To me, if the event is judged then there is a problem. First, there's the subjective (or deceptive) nature of the judging. Who sets and enforces the standards to compare different performances? There are a lot of judged sports that require tremendous athletic ability (especially gymnastics) but favoritism and nationalism tend to taint the results all too often.

I consider pure sports are those like downhill skiing or track & field events. You're either faster or you aren't. Sure, there are some general rules that are enforced by judges but those tend to be rather straightforward, like not skiing out of bounds.

Even a pure sport can be tainted by political factors, though. One of the best stories to come out of the 1936 Olympics happened when Jesse Owens was competing in the long jump. On his first two attempts, the judges ruled that he'd faulted. Before his final jump, the top German athlete (Lutz Long) suggested Owens put a towel a clear foot before the marker and jump from there. He did so and won the event. That classic example of good sportsmanship by the Long and Owen's tremendous athletic ability is perhaps a relic of a by-gone time but it still makes for a good story.

I have not been able to watch a lot of the Olympics so far. I was very impressed with the finish of the Women's 15K cross-country ski race last weekend. That neck and neck finish between the Italian and Russian women was terrific! I don't know how she did it but the Italian woman really dug deep and poured it on in the last few meters to win. It was a fantastic finish!

I was also impressed by the Russian woman who completed her 2.5 and 4.5-minute pairs routines on a broken foot. Talk about tough, she was landing jumps on that foot without pain killers! Of course, she couldn't skate very well and they scored poorly but she sure impressed me.