According to current FIVB rules, female beach volleyball players have the option of playing in shorts or a one-piece swimsuit.[76][77] Most players, however, prefer the two-piece bikini.[78] Competitors such as Natalie Cook[79] and Holly McPeak have confirmed the FIVB’s claims that the uniforms are practical for a sport played on sand during the heat of summer, with McPeak saying that the two-piece is more comfortable and allows for a greater range of motion while the one-piece has the further problem of trapping sand.[78] British Olympian Denise Johns claimed that the regulation uniform is intended to be “sexy” and to draw attention.[80] Other players have argued that the bikini is tied to the sport’s “beach culture”.[81]
Was going to say that I had seen synchronised diving before the Olympics. I’m sure it has everything to do with the physical attractiveness of the divers and being cheap programming for regional sports networks in the USA, especially summer when it’s only baseball going on of the bug 4 USA sports
Well, the main purpose of the Olympiad, now that there’s no more Soviet bloc to endlessly suck up to with one nakedly rigged contest after another, is to showcase activities which were cool 25 years ago, and since all the events in question were, in fact, cool 25 years ago, they get a big thumbs-up from me! 
I’m definitely going to be there for breakdancing because it’s one of those things that’s just really cool to watch. However, I’m also interested in hearing the analysis, in particular the exact judging criteria. There are going to be a whole lot of new terms, and it’s going to take some doing to make them clear to an audience that’s new to this. I kind of feel the same way anytime some boxing guru tries to explain what “ring generalship” is.
I vote for bringing back tandem bike racing.
That’s not a fair sport. The guy in back has no chance to catch up.
Yeah, cricket probably is easier to explain, but it’s been explained to me a dozen times and I just never quite was able to remember much past the basics. Baseball I kind of picked up by osmosis growing up, so it’s always been pretty “straightforward” to me, but then when I try to explain it to someone not familiar with the sport, it gets really knotty really quickly.
Here’s the best explanation of cricket I’ve seen:
- You have two sides, one out in the field and one in.
- Each man that’s in the side that’s in the field goes out and when he’s out comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out.
- When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in.
- When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side that’s been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out.
- Sometimes there are men still in and not out.
- There are men called umpires who stay out all the time, and they decide when the men who are in are out.
- Depending on the weather and the light, the umpires can also send everybody in, no matter whether they’re in or out.
- When both sides have been in and all the men are out (including those who are not out), then the game is finished.
You may be an American, but do you live in the sewer on a diet of pizza, and consider a bandana with eye holes to suffice as an outfit? If not, your experience may not be comparable.
(If so, please elaborate!)
A new summer biathlon combining breakdancing with wrestling I’d watch.
Compulsory figures are no longer part of the competition, AFAIK.
@Dahu, there’s a similar description of baseball that goes around, but I couldn’t do it justice from memory.
But as an example of what I mean, consider just the pitching (bowling?) and batting: The bowler’s goal is to knock over the wicket, while the batter’s goal is to defend the wicket. There are more details to it, of course, but that’s the core of it, and it’s pretty straightforward. What’s the equivalent core of a baseball pitcher’s and batter’s goals?
@Atamasama, I’m not sure how my lack of carapace and plastrum, and the relative clumsiness of my ninjitsu skills, is relevant to my understanding of ball-and-bat sports?
The original quote about nobody understanding Cricket is from Raphael in the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film.
If you try to understand it, you’ll just go insane. Why was baseball out? Why was golf out? Why isn’t rugby in? No wait it is now, so why not cricket? Why is equestrian in but squash isn’t? Why is luge - a sport that exists pretty much to be in the Olympics - in, but billiards isn’t? Why is sailing in but not waterskiing?
Chariot races might be good. They had those for a few years instead of the Rose Bowl,
I would totally watch chariot races, except real chariot races kill horses and people so they’d never do that (and I’m a bad person for wanting to watch them).
Go over to Inventions That Are Long Overdue and tell them you want Chariot Airbags!
Leverage modern technology and bring Chariot Racing to the Olympics.
I could see Chariot Racing being the new America’s Cup. BMW and Oracle get involved and suddenly you’re talking millions in advanced chariot tech just to be competitive… 
I think for Softball they were cut because just a few teams dominated including the USA. BB and softball are back for 2021
Baseball is widely played in Japan, so that may be a reason why it was added for the 2021 games.
seems like cricket would be in but I don’t think it’s big in North and South America.