Acording to David Wallechinsky’s books, checkers has never been an Olympic sport, and neither has Limbo (besides which, 1951 was not an Olympic year.)
My least favorites? The usual suspects- dressage, gymnastics (in all forms), synchronized swimming/diving, and tennis.
First, let me cast my tie vote for most boring Olympic events … goes to shooting (though I used to love to target shoot) and the ever popular (?) synchronized swimming! Yawn…
Wrestling, now that is another story. Greco Roman is kind of boring I’ll admit but the other forms, nope…can’t agree with you on that one. My son wrestled in High School and it was a real learning experiance for him and for me. Of all the sports he participated in (Football, Wrestling & Track) it required the most conditioning and thought. The best wrestlers were also quick thinking kids. If they didn’t think about what they were doing they were on their back. ( pinned ) I learned to appreciate it as he continued to compete. The conditioning required was remarkable.
I have never found anything to be excruciatingly boring. Nothing.
Not even watching paint dry.
And they say that drugs are bad, 
In 2000, I was sitting in a Japanese Restaurant watching female olympic weighlifting coverage… not really watching, because it is boring… but just paying half attention.
When the female commentator said the following with respect to the athlete preparing to lift: “I saw her snatch this morning, and it was perfect.”
:eek: <pffft!> I actually did a spit take with my Miso soup.
That would be the Match Sprint. And yeah, it is kind of strange to see. The deal with Match Sprints is that the winner is the first rider to cross the finish line, and there is no time limit. So what you see are the two riders jockeying for position – you don’t want to be the guy in front while your opponent drafts you, so it’s kind of a dance to see who can avoid being drafted and can attack at just the right time to out-accelerate the other rider to the line.
I think it’s got great tension and I like to watch it, but then I’m wierd that way.
Though they only admit it’s a small bore.
For the great bore, I’d have to agree with anybody who has said long-distance running or swimming. I can appreciate their athleticism (heck, I get winded after a quarter mile or so on the track, even pacing my out-of-shape butt), but it’s just not even the least bit compelling.
That’s because NBC sucks and should be constitutionally banned from having coverage of any sporting event for the rest of time.
Seriously, they tape-delayed the 2002 Olympics! They were in freaking Salt Lake City! Now, I can understand wanting to show some things later or again, but damn it, take the goddamn soaps and other daytime bullshit off and show the events live! Not to mention that their main coverage (broadcast) sucked. My roommate and I basically saw nothing but hockey and curling (mostly on CNBC) for the two whole weeks. And that was because there wasn’t anything else on. No pro hockey because of the Olympics. Neither of us like basketball, so I don’t know if the NBA was playing or not. Way too early for baseball, and most other television programming sucks anyway.
Oh, and don’t get me started on 1998. When the weather conditions meant that they couldn’t show skiing, guess what they switched to. Figure skating PRACTICE SESSIONS! That’s right, not another sport (even if it would have been tape-delayed.) Figure skating PRACTICE SESSIONS! If the NFL is smart, they will never let NBC get television rights again, even if they did put in the highest bid.
You say that like it’s a bad thing… :eek:
The Beloved and I got up early, around 5 a.m., to watch the curling live from Nagano. The Sandra Schmirler team won the first women’s gold medal in curling. When we dragged our tired butts into work that morning, we found that most other people had done the same thing.
R.I.P., Sandra. 
[My last post vanished for some reason…trying again.]
Tedious: Greco-Roman wrestling. Two wrestlers of virually equal strength (this is the Olympics; the wimps don’t make it) shoving uselessly at each other because the rules won’t let them use anything that actually works…what could be better? I know, let’s have the ref blow his damn whistle every five seconds!
Unwatchable: Boxing. All of it. I’d rather watch a shipwreck. It never ends without some catastrophic injustice. Never.
Predictable: Figure skating. This one’s probably self-explanatory. I remember when Berezhnaya and Sikharlude won the gold medals that maybe they didn’t deserve, and one of the judges was later revealed to be corrupt, and all I could think was, “NOW people are getting outraged over this?”
Just don’t care anymore: Gymnastics. Oh, this guy got a 9.85 when he clearly deserved a 9.9. And that coach used a seldom invoked rule to knock us out of contention. Wait, the pommel horse didn’t conform to regulation, they should’ve cancelled the whole event and rescheduled. What the, he’s competing with a broken leg, is he out of his mind? Hey, they should’ve penalized her for that wiggle! Sure, whatever.
But, DKW, you can always console yourself with the thought of Greg Louganis “winning” the platform diving ahead of the Chinese guy in Seoul.
Fencing is godawful. I wish they’d just keep going until one guy killed the other, then maybe there’d be something to watch. And no judging.
Then there’s water polo. Sober people doing something that normal people do only when drunk.
Oh yeah. These games are international.
If precision figure skating is someone’s national sport, I’m sorry for what I said.
Can they add dog agility trials to the Olympics? Especially the part where the dogs have to wiggle at light-speed around the closely set poles? Now THAT’s good television. Whose telegenic? Whose telegenic? Yes you are! Yes you are! Look at how you wiggle! Yes you can! Yes you can!
That’s hilarious.
After looking at the trainers for dog agility trials, I’ve concluded it’s the new lesbian sport.
You know those times when you have an opinion which just seems so totally obvious and necessary and unquestionable that you can’t believe everyone doesn’t agree with you?
Well, I feel that way about this.
ALL RACES ARE BORING!!!
That’s right. Running. Swimming. Boating. Driving. Biking. They’re all boring.
Why? Because every single one of them is identical. Various people are moving. One is moving faster. At some point, one of them will get to the end line. The one who got there fastest will win.
That’s it. That’s the whole thing. There are no great saves. There are no hail marys. There are no stolen bases, or amazing shots, or goal-line stands.
Obviously if you follow that sport, care about individual competitors, etc., more power to you, but to someone who doesn’t, it’s precisely as interesting as watching Dot Racing.
But to the rest of us, there’s more possibliity for excitement in a single point of a game of Table Tennis than in the 100 yard dash.
The 100 yard dash is at least over quickly. SWIMMING, however, takes forever. And it’s ALWAYS IDENTICAL. Look at those two face-down bodies in the pool! One’s going faster! Oh my god, it’s over! Now, the next heat. Look at those two face-down bodies in the pool! One’s going faster! It’s over!!! Sheesh.
I also will buck the trend in this thread by stating that I really enjoy watching both gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics. I don’t care if the judging is arbitrary. It’s just damn entertaining and amazing to watch people do such totally mind-blowing things. It’s like going to the circus. What we need added as an olympic sport is juggling. That would rock.
Ballroom dancing has never been an Olympic event, and it won’t be an event this year either.
Ed
Actually, nowadays professionals are allowed in almost all Olympic sports. Last I read, the only sport that still required Olympic participants to be amateurs was boxing.
Ed
There have been innumerable threads on this message board, as well as many others, asking the questions “Are judged sports really sports?” and “Should they be included in the Olympics?”. But the fact is that many of these sports, such as gymnastics, diving, and figure skating, are among the most popular events at the Olympics. So there’s no way they’ll be removed.
Ed
Yes, beach volleyball is in the Olympics this year.
Ed
Solo synchronized swimming is no longer an Olympic event. Currently, the two synchronized swimming events are duet and team.
Ed