Mike. Did you catch their speed skating, long tack, in the Olympics? Outstanding.

There are good risks and bad risks. Not wearing a helmet promotes what exactly? I crashed on my bike a lot growing up precisely because I took some risks while racing around the yard with my siblings and friends... Fortunately I was always wearing a helmet.

Yes I did - and emailed my congratulations to Dutch friends.

Dutch excellence in ice skating has its roots in a combination of colder North European winters centuries ago and abundant canals - more than a hundred in Amsterdam alone. In my Long Journey To Destiny I set several scenes on the canals including two ice skating scenes,one of them on the frozen and famed Prinsengracht Canal.

We see childhood differently. To me, learning to risk builds confidence and a sense of adventure. For some years we lived on a street surrounded by a deep, horseshoe shaped ravine. I bought my sons climbing claws and ropes and let them go. One of my sons became a sponsored skateboarder; I didn't insist on a helmet. When my sons reached 14 I bought them a moped and didn't require helmets. Injuries? Yes. But the most serious injury incurred was in a soccer game - a cracked pelvis. Today's parents? To me they are way too protective.

I never wore a helmet as a kid (maybe that explains a lot), because they didn't exist. Now that I'm older, if I ride, I wear a helmet, and I always had my kids do the same.

Getting back to my earlier point, which fact best explains the over 50% reduction in head injuries?
1. Kids riding bikes less often
2. Construction of millions of dollars of bike trails
3. Parents mandating that their kids wear helmets
4. Better helmet designs
5. City run biker safety training program

The biker safety program may or may not have done some good, but if you don't adjust the data for the number of  bikers, and the time they spend riding, you will never know. The same will apply to football. If they design better headgear, and implement rules against "targetting", they may make the game safer, but if at the same time, you see a 30% increase in the number of plays, you may never know if they other things actually accomplished some good.

The problem is, I don't think there is much "teaching" to it. Many of today's parents now require their kids to strap on a bicycle helmet when they ride. But that act is not in itself "teaching" anything. In fact, the helmet may embolden the kid to do more crazy stunts. Often the helmets don't fit properly. They are not worn properly. They are damaged or worn out. Ultimately, they give a false sense of security--to the kid and the parents.

Bottom line, if you want to raise your kids by requiring them to wear a bicycle helmet, have at it.

With the possibility that you might become a dad, let me pose some questions:
* Would you buy a son climbing claws and ropes and let him go to a steep-sided ravine? Alone?
* Would you buy a 14-year-old son a moped?
* Would you let him become a sponsored skateboarder - and travel the country unaccompanied?
* How would you react to a child who wanted to volunteer Army?

Of course, I don't want to see kids suffer brain injuries, but I do want to see kids take on real risk. The one head injury suffered by one of my sons was a scalp gash that required stitches - and resulted from playing touch football. Today's helicopter parents might require kids to wear helmets while playing touch football.

When I see tikes on bikes with training wheels and wearing a helmet, I feel sad for the tike. BTW my one granddaughter learned to ride not with training wheels but on a "balance bike" - no pedals. Spills? Yes.

I happen to believe strongly that letting kids take on real risk confers multiple lifetime benefits. Do I expect all parents - or parents to be - to agree? Of course not.

I think everyone expected that to happen. It wasn't supposed to be up for discussion until March 6th, but they withdrew it from consideration since comments were overwhelmingly against it, and a survey of coaches showed that they were also overwhelmingly against it.

I suspect we'll see the idea return in some form or other, but I probably next time around there will be some discussion of it before it appears, and it will appear in a form more acceptable to everyone, and with some data that supports the idea that whatever change they propose will actually reduce injuries.