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

Much as I dislike boxing as a sport, it’s often our only chance of a medal most Olympics so I’m happy to leave that in. 🙂 Actually, there’s a fantastic tradition of boxing in the limpics, so I really don’t see how it could be removed.

Definitely football would be first to go for me – followed by tennis.

Hopefully golf will never be in there.

I’d have also added beach volleyball but then my mate rang me today to say he had a spare ticket so I’m happy for it to have one more shot.

Athletics and swimming. Dullest sports going. In fact, barley even sports – just robots who’ve perfected a sequence of moves.

Modern Pentathlon – there can’t be more than 50 people in the whole world who do this.

juan – simply not true. Americas cup is an ego trip for very rich people. Dinghy sailing – Olympics is the one everybody wants.

Teef – bigger than you may think although not a lot of non semi pro + participation (ie it’s not what people do at the weekend at club level for a bit of a laugh)

Still Olympics isn’t the pinnacle of sailing, America’s cup is

That is like comparing road cycling and bmx- it’s still a bike, but it’s not the same sport. The Olympics is the pinnacle of dinghy sailing.

For me, most of it should be in if it requires athleticism, even if running and swimming bore me to death, but synchro swimming doesn’t make sense and golf is not a sport, so shouldn’t be allowed in- where do you stop if you go down that line? Snooker?

Athletics and swimming. Dullest sports going. In fact, barley even sports – just robots who’ve perfected a sequence of moves.

sounds like you are describing cycling to me

Yep, road cycling, certainly. Bit more variation to mtb.

Hopscotch is my pet hate. Just because we had that Jonathan Edwards and now we’ve got Philips Idowu who aren’t good enough at long jump, we’re all supposed to get excited by it.

“golf is not a sport, so shouldn’t be allowed in- where do you stop if you go down that line? Snooker”

A pretty good line to draw would be this definition of a sport.

A sport is only a sport if you need specialized footwear to play.

So sorry that means golf is a sport… but agreed shouldn’t be as it’s in not the pinnacle

Snooker/darts/shooting/archery you can do in your everyday shoes or indeed in your slippers…. So never in or should be thrown out.

“if running and swimming bore me to death,”

So you don’t like racing?

So MTB just has more sequences of moves to perfect then?
not sure you are even correct i would imagine a road biker has to do all the things a MTB has
Shift weight, steer round corners have some technique, balance,braking etc – have you seen cobbles in the wet?
Can you think of a sport where you can be a world beater and yet not proficient at the techniques[sequence of moves]?
Ro5ey – swimming is not a sport as it violates your shoes rule

TBH you could do all sports without changing your shoes but just worse…and you you just made ten pin Bowling and tap dancing sports

Any sport where less than 75% of participating countries take part in said sport (and horsey dancing).

Well there’s quite a bit of furore in the Saiing world right now over the exclusion of Windsurfing in favour of Kitesurfing a bit earlier than expected.

Lots of nations will get excluded in favour of a new sport that hasn’t really got itself established yet in a bit of a politically and probably financially motivated decision by ISAF, and there are suggestions that the old sailing classes should have been dropped instead since they are fairly discriminatory (i.e sex, body weight etc).

A sport is only a sport if you need specialized footwear to play.

So no sport where competitors are bare foot then…

Honestly, I wouldn’t drop any sports (except taekwondo) from the games IF the emphasis in TV coverage was to shift. So used to them showing days and days and days of track and field, and then the odd 2 minute montage of some fencing or judo.

(I would like to see them reintroduce running in full hoplite armour and shield though – specially some hurdling like that!)

Athletics and swimming. Dullest sports going. In fact, barley even sports – just robots who’ve perfected a sequence of moves.

If they’re so easy, how come you’re not competing?

Modern Pentathlon – there can’t be more than 50 people in the whole world who do this.

I just had a look on the website. 273 apparently, so pretty much in the right ball-park.

It appears to be in the Olympics, because some Baron who founded the modern Olympics invented it.
And more importantly it uses sport venues required by existing proper sports and thus costs bugger all for the Olympics to host.

Ok … specialized footwear means not your everyday shoes… and everyday shoes aren’t trainers, they are shoes a Vicar would wear 🙂

Not sure how Micheal Phelps would get on trying to go sub 50sec for 100m free with a pair of Clark’s finest on.

And people is just a bit of fun and like any rule…. it has exceptions

(I would like to see them reintroduce running in full hoplite armour and shield though – specially some hurdling like that!)

“Reintroduce”??? The Greeks ran naked… which might be a plan, I suppose. YMMV.

273 in Pentathalon? Bugger me, I know the team who’s off to the Olympics, I guess due to that I thought there were more around. That’d have to be part of the criteria of selection I’d have thought, if there less than x number world wide, they’re out.

I’ll still be supporting them mind!

the judging in gymnastics is about style, and it’s clear what the style marks are for (as they are looking for particular moves that count as style), but they are mostly about technical difficulty. So do something hard and look good doing it scores more than an easy move done badly (or not as well) and the judges are pretty experienced, so everyone is cool with it.

I watched the Bejing olympics in France on holiday in a villa that was owned by some dutch people, their TV was tuned to dutch TV, and the coverage was mostly 2 weeks of Judo!!

We watched the 1992 Olympics in France, the TV coverage was entirely sports that the French were doing well in. So judo, 3 day eventing and some kind of sailing. With a quick cut to the 100m finals as a concession.

I like the megathlon idea. One person from each country who has to enter 30 or so events, and only two from related disciplines like 100/200m etc

They’d be crap at some of it, but it’d be fun to watch! May I be the first to volunteer? I’ll take shooting and synchronised swimming for starters.

Molly I don’t think you’d last 30 secs on a Swim syncro routine, but it would be funny to watch 😆

A sport is only a sport if you need specialized footwear to play.

So sorry that means golf is a sport… but agreed shouldn’t be as it’s in not the pinnacle

Clarify for me why there is a ‘need’ for specialist footwear in golf? Why wouldn’t a pair of trainers be good enough?

Not stable enough when taking shots. Golf shoes have spikes.

Molly I don’t think you’d last 30 secs on a Swim syncro routine, but it would be funny to watch

That’s my point 🙂

From Torq’s article:

Why would you ever need an electrolyte-containing beverage that has no carbohydrate? My answer is NEVER. If the exercise is intense and prolonged enough to require electrolytes, it also requires carbohydrate.

Nuun tablets are quite popular on here aren’t they?

Never mind what sports shouldn’t be in the Olympics…

We’ve all seen this, right? Spice Girls content…

Never mind what sports shouldn’t be in the Olympics…

We’ve all seen this, right? Spice Girls content…

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After watching the offical clip on youtube I really think it should be only sport where the gold medal is the ultimate achievement.
That rules out any spoil kid sport like tennis, wendyball, basketball, and most for sure GOLF!!!