Getty Image / Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle
There are a lot of misconceptions about esoteric sports in the Olympics like fencing and sailing and those misconceptions also extend to recent Olympics additions like breakdancing and skateboarding.
On the eve of the Paris Olympics, Rodger Sherman stopped a bunch of Team USA athletes to ask them what most people get wrong about their sports. Hans Henken is a Team USA Sailing Team member and he says most people assume that Olympic Sailing involves sitting around on yachts while sipping gin and tonics, the most interesting cocktail in the world.
The video has blown up on TikTok overnight and quickly become Rodger Sherman‘s most popular to date:
@rodgersherman I asked A BUNCH of @Team USA Olympians what people get wrong about their sports. (The breakdancers all have the same answer!)#olympics
In order, here’s what everyone said:
Tara Davis-Woodhall (Long Jump): says people ask her “oh, what’s your mile time?” like she’s a sprinter.
Hans Henken (Sailing): says everyone thinks he just sits on the decks of yachts drinking gin and tonics.
Kenny Bednarek (Sprinting): says people always tell him “it’s only two seconds, why can’t you just run faster?”
B-Girl Sunny (Breakdancing): says people assume B-Girls and B-Boys all dance on cardboard (they don’t).
B-Boy Jeffro (Breakdancing): he also said everyone assumes he needs cardboard to breakdance, he doesn’t.
Daniela Moroz (Sailing): she says people associate her sport with grandpas sipping champagne on the weekends which honestly sounds exactly like my grandpa back in the day.
Hannah Roberts (BMX): people hear ‘BMX’ and think “you just go as fast as you can” and that’s racing, not BMX Freestyle.
Casey Kaufhld (Archery): Says in the Olympics they shoot at 70 meters ‘which is three quarters of a football field) with a recurved bow but on TV it looks a lot shorter.
Eli Dershwitz (Fencing): he says people often go into the ‘somewhat correct fencing stance’ but don’t understand form or swords at all.
Bobby Finke (Swimming): poor Bobby, he says everyone thinks he’s going to be the next Michael Phelps. There will never be another Michael Phelps. He’s the GOAT.
Jagger Eaton (Skateboarding): he says most people get the ‘lingo’ wrong and start throwing incredibly outdated lingo at him from skateboarding way back in the day.
Hampton Morris (Weightlifting): Says everyone asks how much he can bench press and he’s quick to say that bench pressing is not an Olympic discipline.
There you have it…Everything people get wrong about common Olympic sports as told by Team USA to Rodger Sherman. Go give him a follow on TikTok for more videos like this throughout the Paris Olympics!