peak, unless eventually we will be able to travel so fast we'll be time traveling. That would be cool.
ReplyDelete@Julia - I know! I was talking to Blake about that. I mean, isn't there going to come a point where we can't possibly get any faster?! Take, for example, the sprinters: could we (the human race) ever run faster than a 9 second 100m? It just doesn't seem possible. No matter what new Nike shoe or new racing swimsuit...it just doesn't seem possible.
ReplyDelete