Jordan Spieth joins the long list of golfers who won’t participate in Rio. I’m sure the real reason isn’t Zika, but has more to do with the PGA schedule and sponsorship logos.
So far, out is Rory Mcllory, Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott, and Jason Day plus others in sure I’ve forgotten.
Let’s end the experiment after Rio. And thankfully The Open Championship is the week, far more compelling.
The whole damn Olympics are a joke.
I can’t take credit for this thought since I got it off the radio. But the entire Olympics need to be re-done and include only sports that have no professional league associated with them.
Track? Check.
Swimming? Check.
Gymnastics? Check.
Basketball? Nope.
Baseball? Nuh-uh.
Golf? Nyope.
etc. etc.
I tend to agree, though it’s never going to happen. But at least there should be some distinguishing feature to the olympic version of the sports. At least basketball plays under international rules, so there’s a bit of uniqueness to it. I think the golf should be some kind of weird format - make it 2-player teams, with one round alternate shot, one round scramble, etc. As it is it’s just a normal tournament, and there’s a bunch of more prestigious ones exactly like it.
Men’s Olympic soccer is also different in that all players must be under 23, with the exception of 3.
See, I wouldn’t say “get rid of those associated with a pro league.” I’d say deep six those that don’t pass the Hallmark test-- that is, eliminate sports that don’t care enough to send their very best. Both men’s and women’s basketball seem to do that reasonably well–at least I believe that lots of NBA and WNBA players take part.
Men’s soccer, on the other hand…
The Olympics used to be strictly amateur … no profession athletes of any kind … but money got in the way … not sure when that changed, 70’s or 80’s I believe.
You do know that the majority of those sports you want to keep because there are no pro leagues actually have pro athletes participating right? The track and field championships are professional now.
True. But everyone who do those national/world tournaments are all doing them knowing that the Olympics is the final goal.
It’s not the same with the other league sports I’m referencing.
Sponsorship money and advertising wasn’t the only issue; so was fundamental unfairness.
Only allowing “amateurs” presents serious problems because it was often used in the past to eliminate anyone who was not wealthy enough to pursue the sport full-time without other sources of income, or was unable to obtain sponsorship by someone with deep pockets (and the sponsors often discriminated against minorities and the like).
It also did nothing to prevent “shamateurs,” a term used to describe full-time de facto professional state-sponsored athletes, especially in Eastern Bloc countries.
While this was, AFAIK, technically true, the Soviet bloc flouted it in the 1960s and 1970s, and they had “full-time amateur athletes” – athletes who were employed by the state, technically at a non-athletic job, which had few (or no) actual duties. This is what led to things like the Miracle on Ice, in which the US team was college students, and the Soviet team was men in the 20s and 30s, who were amateurs in name only.
Also discussed here:
I’d get rid of all sports that rely on subjective judgements
Sweet no more boxing, gymnastics or race walking. Bye bye diving and synchronized swimming as well.
Don’t take away my diving! I think events in which there is already a more prestigious tournament in which an athlete can represent their country should be eliminated.
Agree. Also take away the ones involving horses (since they have the Triple Crown anyway).
I like the Olympics because it’s one chance every four years to see sports get almost no coverage the rest of the time. For people who like to watch golf, tennis, and basketball it’s not like they’re starved for options. Basketball especially, it already takes over the whole month of March.
It’s not quite the same thing. The Triple Crown is just to see which horse is fastest; equestrian events in the Olympics are dressage, jumping, and cross-country.
What about those Modern Pentathletes. I agree with the OP though; The Olympics should be the the pinnacle of whatever sport is represented, which it clearly isn’t in Golf, Tennis or Soccer.
I’d love to see Netball as an Olympic sport. At the top level it’s mesmerising.
Well… maybe not mesmerising, but it’s well worth watching.
Sunday’s final round got the best golf ratings all year, except for the Masters.
This is probably the main metric that will determine if Olympic Golf continues past 2020.
Perhaps so. Altho, I also heard that some of the top players skipping the Olympics may also affect Golf continuing past Tokyo.
“I’m just a soldier, obeying all lawful orders from my immediate superior.”
“Well, that’s commendable; what duties does he task you with?”
“Uh, playing basketball, mostly.”