Which sports/events do you think should be dropped/included?

[DiCe!]

Havnt read the whole thread but included SQUASH. How isnt it in there?!

 

[Creature]

Out: Football, Dressage (the other 2 are ok), Sychronised Swimming.

In: Dodgeball.

 

[Skeeter]

Havnt read the whole thread but included SQUASH. How isnt it in there?!

Perhaps there isn't much interest globally for it? But I think it should be there.

It was in the short list for additions to the Rio games, but lost out to golf and rugby 7s.

 

[Amp34]

The whole pompous and toff thing is highlighted by the fact that Zara Phillips is one of the competitors in the dressage. I just don't like that it's a pursuit that excludes so many people due to the prohibitive costs involved, making it very elitist. I went out with a girl a couple of years ago who did competitive showjumping. Her horse alone cost over £10,000, and that was apparently quite reasonable for a talented, young horse!

One of the brilliant things about most sports is that they are so accessible and affordable. That leads to the most skillful and determined athletes competing, not the richest like in the equestrian events!

Like track cycling (£20k bikes), rowing (£20k boats), Sailing (several £k)? There are plenty of events that technically cost a fortune to enter, should we get rid of them too? While we're at it why not just het rid of the athletics track as well, get cross country running and sprinting instead, pool swimming can be changed to races in the sea/river. That would make everything accessible. Most sports at the olympics cost a lot of money to get good at, doesn't mean they aren't sports.

All those wanting to get rid of the equestrian events, what about modern pentathlon? Also I question the heptathlon giving us the "greatest all round athlete", depends really, all it really gives you is the best all round runner and thrower, what about cycling, swimming, rowing?

IMO there should be a new event that includes something like:

100m run
1500m run
100m swim
800m swim
1 track cycle event (pursuit)
1 road time trial
1 equestrian event
Javlin
Long Jump
Shooting/archery
single sculls rowing event

Call it the modern decathlon (although may have to remove a sport there!)

Get rid of Football and Tennis, Golf should just not be in it at all. I'd also suggest getting rid of Basketball (although there is no real world event for it other than the olympics so...), softball (although that has been removed now some are trying to reinstate it) and one volleyball (the proper one IMO as it is more boring to watch, not just because there are more clothes!). I'd also suggest cutting the number of swimming events and make them more varied so there are more winners.

Add in rugby sevens, possibly 5 aside football (how big an international sport is it though?), squash is a good call too.

I'm not sure climbing would really work as an olympic sport, either you need a big cliff nearby which would probably be either on the coast or in the middle of nowhere making spectating awkward, or it would have to be up a very tall building to get any real time spent climbing*

*I love climbing

 

[Amp34]

Out:

Anything with horses
Back stroke
Breast stroke
Butterfly
Speed Walking
Football
Syncronised Swimming
Syncronised Diving


In:

Squash

Did you know, in this equality olympics (all women able to compete in all sports me can compete in), men aren't allowed synchronises swimming teams, even though there are plenty of championships that allow both!

 

[Skeeter]

Are there enough male syncronised teams globally to make a competition out of it? Its one of the reasons Netball isn't in it. While there are male teams, they are very few and far between.

Basketball is an odd one. The Olympics is the only global stage for it, but because of that, it means its dominated by the USA every year.

I do actually really like that Modern Decathlon idea.

I agree, don't really see why Golf is in? Are they building a specific course for it in Rio?

 

[Amp34]

Cricket doesn't have enough participants really, there are only maybe 20 nations in the world that play it to any sort of standard (and half of those aren't competitive really). Football is played by the majority.

To answer the question I think Squash should be included, shame it isn't as a friend of mine is ranked inside the top10 in the country so might have stood a chance of competing.

Handball
Basketball
Volleyball
Softball (not in this year)

All aren't exactly worldwide sports but are still in the olympics. Most countries would be able to field a cricket team, even if they weren't very good, much like the above four.

 

[Skeeter]

Handball and Volleyball are huge, just not in the UK.

Softball or Baseball is massive in the Americas (mainly North and South).

 

[Racerdude]

I thought mixed martial arts would be good but let's be honest it's too brutal for the Olympics they would ruin what makes mma fun to watch.

 

[Amp34]

It's still a piece of 'equipment' that has a very significant impact.

While I respect that a good rider on a bad horse will out perform a bad rider on a good horse, I still feel it lacks the pure human skill element.

Not everyone competes on the same horse, so its clearly a variable.

One of the volleyballs needs to go. Bring in squash or something?

And you don't think any other olympic sport equipment has the same impact?

The swimming makes the news because of clothing that gives advantages and the British cycling coaches specifically said they debuted a lot of new equipment at the olympics so the IOC couldn't ban it! I'm sure the same could be said for a lot of sports, they aren't just about the human either but the equipment they are using.

Oh and another change, remove Judo (bunch of people rolling around on the floor, isn't that wrestling...?) and add something like Karate so we get some proper action and more interesting spectator sport (basically boxing but in shorter more energetic bouts including feet as well as hands).

EDIT: And the Archery/shooting complaints. They have been in the olympics since THE BEGINNING, not just the modern event but the ancient Greek one. May as well get rid of the marathon as well then!

 

[Skeeter]

And you don't think any other olympic sport equipment has the same impact?

The swimming makes the news because of clothing that gives advantages and the British cycling coaches specifically said they debuted a lot of new equipment at the olympics so the IOC couldn't ban it! I'm sure the same could be said for a lot of sports, they aren't just about the human either but the equipment they are using.

But all those equipment options are available to everyone. And most sports where there is equipment involved have strict specifications to keep them the same.

Not everyone rides the same horse. If one rider has a brilliant horse, its an equipment advantage that isn't available to all other competitors.

 

[Amp34]

Are there enough male syncronised teams globally to make a competition out of it? Its one of the reasons Netball isn't in it. While there are male teams, they are very few and far between.

Basketball is an odd one. The Olympics is the only global stage for it, but because of that, it means its dominated by the USA every year.

I do actually really like that Modern Decathlon idea.

I agree, don't really see why Golf is in? Are they building a specific course for it in Rio?

Olympic and World Championship competition is not open to men, but other international and national competitions allow male competitors. Both USA Synchro and Synchro Canada allow men to compete with women. – Most European countries allow men to compete also, France even allows male only podiums, according to the number of participants. In the past decade more men are becoming involved in the sport and a global biannual competition called Men's Cup has been steadily growing.

from wiki. At the very least then synchronised swimming shouldn't be an olympic sport (which I'd go with anyway, alongside rhythmic gymnastics (the one with the ribbons...))

 

[Skeeter]

Just because they are allowed to compete, it doesn't mean there would be enough teams to fill a male only event.

But yeah, I agree, it would be better if it wasn't in it at all.

 

[Amp34]

But all those equipment options are available to everyone. And most sports where there is equipment involved have strict specifications to keep them the same.

Not everyone rides the same horse. If one rider has a brilliant horse, its an equipment advantage that isn't available to all other competitors.

Not in the slightest, as I (and the GB cycling coaches) said in cycling the equipment is certainly not available to everyone, team GB spent a significant amount of time and money researching it to give them a competitive advantage. I do however think that an argument for one standard bike handed out at the beginning of the olympic event is very strong. They do that for the horses in the modern Pentathlon and I think the same in the sailing and windsurfing.

 

[Azza]

Basketball is an odd one. The Olympics is the only global stage for it, but because of that, it means its dominated by the USA every year.

FIBA World Championships


Just gets zero coverage over here much like a lot of sports and their major events.

 

[Skeeter]

Not in the slightest, as I (and the GB cycling coaches) said in cycling the equipment is certainly not available to everyone, team GB spent a significant amount of time and money researching it to give them a competitive advantage. I do however think that an argument for one standard bike handed out at the beginning of the olympic event is very strong. They do that for the horses in the modern Pentathlon and I think the same in the sailing and windsurfing.

I imagine the bike development is still within a set of fairly strict regulations though. Its not like they can turn up with bigger wheels or something

But the thing with horses is they are trained an bread like athletes. Just look at racing. You don't bet on the jocky and ignore the horse.

How about flipping it the other way. If the best rider in the world looses out on a medal because their horse gets spooked and refuses to jump a fence, is that fair?

Maybe they should put the horse on the podium too and treat them as a team .

 

[Amp34]

What happens if your chain snaps 3 seconds after leaving the start on an olympic time trial? You end up 30 seconds down before you start, same with a lot of the sports. "equipment" malfunction is par for the course, although there are a few sports that have a some options open for you (like rowing at first 100m).

 

[Skeeter]

Equipment malfunction is not the same as equipment advantage.

I've just turned the show jumping on, and all you are hearing from the commentary team are "What a lovely horse", "This horse is a joy to watch", "A once in a lifetime horse this", "One of the best horses in the world".

But then at the end of the day, it won't be the horse that gets the medal, its the rider.

You cannot argue that the horse is not a massive variable in the performance of the rider. It would be like turning up to tennis with a bigger racket, or shooting arrows at a bigger target.

 

[C64]

Just stop playing chariots of fire and i'll be happy

 

[PhilthyPhil]

Not in the slightest, as I (and the GB cycling coaches) said in cycling the equipment is certainly not available to everyone, team GB spent a significant amount of time and money researching it to give them a competitive advantage. I do however think that an argument for one standard bike handed out at the beginning of the olympic event is very strong. They do that for the horses in the modern Pentathlon and I think the same in the sailing and windsurfing.

This is not actually true anymore. There is a new rule that the equipment has to be made publicly available. You can therefore buy exactly the same bike that is used in the Olympics. However they are very expensive and built to order. Have a look here http://www.uksport.gov.uk/pages/cycling/ There are no prices listed but I think it would be about £20k for a complete bike.