Taipei is hosting the Deaf Olympics right now (there are all sorts of events for deaf athletes from all over the world). 
So I went to see the track meet yesterday and I got there to see the women's 10,000m race. But there was a problem, how do you cheer for someone who cannot hear you when they are in one of the most grueling races in track and the stadium is pretty empty?
Well the Swedish section behind me decided to do a slow clap (all clap in rhythm starting slowing then picking up pace as the athlete comes closer). Problem is that the effect of this depends on everyone doing it in sync. When you cannot hear (or 50% of the section cannot hear) this is a bit of a problem. So the claps would start off with a semblance of rhythm only to quickly descend into each person clapping with their own completely different rhythm.
In comparison, the Australians had it down pat. Then again all the Aussies have their "battle cry" (anywhere you go and find 1 or more Aussies at a sporting event they all know to shout "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, Oi, Oi! Aussie! Oi! Aussie! Oi!" in unison). The Deaf Olympics was no exception.
One of the funniest things was a Taiwanese guy who was trying to lead cheers. But he couldn't speak English or use sign language. So his cheers consisted of him encouraging everyone to yell with him in Chinese then getting really annoyed when he realized he was the only one cheering...then trying again a few minutes later only to have the same result.
So I went to see the track meet yesterday and I got there to see the women's 10,000m race. But there was a problem, how do you cheer for someone who cannot hear you when they are in one of the most grueling races in track and the stadium is pretty empty?
Well the Swedish section behind me decided to do a slow clap (all clap in rhythm starting slowing then picking up pace as the athlete comes closer). Problem is that the effect of this depends on everyone doing it in sync. When you cannot hear (or 50% of the section cannot hear) this is a bit of a problem. So the claps would start off with a semblance of rhythm only to quickly descend into each person clapping with their own completely different rhythm.
In comparison, the Australians had it down pat. Then again all the Aussies have their "battle cry" (anywhere you go and find 1 or more Aussies at a sporting event they all know to shout "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, Oi, Oi! Aussie! Oi! Aussie! Oi!" in unison). The Deaf Olympics was no exception.
One of the funniest things was a Taiwanese guy who was trying to lead cheers. But he couldn't speak English or use sign language. So his cheers consisted of him encouraging everyone to yell with him in Chinese then getting really annoyed when he realized he was the only one cheering...then trying again a few minutes later only to have the same result.
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