Oympic sport "contested"

[Laurence Horn]

I just heard the announcer for the biathlon, describe how the
erstwhile leader in the competition after the second round of
shooting, the Austrian Kristof Sumann, "normally one of the fastest
skiers in the field, was just decimated by Martin Fourcade of
France".  The purists will want to know which tenth of him Fourcade
destroyed.

LH

>At 4:12 PM -0500 2/21/10, Eric Nielsen wrote:sThis seems an unusual
>use of "contested".
>
>Skeleton returned to the Olympics in 2002 after a 54-year hiatus. The sport
>was previously contested in both 1928 and 1948, the two times the Winter
>Games were held in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The resort town in the Swiss
>Alps is widely considered birthplace of the sport. So when the Olympics came
>to St. Moritz, skeleton was added to the Olympic program and contested on
>the famed Cresta Run in St. Moritz. Only a men's event was held. Since the
>Winter Games never returned to St. Mortiz, skeleton never returned to the
>Olympic program.
>
>http://www.nbcolympics.com/skeleton/insidethissport/history/newsid=260523.html#skeleton+history
>
>Eric
>
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org