Is Ultimate Frisbee Ready for the Olympics?
Ultimate Frisbee has long been labeled a “counterculture” sport, despite the athleticism it requires when played competitively. Last week, its recognition by the International Olympic Committee — a first step if the sport is ever to be accepted into Olympic competition — was greeted with hippie jokes and reminiscence about the “old college quad." Why has Ultimate Frisbee struggled to secure legitimacy as a sport? Is it time for it to be included in the Olympics?
* Frisbee = 프리스비(던지기를 하고 놀 때 쓰는 플라스틱 원반)/ counterculture = 반체제, 반문화; 반체제[반문화]적인 사람들/ athleticism = 운동 경기[스포츠]열; 집중적[정열적]인 활동성/ recognition = (존재, 사실, 공식성의) 인정[승인]/ accept sb(sth) into ~ = ~로 받아 주다(들이다)/ reminiscence = 추억[회상] (하기)/ quad(= quadrangle) = (특히 학교나 대학에서 건물이 사방으로 둘러싸고 있는) 사각형 안뜰/ secure = (특히 힘들게) 얻어 내다, 획득[확보]하다/ legitimacy = 합법성, 적법; 합리[타당]성
왜 프리스비는 스포츠 종목으로 합리성을 확보하는데 힘이 드나요? 올림픽 종목이 되어야 할 때인가요?
1. A Win for the Olympics if Ultimate Stays Self-Officiated
Those fearful that greater exposure will compromise Ultimate’s counterculture ethos have a right to be worried.
2. Legitimize Ultimate at the High School Level First
A student trying to start a club team last year was told that Ultimate would divert attention from the more traditional school sports.
3. The Olympics Could Ruin the Game
Ultimate Frisbee players and your friends: Save your sport. Just say no to the Olympic games.
4. Don’t Make This Another Men’s-First Sport
As advocates for the sport chase the holy grail of legitimacy — inclusion in the Olympics — there is disagreement over how to promote it.
Sample Essay
The Olympics Could Ruin Ultimate Frisbee
Given the abominable levels of debt, displacement and militarization that arrive with every Olympic Games, and given the wreckages of entire economies that limp forward after hosting these multi-billion dollar security jamborees, we need to be having an earnest discussion about devolution: how to make the Olympics smaller, friendlier, greener and less of a poisonous, civil-liberties trampling disruption in the lives of host cities.
The idea of adding Ultimate Frisbee at this point in time, the idea of demanding that host countries supply wide swaths of green space — 120 yards by 40 — to be monitored by drone aircrafts, guarded by surface-to-air missiles and trampled by television crews, all for the benefit of Olympic sponsors, is a sentiment both obscene and absurd.
The absurdity is that in the hands of the International Olympic Committee, we would all see Ultimate Frisbee morph from something beloved into a kill-or-be-killed frenzy that, like so much of the Olympics, brings out the worst in all parties.
If that sort of transformation seems far-fetched, one would do well to talk to our good friends in the worlds of badminton and table tennis: two joyous endeavors that due to the lure of the precious gold, bear no resemblance to the actual pleasure they once symbolized. If the Olympics wants to add sports, they should bring back thrilling — and democratizing — contests like the tug of war or the rope climb, and not games that will just increase the weight on the shoulders of the host cities. So Ultimate Frisbee players and your friends: Save your sport. Just say no to the Olympic games. It’s not the path toward legitimizing Ultimate Frisbee. It’s the path toward mangling it beyond all recognition.
