Pantheon of Sport: Falling with Style

It's time to examine another Olympic event for inclusion in the Pantheon of Sport: diving. Let's begin with the athleticism required for diving. Just looking at the sculpted physiques of Olympic divers is evidence of their strength. Who doesn't love women in bathing suits and/or memn in Speedos? They have balance and body control in heaps. So far, so good. Diving is looking like a strong candidate for membership in the upper reaches of the Pantheon.

Alas, there is one criterion that diving falls (pun intended) short in: scoring. Scoring is completely subjective, sometimes embarrassingly so. I decided to do some research before making my arguments about diving and caught some of the synchronized (giggling) diving competition. One American pair completed what seemed to be a perfectly synchronized (giggling) dive. The dive was graceful and artistic. One would assume that a panel of experts would all rate the dive in small range of scores. One would be mistaken. Scores for this particular dive ranged from 7.5 to 9.5. I openly confess to my ignorance of judging dives but when there is a discrepency that large from judges who are experts it makes you wonder what the thought process is. "That was a pretty good dive but it looks like his Speedo is creeping a little bit. I think that I'll deduct half a point."

So, diving will not be included in the Pantheon of Sport but is classified from here on out and for all eternity (or until we change our minds, whichever comes first) as a (very) Athletic Performance.