huge baggy snow suits like the kids in my wife's grade 2 class wear in winter or other flap in the breeze style clothing.

That's why. For example, Shawn White, the snowboarder, makes somewhere around $10 million a year selling clothing to those 2nd graders. Its alot more important to these folks to look like their market than it is to shave off a couple 100ths of a second.

You are so cynical!

It is in honor of the roots of the sport ... they are being true to the origins of their craft.

Some of the snowboarding cross guys were in ripped jeans.

Because to those of us who aren't hopelessly mired in the fashion gulag which is endurance sports, spandex is gay.

And really wouldn't confer much of an advantage.

Also, unlike in these particular Olympics, most of these guys typically ski in the snow, not the rain. Training involves a lot of standing around in very cold conditions.

from an olympians perspective...
http://sports.yahoo.com/...tight?urn=oly,219715

Of course, the cynic in me sees the "non commerical" as being in fact very commercial but actually, there is something kind of endearing about the fact that the athletes in "X-Game" type sports do just show up at the Olympics basically in the same clothes they were wearing when they started out screwing around as kids. How cool would it be if a down hill skier showed up at the start line wearing jeans and mittens?

In moguls, time is just one element of the score, style being the rest of it. In the half-pipe competition (and in skiing aerials, which we'll see later), style is all the score. The reason for the baggy outfits is the same reason skateboarders wear baggy clothes — when pulling all of those tricks they need to be as free to move as possible, while also keeping warm (and maybe hiding a dime bag somewhere in that outfit). In snowboard cross, the athletes try to find a balance between being somewhat aerodynamic and being free to maneuver their bodies and boards; the U.S. "jeans" seem to do the trick. Notice in the results of the cross you don't see a time, just the name of the athlete and what medal he or she won. Just get across the line upright.

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"The hero is someone in continual opposition to the status quo. The hero is always becoming himself." Jos� Ortega y Gasset.

"The enthusiasm (absorbing or controlling possession of the mind by any interest or pursuit) is needed before breaking the milestone and not after." Sergio Escutia, on Lukas Verzbicas' subdued reaction to breaking 4 minutes in the mile.

I'm guessing, but in the moguls at least they are judged on style points which include keeping your knees together through the run. Looser pants might help to disguise any slight wobbles that the judges would otherwise pick up on.

The snowboarders were wearing considerably tighter clothing than the moguls folks, and when they get to the slalom they'll basically be wearing a standard downhill ski outfit.

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It doesn't matter. Snowboarding is a fad.

If we're going to talk about moguls specifically, they don't need to go any faster. They're barely holding it together as is, so they're not being slowed down by their clothing choices. The upper limit of how fast they can go is determined by how good their turns are. A guy who could actually hit his 'top speed' and needed to eke out a few more milliseconds by way of aero clothing would basically be superhumanly unbeatable. It just wouldn't happen.

Secondly, it's skiing. People wear ski pants so as not to get cold on the mountain.

That too.... moguls is about keeping the already ample speed under control.

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I've never snow skied, only water skied - but the moguls really doesn't look that difficult. I could probably compete right away. I've never done an Ironman either, but expect that I will qualify for Kona whenever I do my first one. :)

Very likely. There's more money in pro basketball tho, so if you're looking for a new sport I'd try that.

Oh, I could "compete" as well. At least until the first bump.....

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I thought about basketball - but I have turf toe; when I jump I can't get my toe off the turf. :)

Speaking of basketball, wouldn't those baggy, flapping shorts be slower up and down the court? For performance sake, they should return to to those short shorts of the 70's.

"X-Game" type sports

I guess that's why? These "big air/big baggy pants" type sports seem to be aimed at the pimple face crowd. I have a hard time as seeing some of these events as legitimate Olympic sport, but then maybe I'm just getting old.

Moguls have never been in the X Games. The sport dates back to 1971. Moguls were originally in the Olympics in 1988.

The first Winter X Games were held in 1997 and did not include any skiing events.

Yeah, even the tweaked out spins during the mogul competition date back to Johnny Mosely in the 98 Nagano games. Beats the heck out of the same two tricks everybody did before that (leg spread at the first hit, left-right-left twist at the second). They robbed him when they refused to reward him for the "dinner roll" in 02, but at least they recognized their mistake and why it is now called "freestyle moguls".

The American's are actually wearing designer ski-pants that "look" like jeans. Amd they're apparently a fashion hit.

There's also supposed some discussion and good-hearted ribbing of the Canadien team for wearing "tighter" pants than others.
There's a minimum pantleg width rule in the X games (seriously) to keep it fair, and make sure everyone looks cool.

I've heard they dress this way in order to be true to their rebel, anti-establishment culture....all the while cashing in on their Nike, Gatoraide, and you name it endorsements.

"Speaking of basketball, wouldn't those baggy, flapping shorts be slower up and down the court?"

You'd think so. I never understood why the NBA adopted the gangsta rap look. It's not like the players are trying to conceal guns on the court.

Although with some of those guys, you never know.:-)

Nah they wait till they get to the locker room for that.

I think it's weird that people equate large NBA shorts with 'gangsta rap'.

When's the last time you saw a rapper wearing shorts?

It's like saying anyone who's wearing tight clothes has adopted a 'hipster look'.