I know another sport that would be more for the Summer Olympics which is ifp throughout the world, and the BWMA loves that. Bow shooting. The arrows are ifp designed, there is force or strength in spanning the bow before shooting which is measured in lb avdp (people speaking of a '20 pond, livre, Pfund' bow, and these are NOT the 500 g variety), except the shooting ranges in metric countries. These are usually but not always in metric. Every now and then a contest even has these ranges measured in yards. Speed skating was ifp in the first decades of the 20th century; distances were measured in yards, quarter miles and miles proper. But this has been a thing of the past for more than 60 years now. Only one defect has survived; the 1500 m is now and then called the 'skating mile'. And I can remember how in the seventies the yard vanished from swimming forever. Athletics is mostly metric too, the exceptions are the mile run and the height of hurdles, these are still three feet high and we continue to see the soft conversion of 914 mm. Soccer is and remains ifp in the UK and soft metric in metric countries. The BWMA will explode when at last soccer goes hard metric. However, the traditional Irish games of Irish football and hurling are metric, even though some commentators on TV or the radio give another impression. Traditional and metric agreeing with each other!
Han ----- Original Message ----- From: "Harry Wyeth" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, 2002-01-26 11:09 Subject: [USMA:17660] Olympic events reporting I will be out of the country during all of the Olympics, so I will be unable to harass NBC on the metric issue. But to those who are so inclined: I would bet a dinner that when it comes to cross-country sking (assuming they cover the sport at all!), US reporters will give distances in ifp units. The wonderful and usually very exciting 4 x 10 km relay (you might see 10 minutes of it if you are lucky) will be reported as being composed of 6 mile segments. This drives me nuts! I hope others here will sound off loud and clear. Make the point that xc sking is one sport that has always, always, always been 100% SI/metric (skis are metric, poles are metric, shoes are sold in metric sizes, and distances are metric), regardless of the country where the sking takes place. Good luck. HARRY WYETH
