Although the event is not called "men's double luge" it is de facto men's double luge, since only men compete. And in case the name didn't give it away, the men compete together. Like, really together (picture to the right from BBC).I had never watched this sport before. But when I turned on NBC two nights ago and saw it for the first time, my initial thought was: those guys are definitely gay. As Jerry Seinfeld famously said, not that there's anything wrong with that!! I truly have no problems...at all...with gay people, gay marriage, gays in sports, or anything else involving gay people. But you just rarely see two men compete in a sport that puts them in such a (homo)sexual position!
(Just for fun, there's more here, here, and here.)
My point is, doubles' luge requires that two men who are clad in skin-tight spandex press their bodies together, crotch-to-ass, as tightly as they can for the duration of the run. That, coupled with the thrusting move at the start of the run (fast forward to 4:35), just distracts me from appreciating the competitiveness of the sport. Really, all I can think about is how homoerotic the action is!
For the record, I am far from the only one who drew comparisons to Ace & Gary, the well-known ambiguously gay duo from Saturday Night Live. A lot of people must be thinking that a doubles' luge team appears to be a reverse, inverted image of Ace & Gary because if you Google "doubles luge ace and gary" you get approximately 2,700 hits. Wow.
Anyway, while countless Americans giggled when they saw this event on Wednesday, there is a larger issue at hand: why does this event even exist? Although there may be something that lugers do when lugeing that allows them to steer, go faster, slow down, or whatever, it sure as hell isn't apparent to me. I just don't see where the techniques are. To me, the luger just lays down and rides the roller coaster all the way to the end! But assuming that the competitors really do stuff that enables some to win and others to lose, why don't we limit this event to just one person. Does adding another guy really make this event any better? Or more watchable? As it stands now, every run looks exactly the same. There's just no justification for keeping this event, which serves only to raise costs, increase risk of injury, and decrease the amount of time that NBC can show me Lindsey Vonn.
I say leave the unintentional homoeroticism at the door. One luge event is just fine, thank you.
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I think your full sh#t saying "I had never watched this sport before.....", You probably have been watching it for years....and only trying to get attention by rubbishing something you dont know just so you can be "one of the boys". Thing is, your probably watching football without even realising your buff mates are constantly touching each other up in tight lycra pants..
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