I propose as a spectacular final event for the Olympics one enourmous relay event that goes through all of the events in a relay. After completing an event the athlete runs on to the next event and tags his countryman. Losers of events such as badminton or tennis would have to be held back for a period before they could run off to the next event. It would probably take a whole day and run into the night so you could come in and out to see how your country was doing, maybe for the events you like best.
-- harderthanjesus, Aug 18 2004

//What do we do with the team sports? Otherwise, excellent idea!//

All the team sports play first. Each time your team loses, you get handicaped by a set number of minutes. Once the team sports are done, then the racing sports begin, with teams having to wait until their penalty has expired.

[harderthanjesus], how would countries that don't have enough athletes in every sport play this? Could several countries combine to form a full team?
-- GenYus, Aug 18 2004


That seems like a sensible idea. Would they get a whole medal each, though, or a representative proportion?
-- harderthanjesus, Aug 18 2004


You'd have to exclude non-timed events, like gymnastics.

Next up for Monaco / Tuvalu / Vatican City / Andorra / Trinidad and Tobago / San Marino / Liechtenstein / Marshall Islands / Grenada / Saint Vincent and the Grenadines / Barbados, the Pope on floor exercise!
-- RayfordSteele, Aug 18 2004


"You'd have to exclude non-timed events, like gymnastics."

You could just have those first in the schedule with the score giving a time advantage at the start of the race.
-- st3f, Aug 19 2004


Not really [Zanzibar], I was watching the gymnastics yesterday and as far as I can tell they grade on technical proficiency over artistic interpretation.

That's what I was thinking [st3f], especially since leaving the race like events until last would cause the tension to build up ending the event most dramatically.
-- harderthanjesus, Aug 19 2004


Oh, so people actually *do* watch the Olympics, huh? I only watch the men's swimming. There's just something about those long, lean, sculpted bodies slicing through the water... Um, anyway...This multiathelon event might be worth watching too, though.
-- Machiavelli, Aug 19 2004


[aside: makes me wonder is any staisticians have done correlation calculations on gymnastic judging from different judges]
(Hi UB).
-- st3f, Aug 19 2004



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