Learning the rules

By Ralph LiebermanPrint Story | Email Story
In the old days, say in 776 B.C., being a judge at the Olympic games was a pretty simple matter: Whoever crossed the finish line first in the only event was awarded the winner’s wreath. But the cost of such progress as we like to imagine we have made since then has been complexity — technical and athletic as well as legal — and after the brouhaha over the judging at the underwater billiards competition the other night, it might be helpful to outline in some detail how the various events are scored and the winners determined. I will begin with synchronized rifle shooting, about which there has been some confusion among viewers. The point of the sport is for a team of nine marksmen to put all of their bullets through the same hole in a target that has a 3-inch bull’s eye, firing off their rounds precisely on the beat of a march played loud enough to be heard over the noise of the rifle range. In the compulsory round, all teams shoot to the same piece, but in the second, or optional, part of the competition, each group selects its own tune. Extra points are awarded for imaginative musical choice, and there are degrees of difficulty that vary according to whether a selection has a regular rhythm or a strongly syncopated beat. It is the obligation of the team manager to provide the judges with a musical score, with all of the firing points exactly indicated, at least 24 hours in advance of the event. Changing tunes after that results in an automatic half-point penalty. Many people confuse synchronized riflery with other synchronized sports, but in the case of shooting it is not necessary for the team members to be in identical positions; the only judgment criteria are the precision of the rhythm and the size of the hole in the target — the smaller it is the higher the score. As the challenge of the competition is not single-shot accuracy but for all the team members to hit the same spot with metronomic regularity, a hole anywhere in the bull’s eye is judged to be in fair territory. At the World Championships last year, the competition was marred by a cheating scandal. It was discovered that two of the teams were having their first marksman shoot a live round while the others fired blanks to leave the impression that the subsequent shots went through the first hole without enlarging it at all. To prevent a recurrence of this, a verification system was developed in which political prisoners, or paid volunteers selected from the terminally ill, move behind the target in time to the music. A simple body count at the end of the round allows the referees to determine whether the shooters used live bullets or not. This arrangement also had the effect of greatly increasing interest in the sport on the part of members of the National Rifle Association. Synchronized diving, which has caught the fancy of two or three people, is judged on a different basis. In this sport, it is necessary for both team members to be in identical positions through the entire trajectory of their plunge. In theory, when seen in profile, the near diver perfectly masks the one on the far side, and we would think we are watching a normal diving competition with only a single competitor. (Some sports fans of a skeptical nature have wondered why, if the point of the sport seems to be to make the second diver disappear entirely, they don’t have just one diver, which would be a considerable savings for poorer countries trying to send teams to the Olympics.) As the contestants descend, it is impossible for a stationary judge to evaluate the masking effect, so next to the twin diving boards and at the same height (but out of range of the television cameras) is a platform along which a judge walks. When the divers go off the ends of their boards, the judge steps off the platform and comes down right next to them, so that the precision of their motions can be evaluated completely. Now and then sloppy camera work will reveal a figure, holding a pencil and clipboard, dropping through the air along with the divers. A few months after this system was established, the people who thought up the event determined that judges tend to hurt themselves at the conclusion of a 3-meter fall onto the edge of a tile pool, so a pit rather like the one in which pole-vaulters land was built to prevent injury. Unfortunately, because of hasty construction of the diving venue in Athens, the pit fills with water and the foam mats become heavy and nearly solid. Injuries, some of them quite serious, have occurred, but happily they have all been off camera. The 400-meter acrobatic high hurdles is confusing to many people who think traditionally and imagine that what matters about a running race is who breaks the tape at the finish. In this event, the scoring is a bit complex. To some extent winning the race may still be an advantage, but it is not necessarily the determining factor. The first-place winner gets 4.625 points, which count as 70 percent of his score; the remaining 30 percent is based on the judges’ evaluations of how he went over the hurdles. The second-place runner gets 4.375 points, which count as 60 percent of his score; the third place competitor gets 4.125 points that count as 50 percent, and so on until the fifth runner. The sixth runner is awarded no points at all and has to depend entirely on the scores for his jumps. The seventh runner has .375 points deducted, and the judges’ awards count as 115 percent of the score. It is therefore possible for a runner to finish far back in the pack and make up the deficit with great hurdling. In fact, the scoring is weighted to favor athletes who finish third or fourth but who show greater style than those who are merely fast. It is thought by some that this corrects a long-standing and biased tendency to judge races on time alone by giving the graceful a fairer chance against the speedy. Some of the newer sports present no difficulties for viewers, as they are judged in much the same way as their more traditional versions. This is the case, for example, in the motionary balance beam competition. In this new event, the Romanian women gymnasts will do their usual variety of mind-boggling flips and jumps on a narrow beam placed on a large trampoline on which two members of other teams bounce up and down. It is thought that this may possibly offer the Romanians a challenge. Every four years, new sports are added to the roster of the Olympic games. Who ever would have thought that beach volleyball could someday take its place beside the discus throw and the long jump? It has been suggested that a rowing machine competition be included in future games. There are several advantages to this proposal: It would save a lot of money on equipment, both for NBC — the network would not have to set up a camera on a moving platform that follows the boats the entire length of the 2000-meter course — and for the rowers, who wouldn’t have to buy boats. In addition, it would allow oarsmen from desert countries to participate in the games, as well as those who are afraid of the water. It is necessary to be modern and to make the games relevant and fair to everyone. Frisbee and beer chug-a-lugging may be official sports in the next Olympics, but if not, almost certainly by 2012, especially if New York wins its bid to host the games that year. Ralph Lieberman of Williamstown is a frequent contributer to The Advocate.
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Lanesborough Fifth-Graders Win Snowplow Name Contest

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — One of the snowplows for Highway District 1 has a new name: "The Blizzard Boss."
 
The name comes from teacher Gina Wagner's fifth-grade class at Lanesborough Elementary School. 
 
The state Department of Transportation announced the winners of the fourth annual "Name A Snowplow" contest on Monday. 
 
The department received entries from public elementary and middle school classrooms across the commonwealth to name the 12 MassDOT snowplows that will be in service during the 2025/2026 winter season. 
 
The purpose of the contest is to celebrate the snow and ice season and to recognize the hard work and dedication shown by public works employees and contractors during winter operations. 
 
"Thank you to all of the students who participated. Your creativity allows us to highlight to all, the importance of the work performed by our workforce," said  interim MassDOT Secretary Phil Eng.  
 
"Our workforce takes pride as they clear snow and ice, keeping our roads safe during adverse weather events for all that need to travel. ?To our contest winners and participants, know that you have added some fun to the serious take of operating plows. ?I'm proud of the skill and dedication from our crews and thank the public of the shared responsibility to slow down, give plows space and put safety first every time there is a winter weather event."
 
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