In honor of the summer Olympics, I offer you this list of sporty inventions that never would have happened if everyone was wimpy/non-athletic/chicken as I am:
- Balance Beam. Less than 4 inches wide? 4 feet off the ground? I don’t think so.
Braver feet than mine. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
- Diving Board. Or, scarier still, the Platform. I can’t even watch.
- Hurdles. Occasionally I jump. Rarely do I run. Never, never would I combine the two.
And to the list of Olympic equipment, we can add:
- Skateboards
- Surfboards
- Hang gliders
- Parachutes
- Bungee cords
- Rockets, Space Shuttles, and all things NASA
And in a unique, non-sporty category:
- Alcoholic beverages in camouflage. Long Island “iced tea”, for example. If I want iced tea, I’ll drink iced tea. There’s no non-alcoholic version of wine, so if I want wine, I’ll drink that. Preferably Malbec. But let’s not confuse the two.
What about you? What inventions would never be if YOU were in charge? I’d love to know!
Give Away Seven a Day 
The hurdles scare the daylights out of me. I know I would be totally banged up if I tried that!
… and they’d ALL be knocked down.
The low-dive was scary enough for me! When trying to pass the YMCA swim test as a kid, I kept doing belly flops instead of dives! I hated the low dive! On the high dive (along with the jumping into the water thing from way high up), I was afraid I would slip off just walking to the end!
I agree with you: I would never even consider a bungee jump or parachutes (and maybe it goes without saying too, but my kids would be prohibited for life from doing them too!)
Even in Nascar country here: I don’t even like the idea of race-cars! Why would you do that??
; )
“No one here but us chickens(in our house)!” isn’t that a quote from somewhere?
Pole (as in vaulting), javelin, discus, shot put. Hello! They are weapons in disguise – and not a very good one, at that!
They could pretty much eliminate track and field altogether, right? I have a problem with sweating, too… as in, I dislike it. So I try to skip it.
Oh! And please add guns of any kind.
I’m with crafty. I could never do the hurdles. And maybe the kind of ice picks that are for climbing frozen waterfalls. Pretty sure that I wouldn’t have dreamed them up.