[Closed] Have we done that: sports that shouldn't be in the Olympics?

All of them, none of them are really amateur any more!

Pretty much all the track and field athletes earn their livings through their sport.

We'd be left with Archery and Speed Walking if we had an 'amateurs only' rule.

Any sport where an Olympic gold is not considered the greatest achievement possible.

Anything that involves Horses.

Higher, farther, faster. Anything that requires "style" points is not a sport and so should not be at the Olympics.

Synchronised swimming.

I reckon Tug o War should replace it.

Athletics, all of them!

Clearly any sport where the decision on who 'wins' relies on the arbitrary awarding of points by a panel of judges, rather than an actual measurable comparison between competitors (furthest/fastest/highest)

We'd be left with Archery and Speed Walking if we had an 'amateurs only' rule.

They'd walk a damn sight faster if the archers were allowed to target them
You could set the walkers off mincing and give them 20 or 30 seconds head start

In my book anything that involves a panel of judges awarding points for how well something is executed shouldn't be an Olympic sport, far too subjective for me. So that's show jumping, synchronised swimming and diving (imagine if diving was just, who could get from the diving board into the water the quickest!).

road racing

If you take the road race out you'll need to lose the mountain biking too.

and the track cycling.

Anything that requires "style" points is not a sport and so should not be at the Olympics.

+1

Then anything where equipment technology is a factor and expensive gear rules out level competition from many countries. Cycling, yachting, all the winter games, anything with horses. Get back to track and field, boxing, etc.

show jumping doesn't get style points, it's who knocks down the least fences in the fastest time.

Horsey dancing is a different matter.

Higher, farther, faster. Anything that requires "style" points is not a sport and so should not be at the Olympics.

This. And things like "speed walking" seem to be a bit weird. if you want to go somewhere fast, run.

BruceWee - Member

Any sport where an Olympic gold is not considered the greatest achievement possible.

fair point that.

If you take the road race out you'll need to lose the mountain biking too

I'll be first to say synchronised swimming, as despite the effort and training which undoudtedly has to be put in, it is no different to say ballroom dancing IMO.

I think tennis, football, basketball too as they have been 'pro' too long and have their own more important events for the Olympics to be of any real value. IMO they are not really 'in the spirit' of The Games......if that still has any relevance in the highly commercial jamoboree it has been for a very long time!

EDIT - what Zulu said re style points is spot on but removing any assessment by judges would cause a problem with diving and gymnastics!

Replace all with Whinging, Moaning, Crying Foul play (cause the other guy was actually better), Forum Trolling and Strava racing (save a lot of time and money on stadiums and air fairs.

Also Selling sole to the highest bidder (sort of fishy game)

Is boxing the only sport in the Olympics that pros aren't allowed to compete in? I wonder why they're not. It's weird.

They'd walk a damn sight faster if the archers were allowed to target them
You could set the walkers off mincing and give them 20 or 30 seconds head start

Please clean the tea of my keyboard 🙂

Then anything where equipment technology is a factor and expensive gear rules out level competition from many countries. Cycling, yachting, all the winter games, anything with horses.

You could still have those, just make the competitors use supplied kit

I wonder why they're not. It's weird.

ou could still have those, just make the competitors use supplied kit

Well for sure you won't have pro any more 😉

Clearly any sport where the decision on who 'wins' relies on the arbitrary awarding of points by a panel of judges, rather than an actual measurable comparison between competitors (furthest/fastest/highest)

Agreed.

"Don't agree, as the biggest achievement in road cycling is winning the tour de France. "

would never have guessed you were french.

Is boxing the only sport in the Olympics that pros aren't allowed to compete in? I wonder why they're not. It's weird.

Probably because all the people that control the sport are pretty much gangsters [probably 🙂 ]

BMX and mountain biking.

theotherjonv - yes, that's what I meant, horsey dancing!

would never have guessed you were french

LOL but it is true :D, biggest cyclist event (after the BBB) look at the number of thread said compare to the giro or la vuelta

Golf and football.

Going to go against everyone else and say that I do think that sports where points are awarded should be in the games.

Amateur boxing is a good Olympic sport yet the points allocation is just as subjective as Gymnastics, diving, etc.

Clearly any sport where the decision on who 'wins' relies on the arbitrary awarding of points by a panel of judges

Baseball, Tennis, football from current Olympics.

Rugby 7s, Golf from the 2016 in Rio.

sailing

Anything that involves Horses

This.

And football. Tennis. Road cycling. Mountain biking.

Higher, farther, faster. Anything that requires "style" points is not a sport and so should not be at the Olympics.

Agreed.

And anything that's decided by a panel of judges - synchronised swimming, diving, figure skating ... a proper Olympic sport should be measurable by something definitive like time, distance, height, weight etc.

[i]Well I am not sure pro boxing is about boxing anymore...[/i]

Most of it still is (to the actual boxers anyway).. but what's to stop a pro-boxer fighting in the Olympics to amateur rules? I'm pretty sure they're not allowed.

Nare dezb, they are just too crap. One boxing match every now and again, vs a whole day of constant fighting...

Sweeping generalisation there Juan! You're thinking of the Kitschkos 😉

I think the olympics lost its amateur ethos a while ago. If we removed all the sport where the competitor are completly amateur thay would be anything left.

I agree that any sport where Olympic Gold isn't the highest honour should be ditched.

So football and tennis straight away, probably baseball and basketball too. Golf isn't an olympic sport yet but its going to be introduced, this is just daft!

Road Cycling - hmm not sure. You can't really compare winning a grand tour to winning a single race. The nearest equivalent is the world champ road race. Ask Spartacus he has won both, ask Cav if he would swap his rainbow stripes for an olympic gold.

As for points scoring I can see the er... point but who can deny that gymanstics is a great olympic discipline with a strong history

Singletrack have the right idea with their weekender. Keep all the usual sports in, but make it so each country can only enter 4 athletes, 2 men, 2 women who must enter every sport. Sir Chris Hoy, you are an epic cyclist, but I challenge you to excel in rhythmic ballet!

Golf isn't an olympic sport yet but its going to be introduced, this is just daft!

Totally agree-the only way to make golf a viable Olympic sport is to ensure the field is made up of amateurs which would mean an Olympic medal would be up there with the highest amateur honours.

Olympic TKD. Club tkd I've seen looks right but the Olympic version looks like Skippy v Another Skippy at best. Just weird.

Generally I'd make it an amateurs only event. Don't see how pro golf, tennis, footy, runners etc truly represent the Olympic ideal.

Thinking about the issue of sports where points are awarded perhaps the problem with synchronised swimming is that to the average observer it looks like the points are awarded purely for aesthetic reasons rather than technical reasons. So a gymnast or diver gets points for technical execution and this can be made less subjectives, you just need to codify what that is.