The Winter Olympics Are (Mostly) Excruciatingly Boring


If scientists were to compile the world's most boring sports to watch, the Winter Olympics would be a good place to start.  Ben Blatt makes the case for Bobsled as the worst sport ever here, but it has plenty of competition.  One problem is that in so many of the winter sports, competition is purely against the clock, so that there is little feel for competition.  Even those that feature group competition, like cross country ski racing, mostly consist of watching a bunch of guys skiing together for an hour or so before a few seconds of scramble for the finish line.

Ski jumping has a certain esthetic appeal, but scoring is obscure and most of the tension comes from wondering which damn fool will break himself/herself first.  Some of the newer ski acrobatics events are more watchable, but once again, scoring is a black art.

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