clearly not!
oh so the fact that he is Portuguese makes him an expert on Europe? Have not heard of any great portuguese fencers maybe they are all out of shape 
Curling is idiotic and should not be in the Olympics. That is not a sport. Maybe itâs a skill, but any sport that requires beer drinking at the end of participation should not be in the Olympics. Should Darts, Pool, Fishing, Hunting be in the Olympics?
Youâre going to confuse a lot of hashers
Part of the Olympic tradition is showcasing sports that donât have huge popular followings already. . . . Water Polo?
Hey now! Step away from the Water Polo! Huge in europe and much bigger in the US than ever before, particularly with the addition of the womens.
(sorta protective of that particular ox;-))
Not to mention they are the most fit athletes in the olympics!! ⌠(according to my water polo coach a few years ago⌠ha⌠so yeah, who knows how accurate that isâŚ)
Beer league status also applies to baseball, basketball, and ice hockey. And I donât see anyone asking to take basketball out. Though sad as it is for me to say it, I really donât think womenâs ice hockey honestly meets the criteria that a sport be widely played since about 80-90% of participants worldwide come from two countries.
The throwing events stay. Theyâve been a part of âathleticsâ in one form or another essentially since the ancient games.
Water polo stays, and those players would rip you into a bloody pulp if you suggested that it wasnât a large enough sport. (And thatâs just the womenâs teams) Theyâre also a keep because of the significance of menâs water polo in Olympic history. Google blood in the water and polo.
I reckon a sport shouldnât be in the Olympics if winning the Olympics isnât seen as the ultimate achievement for all participants of that sport, or at least has a decent shot of becoming so.
On that basis, soccer and tennis should go for sure - the Olympics is never going to compare to the World Cup or the grand slam tournaments. If the World Series was global in nature as well as name then Iâd bin baseball as well, but I suppose there are countries where baseball is huge (Japan?) that donât play in the World Series so maybe it makes it in on that basis. All the sports you mentioned are huge in certain countries and the Olympics is certainly the ultimate achievement in them so Iâd keep them.
Personally, I donât like any of the sports where the winner is decided by a judge and not by a stopwatch, measuring tape, number of goals scored, etc - synchronised swimming, gymnastics, diving, etc. Even a bit dubious about the boxing at times, although reverting to the winner being the last man standing might be a bit non-PC.
Personally, I donât like any of the sports where the winner is decided by a judge
You mean, like the winner of the Tour de France?
Also - you are aware that each Oly has âexhibitionâ sports - I think they are up to the host country committee. Perhaps some more favored sports can be made standard âexhibitionâ sports?
IIRC, they cut out doing any demonstration sports after the 1992 Olympics due to size issues. Beijing has gotten permission to hold an unofficial (non-medal) wushu competition, but they donât do demonstration sports anymore, the rationale being that they already have their own international championships.
The Olympics actually have a cap of 28 events (Although each event can be subdivided, such as âAquaticsâ covering all swimming/diving, athletics covering all track and field events, etc.). I believe London only has 26 slated, so they have two open slots.
The ones that I could see being dropped in the future from the Summer Games are Trampoline Gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics. Not sure why they arenât subdivisions of gymnastics, syncro swimming is a subdivision of aquaticsâŚ
John
I was going to answer a similar responseâŚ
Fred.
Archery, Handball, Hammer Throw, Javelin, Discus Throw, Shot Put, and Fencing.
Iâd agree generally that there are a few supsect Olympic âsportsâ but your list does not include any of them.
Each one of your listed sports (except handball) has stood the test of time, being around for at least 4000 years. (Fencing is the newest, swords being invented about 3000 BC - Archery has been around since about 20,000 BC) They have all been, in addition to tools of war, staples of friendly competion since before recorded history.
Letâs see if Triathlon is still around in the 6008 games
`There are also many worldwide popular sport that are in the World Games rather than the Olympics - http://www.worldgames-iwga.org/ - including KORFBALL!
There are several âsportsâ that have been dropped from olympic competition including Tug-o-war (for obvious reasons) and polo (for less obvious reasons). But I am completely baffled why the IOC keeps sports that are not popular like Archery, Handball, Hammer Throw, Javelin, Discus Throw, Shot Put, and Fencing. Really, are these even sports? I am not questioning whether or not the olympians in these events are not great athletes, or that they havenât worked extremely hard and giving up everything to compete in these events, but are these really sports that people do? Maybe these sports are really popular in other countries, but it just seems to me that these sports have seen better days.
What a level of ignorance. The world of Olympics does not spin around sports that are popular in United States.
âYou really need to travel more and see these sports from outside the US.â
Donât say stupid stuff like this. America is the land of one million sports. That is our life. That is why athletes from around the world strive to come to America to play sports. Because we support and love these sports unlike the rest of the world. I have been around the world 15 times and never heard on BBC or any Asian news station about how Joe Blow threw a discus today. Give up on the America bashing. Weâre more passionate about sports than any country in the world. Just because we donât kill each other when our one soccer team loses doesnât unqualify us as passionate. Or maybe we should throw bananas on the basketball court like you do in Italy during soccer matches at the black players? WOuld that make us better fans? Or more worldly? Or more accepting? Or more full of culture?
I hate this conversation. But I hate even more when âoutsidersâ take cheap shots at americans. We love sports and are more knowledgable about sports than any country in the world, and I can prove that. You canât. And if an American wants to see a sport removed from the Olympics, whether they are right or wrong, they are better informed than you.
If we keep applying various criteria for eliminating sports, we could whittle it down to just the 400 meter run. Then we could all watch more of American Gladiator instead of silly things like men throwing sticks around. And once there is a European Gladiator (or is there already?) we could then add a second event. End sarcasm.
You did realize that shot put, discus and javelin are all part of the decathlon, right?
"The throwing events stay. Theyâve been a part of âathleticsâ in one form or another essentially since the ancient games. "
Hereâs another thing about tradition⌠Mormons had it in their bible that it was cool to have multiple wives. Just because itâs tradition doesnât make it right or necessary.
Zonie: How exactly do you measure or verify some of your statements:
âwe support and love these sports unlike the rest of the worldâ
âWeâre more passionate about sports than any country in the worldâ
âWe love sports and are more knowledgable about sports than any country in the worldâ
âThat is why athletes from around the world strive to come to America to play sportsâ
BTWâŚI am AmericanâŚjust think that should know that other people donât just bash Americans, they bash people who would make statements like the ones above.
Dressage.
-Jot
Discus, hammer, shot and javelin are the sports the Olympic Games were founded on, they are the reason we have the Olympic Games.
How bout we get rid of that bike event where the two guys try to go as slow a possible and see who can balance on their bike without falling off.
Itâs important to keep a GLOBAL perspective here. I donât remember the exact details at the moment but in order to get INTO the games a sport must have global participation, something like 6-8 years of world champs attended by something like 15 countries and organized by a governing body recognized by the IOC (such as the ITU), and petition 5 years prior to the Games the sport wants to be in. This is why Winter Triathlon got passed over for the next winter Olympics (we were third of 10 with only two sports being added). Winter tri didnât exhibit a deep enough global following.
Right now the IOC wants to kill sports that are not truly âGlobalâ, thus, softball is on the way out and basketball could be quick to follow. Yeah, the US thinks that crap is great but, except for very few other countries, these sports are nowhere on the Global radar.
Remember, the US likes to think we are the center of the universe but really our âmajorâ sports (football, basketball, baseball) are nothing compared to the global popularity of Soccer (otherwise known as real football), Track, Cycling, F1, Moto GP, Golf, Tennis etc.
Look at Triathlon World Cup racing. In the rest of the world you have 50,000+ spectators showing up just to watch. Hell, there were something like 250,000 spectators at the 2007 Worlds in Hamburg. Yet, here we have the highest paying race in the world (Hy-Vee) and we canât even get live TV coverage, much less coax fat ass middle Americans off their couch to watch. And I absolutely hate to say it, but, the main reason the Ironman gets such good TV ratings every year is due to the hellishly annoying human interest stories.
The best part of the Olympics too me is that for 2 weeks every 4 years it drags American TV and thus Americans out of their narrow minded little world and exposes them to a truly Global event. For 2 weeks the average, 80lbs overweight, cubical working, McDonaldâs eating, Coke swilling (although I do like a good cold Coke), lazy, pathetic American will actually tune in and care about a sport like Triathlon.
âYou really need to travel more and see these sports from outside the US.â
Donât say stupid stuff like this. America is the land of one million sports. That is our life. That is why athletes from around the world strive to come to America to play sports. Because we support and love these sports unlike the rest of the world. I have been around the world 15 times and never heard on BBC or any Asian news station about how Joe Blow threw a discus today. Give up on the America bashing. Weâre more passionate about sports than any country in the world. Just because we donât kill each other when our one soccer team loses doesnât unqualify us as passionate. Or maybe we should throw bananas on the basketball court like you do in Italy during soccer matches at the black players? WOuld that make us better fans? Or more worldly? Or more accepting? Or more full of culture?
I hate this conversation. But I hate even more when âoutsidersâ take cheap shots at americans. We love sports and are more knowledgable about sports than any country in the world, and I can prove that. You canât. And if an American wants to see a sport removed from the Olympics, whether they are right or wrong, they are better informed than you.
lolz
Silly yank 
I had nice reply for you, and then my computer decided it didnât want to work anymore. Iâll try to recap my âpassionateâ response.
-
You are right. I can not prove that Americans âLOVEâ sports more than any other country. Just like I canât prove that I love my wife more than you love yours.
-
I can prove that we Americans SUPPORT more professional sports than any other country in the world. I can prove that we support more professional athletes than any other country in the world. I can prove that most american sporting fans are more knowledgable in ALL sports, not just the big five, than any other country. I can prove that any kid living in my neighborhood could tell you the starting line up of most NBA teams, the quarterback for every NFL, Div I, II, III, NAIA and maybe Arena football team, they could tell you how many majors Tiger has won, they could tell you any fact about hockey, and they could also beat you in a game of one on one. I can prove that my friends and their kids who live in Great Britain follow the premiership and maybe Rugby when their boy Johnny is kicking well. Thatâs it.
I can prove that more Americans traveled to Germany for the 2006 World Cup than any other country and we have a big pond to crossâŚmost other countries are a drive away to watch the game they loveâŚand we âdonât even like soccer in Americaâ:).
I am obviously defensive about American sports and America. There are two types of people that fuel this fire. YOU - who will lye down and agree with a non-american that we are brash, arrogant, out of shape, not passionate, the Worldâs enemy, etc etc just to seem hip and progressive.
ME - who was born in the United States, traveled the world for business and pleasure, took the time to emerge myself in other cultures, and came out on the other side with the opinions I have today. I have sat in the stands of a Series A football game and listened to thousands of fans make Ape noises as their newly acquired black athlete took the field. Some took the liberty of bringing bananas to the game to throw on the field. Good thing they only know how to kick stuff, because their bananas only made it a few rows in front of them.
I do not lye-down when non-US residents make comments that are just untrue about our country. Sports is an easy debate to back up with facts. There is no question about defending this topic. Other topics that are easy to prove and come to my head - racism, equal rights, education, charity. But this is a sports forum, so Iâll keep it on topic.