In response to this thread, how about getting rid of an Olympic sport to make room for new ones?
My #1 choice for the chopping block: Modern Pentathlon. Maybe back in 1896, it meant something (the idea: back in the 1800s, a lieutenant would be given this order: “Get these orders to the front lines; here is a horse, but it will probably be shot out from under you, at which point you are on foot, swimming across rivers when necessary; use your gun if able, and your sword if necessary”), but now it’s an anachronism. Note that, as recently as 1984 (if not later), it was open only to armed forces personnel (the U.S. Army even ran TV commercials promoting it as “the Army’s event”).
I can respect the modern pentathlete’s skillset, because, hey, if a cross-country runner who excels at pistol marksmanship doubles as a strong swimmer, I don’t mind that he’s also good at two other things. But if I ever say “You know, I’m faster than you,” and you reply “No, I can run from Point A to Point B faster than you,” and I say “Yeah, but I’m faster if we both agree not to bend our knees that much and only run for maybe a couple of steps along the way,” you officially have my permission to smack the stupid off my face.
Beach volleyball is plainly just there for one reason. How much coverage does the men’s tournament get?
Golf (in for 2016) and tennis shouldn’t be there - the Olympics is far from the most prestigious event. The same for men’s soccer, but I’m not sure about the women’s event.
Modern pentathlon is fine by me - it doesn’t need it’s own special venue and it’s really just a rather more diverse version of the decathlon and heptathlon with a nice backstory.
Ice Dancing and team figure skating. I’m pretty sure the team event was created to give the Russians another gold on home soil. I’m not a huge fan of judging in general but for the most part i can tell who should probably win the normal events but ice dancing, no chance.
I’d eliminate all of the events where judges are giving scores: figure skating, gymnastics, synchronized swimming, etc. These are performances not sports competitions.
I would be good with getting rid of the Winter Olympics. I find them of no interest to me and they annoyingly interrupt my TV schedule. This is extremely self-centered but hey at least the summer Olympics don’t interrupt anything of note.
Strangely I find cross country skiing exciting but I’m bored to death by biathlon and I don’t know why. The end of the 30k race was pretty good today even if it was 3 woman from the same country.
I’m also not crazy about sports where it makes a big difference what equipment you bring from home (and horses count as equipment in my book), but that’s an unavoidable problem IMO.
Synchronized Diving.
I can see how it adds an extra bit of difficulty, but we’ve got to stop synchronizing things or everything will end up synchronized.
Badminton is a ludicrous choice. It’s one of the most popular sports in the world.
Wait…table tennis? That is outrageously popular as well. Absolutely crazy to lose something that means so much to so many nations.
I’d cut:
Trampolining
Dressage
That is it, really. Golf is an odd choice, but I’m curious to see how it works out. Soccer has restrictions so it isn’t just another World Cup style thing. I believe they restrict the age of most players, so that works.
It’s based on military training exercises. The message it is meant to send is “you might want to think twice about invading us.” And as a sport, it really is about the ecstasy and the agony. Everything can change because of one shot.
I’d like to see a serious reconsideration of all the judged events. The line between a performance and a “judged sport” is thin indeed, and this year with yet MORE figure skating AND a proliferation of judged snowboarding and freestyle skiing events, it feels like the do-a-fancy-jump-for-points stuff is taking over the entire winter schedule. I get that they work hard and are really really fit and all that. Same goes for ballet dancers. There is no ballet in the Olympics. Explain why your judged event is more of a sport than ballet, and we’ll talk.
Agree with this.
The only sport I would absolutely eliminate is equestrian. Leave it for the Animal Olympics. (Unless we add lion taming as an event. Same deal.)
You’re thinking about it backwards, in my opinion. If there were competitions among ballerinas, with rules established that would indicate how much each kind of movement or jump was worth, then ballet would be a sport.
If it’s competitive, and it’s physical, then it’s a sport.
I’d get rid of men’s soccer too, it’s probably the 6th most important international soccer tournament now after the World Cup, the European Championship, Confederations Cup, Copa America and the African Cup of Nations.
Let’s see- there’s four girls playing at once- I’d say there’s eight reasons it gets on television.
I’d say all the half-pipe stuff in the winter games, men’s basketball in the summer games. There’s just not enough competition, the US is always going to win gold.