4 ms·

Simone Biles is an athletic miracle. Just like Serena Williams (won a tennis tournament while pregnant), Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, Eliud Kipchoge, etc.

nikolay 5y ago
Let us carefully chose our idols. How does this move us ahead as a civilization? Will these "miracles" remove the homeless people' tents in Los Angeles? Sports are a distraction and a huge industry. They don't move this world even a jot in the right direction. Competitiveness develops further the cutthroat mentality this civilization suffers the most from!
- akudha 5y ago
  You're right about competitiveness etc. But nothing you said takes away the jaw dropping abilities of Simone and the other athletes your parent comment mentioned. It takes insane amount of practice, insane work ethic/dedication, genetic lottery, geographic lottery etc to get to that level. We can admire and respect insane talent and aspire to solve problems like homelessness at the same time!
  - nikolay 5y ago
    I know it's a lot of practice, but I am not impressed - I was more impressed by Atlas' salto and parkour as it really means a lot for our civilization unlike sports achievements, which are nothing but waste and distraction.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
- zem 5y ago
  way less destructive than amassing billions of dollars, and the latter has never stopped anyone from being idolised.
  - nikolay 5y ago
    Really, I know families who spend days of the week commuting to soccer tournaments, snowboarding, etc. Not to mention the commute to go have practice, shop for equipment - all this is productive time, which can be used for something fruitful. Same with the spectators who burn hundreds of billions of hours as coach potatoes watching sports, paying tens of dollars per month for sports channels, eating junk food, drinking beer, etc. This totals up to a trillion hours of year and hundreds of billion of dollars of direct costs, not to mention the indirect ones and the toll to the environment of all this. How about instead of burning these calories playing sports to actually "burn" them in farming or community service?

nikolay 5y ago

Let us carefully chose our idols. How does this move us ahead as a civilization? Will these "miracles" remove the homeless people' tents in Los Angeles? Sports are a distraction and a huge industry. They don't move this world even a jot in the right direction. Competitiveness develops further the cutthroat mentality this civilization suffers the most from!

akudha 5y ago
You're right about competitiveness etc. But nothing you said takes away the jaw dropping abilities of Simone and the other athletes your parent comment mentioned. It takes insane amount of practice, insane work ethic/dedication, genetic lottery, geographic lottery etc to get to that level. We can admire and respect insane talent and aspire to solve problems like homelessness at the same time!
- nikolay 5y ago
  I know it's a lot of practice, but I am not impressed - I was more impressed by Atlas' salto and parkour as it really means a lot for our civilization unlike sports achievements, which are nothing but waste and distraction.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
zem 5y ago
way less destructive than amassing billions of dollars, and the latter has never stopped anyone from being idolised.
- nikolay 5y ago
  Really, I know families who spend days of the week commuting to soccer tournaments, snowboarding, etc. Not to mention the commute to go have practice, shop for equipment - all this is productive time, which can be used for something fruitful. Same with the spectators who burn hundreds of billions of hours as coach potatoes watching sports, paying tens of dollars per month for sports channels, eating junk food, drinking beer, etc. This totals up to a trillion hours of year and hundreds of billion of dollars of direct costs, not to mention the indirect ones and the toll to the environment of all this. How about instead of burning these calories playing sports to actually "burn" them in farming or community service?