Olympic Couch Surfing

While home yesterday, I watched a lot of Olympics.

• In Olympic swimming, why are there different races for different strokes? Why is not just a free-for-all, see-how-fast-you-can-get-to-the-other-end-of-the-pool, by any means possible type-race? If an athlete wanted to use some useless stroke like the butterfly, it would be their prerogative, but I imagine most would still use the front crawl. I know that this type of race exists as the “freestyle” – but why are there others? In track and field, you don’t have separate heats for the horse trot or the skip or the typewriter…
• Dumbest Olympic sport – synchronized diving…
• My favourite scene from the Olympics so far – the Canadian female fencer who, upon losing her match, absolutely lost her mind against the entire country of Hungary, the Olympic judges and the CBC media…
• I also like gymnast Kyle Shewfelt – seems like a nice guy, competed despite breaking both of his legs last year. Did anyone else see Ron “Firestone” MacLean make him cry on the air after his 11th place finish?
• And Canada, medal count zero – the country least likely to be doping…