If someone could explain why squash is not in, despite years of trying, that would be nice.

If someone could explain why squash is not in

because it’s booooring. That’s why.

I think I’d settle for rules that don’t allow national funding (Like the Lottery for example) if you to compete in the Olympics? Fine, knock yourself out, but it shouldn’t be used as a national flag shagging competition while whole nation’s folks are getting fatter and funding for local sports is being cut.  I think it was Finland that pretty much decided that they weren’t going to do this anymore a few years back. They never win medals anymore, but at least their population aren’t turning into literal wee human globes on legs

It’s about time they sacked off the finn or the laser two mens single-handers is unnecessary put something big in or a mixed crew or womens 470s.

Finn Vs Laser are completely different events. You couldn’t switch the sailors between them and be competitive. Just look at Ben Ainslie between 2000 and 2004. Like saying ditch the Sprint because Chris Hoy could just do the road race. They even get different interpretations of Rule 42.

470 is mixed this time round.

49er used to be mixed, is now separate men’s/women’s events.

TBH I kinda agree that sailing needs to move on from the 70s/80s when it had a boom. Change the rules so fleets have 3 Olympic cycles then then change. So the laser could be dropped in favour of an Aero, Finn for a D-One, Narca17 for something foiling. The laser (or rather the ILCA) disappeared so far up its own arse that there was actually a point before Rio when they wondered if any boats would be built for the games due to the legal bullshit between the class/builder/designer.

And bring back the keelboats/yachts and match racing! Something bigger than the dragon/star. Mixed 4 person crews. The argument for getting rid of them was cost and insufficient countries/sailors which was true. But I’m sure they could find someone to provide 4 identical 30ft boats for the publicity and not being so much about boatspeed it wouldn’t be so nesecary for countries to have a full program of training and racing built arround the class.

When I were a lad, the Olympics still pretended to be the pinnacle for amateur sport, and the World Games covered all the remaining minority sports that weren’t in the Olympics.

Now – at least as far as developed nations with sport funded medal targets – its effectively a pro competition.

The whole “bloated ” thing cuts both ways – very few countries can afford to host it without selling its soul to advertising, but it’s the only chance many kids will see some sports on TV and get inspired to give it a go. I’ve no problem learning about archery, rhythmic gymnastics etc, if they don’t interest me, I find or do something else.

Watched a bit of the opening ceremony, which was just surreal with all these nations walking out into an empty stadium. Complete with Partridge-esque enthusiastic commentary. It was just weird. But kind of entertaining. The fireworks were cool. Instead of all this boring sport, I don’t know why they don’t just have a worldwide fireworks competition. Now that would be worth watching!

think she really is rather “jolly hockey sticks”

Or jolly tennis rackets.
Or jolly ice skates.
Or jolly horse bridles.
Or jolly rugby balls.
Or jolly trooping the colour.
Or jolly dog show.
Or jolly walking boots.
Or jolly boat oars.
Or jolly royal wedding.
Or jolly running shoes.
Or jolly wheel chairs.
Or jolly diving boards.
Or jolly sailing boats.
Or jolly just about anything……

Agree with TJ and others…. Faster, further, bigger, higher…. Something that can be measured with either a tape or a stopwatch. Sports that need to be measured by judges are not sports.

No gymnastics, diving (unless they do how from how high can you jump from or how far from the edge of the pool), skateboarding, horse riding (which isn’t a sport, just a hobby for toffs).

Olympics should, imo, not include sports that require expensive items of equipment to able to participate.

Track cycling…. they all ride a standard issued bike from Decathlon that costs 150€ and not carbonium mega bikes. Let the legs to the talking. A bit like that Japanese form of cycling where all the old guys bet on.

No more taekwondo (hugging each other whilst trying to simultaneously kick each other in the back of the head has to be one of the most pathetic things to watch), jujitsu, wrestling etc…. Just have MMA. No judges. The first to tap out loses.

And what’s the deal with various weight classes? Why isn’t there a category for short legged runners? Or even slower runners?

Surfing? Biggest wave or longest run. Held on that wave in Portugal regardless of where the Olympics are held.

No guns at the Olympics.

Archery with traditional bows, not these fancy compound things with wheels that dangle after you’ve shot an arrow. Long bows. Hit a target, like a melon, at 200 yards. Kill shot or not.

But we’re also now clearly very good at synchronised sports, so we should perhaps invent new ones so we can get Golds at them at well. Synchronised shot-put, synchronised weightlifting…It would be amazing

Long bows. Hit a target, like a melon, at 200 yards. Kill shot or not.

Why longbow? Why not a Mongolian horse bow, or a yumi, or a replica of Odysseus’s bow?

At 200yds it’s an area weapon with a beaten zone, 70m is already a long way

Surfing?

Personally, I’m looking forward to Cheese Rolling and Welly Wanging being added.

Although they have to get in line behind Dodgeball.

Something that can be measured with either a tape or a stopwatch. Sports that need to be measured by judges are not sports.

I’d rather watch Simone Biles than any 100m-10000m running race any day TBH. Sports that don’t require some sort of artistic merit aren’t really sports at all, they’re just messing about in the playground.

for me a sport needs to things to really be a sport. the competitors need to put inphysical effort and it needs a ( mainly) objective scoring system

Sports that don’t require some sort of artistic merit aren’t really sports at all, they’re just messing about in the playground.

That’s Tom Pidcock and Adam Peaty put in their place

So to summaries:

Sports with rules for scoring should be dropped.

All sports should be ones you can win on an objective scale, but there should be rules, lots or rules to argue over to keep things nicely subjective.

I thought there were only three sports – hunting, shooting and fishing – and everything else was simply a game?

Faster, further, bigger, higher…. Something that can be measured with either a tape or a stopwatch.

God no. Those normal distribution curve sports are mind numbingly dull. People running around in circles or chucking something the same way, the same size, roughly the same distance. So inutterably tedious.

Ooh congratulations, you’re the freak at the end of the bell curve, fascinating. And if you weren’t then the next person would be. Great.

At least the artistic sports have a little bit of pizazz to them.

You don’t like the horse-dancing then TJ?

I don’t get why horse dancing is a thing but disco dancing isn’t. Lets be honest, this is miles better than anything presently going on in the Olympics, most of which is spirit-crushingly dull…

and it needs a ( mainly) objective scoring system

disagree. I’d much rather watch something with an element of artistic merit

At least the artistic sports have a little bit of pizazz to them.

Sports with pizzas is fine with me

If someone could explain why squash is not in, despite years of trying, that would be nice.

Is it because every remaining squash court in the UK has been converted into a soft play area? Any actual squash competition these days would have a element of leaping over the ball pit, and avoiding the 5 year old crying about being smacked in the mouth by Jayden.

The olympics would even make disco dancing boring, it managed it with skateboarding for **** sake!

I thought there were only three sports – hunting, shooting and fishing – and everything else was simply a game?

Methinks the man doth quote incorrectly…

[Fox] hunting, motor racing and mountaineering IIRC

Twain wasn’t it?
Talking of which, if they never did meet, how did he manage to have kids?

No guns at the Olympics.

Might make for interesting starts.

“Ready steady go!”?

What’s good about Olympics is the variety. Variety of sports and variety of how a medal comes about. You get interesting routes to a gold like Ben Ainsley in the finn racing at the back of the fleet to match race Christensen. Or the hard slog of a set of heats in rowing/various races. Or one shot glory in the marathon.

Its a bit pathetic claiming something you aren’t interested in isn’t a sport.

Shooting and stuff is clearly a sport as is gymnastics even the ribbon and diving is hard. Just because there is an artistic element does not remove the physical competitive element.

Sports with pizzas is fine with me

But not with the Italians:

Tokyo 2020: S Korea TV sorry for using pizza to depict Italy

Anything that is not judged with a large objective part as well can go. Rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming etc etc

This. Sorry Tom (Daley not Pidcock).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5319349/

The conclusion that even Olympic judges, who are highly qualified and experienced [34], demonstrate significant biases while scoring elite-level performances may seem surprising.

Is it because every remaining squash court in the UK has been converted into a soft play area?

I think it’s mostly because watching televised squash is a surreal experience. So because normal squash courts aren’t exactly designed for good TV, they have to have a transparent box especially made, and because of  the next problem; the ball is too small and generally moving too fast to see, you end up with the sport being essentially two competitors running about in a large transparent box, waving small bats around, trying not to run into each other but often getting in each’s way, and sweating…a lot.

But it meets tjagain’s and other’s need for objective scoring, so presumably it’s “better” than either diving or watching Simone Biles do incredible, gravity deifying things

Any actual squash competition these days would have a element of leaping over the ball pit, and avoiding the 5 year old crying about being smacked in the mouth by Jayden.

Well that just brightened up my covid-ravaged day. Thanks 😂

Back to the original question, i’m not a huge fan of Claire Balding, but she’s good for an anchor role or studio lead, but like any other lead, when they start getting too involved in the discussions it’s where they tend to annoy viewers, same with all leads though.

As for Olympic sports, i don’t really tend to bother until the athletics, although the gymnastics stuff is great to watch, everything else is usually peripheral stuff.

you end up with the sport being essentially two competitors running about in a large transparent box, waving small bats around, trying not to run into each other but often getting in each’s way, and sweating…a lot.

This is also a description of fencing..

rather watch Simone Biles

Cirque du Solei?

What about competitive juggling?

Currently trying to placate the GF and show some interest in handball. We got up to open the window and I fast forwarded it five minutes (TF it’s on replay)… Seven goals in that time!

Does seem to be a bit of “I don’t get it so it must be rubbish” on this thread, so at least it’s STW business as usual.

Diving and normal gymnastics have objective and subjective scoring ire degree of difficulty and then how well they did it. Just about acceptable to me.

Horse dancing is cruel.

You can liven a game of squash up no end by making it a doubles match. The increase in the element of danger of having two extra bodies on the court is significant 🙂

I think people either don’t understand or choose to ignore that all sports require an element of judging. Even the simplest sports like the 100 meters needs people to check the equipment used and decide whether it offers an advantage, not to mention whether someone false started or not.

Once you move into sports like cycling you have judges deciding whether the rules are being adhered to and awarding wins to riders who crossed the line second if the rider who crossed first did something illegal in the sprint.

Then you’ve got football and rugby where the referees are constantly making decisions about whether players actions are legal or not. Sure, the score is the ultimate arbitrator of who wins or losses but the referee’s judgement plays a huge role in who gets the gold.

At the far end you have sports where judges award scores based on pre-determined criteria but it’s disingenuous to say this makes it less legitimate.

Does seem to be a bit of “I don’t get it so it must be rubbish” on this thread, so at least it’s STW business as usual.

The Walking Race. I don’t get it and I am 100% convinced it is total bullshit. I have no idea why I detest this event so much and I’m sure it’s completely irrational but that’s where I stand.

For the road cycling, I’d like to see something a little different. Either

(A) make it officially a team sport whereby each national team is timed by its fastest rider only

(B) a ‘race’ where the winner is the person (or team) who spent the most time at the front. Would be a whole new set of strategies available and be dead fun to watch. Maybe allow multiple people to be considered at the front of they are within say a few meters of the leader and not slipstreaming. Kinda means the whole race is a race and not just the end.

You can liven a game of squash up no end by making it a doubles match.

You could also liven it up with the addition of a crocodile and about 3ft of water

You could also liven it up with the addition of a crocodile and about 3ft of water

The Aussie Olympics will contain surfing. Watch this space.

Horse dancing is cruel.

Is that not down to the individual trainers & so forth, as opposed to the contest itself?

Horse dancing is cruel.

I think this for me is perhaps about the only Olympic event that really does need to be stopped, and I think it probably speaks volumes about the behind the scenes lobbying that goes on to get sports into the Olympics. I know it’s part of a larger event (Jumping and evening are the other components) but this bit at least can get in the sea .

Horse dancing is cruel.

Compared to what? Keeping a dog shut in a house or kennel? Using one to herd sheep?