I do not think that soaring competes badly in this regard towards sailing, shooting and horse
raiding. The argument just doesn't stand. Weirdest sport, one ca find in olympic programme (though,
winter programme) in this regard is curling imho.


"Eric Greenwell" wrote in message
...
Curtl33 wrote:
While soaring is a sport, and it is competitive, I have a real hard time
viewing the participants as athletes. If you can sit in a lounge chair
for hours on end, playing Nintendo with a joystick, you've got the
athletic stamina and dexterity to be a gold medal soaring pilot.


I don't think you will get a single serious racing pilot in the world to agree
with this assessment.

I think a lot of them would agree, but they'd all point out that
"stamina" and "dexterity" aren't on the list of things it takes to be a
good racing pilot.

And because of this, I don't think of soaring as an Olympic sport. It is
primarily a very mental/intellectual sport, not a primarily physical one
like most (all?) the olympic sports I'm familiar with. It isn't about
flying a sailplane well, for example (like an aerobatic pilot), it's
about guiding the glider to the right place at the right time, meaning
where the lift is.


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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA