You know Eric Heiden is an orthopedic surgeon now?

I did know that. I also recall that he tried to make the summer olympics as a bicyclist.

They're all individual events, but they're contested by different athletes entirely.

Well, right. So the opportunity is there, if one were to reach those levels of proficiency, it's just that that's a seriously hard thing t do. There's more overlap in the skills from one event to the next in swimming/gymnastics, for sure. Or I suppose I should say, evidently - that's a good question about whether that level of specialization in track and field is a recent development.

The bicyling/speed skating thing is less uncommon than you might thing. (As in, I recall somebody else did that and it was somebody not named Beth Heiden.)

My brother and I got in an extended conversation in which we were ranking sports by their relationship to survival skills. We had some debate over where in the ranks team sports fit, and over whether slower strokes in things like swimming fall, but agreed that racewalking was kind of a massive fail. Why walk if you can run?

And then we watched youtubes of it and got hysterical.

It's a reasonable way to exercise, I'll grant that.

OH, joy, Gustav is heading into the Gulf, and the storm track has it bulls-eyed on Louisiana. And I have to work the weekend over Labor Day. So much for my quiet holiday weekend, where I'm working till 10PM on Sunday and picking up again 8 AM on Monday.

Why walk if you can run?

How far do you have to go, and how soon do you have to get there?

God, my head hurts. I'm only scheduled to be here until three (and then physical therapy) but it feels like years off. Perhaps I should take lunch or something.

But it isn't appreciably longer than the mens marathon! (Though a marathoner might hurt me if I tried to make them go an extra 5 miles.)

I tend to think the Modern pentathlon would be the best survival skills indicator, since it involves long distance running, swimming, horse-riding, swordsmanship, and pistol firing. Unless you have a decathlete that can run faster than a horse and throw clip's worth of javelins with more accuracy and deadlier force than a pistol, anyway...

I think there should be an Olympic event called "Fix your computer after the latest service pack hosed it."

I tend to think the Modern pentathlon would be the best survival skills indicator

Especially if you happen to be a (late) 19th century European cavalry officer!

Of course, the run isn't long long -- it's 3K, so definitely longer than I could run, but it's hardly marathon distance. Of course, since the riding event specifies an unfamiliar horse, I guess you only have to run as far as the next horse you can steal commandeer.

I find MP fascinating, in a completely wtf way.