Throughout repeated attempts at reform, one thing has become clear: the IOC will not save us. It is an institution rotten to its core, and incapable of serious change. Rather than more protests and petitions. It’s now time to exit. I recommend a new kind of Olympics without the World Anti-Doping Agency. In short, I propose an Olympics with no drug testing. Incremental improvements to the current state of drug testing are simply not an attainable solution. The notion of anti-doping as a path to fairness must be abandoned entirely. Instead, we should celebrate a drug-enabled Olympics that would outcompete the original in terms of viewership, athletic accomplishment, and cultural legitimacy. The Transhuman Olympics would do more than improve the playing field for international athletics. It would sublimate geopolitical rivalries into a competition that is not merely harmless, but actually productive. In essence, leveraging the popularity and notoriety of the Olympics as a way to fund development into improved pharmaceuticals, alongside improved equipment, prosthetics, and medicine with general prosocial uses. The true aim however, is even more basic and foundational. We need to remind humanity that progress is still possible. Not by mere milliseconds and millimeters, but by literal leaps and bounds. We need to demonstrate decisively over and over again that human civilization is improving on undeniable axes. And we need to do it in a public arena.
Tag: sports
Skateboard Tricks
Superb Owls
This Sunday, the subreddit /r/superbowl will host a gathering of hoo-ligans. They’ll be fans of the Nocturnal Flying League. Real birds of a feather. The Superb Owl community will kick off an Ask Me Anything with biologist James Duncan, who has spent his entire adult life studying owls and a mere 3 weeks playing football.
Table Tennis Shot
This is probably the craziest and most unlikely table tennis shot you will ever see.
Underwater surfing
a duo using squirt boats surfs the underwater current in the New River Gorge. Squirt boats are low-volume flat kayaks optimized for performing tricks…sort of a cross between a kayak and a surfboard that you sit inside of.
Improved Baseball
Pipe leak spills nasty mess onto field during game. this is the most interesting thing that has ever happened in a baseball game. zzzz.
Iron Manhattan
Why? That’s the first question people always ask. Why would you want to swim 4km, bike 180, and then run a marathon? Why would you do it 5 days in a row? Why would you plan the whole thing yourself? In the 5 boroughs? In the middle of June? “Why does anyone do anything?” answered Chris Solarz, a guy who read stoic philosophy in the sauna while training for such a feat. “Why do we try to run arbitrary distances in arbitrary times? I don’t know. There’s no easy answer.” Last summer, Solarz and fellow New Yorker Chris Calimano completed the arbitrary task of one full Ironman-distance triathlon each day for 5 days straight, totaling 1100km. The event started as most harebrained ideas do: over beers.
Crazy GoPro footage
man this looks like a close call.
Smartphones Ruining Distance Running
While he welcomes the new breed of runners to the sport, Hirsch suggested that some may want to reconsider their technological baggage, lest they miss the full experience of the race. “I guess I’m just old-school”.
NYC Marathon
A Somewhat Accurate Guide to the Marathon