49er Skiff Racing is a Sham, I Tell You

The Olympics are rife with absurdities. Trampoline, steeplechase, shooters on steroids. However, today's medal round in 49er skiff sailing might top them all on the WTF Scale.

The 49er skiff is some sort of fancy tiny sailboat. It goes super fast, and its pilots are evidently insane. It made its Olympic debut in 2000. I assume you have to be rich to get involved. I'm almost positive it is nothing the ancient Greeks had in mind.

The Associated Press reports there have been three protests filed with regard to the final race, completed a few hours ago. The Danish team broke its boat before the start. The Croats, who had already been knocked out, let the Danes borrow their skiff. The Danish team took 7th in the race, but remained 1st in the overall rankings, which would give them gold.

Some skiff officials are protesting on the grounds you aren't allowed to use someone else's boat. If the Danes are disqualified, Spain wins. Two additional teams have protested the results because the race was supposed to start at 3 p.m. Beijing time, but didn't begin until after 4:30 due to weather. Apparently, there is a rule that the 49er skiff races must start by 4:30. This is to keep vampires and marsupials from dominating the sport.

I have a solution: let's go to Wikipedia, erase all reference to 49er skiff racing as an Olympic sport, and forget any of this ever happened. It's the only sensible thing to do.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.