#equivalent of a triathlon

[athena-xox]

Ever After High Slang Dictionary

Just the canon words mentioned in The Story Book of Legends, The Unfairest Of Them All & A Wonderlandiful World by Shannon Hale. Some words might now be perfect translations and some have multiple meanings that I have put down. Anyways I plan to update this with the rest of the books.

Bat wings and slug tails: things of value, typically for witches

Bewitching

Bffa: bff

Big, Bad: prefix to anything in large quantity or ideology

Book-to-school: back to school

Call Of Beauty: call of duty

Castleteria: cafeteria

Charm/charming

Charmitorium: auditorium

Charm you later: see you later

Chemythstry: chemistry

COL: evil LOL. stands for cackle out loud

Crownculous: calculus

Crownglasses

Crowning

Curses: general profanity

Deuce: general profanity

Disenchanting

Enchanting

Fableous: fabulous

Fairest

Fairy: ferry (also used for just ‘fairy’)

Fairy: very (also used for just ‘fairy’)

Fairy-fail

Fairy’s sake: I believe in my heart this is equivalent to fucks sake. General profanity

Four-and-twenty-blackbirds-baked-in-a-pie: hot

Grandma’s sake: Pete’s sake, Christs sake etc

Grimmnasium: gymnasium

Grimmnastics: gymnastics

Hatchling: baby/child

Hex/hexes: general profanity

Hexes: taxes

Hexcellent: Excellent

Hexciting: exiting

Hext: text

Hextbook: textbook

Hextreme: extreme

Hocus Focus

Home evilnomics: home ec but evil

Huffs and Puffs: bad and also good? ‘It’s huffs and puffs’ is used for both good and bad things

Hybrid carriage: hybrid car

Just right

Lost and Crowned: lost and found

Lulla-binary: binary

Mani-curse: manicure

Mirrorcast: broadcast

Mirrorize: digitalize

Mirror Lab: computer lab (I think)

Mirror Network/Net: internet

MirrorPhone: iPhone

MirrorPad: iPad

MirrorPod: iPod

Mirror station: computer?

Mother-goosebumps: goose bumps

Muse-ic: music

Newfangled: new but in a bad way

Nice as mice

Nursery rhyme: baby

nursery-rhyme school: preschool/elementary

Pea under the bed: stick in the mud

Pedi-curse: pedicure

Princess pea-butter sandwich: peanut butter sandwich

Royal student council: student council

Spella: hella

Spellbinding

Spells: used as a general ‘oh’. And general profanity

Sticky as porridge

Study Ball: study hall

The End: goodbye

Thronework: homework

Tiara-thlon: triathlon

Toadstools: general profanity

Unfairest

Venus Fairy Trap: Venus fly trap

What-ever-after: whatever

What’s Upon-ing: what’s up

Wicked

Any time there’s an ‘ever’ in a sentence but ‘after’, after it. And any time there’s ‘after’ in a sentence but ‘ever’ before it

[ovidiomedes]

actually very fond of all the survivors dealing with massive levels of ptsd induced nightmares that make it impossible for them to sleep so they up with increasingly worse ways to fall asleep.

byakuya nearly overdosing on melatonin gummies, aoi doing the equivalent of a triathlon marathon before bed, hiro and makoto trying to knock each other out by bashing their heads against a wall, toko hanging out with makoto and hiro to see if her boredom takes over and kyoko drinking massive amounts of caffeine to see if it cancels itself out and she can sleep

[sqarletsworldlesswandering]

Silly thingy but, does the duo have any artistic talent? What about Eden?

In fact, does any one of the Eclipsed Wanderers have any cool talents/ skills?

Hrmmmmm.

Well, now they do!

Aven has most of the skill for traditional art - sketching, painting, he loves it and can do some very impressive work. Post-Eden especially he gets a chance to really hone that skill, and sometimes runs a little booth at markets with some paintings and sketches. He's also quite a talented dancer, given the opportunity. (Put this man in a festival dance and he is a sight to behold, and also one of the best dance partners in existence.)

Edda is fairly good at sketching, since she loves observing and taking field notes on an area, but not as good at full rendering. Her talent lies more in music. She has a beautiful voice and excellent pitch and rang to boot (excellent in terms of Starfolk, mind, who already have very good pitch). Eventually, Aven coaxes her into doing some duets with an instrumentalist or two (*cough* instrumentalists below). Edda also enjoys writing quite a bit - helps her get her thoughts in order, and sometimes she writes little short stories.

Eden has a combination of both skillsets, amped up a little in some respects. Their voice in particular is gorgeous given that they are quite literally dueting themselves with their three to five layers of voice, which - as they discovered on accident when they sneezed - they can manipulate independently.

As for the other Wanderers, Aziel and The General are both very good with instruments!

The General is better with stringed instruments, and can actually create a harp analog by morphing her weapons (as a tidbit of lore: that harp was the original form of her summon. They only became her war scythe after the conflict started). The General can sing too, but she's pretty shy about it. If you can get her to sing, her voice is in the high tenor/dramatic contralto range and very smooth, but good luck getting her to do more than hum. Her other talents lie more in athletics and sports - acrobatics and competitive archery are her favorites. She's also a very good swimmer, and also absolutely whoops everyone in the triathlon, followed closely by Dark Paladin. The two have a friendly rivalry over sports events. (Dark Starfolk triathlons consist of swimming, running, and a grappling segment. Light Starfolk switch the swimming out for a hefty platforming section. I now have the strongest urge to write our quartet trying a wipeout course.)

Aziel has figured out how to morph his atlatl into a bowed instrument equivalent (sort of an upright bass), and also has a little... effectively a small theremin, that it can fold into, powered by channeling small amounts of lightning into it. Aziel also enjoys carving, something he got good at over time. He's best with wood, but he can do some good work with stone too, given time. His "magnum opus" so to speak is a malachite bracelet that turns into an armillary sphere. He also made a pair of twin pendants that send little pings to each other over distance - a simple "I miss you"/"I love you" for whatever occasion may demand it.

As a side note, all of the wanderers group together to sing little quartets, and quintets if they can convince Summum to join them. At one point Aziel got Edda, Angel, and Gabriel together for a quartet and the result was the second most beautiful thing anyone had heard since the fall of the Old World.

Another thought: After the initial Rebirth of Eden and the dust settled, the Starfolk all gathered to mourn the losses that happened during the Conflict. They all - every last one - began a Requiem for the Fallen as they constructed a monument. In tandem with the song, a new group of luminescent flowers sprung from the ground and twined themselves around the monument. Starfolk call it "Falling Star" for that reason, and they bloom every year beginning on that same day - one bloom for every fallen star.

The monument appears like a glowing spire, heavy with flowers.

[douxlen]

How the International Olympic Committee Fails Athletes

New Post has been published on https://douxle.com/2024/08/10/how-the-international-olympic-committee-fails-athletes/

How the International Olympic Committee Fails Athletes

Athletes here at the Paris Olympics have brought us magical performances, from U.S. gymnast Simone Biles, to French phenom swimmer Léon Marchand, to Ankita Dhyani, a 5,000-meter runner from India we watched circle the purple oval at the Stade de France, finishing last yet receiving a rousing applause when she crossed the line, as if she had won the race. Olympians make the Olympics special, plain and simple.

But behind the shimmering sheen of athletic brilliance and perseverance, stark inequalities exist all around. The gap between millionaire Olympians like Novak Djokovic and LeBron James and athletes from lesser-known sports like canoe slalom and badminton is the equivalent of a sporting Grand Canyon. The benefits that powerful countries like the U.S., China, and France hold over nations with GDPs smaller than some American cities show up with crisp visibility on the Olympic medal table. But perhaps the most seismic inequality, and one that all too often evades public notice, let alone scrutiny, is the yawning gap between the luxury-box existence of the International Olympic Committee and most Olympians themselves.

The IOC’s slogan is “Putting Athletes First.” But all too often, athletes come in closer to last.

The Olympic money shuffle is a great place to start. The IOC is officially a nonprofit, but it sure is profitable. According to its most recent annual report, the organization raked in $7.6 billion in the Olympic cycle spanning 2017 to 2020-21. A 2019 study from Toronto Metropolitan University and Global Athlete found that only 4.1% of Olympic revenues make it into athlete pockets (whereas with the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB it’s more like 45-50%). The IOC often reminds us that it redistributes 90% of its funds, but only a paltry 0.5% is direct compensation to athletes.

Ahead of the Paris Olympics, Global Athlete, the athlete-led group fighting for enhanced rights and increased pay, released a statement asserting that the Olympics “serve the interests of the few powerbrokers behind the International Olympic Committee” and that “the Olympics are failing to serve the interests of athletes … because the IOC, which wields complete control over all things Games related, operates without accountability.”

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics—postponed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic—the IOC chose to stage the Games even though transmission rates were high and a national poll revealed that 83% in Tokyo did not want it to proceed. The pandemic was a challenging time for anyone putting on a big-ticket event, not least the IOC. But the organization took steps that seemed to prioritize their own finances over athletes.

Certainly, the IOC and local organizers in Paris were not “putting athletes first” when they chose to stage the triathlon and marathon swim in the Seine River. The sights of athletes vomiting when leaving the Seine or reports of sickness due to E.coli was hardly unpredictable. We spoke to people in the Paris office of the Surfrider Foundation, an environmental group, which was logging high and unsafe levels of E. Coli and enterococci for months. And Surfrider noted that they were only testing for bacteria, in alignment with the European Bathing Water Directive, not pesticide runoff, pharmaceutical refuse, or toxic metals. But the French government has put $1.5 billion into cleaning it—the images of people swimming in the Seine for the first time in a century were irresistible, and athletes were put last.

Read More: Inside the Billion-Dollar Effort to Clean Up the Seine

While many athletes live hand-to-mouth, the IOC enjoys an opulent existence. Here in Paris, its members are staying in the ritzy Hôtel du Collectionneur, which the IOC is renting out for a cool €22 million ($24 million). IOC members also enjoy extravagant perks, like first-class airfare and five-star accommodations. And they receive per diem payments of up to $900 on days they attend the Olympics and other official IOC events. This means an IOC member could make more money in per diem alone, than a U.S. Olympian who earns a bronze medal and the $15,000 that comes with it from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

Back at the Hôtel du Collectionneur in Paris, the IOC have banned reporters from entering the building where they are residing for the first time in decades. Decision making has also become increasingly centralized under a small team of senior executives, including its current president, Thomas Bach of Germany. Small groups of loyal IOC members—called Future Host Commissions—now essentially choose which cities will host the Olympics, with the rest of the organization relegated to being a gold-plated rubber stamp.

For all of these reasons, it’s time for the current iteration of the IOC to go. This might sound radical, but the IOC has yet to find an answer to the role the Games play in overspending public money, stoking displacement, and intensifying policing in Olympic host cities. It’s also time to end the fiction that the current iteration of the Games are environmentally sustainable, given the air miles and mega construction projects. Just ask the people of Teahupo’o, Tahiti, host of the Paris 2024 surfing competition, who protested the construction of an Olympic-standard viewing tower that damaged the community’s delicate coral reef, possibly affecting its ecosystem for decades.

The current iteration of the IOC should be replaced with athletes and independent thinkers who are not afraid to make drastic changes. That includes embedding democratic decision-making processes at every level, refusing to hand hosting rights for the Games to egregious human-rights violators, and making sure athletes receive a bigger slice of the Olympic money pie.

In the era of climate disruption, such measures are especially necessary, if not inevitable. Here in Paris, Madeleine Orr, assistant professor of sports ecology at the University of Toronto, told us this in no uncertain terms. “A sustainable Olympics is an oxymoron,” she said. “And the [Olympic] model is completely untenable. They’re not going to be able to continue to do it much longer.”

At the opening ceremony of the Paris Games, IOC President Bach delivered a speech. As he delivered his remarks in the rain, an assistant held an umbrella over Bach’s head so he wouldn’t get wet (unlike the flag bearers, volunteers, and fans in attendance). The image dripped with symbolism. One reality for the IOC and another for everyone else.

[sa7abnews]

How the International Olympic Committee Fails Athletes

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/09/how-the-international-olympic-committee-fails-athletes/

How the International Olympic Committee Fails Athletes

Athletes here at the Paris Olympics have brought us magical performances, from U.S. gymnast Simone Biles, to French phenom swimmer Léon Marchand, to Ankita Dhyani, a 5,000-meter runner from India we watched circle the purple oval at the Stade de France, finishing last yet receiving a rousing applause when she crossed the line, as if she had won the race. Olympians make the Olympics special, plain and simple.

But behind the shimmering sheen of athletic brilliance and perseverance, stark inequalities exist all around. The gap between millionaire Olympians like Novak Djokovic and LeBron James and athletes from lesser-known sports like canoe slalom and badminton is the equivalent of a sporting Grand Canyon. The benefits that powerful countries like the U.S., China, and France hold over nations with GDPs smaller than some American cities show up with crisp visibility on the Olympic medal table. But perhaps the most seismic inequality, and one that all too often evades public notice, let alone scrutiny, is the yawning gap between the luxury-box existence of the International Olympic Committee and most Olympians themselves.

The IOC’s slogan is “Putting Athletes First.” But all too often, athletes come in closer to last.

The Olympic money shuffle is a great place to start. The IOC is officially a nonprofit, but it sure is profitable. According to its most recent annual report, the organization raked in $7.6 billion in the Olympic cycle spanning 2017 to 2020-21. A 2019 study from Toronto Metropolitan University and Global Athlete found that only 4.1% of Olympic revenues make it into athlete pockets (whereas with the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB it’s more like 45-50%). The IOC often reminds us that it redistributes 90% of its funds, but only a paltry 0.5% is direct compensation to athletes.

Ahead of the Paris Olympics, Global Athlete, the athlete-led group fighting for enhanced rights and increased pay, released a statement asserting that the Olympics “serve the interests of the few powerbrokers behind the International Olympic Committee” and that “the Olympics are failing to serve the interests of athletes … because the IOC, which wields complete control over all things Games related, operates without accountability.”

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics—postponed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic—the IOC chose to stage the Games even though transmission rates were high and a national poll revealed that 83% in Tokyo did not want it to proceed. The pandemic was a challenging time for anyone putting on a big-ticket event, not least the IOC. But the organization took steps that seemed to prioritize their own finances over athletes.

Certainly, the IOC and local organizers in Paris were not “putting athletes first” when they chose to stage the triathlon and marathon swim in the Seine River. The sights of athletes vomiting when leaving the Seine or reports of sickness due to E.coli was hardly unpredictable. We spoke to people in the Paris office of the Surfrider Foundation, an environmental group, which was logging high and unsafe levels of E. Coli and enterococci for months. And Surfrider noted that they were only testing for bacteria, in alignment with the European Bathing Water Directive, not pesticide runoff, pharmaceutical refuse, or toxic metals. But the French government has put $1.5 billion into cleaning it—the images of people swimming in the Seine for the first time in a century were irresistible, and athletes were put last.

Read More: Inside the Billion-Dollar Effort to Clean Up the Seine

While many athletes live hand-to-mouth, the IOC enjoys an opulent existence. Here in Paris, its members are staying in the ritzy Hôtel du Collectionneur, which the IOC is renting out for a cool €22 million ($24 million). IOC members also enjoy extravagant perks, like first-class airfare and five-star accommodations. And they receive per diem payments of up to $900 on days they attend the Olympics and other official IOC events. This means an IOC member could make more money in per diem alone, than a U.S. Olympian who earns a bronze medal and the $15,000 that comes with it from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

Back at the Hôtel du Collectionneur in Paris, the IOC have banned reporters from entering the building where they are residing for the first time in decades. Decision making has also become increasingly centralized under a small team of senior executives, including its current president, Thomas Bach of Germany. Small groups of loyal IOC members—called Future Host Commissions—now essentially choose which cities will host the Olympics, with the rest of the organization relegated to being a gold-plated rubber stamp.

For all of these reasons, it’s time for the current iteration of the IOC to go. This might sound radical, but the IOC has yet to find an answer to the role the Games play in overspending public money, stoking displacement, and intensifying policing in Olympic host cities. It’s also time to end the fiction that the current iteration of the Games are environmentally sustainable, given the air miles and mega construction projects. Just ask the people of Teahupo’o, Tahiti, host of the Paris 2024 surfing competition, who protested the construction of an Olympic-standard viewing tower that damaged the community’s delicate coral reef, possibly affecting its ecosystem for decades.

The current iteration of the IOC should be replaced with athletes and independent thinkers who are not afraid to make drastic changes. That includes embedding democratic decision-making processes at every level, refusing to hand hosting rights for the Games to egregious human-rights violators, and making sure athletes receive a bigger slice of the Olympic money pie.

In the era of climate disruption, such measures are especially necessary, if not inevitable. Here in Paris, Madeleine Orr, assistant professor of sports ecology at the University of Toronto, told us this in no uncertain terms. “A sustainable Olympics is an oxymoron,” she said. “And the [Olympic] model is completely untenable. They’re not going to be able to continue to do it much longer.”

At the opening ceremony of the Paris Games, IOC President Bach delivered a speech. As he delivered his remarks in the rain, an assistant held an umbrella over Bach’s head so he wouldn’t get wet (unlike the flag bearers, volunteers, and fans in attendance). The image dripped with symbolism. One reality for the IOC and another for everyone else.

[ctraneuwu]

Counterpoint, they lost on endurance: At no point did they ever successfully fly a singular space craft that was not designed primarily for military use, this meant that when nasa went to the moon it fully exceeded what the Soviet system was at all capable of producing. This is equivalent to winning two stages of a triathlon only to loose because you don’t know how to swim.

The Soviets kicked our ass in the space race its so dope "Oh you went to the Moon, yeah thats cool I guess, we got pictures of fucking Venus, you ever been to Venus? No the fuck you did not."

[roberthamiltonowens]

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Robert is one of the most unique individuals in the world. A mere four days before his 66th birthday, Robert took on the SEALFIT’s Kokoro 50-Hour Challenge, originally created to train Special Operations Candidates. He was the oldest of the group by 25 years to finish, and at the same time became the oldest to ever complete the challenge, for which he was awarded the “Most Advanced Age Ever Award” by SEALFIT.

Some of Robert's many athletic accomplishment include:

Trained under legendary US Olympic swim coach Jon Urbanchek

Raced outrigger canoes from Long Beach to Catalina with the Dana Point Outrigger Club

Worked as a lifeguard in San Clemente, CA

Graduate of U.S. Air Force Special Operations School as Pararescueman, the Air Force equivalent of a Navy SEAL.

Attempted a winter ascent of Mt. McKinley in Alaska – blown off at 14,300’ in 80 mph winds (-100 degree wind chills)

Completed 12 lronman Triathlons

Completed “The 300 of Sparta” – A 238-mile endurance race across Greece May 2017 from Sparta to Thermopile in 8 days.

Sailed across the Atlantic from Spain to U.S. Virgin Islands

SEALFIT’s Kokoro: 50-hour Challenge - A Navy SEAL-style Hell Week

Survived raising five wonderful children

[hairstyleforteen]

How much cycling is equivalent to running?

If you're looking to switch up your exercise routine, you may be wondering how much cycling is equivalent to running. While both activities offer cardiovascular benefits, there are some key differences to consider. Here's a breakdown of the two activities and a helpful comparison to help you decide which one is right for you. The benefits of cycling and running. Both cycling and running offer numerous benefits for your physical and mental health. They both improve cardiovascular health, strengthen muscles, and can help with weight loss. Running is a weight-bearing exercise, which can help improve bone density, while cycling is low-impact and easier on the joints. Additionally, both activities can improve mood and reduce stress levels. Ultimately, the choice between cycling and running depends on personal preference and individual fitness goals. The calorie burn comparison between cycling and running. When it comes to calorie burn, running typically burns more calories than cycling. On average, a 155-pound person can burn around 372 calories during a 30-minute run at a moderate pace, while cycling at a moderate pace for the same amount of time can burn around 260 calories. However, cycling can be more efficient for longer workouts, as it is easier on the joints and allows for a longer duration of exercise. Ultimately, the best exercise for calorie burn depends on individual factors such as weight, intensity, and duration of the workout. The impact on joints and injury risk. One of the biggest differences between cycling and running is the impact on joints. Running is a high-impact exercise that can put stress on the knees, ankles, and hips, increasing the risk of injury. Cycling, on the other hand, is a low-impact exercise that is easier on the joints and can be a good option for people with joint pain or injuries. However, it's important to make sure your bike is properly fitted and adjusted to avoid any discomfort or injury while cycling. How to calculate the equivalent distance for cycling and running. There is no exact formula for calculating the equivalent distance for cycling and running, as it depends on various factors such as intensity, terrain, and individual fitness levels. However, a general rule of thumb is that cycling 1 mile is equivalent to running 3 miles. This means that if you cycle 10 miles, it would be equivalent to running 30 miles. Keep in mind that this is just an estimate and it's important to listen to your body and adjust your workouts accordingly. Tips for incorporating both activities into your fitness routine. Incorporating both cycling and running into your fitness routine can provide a well-rounded workout and prevent boredom. One tip is to alternate between the two activities on different days, allowing your muscles to recover and preventing overuse injuries. Another option is to combine the two activities by doing a brick workout, where you cycle for a certain distance and then immediately run for a certain distance. This can help improve your overall endurance and prepare you for events like triathlons. Remember to always listen to your body and adjust your workouts as needed. FAQs Q: Is cycling better than running? A: It depends on your fitness level, the type of cycling you’re doing, and the type of running you’re doing. Both activities can provide a great workout, but they’re not the same. Q: How many calories can I burn while cycling? A: According to the American Council on Exercise, a person who weighs 155 pounds can burn about 500 calories per hour while cycling at a moderate pace. Q: Is cycling a weight-bearing activity? A: No, cycling is a non-weight-bearing activity. Running is a weight-bearing activity that can help you build muscle, while cycling is a non-weight-bearing activity that won’t help you build muscle. Read the full article

[daxfknxlibra]

Me doing a live stream for my YouTube channel. No subscribers yet.. and it’s just me keeping it real.

I moved everything into storage. Put a solar panel on top of my Jeep, joined a nicer gym with private showers. Also, got a jackery 500 and I’m approaching my first month of living full time in my jeep..

I do work 10-14 hr days (just depends) so I charge my jackery at work, or with my solar panel. That being said. Working those long hours is good because it keeps me out of the vehicle . I also, swim.bike and run

Pros. You’re not tied into or pay high rent for a shitty apartment, save money, sunsets/sunrises, you can park In expensive areas, and get the same view for free. While people pay millions to have that same view. You also might meet interesting people living this life.

Cons. Weather, bad drivers, gas, finding safe places to park ( I haven’t really had that problem) using the bathroom. I usually piss in a jug( constantly going to a store to piss is a waste of gas. If I have to drop one, I go to nicer coffee shops that have clean bathrooms. Showering … I’d recommend spending the extra money for a nice gym that has privacy.

Parking/sleeping.. I stay at nicer hotels, or if I see people stealth camping or rving at wal mart..I’ll park close to them. Also, I park around cameras in case something goes down. I have stayed at apartments .. I just don’t like the vibe.

Recommendations.

Gym membership

Good amount of hygiene

Keeping water with you at all times

Jackery500 or a power station equivalent or higher watts

Solar panel

A sleeping pad like a wilpo

Heating pad, portable heater compatible with your power station , and a quality sleeping bag. Personally , I bought the north face (one bag) and it’s gotten me through some cold nights

Also quality coats, weather resistant gear ( boots, jackets etc) dri fit layers/leggings and ski masks

Small fridge .. that will be my next bigger purchase .

Might be missing some things . Just these alone will get you through. As long as, you’re collecting a paycheck that will keep you level and not struggling.

Im mainly doing this to maximize my finances and minimize my problems. Doing things to my Jeep , getting a bike for triathlon, gear for triathlon. Indoor trainer for my bike, and a few things for an apartment when I decide to submit to that life. Don’t get me wrong I miss the fridge, indoor ac/heat , not being in the mix with other humans. But, at the same time, I don’t have to stress about cleaning my house or fixing things or mowing my lawn … not saying I don’t want that.. just not at this time in my life .

[coatntails]

I should be outside shoveling dirt and sawing wood for my new chicken coop, but instead I'm inside on my ass feeling like I have a 5 alarm hangover (in fact I am dehydrated from not chugging enough water while galavanting around in the midsummer sun yesterday.) So I may as well join in on this exercise.

English Disciplines as explained by a trail riding yokel using the google image search:

DRESSAGE

Horse and rider compete to see who can look the most uptight and uncomfortable while going in fancy circles. Bonus points for using as many bits, straps, and reigns as possible. Those who are not posh need not apply.

HUNTER JUMPER

Fox hunting has fallen out of fashion, but it was fun to chase stuff and jump over our neighbor's hedges. So we're going to mock up a little course in an arena to pretend. Whoever's horse looks cutest going over poles wins.

SHOW JUMPING

A race where the winner is the one who's stayed in their saddle after leaping over as many things as possible. Pretty sure you don't need to be conscious or alive to win, so long as your body is still on top of the horse.

CROSS COUNTRY

Show Jumping on impossible mode. The english countryside equivalent of "here, hold my beer."

SADDLESEAT

A pageant of horses who appear to be stepping across a field of legos while riders model their silliest outfits.

EVENTING

Horse triathlon. Rich folks compete for who has the most time and money to sink into the hobby.

Alright, I‘m waiting for some bread dough to grow to unreasonable size so in the meantime I‘ll pretend that I understand how western disciplines work

I grew up in the country of dressage queens and warmblood elitists, all of this information was collected by looking at google images and going „huh“

Cutting

Bullying cattle from horseback. The main goal is to stop the cow in question from reuniting with its friends.

Reining

Dressage for Real Men.

Barrel racing

Whoever outruns the barrel gets to see the secret other three quarters of their quarter horse. The barrels are bred specifically for athleticism and speed.

Western pleasure

Riders slowly walk around. The objective here is to not quit out of boredom after five minutes. Historically, only three riders have accomplished this feat since 1934.

Team penning

Multiplayer cutting. Alternatively, imagine a horses vs cows rugby match wait that can’t be right

Trail

This is just extremely low-stakes showjumping.

[northern-passage]

Another random world lore related question because Why Not:

Are there any kind of popular sports? And if there are do rich people patron athletes like they patron bards? Would there ever be the equivalent of a world cup? (region-wise since people don't travel that much)

whew i had to think about this a little bit but!! major sports in Adrania and Gael would include: sword fighting, general hand-to-hand combat (wrestling, boxing, etc), horseback riding, dog sledding, swimming, archery, running/races, competitive sailing, rowing, and a team sport similar to rugby (it's basically rugby)

the most popular would be the combat focused sports as well as horseback riding, and i can imagine in the south they would definitely hold annual games & things like triathlons that would include running, swimming, and riding.

the north would favor team sports but also have a heavy focus on sword fighting and archery, and would have some variations in the sports due to the colder weather.

as for patrons, i could see it happening in the south; lots of betting and dumping money into certain athletes before big competitions in the hopes of making something off of them. it would be a similar system to the bards but a bit more... detached, for lack of a better word. patrons will be far more fickle with athletes than they would be with bards, and i imagine being a career athlete would be extremely stressful and difficult. you could get unlucky and lose one too many times and get dropped by your patron, and if you don't have any other support system you're out of the game entirely.

as for a regional competition, due to the strained relationship between Gael and Adrania it simply wouldn't happen; but i do think they would host foreign athletes occasionally and have competitions and other events just for those visitors & it would get pretty intense.

[luxe-pauvre]

A good analogy, when thinking about becoming better at focusing, is a triathlon. If I said, "I am going to prepare you to become a pretty good triathlete", you would expect there to be two different things involved. First there would just be general fitness, I would say "Look, we've got to overhaul your diet, you’ve got to get more sleep, you’ve got to drink more water, you have to be a healthier person.” That's the foundation on which you can expect to actually be able to compete in a triathlon. The other thing we would do is actual training for the specific activities that make up that event, so we would swim, we would ride our bikes, we would go for runs. The same holds for doing concentration or focus activities at a very high level. You have to work on your general cognitive fitness, and you have to specifically train your ability to focus on the type of things that you hope to be focusing on: general training, specific training. So how do you do general cognitive fitness? Well, there's a lot of different things that could help. I think embracing boredom is useful, and what I mean by embracing boredom is getting used to this idea that on a regular basis you will find yourself bored and seeking novel stimuli, something to bust the boredom. But instead of pulling out your phone, or putting an earbud in your ear, you just remain bored. I’m not saying you have to do this all the time, I'm not saying that you should constantly be bored, but I think you should be bored on a regular basis. How come? Because if you don't participate in this type of training your mind is going to form a Pavlovian connection that says “boredom means stimuli, boredom means stimuli”. And then when it comes time to actually concentrate on something hard, let’s say in your professional life, you're going to be unable to do it because your mind says “Hey this is boring, there is no novel stimuli. We’re doing the same thing again and again. I don't like this. Come on, let's look at our phone, let's look at social media, let's look at email.” So you have a very hard time focusing when the time comes if your brain never gets any practise of being bored. I think reading is, let's say, the cognitive equivalent of eating really well. So the more time you spend reading, it could be fiction, it can be non-fiction, the better it is for your cognitive health, especially when it comes to wanting to do elite level concentration. It just really forces a lot of different areas of your mind to come together to sustain concentration, to do interconnected processing: the image centre is talking to the verbal centre, which is talking to the memory bank, which is talking to the sensory memory. They're all working together. It's exercising these different connections. It’s building comfort with sustaining your focus on one target. All that's very useful. So if you're bored on a regular basis, and read as absolutely much as you can tolerate or fit into your schedule, your base cognitive fitness is going to get where you need it to be to do some elite level focusing. Okay, second category of activities: how do we now train you on the specific focus activities you want to do. One thing I would recommend is what in my book, Deep Work, I call Teddy Roosevelt sprints. So it's a technique inspired by the way that Teddy Roosevelt attacked his deep work. What you want to basically do is practise working on something as intensely as possible for a very limited amount of time. Use a timer, I think it's a great way to actually build up to this. … Set a timer for 20 minutes and during those 20 minutes I'm going to give this the Teddy Roosevelt treatment which means laser-like, unbroken, intense, focus. If I wander off and do something else, glancing at a phone, social media, whatever, it doesn't count. Start over, the timer. So it's high stakes, but not a lot of time. What happens is you get used to what it feels like operating your mind at a very high level of intensity, so most people just aren't used to it. Just like if you go outside right now and sprint as fast as you can, you are not going to get very far. … Sprint a little bit everyday, and then you add more distance, add more distance, six months from now you can be doing 400 metre intervals at the track. So if you haven't been training you're not going to be used to it. Focusing incredibly hard on something cognitive is like sprinting incredibly hard on the track. We can absolutely do it, it's good for us to do, but if we don't train for it, it's not going to go well at first. So I would recommend these timed Teddy Roosevelt sprints. … Your goal should be to get to about 90 minutes. If you can do 90 minutes at sustained peak focus, and at the same time you have your general cognitive fitness going really well, you're comfortable with boredom, you're reading all the time, I think you could have a remarkable turn-around in your concentration abilities in, let's say, a six month period. It's hard work, but it's hard work absolutely worth doing.

Cal Newport, Deep Questions Podcast (1st June 2020)

[duchessofostergotlands]

Frederick is tough? He doesn’t strike me as the strong tough guy.

Yeah he passed training for a part of the Danish military which is basically equivalent to the Navy SEALs, he runs Ironman Triathlons for fun. He's tough.

[writingdinosaur]

I know nothing about sports or sporting events, but I do love character evaluations in the form of opinion questions that have no right or wrong answers. Therefore, I present to you:

Karlach: Boxing

Of all the strength based sports featured, I feel like boxing fits her the most. She is a literal warrior that uses her superior might to take down enemies. I feel like in a non fantasy or modern day AU, making Karlach a boxer fits well with her character. If you told her there was a “punch hard” competition, she would sign up in a heartbeat.

Minthara: Weightlifting

She’s a paladin. She wears heavy armor and deals with heavy equipment on the regular. I feel like this would fit her well. She would enjoy walking right up to men in the gym just to lift more than they do. I think she deserves this.

Shadowheart: Gymnastics

She was trained in espionage. Maybe it’s because I don’t know much about spies outside of movies, but I feel like gymnastics fits with this. She’s strong and stylish and quick on her feet. Enough said.

Lae’zel: Modern Pentathlon.

I was going to say triathlon before I discovered this exists. She would be doing the most, what can I say? I almost decided against it because of the horses, but what is horse riding if not the real life equivalent of dragon riding? Lae’zel is a horse girl confirmed. I think this event fits her personality perfectly.

Jaheira: Marathon Swimming

I just feel like this fits her. She is undoubtedly strong and resilient. She would be the type to just swim for ages and ages. I feel like her character, at least by the time we get to BG3, is doing some version of “just keep swimming” as she deals with the death of her husband, the loss of her friend, the numerous children and life responsibilities, and a life of adventure that won’t let her retire. Why not make that motto literal?

Gale: Chess / Bowling.

This is absolutely a cop out and you can call me on it. I just don’t think Gale cares about sports. Chess was included in the 2000 Olympics (according to Wikipedia) and Bowling was included in the ‘88 Olympics (also Wikipedia), so I feel like I’m not wrong. We know the man loves lanceboard. As for bowling, “take as many things out at once with power and precision” is kind of what he does anyway. If we are talking modern events only, he and Astarion are on the couch with snacks pointing out every minute flaw in other people’s events like they could do better.

Wyll: Fencing.

Come on. I mean… come on. It had to be. To me, Wyll’s appeal if half kind man rizz and half swordsman rizz. All I want is a good man who owns a sword. I know fencing is a lot different that actual sword play, but look it’s the closest we have. There would also be edits of him taking off his mask to reveal his face and at least one video of him running to his love interest in the crowd after he takes gold. He deserves this.

Astarion: ???

Look I have thought and thought about what he would do, and I truthfully do not know. I also just don’t think Astarion cares about sports. If he did he would get disqualified for cheating anyway. I think he tunes in to judge the hell out of figure skating and gymnastics events (he sends texts to Shadowheart with his own score for her performance) and to look at the pretty outfits, but that’s it. (He would also watch the others do their performances but shhh they don’t need to know that).

Halsin: Trainer / Stable caretaker for horse competitions.

I also do not think Halsin would compete in any event. He does not want that kind of attention and stress. I do, however, think he is the perfect man to care for the animals. He makes sure the horses get where they need to be as safely and comfortably as possible. Food, water, medical attention, etc. Those horses are in PEAK condition.

Minsc: Shot Put.

Big man throws small thing. Enough said. Honestly, I think it fits. (Look, I know those shot put balls are much MUCH heavier than a hamster, but come on). Also, I can just see him doing this in battle. Enemy escaping? Not to worry! Minsc has a rock! I also just realized I only gave legitimate sporting events to Wyll and Minsc. I stand by this.

I know none of the male origin companions are very strong/athletic,

BUT

What olympic sport would each origin companion compete in? What skills do each have that make you think with training/refinement they could (somehow) qualify to compete?

If there's one you could not see competing at all, what sport do you think they'd be invested in?

Would do you think the other companions might also compete in?

[douxlen]

How the International Olympic Committee Fails Athletes

New Post has been published on https://douxle.com/2024/08/10/how-the-international-olympic-committee-fails-athletes-3/

How the International Olympic Committee Fails Athletes

Athletes here at the Paris Olympics have brought us magical performances, from U.S. gymnast Simone Biles, to French phenom swimmer Léon Marchand, to Ankita Dhyani, a 5,000-meter runner from India we watched circle the purple oval at the Stade de France, finishing last yet receiving a rousing applause when she crossed the line, as if she had won the race. Olympians make the Olympics special, plain and simple.

But behind the shimmering sheen of athletic brilliance and perseverance, stark inequalities exist all around. The gap between millionaire Olympians like Novak Djokovic and LeBron James and athletes from lesser-known sports like canoe slalom and badminton is the equivalent of a sporting Grand Canyon. The benefits that powerful countries like the U.S., China, and France hold over nations with GDPs smaller than some American cities show up with crisp visibility on the Olympic medal table. But perhaps the most seismic inequality, and one that all too often evades public notice, let alone scrutiny, is the yawning gap between the luxury-box existence of the International Olympic Committee and most Olympians themselves.

The IOC’s slogan is “Putting Athletes First.” But all too often, athletes come in closer to last.

The Olympic money shuffle is a great place to start. The IOC is officially a nonprofit, but it sure is profitable. According to its most recent annual report, the organization raked in $7.6 billion in the Olympic cycle spanning 2017 to 2020-21. A 2019 study from Toronto Metropolitan University and Global Athlete found that only 4.1% of Olympic revenues make it into athlete pockets (whereas with the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB it’s more like 45-50%). The IOC often reminds us that it redistributes 90% of its funds, but only a paltry 0.5% is direct compensation to athletes.

Ahead of the Paris Olympics, Global Athlete, the athlete-led group fighting for enhanced rights and increased pay, released a statement asserting that the Olympics “serve the interests of the few powerbrokers behind the International Olympic Committee” and that “the Olympics are failing to serve the interests of athletes … because the IOC, which wields complete control over all things Games related, operates without accountability.”

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics—postponed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic—the IOC chose to stage the Games even though transmission rates were high and a national poll revealed that 83% in Tokyo did not want it to proceed. The pandemic was a challenging time for anyone putting on a big-ticket event, not least the IOC. But the organization took steps that seemed to prioritize their own finances over athletes.

Certainly, the IOC and local organizers in Paris were not “putting athletes first” when they chose to stage the triathlon and marathon swim in the Seine River. The sights of athletes vomiting when leaving the Seine or reports of sickness due to E.coli was hardly unpredictable. We spoke to people in the Paris office of the Surfrider Foundation, an environmental group, which was logging high and unsafe levels of E. Coli and enterococci for months. And Surfrider noted that they were only testing for bacteria, in alignment with the European Bathing Water Directive, not pesticide runoff, pharmaceutical refuse, or toxic metals. But the French government has put $1.5 billion into cleaning it—the images of people swimming in the Seine for the first time in a century were irresistible, and athletes were put last.

Read More: Inside the Billion-Dollar Effort to Clean Up the Seine

While many athletes live hand-to-mouth, the IOC enjoys an opulent existence. Here in Paris, its members are staying in the ritzy Hôtel du Collectionneur, which the IOC is renting out for a cool €22 million ($24 million). IOC members also enjoy extravagant perks, like first-class airfare and five-star accommodations. And they receive per diem payments of up to $900 on days they attend the Olympics and other official IOC events. This means an IOC member could make more money in per diem alone, than a U.S. Olympian who earns a bronze medal and the $15,000 that comes with it from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

Back at the Hôtel du Collectionneur in Paris, the IOC have banned reporters from entering the building where they are residing for the first time in decades. Decision making has also become increasingly centralized under a small team of senior executives, including its current president, Thomas Bach of Germany. Small groups of loyal IOC members—called Future Host Commissions—now essentially choose which cities will host the Olympics, with the rest of the organization relegated to being a gold-plated rubber stamp.

For all of these reasons, it’s time for the current iteration of the IOC to go. This might sound radical, but the IOC has yet to find an answer to the role the Games play in overspending public money, stoking displacement, and intensifying policing in Olympic host cities. It’s also time to end the fiction that the current iteration of the Games are environmentally sustainable, given the air miles and mega construction projects. Just ask the people of Teahupo’o, Tahiti, host of the Paris 2024 surfing competition, who protested the construction of an Olympic-standard viewing tower that damaged the community’s delicate coral reef, possibly affecting its ecosystem for decades.

The current iteration of the IOC should be replaced with athletes and independent thinkers who are not afraid to make drastic changes. That includes embedding democratic decision-making processes at every level, refusing to hand hosting rights for the Games to egregious human-rights violators, and making sure athletes receive a bigger slice of the Olympic money pie.

In the era of climate disruption, such measures are especially necessary, if not inevitable. Here in Paris, Madeleine Orr, assistant professor of sports ecology at the University of Toronto, told us this in no uncertain terms. “A sustainable Olympics is an oxymoron,” she said. “And the [Olympic] model is completely untenable. They’re not going to be able to continue to do it much longer.”

At the opening ceremony of the Paris Games, IOC President Bach delivered a speech. As he delivered his remarks in the rain, an assistant held an umbrella over Bach’s head so he wouldn’t get wet (unlike the flag bearers, volunteers, and fans in attendance). The image dripped with symbolism. One reality for the IOC and another for everyone else.

[powdermelonkeg]

Pondo's snowball lodge, please

Snowball bowling, or "snowbowling," is an old tradition from Tabantha back before Calamity struck. It was a HUGE winter sport, along with shield surfing and archery contests. The three of those formed the Hebran Triathlon, Hyrule's equivalent to the Olympics, and it was taken VERY seriously; rivalries formed between families, and everyone wanted the coveted SnowBowl, a silver trophy bowl passed down for generations as a reward for getting the highest score between the three events.

Unfortunately, all that remains of snowbowling is Pondo's lodge, as Tabantha and its traditions have been lost to the Calamity. He's doing his best to keep the sport alive, but with so few visitors, Link's all that's keeping it from fading into obscurity.