I’m talking about the sport that the average athlete would be absolutely the worst at performing. While I’m not world class by any stretch, I can sprint 100 meters, dribble and shoot a basketball, dive into a pool, can presumably shoot a rifle (never tried), etc. But there is not a single gymnastics move that I could possibly do. I don’t even think I can walk across a balance beam without falling off. So I nominate Gymnastics as the most difficult Olympic sport.
Any other contenders?
Most of us over a week couldn’t complete the men’s road race course. So there’s difficult physically and technically difficult. I also suspect that some sports are much more difficult than they appear. It’s doubtful you’d last two seconds against even an amateur judoist (what are they called?
I also think that with a weeks skilled training you could be taught to do some rudimentary vault or balance beam routine.
Judoka, formally, although it might be an uncommon word these days.
Cycling? I’ve done 200 miles in a weekend a few times. The road race is about 150, I think; might be able to do that in a day, if I could get up the hills.
For Track and Field, I nominate the Pole Vault, though the Decathlon deserves mention.
For Gymnastics, I would say the Rings or the Uneven Bars.
Synchronized diving.
Followup: Why is that an Olympic sport?
All the gymnastics stuff is hard, but the rings and pommel horse are unbelievably difficult.
That horse dancing stuff. Not actually difficult to perform on the day, perhaps, but you have to train the horse, and I wouldn’t know where to start.