Not that I am watching the Olympics

Not that I am watching the Olympics

: james_nicoll; July 31st, 2012

But if I was I wouldn't watch the diving because of an irrational but apparently unassailable mental association with Shalibashvili's death in 1983; I keep expecting them to brain themselves on the board.

Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are

comment(s); comment here or there.

( 12 comments — Leave a comment )

tekalynn

2012-07-31 06:27 pm (UTC)

Oh, so do I, although it's Greg Louganis I visualize. (Louganis survived, obviously. But ouch.)

murasaki_1966

2012-07-31 08:39 pm (UTC)

I remember that. He was lucky.

mmegaera

2012-07-31 09:15 pm (UTC)

Especially when they jump facing away from the pool. Those jumps scare me.

bwross

2012-08-01 03:48 am (UTC)

Back facing jumps aren't the scary ones, because they can see the board. The scary ones are the Reverse jumps, where they jump facing the pool and rotate the head back towards the board blindly.

mmegaera

2012-08-01 04:55 pm (UTC)

Oh. Well, it's all insane, but then so are a lot of sports. Fascinating to watch, though.

mmegaera

2012-07-31 09:17 pm (UTC)

[googles Shalibashvili]

My word, the Georgians have had terrible luck with international competitions (wasn't the poor luger who died in Vancouver a Georgian?).

neowolf2

2012-07-31 09:33 pm (UTC)

An Australian diver was killed in a similar accident during practice in 1987, and there have been additional accidents since.

moonlithoughts

2012-07-31 09:43 pm (UTC)

I feel very similarly.

I can't watch football anymore, not after learning about all the mini-concussions that even a well executed tackle can cause and how they add up and can have really devastating consequences later on. I get so worried about them.

despotliz

2012-07-31 10:37 pm (UTC)

Greg Louganis was on the BBC's olympic highlights show last night, and they showed some of his good medal-winning dives, before they showed the one where he smacked his head. He was sporting about it, but you got the impression he was a bit fed up of everyone still talking about it wherever he goes.