Words, Times, Wishes

     Every two years, the Olympic games bring to mind some words that we don't often use at other times.


    Repechage -  literally, "fishing out" or "rescuing", it is used in rowing events (and others).  If an event is scheduled to allow the top two finishers in a heat to advance to a following round, the best third place finishers by time are placed in the repechage, with a second chance to move forward.


    At the office, by boss suggested that I could repechage my first effort at the team's vacation calendar.


  Piste -  as in, "I'm piste off I have to do the calendar again."   Actually, a fencing word that refers to the mat that fencers stand on when they battle, but etymologically comes from a word to refer a ski run of compacted snow.  How a run down the Alps looks anything like a blue rubber mat, I don't know, suffice to say, it is French.


   Dressage - "the art or method of training a horse in obedience and in precision of movement."  In the Games, obviously, it isn't the method, it is the competition between individuals, horses and teams to show that your particular dressage method is the best.  A horse has to step from foot to foot in one event, and land in exactly the same spot.  Think those funky "compulsories" in figure skating drawing that same figure 8....to use an Olympic analogy.


    Grand amplitude -  a Greco-Roman wrestling throw where the thrower is underneath the throwee.  The feet of the wrestler being thrown go over the head of the thrower.  It is rare.


    Code of Points -  it is the book that defines the rules for artistic gymnastics.  Degrees of difficulty, multipliers, deductions, etc.


    There are probably at least a dozen more, but I'm not going to stoop so low as to mention either "clean and jerk" or "snatch."