I feel the Olympics should just be sports that are not mainstream.

Golf, Basketball, Tennis, Soccer --- sports like this should not be in the Olympics. These sports have events outside of the Olympics that I consider to be better. Baseball and Softball are coming back in 2020, and I am not excited about that.

Leave all the other sports that don't get as much attention on a regular basis in.

I'd vote for anything with another major (as in, world renowned like super bowl, World Series, Fifa cup, etc) championship already. Baseball (back in 2020), basketball, soccer, even road cycling. I get board seeing the same people racing just with another name on their chest.

However I know Olympic gold has a certain pull and weight for a lot of athletes. Plus, those sports draw huge crowds. I just enjoy the more obscure sports more because I don't see them as often.

I think the Olympics should include only the sports where winning an Olympic Gold is the highest achievement one can have.

Nobody grows up with dreams to win a gold medal playing basketball or golf or tennis. They want to win the NBA title, and major championships.

A wrestler that has Olympic Gold aspirations truly can't win anything higher than an Olympic Gold. I think that is how it should be.

I say remove anything that is judged. To me that is not a sport, it is an exhibition. I'm not saying those who partake in them (gymnastics, diving) aren't incredible athletes but who wins is based on opinion... for the most part. It's horse shit.

Anything involving a horse.

Oh and "extreme" sports... anything in the X-games shouldn't be in the Olympics.

The only reason to have the pro athletes from real pro sports like basketball, tennis, road cycling etc is they bring eyeballs to the Olympics. That's not going to go away. I don't see a problem with the Olympics being "too big". Who cares, if someone else wants to organize them and go into debt with the cost of the big party so that you and I can watch free sport, then more power to them. A bunch of companies make money off our eyeballs, we get entertained and a local host city goes into debt, but no one is asking them to go into debt and they (collectively) keep doing it.

It's a great spectacle that someone else pays for. How is this not good for everyone else? Its a great cultural, sporting, business, political and social event for all of humanity on someone else's coin...and some guys at Lausanne get really rich.

I hear you there. I hate to even say it because the divers, gymnasts, etc are truly incredible athletes. However when winning or losing comes down to a collective subjective opinion rather than pure objectivity, is it really a sport? I realize all of those things have objective elements in their scoring, but in the end there are going to be a handful of athletes who don't make "mistakes" that lead to deductions, and a winner somehow has to be chosen among them.

I generally dislike the olympics due to many of these points. It really does put a lot of host cities in a bind financially and that's just downright sad.

But in a hypocrite because I will have my eyes glued to a few events. Just wish they were out in in a smarter way without the hole host city thing.

Golf is not a sport, it is a game and while some of its best players are athletic, they are not athletes. Olympic gold in golf is probably the sixth or seventh greatest achievement in the game after the four majors, players championship and ryder cup. And as we have seen, most of the best players have elected not to participate in the olympics. And I'm saying this as an avid golfer. It is not a sport.

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A false humanity is used to impose its opposite, by people whose cruelty is equalled only by their arrogance

I say remove anything that is judged.

I thought this same thing for the longest time, but I've given it some thought, and the line is too gray for me. That eliminates boxing, wrestling, weightlifting, judo, and many others. Then one could argue that every sport has some level of being judged with all the officials.

Golf is not a sport, it is a game


Well good thing it's called the Olympic Games then.

:)

Trampoline. It's gotta go. We have gymnastics already.

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The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

All swimming other than freestyle. No problem with all the distances although there are far too many.

It's the equivalent of getting a gold medal for running backwards, or sideways, or in some peculiar type which is slower than actually running properly.

Can you imagine an event on the track where you run one lap backwards, another sideways, then another jumping?

Swimming is a joke sport. Who invented butterfly? Madness. It's just a sport for dodgy men to train little girls to swim in stupid ways up and down a pool.

Abolish all the rubbish strokes just swim as fast as you can for an agreed distance and who cares if most of it is under water.

Something like this;

Archery
Badminton
Basketball
Beach volleyball
Boxing
Canoe slalom
Canoe sprint
Cycling - BMX
Cycling - Mountain bike
Cycling - Road
Cycling - Track
Diving
Equestrian
Fencing
Field hockey
Golf
Gymnastics
Handball
Judo
Marathon swimming
Modern pentathlon
Rhythmic gymnastics
Rowing
Rugby sevens
Sailing
Shooting
Soccer
Swimming
Synchronized swimming
Table tennis
Taekwondo
Tennis
Track & field
Trampoline
Triathlon
Volleyball
Water polo
Weightlifting
Wrestling

Obviously you young folks weren't around for one of the most memorable sporting events in history! When USA won the hockey gold medal in a contest known as the "Miracle on Ice!". That hockey team had the attention of the world that year. I don't like hockey myself, but I watched that game back in 1980!

The viewing public would go bonkers if you removed gymnastics. I wouldn't mind seeing trampoline go away though.

I'm also not a fan of fencing in its current state. Watch some of that... it's usually just who can lunge the quickest.

Hockey is the only mainstream sport that I would be in favor of keeping in. There are so many good countries in that sport, it's always a good competition.

When USA basketball wins by 50 points a game, who wants to watch that?

Couldn't agree more!

One exception, modern pentathlon. Probably the highest achievement is the Olympics because it was basically created when the modern olympics started but it's just a sport that makes you think... why???

I think we should make them real swords and see who is so quick to lunge in then....

All fighting sports should be in the Olympics. Poofters who can't fight do poofter sports.

That said, all the weight divisions in fighting sports like boxing or wrestling should be abolished. Open weight only. Small men who weigh something daft like under 90 kilos can do some sort of endurance sport, or ballroom dancing.

equestrian...this is about human ability.

You ever rode a horse?

I like most of dogmile's list. I would leave the martial arts in there though, and I like equestrian and sailing but that's just me.

Rio will take care of marathon swimming heh.