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The backyard Olympic sport

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There aren't too many Olympic sports where you see them on TV and think, "I could do that."

Maybe the closest to that description is trampoline. Many of us grew up with a trampoline in the backyard, or were lucky enough to know one of those families that had one and always had a steady stream of kids at their house, happily bouncing away.

You might've seen trampoline at the Olympics for the first time Monday night and had visions of a gold medal around your neck.

But this sport should probably come with a disclaimer when they show it on TV: "WARNING: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME." It doesn't take very long watching it to realize these athletes have done more than just fool around in the backyard during the family barbecues.

Twists, turns, flips, somersaults -- these are NOT the people you see whose trampoline mishaps turn up on America's Funniest Home Videos. These are Olympic athletes and don't be thinking otherwise.

Oh, well. No gold medal for you. Maybe if they made poker into an Olympic sport...

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About this blog...
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Jim Carlisle writes Tuesday sports columns and Friday TV-Radio columns for The Star. He has been on the sports staff of the Star (and its Thousand Oaks predecessor, the News Chronicle) since 1983. Jim pledges in his blog not to take sports — or himself — too seriously.

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About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Jim Carlisle published on August 19, 2008 9:24 AM.

Simply the best was the previous entry in this blog.

Carillo, Collinsworth make Olympics fun is the next entry in this blog.

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