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Most people can never compete in the Olympics. Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt have physical characteristics that you and I do not have. For most Olympic sports

Most people can never compete in the Olympics. Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt have physical characteristics that you and I do not have. For most Olympic sports this is the case. Why pretend otherwise? Acknowledging it doesn't mean you and I can't do great things in life. It just means there are particular great things that we will never be able to do, and should not waste our time trying to do.

ricardobeat 14y ago
Have you seen that guy competing with prosthetic legs? He completely blows your argument. He is at the bottom of the scale on "phisically disadvantaged". Olympic athletes are not super heros. There are the exceptions, but 95% of them are "normal" people who just work really hard. Maybe you can't be the greatest sprinter ever (who knows?) but you could make it to the olympics. The brazilian judo gold winner was just a very poor girl with a wish 4 years ago.
- gaius 14y ago
  That is a totally spurious argument for a number of reasons. 1) Pistorious is genetically predisposed, regardless, from the knees up, to a higher than average level of fitness, muscle density, metabolic efficiency, etc (all successful athletes are almost by definition, since to be successful, you have to compete with people who do have all the genetic advantages AND the will to win, either alone is not enough) 2) he actually has an advantage over "able-bodied" athletes in that if he twists his ankle he doesn't need to take 6 weeks off training to heal, he just swaps in a new one. What Pistorius has done is redefine what disabled means. He's not actually disabled at all, he's superhuman, quite literally a cyborg. For the Olympics they slowed him down by reducing the springiness of his, err, springs, so the poor humans could keep up. As for the others, you could train as hard as Phelps but guess what, it wasn't training that gave him his flipper-like feet or his extraordinary armspan.
  - ricardobeat 14y ago
    I don't want to get in that discussion, the point is the guy had no legs, yet he just competed in the olympics. He was clearly in your "can't do it" group. And forget Phelps, Bolt, etc. They are one in a billion, and the greatest athletes of all time in their field. What about the other 99%? What's the excuse for them?
    - gaius 14y ago
      LOL! Ask Phelps what's his "excuse" for not being able to write C++ worth a damn! When you have figured that out, then we can talk.
      - ricardobeat 14y ago
        I have no idea what you're trying to say. He could certainly learn it if he wanted to.

ricardobeat 14y ago

Have you seen that guy competing with prosthetic legs? He completely blows your argument. He is at the bottom of the scale on "phisically disadvantaged". Olympic athletes are not super heros. There are the exceptions, but 95% of them are "normal" people who just work really hard. Maybe you can't be the greatest sprinter ever (who knows?) but you could make it to the olympics. The brazilian judo gold winner was just a very poor girl with a wish 4 years ago.

gaius 14y ago
That is a totally spurious argument for a number of reasons. 1) Pistorious is genetically predisposed, regardless, from the knees up, to a higher than average level of fitness, muscle density, metabolic efficiency, etc (all successful athletes are almost by definition, since to be successful, you have to compete with people who do have all the genetic advantages AND the will to win, either alone is not enough) 2) he actually has an advantage over "able-bodied" athletes in that if he twists his ankle he doesn't need to take 6 weeks off training to heal, he just swaps in a new one. What Pistorius has done is redefine what disabled means. He's not actually disabled at all, he's superhuman, quite literally a cyborg. For the Olympics they slowed him down by reducing the springiness of his, err, springs, so the poor humans could keep up. As for the others, you could train as hard as Phelps but guess what, it wasn't training that gave him his flipper-like feet or his extraordinary armspan.
- ricardobeat 14y ago
  I don't want to get in that discussion, the point is the guy had no legs, yet he just competed in the olympics. He was clearly in your "can't do it" group. And forget Phelps, Bolt, etc. They are one in a billion, and the greatest athletes of all time in their field. What about the other 99%? What's the excuse for them?
  - gaius 14y ago
    LOL! Ask Phelps what's his "excuse" for not being able to write C++ worth a damn! When you have figured that out, then we can talk.
    - ricardobeat 14y ago
      I have no idea what you're trying to say. He could certainly learn it if he wanted to.