I was just watching a preview for curling. Is that really a sport …?? I know it does take some skill, but so does playing pool or throwing darts and they are not Olympic sports. They have half pipe snowboarding yet there isn’t skateboarding or bmx half pipe in the Olympics. Both those sports are not easy. Is shooting a gun a sport …?? I know it isn’t easy to do, but does hand and eye coordination make you an athlete? …if it is than shouldn’t lawn darts and horseshoes be in the Olympics .?? I know some of this is off the wall …but I think some sports should be in the Olympics and others shouldn’t.
I’m with you on curling. Pretty much an embarrassment that you can get a gold medal for that. Gotta give props to the curling association or whatever, for getting it in the games though.
anything that requires judges shouldn’t be an Olympic sport. No ice dancing, no gymnastics, no synchronised diving no rythmic juggling or whatever the hell they’re doing now. You either cross the line first or you don’t. Judging just invites BS controversy…
Remember the first Goodwill Games? Motorcycle polo. I kid you not.
But aside from “athletics” (track and field), the Olympics were modeled after classic war games. Swordplay, horseback riding (modern pentathlon), shooting (biathlon), boxing…
I agree there are some “sports” that realy don’t seem to belong – table tennis, rhythmic gymnastics… Well, pretty much anything that doesn’t have an objective measure, in my mind, belongs somewhere else. Yes, they can very much be called “athletic”. But you know all those years of editorials when the Tour rolls along, about how cycling isn’t “athletic”. It’s all a matter of personal taste.
I used to curl. It involves a lot of skill and strategy especially at the higher echelon. Certainly popular with some viewers, myself included, so it’s very worthy of the winter Olympics IMO.
I’d put it into a similiar catagory with golf. Not all sports have to have an endurance component to be considered sport.
anything that requires judges shouldn’t be an Olympic sport. No ice dancing, no gymnastics, no synchronised diving no rythmic juggling or whatever the hell they’re doing now. You either cross the line first or you don’t. Judging just invites BS controversy…
Which leaves out sports where you score goals or runs or points to win as well as any where distance is measured.
Get rid of em all… no soccer, no baseball, no curling, no volleyball etc…
Gimme track and field, swimming, skiing (Downhill, GS, slalom and XC. None of this Freestyle shit)
All those other sports have the world cup, world series, X-games… whatever. the olympics is a cartoon of itself with all the crap additions that dont belong there.
Oh… and the summer games should be done in the nude and to the death. The way the greeks intended them to be.
anything that requires judges shouldn’t be an Olympic sport. No ice dancing, no gymnastics, no synchronised diving no rythmic juggling or whatever the hell they’re doing now. You either cross the line first or you don’t. Judging just invites BS controversy… A guy in my office contends that including a judging element in all womens’ sports would eliminate doping by women competing in those sports. His example is that if you look like one of the former Eastern Bloc women swimmers, then you have to start half a pool length before competitors that look like women.
Although it is a strange sport i read an article that said there are about 1.5 million people that curl in 33 countries which is significant for a winter sport. It was also an official sport in the inaugural 1924 games and that was when there were only 16 events. In 2005 there are 84 events and it is still around (although it took a hiatus). Personally, I find it strange that military patrol is still an olympic sport?
You see, actually, I think one of the inherent beauties of the Olympics is that all different types of sports are brought together on one stage. Many sports that would never get any publicity at all are afforded an international stage. Remember, it wasn’t all that long ago that triathlon was something you saw on tv only once a year for an hour about 2 months after the actual event took place (Kona).
Sure there are plenty of sports in the modern Olympics that I am not a fan of, but there are also several sports that I am a fan of purely because I was introduced to them through the Olympics. I don’t know, maybe some of the more mainstream sports: tennis, hockey, basketball should step aside to let more sports like curling, badminton, skeleton…get a little air time and a little time in the limelight.
horse shoes, shuffleboard and bocce all require a lot of “skill and strategy” as well. the higher echelon of curling probably includes 200 people worldwide. no sport with that few people involved should be in the olympics. i also find it amusing that you compare curling to golf in trying to justify curling in the olympics and golf isn’t even an olympic sport! why not add scrabble, poker, quarters, juggling, kickball, tag, hide-and-go-seek, croquet and an ass-kicking contest with 1-legged people only?
speaking of judges in sports, i was watching the ski jump today and it looked like there were judges. what’s the deal with that? ski jump seems pretty simple: jump as far as you can. who cares what you look like doing it. it would be like adding judges to the high jump or long jump. no thanks.
Since we are being arbitrary and illogical, I think any sport that your average person’s first thought about it is of a bunch of people getting high in a van before competing should be tossed.
Same basic idea, but… I think there should be three Olympics: One for summer sports, one for winter sports, and one for “artistic activities.”
There will always be a need for judges in some sports, but if the function of the judges goes beyond rule-enforcement into the realm of aesthetic valuation… then get that activity out of the real Olympics, sayeth MarkRebuck.