Sound-off with Sinkoff
Sports meets pop culture and humor! Join your host, Brian Sinkoff, as he brings you the latest trends and insights from the world of sports, mixed with engaging conversations about pop culture, zombies and whatever he wants to "Sound-off" about.
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Sound-off with Sinkoff
Episode #13: Stop Pretending You're An Olympics Gymnastics Judge!
Ever found yourself suddenly critiquing a gymnastics routine or a diving performance like a seasoned expert during the Olympics?
On this episode of Sound-off with Sinkoff, Brian hilariously dissects our collective transformation into Olympic 'specialists' every four years.
From his early crush on Mary Lou Retton back in '84 to watching jaw-dropping routines with my wife, Francine, it’s a nostalgic and comical take on how we pretend to understand sports that most of us can barely spell.Tune in as Brian ponders the baffling complexities of gymnastics and diving, questioning how athletes manage to practice such dangerous moves without constant injury. He shares his bewilderment and amusement at social media 'experts' who confidently critique routines despite knowing zilch about the sports.
Whether you're a casual fan or an armchair judge, this episode is your ticket to laughing at our shared ignorance and embracing the simple joy of watching these incredible athletes.
Hello and welcome everybody to Sound Off with Sync Off. I'm your host, brian Sync Off, glad you could join me here on all of your podcast platforms. Do me a favor, hit the like button, hit the subscribe button as we get into it here. It's been a hot minute since I've been with you. Glad to be back Olympics in full swing.
Speaker 1:I know many of you are watching the Olympic Games in Paris Summer Olympics. They're my absolute favorite, probably because America does pretty well at these summer games, even though obviously there Enjoyed watching the Olympics ever since I was a little kid had a big crush on Mary Lou Retton when I was 13 back in 1984. Those were one of my first memories of the summer games. But anyway, I love looking at social media and people have opinions about gymnastics. People have opinions about swimming and diving and I love that. But what I don't love is that people think they're a gymnastics expert. You have no concept as to what the hell you're talking about. Okay, we turn into these Olympic experts every four years. Be honest with me. Out there people, when is the last time you watched gymnastics? The floor routine, the balance beam, the uneven bars, the pommel horse you haven't watched the Olympics since guess when the last Olympics four years ago? You're not an expert, stop trying to be. You're not a judge, like we have no concept of what a triple back handspring with a twist looks like, how it's executed, how do we judge this? But we all sit at home on our couch and say that that was a good landing or, you know, say it wasn't a good landing, like the other night my wife, francine, and I were watching and the young lady from the US it was such a difficult– actually, no, it was a guy it the men's team he such a difficult move. He did like a triple twist, a triple flip, and he didn't stick the landing. But because the, the, the, the attempt was so difficult, he got a great score.
Speaker 1:And I looked at Francine. I said, francine, I'm like a sports nut, mean forever, whatever it's worth. I have this silly little podcast or whatever. I'm this big sports nut and I have no idea how to judge that. I have no idea what he just did. I don't have any idea how they practice these things. Like how do you practice that and not get hurt? You know, because forget sticking the landing? Like how do you practice that and not land on your head. I mean, I know it's years and these are rhetorical questions, but it's like years and years and years of practice and training at the highest level. I get it, but reality is we have no clue. We act like we've been coaching the sport for 25 years. Reality we watched it four.
Speaker 1:Here comes the Olympics. Everybody turns into a gymnastics expert on Facebook. Everybody's an expert on Twitter. You know it, it, it just it never ceases to amaze me. The same thing with diving. I don't know anything about diving. Less than 1% of the population has a clue about diving or can properly judge gymnastics Literally less than 1%. I've got to take a little sip here, excuse me. Ah, good time to let you know.
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Speaker 1:So I'm a little parched here talking about the Olympic games. I'm getting tired just talking about the Olympics, much less doing it. But it's. You know, the pole vault, the javelin we haven't really track, is coming up, but we haven't really gotten much into track yet. But the same thing with the pole vault, same thing with javelin. Um, it's just it. The the whole thing cracks me up. Uh, triple back gainer with an inverted flip, uh, twist, like what does that even mean? Could you do that? Could you describe that to me? If I said you got five minutes to describe what a triple, triple gainer with an inverted twist is? No, so why are we trying to judge the gymnastics in the Olympic Games Like?
Speaker 1:You're a, you're a gymnastics expert. You haven't done a somersault since fifth grade. You're a, you're a diving expert. You don't even dive into your own pool, yet you get in your pool and you float, but you're telling, you're telling, you're telling everyone on Facebook how good the dive was. Or you're, you haven't swam a lap since the Clinton administration and yet you're talking about how the guy from Australia wasn't better than the American. It's just funny. You don't even go underwater in your own backyard pool, but you're an expert in the 100-meter freestyle event. Yeah, I love the Facebook comments about these sports. It's actually mind-boggling.
Speaker 1:And we also don't realize that these Olympic athletes, this is like another level. This is not I'm a good swimmer on the local swim team or I did good at the. You know no knock to the state tournament or the section two tournament in New York. But these swimmers, they're not swimming at high school, they're. They're going to like the U S training center when they're 15, wherever the hell the swimming one is. I know most of them are in Colorado, I'm sure it is, but they're. These swimmers are really picked at. You know, such a young age and they're, they're swimming. You know, they're training for these games. It's, it's very, very difficult to just come from a high school not impossible, but difficult to come from a high school and just start swimming. On that level it is just another, another level and I think that is like the one thing about the Olympics I really appreciate. I really I really love and that is just um the ability of these athletes, cause I think one thing that's really cool for me about the summer Olympics is that it's far different than the winter Olympics.
Speaker 1:The winter Olympics is it's, it's almost like the events were created on a dare, you know what I mean. Like I dare you to jump off a giant ski. Jump, uh, going 60 miles an hour and try to land on your skis. I dare you to do, you know, do uh, moguls, you know I. Dare you go down a luge uh, you know, feet first, not looking where you're going. I dare you to get in a bobsled, you know, again, only have one person steering and they're not even really steering and go down this ice fricking track. Like the winter Olympics are created on a dare, the summer Olympics are.
Speaker 1:I don't want to say that the, the sports feel more natural. Maybe they feel like we all could sort of do them in our own little goofy sort of way. Uh, you know it's. I can envision myself running. I mean, granted, I would be like the eddie, the eagle of the track, uh, team. But you know, you can envision yourself even swimming in a pool. Obviously you're not going at the level of these olympic, but I just feel like the winter, the summer games, it's just a little more maybe identifiable. I think we can identify with the games a little bit more than we can.
Speaker 1:The Winter Olympics, which I don't ski, I don't do a lot of winter sports, so it's hard for me to fathom any of these things. But most of the summer sports, maybe the you know. There are some exceptions. I did break dance. So break dancing was something that I did in seventh grade. I was actually on a break dance team.
Speaker 1:Uh, believe it or not, we had, we had a sweet puma. Uh, I think they were like gray or brown and red. That was like our puma sweatsuit outfit. We had a whole outfit and everything but um, but yeah, like most of the events, with maybe like the exception of javelin and hammer throw and shot put, I've done. You know, you played basketball right, most of us have. You played basketball. You've run. Maybe we haven't done the right, but you've run around a track at one point in your life. You've swam in a pool. You've dove off a diving board Again, not the level, but so that's why I think for me there's just great appeal in the summer games, because I feel like we can identify with it.
Speaker 1:We can envision how hard it is when we're swimming in a pool. You go one or two laps, you're exhausted. These, some of these guys and gals, they're going eight laps, ten laps for the longer events or full sprinting for two laps. That's extremely difficult and that's why I love the uh, that's why I love the summer games, because america's pretty good at it and it's kind of relatable. You can, you can see and you can understand just the, the skill and something you've done yourself, so we can relate. We can picture ourselves maybe in that situation.
Speaker 1:Again, winter Olympics I have. No, I don't think I've done any when I can't ice skate, I can't snowboard, I can't figure skate, I can't ski, I can't bobsled, I've never done luge. So there's not one sport in the Winter Olympic Games I've ever done. Summer Olympics most of us have done, not necessarily saying we've run a 100-meter track event, but we have run around a track. We have swam in a pool, we dove off a diving board. You know I wrestled in high school, so I can't even say I wrestled. Hell, I break danced. Synchronized swimming no, most of us haven't, but we have done flips in the pool. I remember me and my friends when we were teens we used to do handstands and see how far we could walk underwater. I mean, yeah, it's not synchronized swimming, but it's in the family of synchronized swimming. So that's kind of my take on the Olympics.
Speaker 1:Just wanted to give you my thoughts on it. Love, love everyone watching the Olympics. I think it's hilarious that we all turn into gymnastics experts and look me too, for that matter. I caught myself the other night with Francine because we both went oh, he didn't stick the landing and then they gave him some preposterously high score. That's because the degree of difficulty was hard, and I don't even know where the hell they come up with the degree of difficulty. So if you do message me or post it in the chat here and again, sink off a Realty Group mug, yours for the taking. All you have to do is send me an email or a text or a message and I'll get one out to you right away. All right, that is going to do it for this edition of SoundOff with Sinkoff. I want to thank you so much for joining me. Make sure you like, you share, you subscribe. Plenty more good materials coming your way. Good material, and until next time, everybody, have a great day.
