I have not yet chosen. Badminton is not on there.
You also omitted badminton and water polo (although the linked list did as well).
I agree that there’s no compelling reason for keeping men’s Association football, but since the women’s Olympic tournament in that sport has some prestige, I picked judo as the choice for total elimination.
I picked Modern Pentathlon. To the best of my knowledge, this is a sport that basically only exists in the Olympics and the entrants are those who just weren’t quite good enough to make the Olympics in one of the pentathlon disciplines.
Jim Thorpe didn’t belong in the Olympics?
Note that he competed in the classic pentathlon, not the modern one.
If we’re merging sports, then the swimming medals can be merged too. “I’m the fastest man in the world in swimming in a slow way” is a completely dumb idea.
Not that I want to get rid of swimming, but am I the only one who thinks it has way, way too many similar events? It’s a bit unfair that Phelps was able to run up his medal count so much by doing essentially the same thing over and over.
I tend to agree about the soccer, even if they have attempted to maintain its relevance by keeping most of the players under age 23.
The point is that diversity of skills is just as, or more, challenging and interesting, as specialization.
I wouldn’t mind seeing the ancient pentathlon return.
For reference the classic pentathlon was "long jump, javelin throw, and discus throw, followed by the stadion (a short foot race) and wrestling." held over one day. Not a bad addition I’d say.
Not quite. That was the ancient pentathlon; the so-called “classic” pentathlon of 1912 was a little different (scroll down on that page to see it).
Regardless, any combination of diverse events like that is seriously challenging. There’s a reason that the winner of decathlon gold is called the “world’s greatest athlete.”
Equestrian. The horses are the athletes, but the riders get the medals. It’s not that there’s no skill involved, but it doesn’t seem to me to reach the apex of athletic performance.
I really think they should trash the whole general trend and start over so that the Olympics just focuses on the most basic, individual sports. The whole thing is like a circus now with lots of side-shows. I don’t think that is sustainable in the long-term because there are plenty of other world-wide events that focus on the odd pursuits and do it much better. It would be much more pure, fair, and interesting if they kept it at the lowest base level possible and got rid of all team sports plus lots of others.
I picked soccer. The Summer Olympics are on the same 4-year cycle as the Euro. Both the Euro and the World Cup are far more prestigious. Heck, the players probably even care more about the U-20 World Cup. FIFA events matter far more to the sport’s players and supporters than anything the IOC dreams up. I just don’t see the point of bothering.
Cue George Carlin’s bit about what is and isn’t a sport.
I rather doubt that China, a huge participant, would appreciate table tennis being removed. Neither would the Koreas or Japan for that matter, all three having hosted the Olympics as well.
S. Korea for hosting, obviously. But N. Korea does play table tennis.
By the way, I could also support Shooting or Equestrian being removed. Especially pistol shooting.
Agree. Some of the shooters hardly seem, uh, “athletic”.
Modern Pentathlon exists nowhere outside of the Olympics and was invented for rich people to have another Olympics event. It’s ridiculous.
I’d like to see way, way MORE events in the Olympics. Basically any real sport with a large enough following should be in the Olympics. Baseball, rugby, golf, billiards, I say have them all. Modern Pentathlon is almost totally ignored outside of central and eastern Europe, has barely any following at all outside of the Olympics, and is stupid.
I have a friend that does competitve ballroom dancing. He lost a lot of weight/inches since he started & his core is in great shape. I went practicing with him & his wife one night. They kicked my ass! They need to practice & are in great shape for competitions where they are judged, but I don’t think anyone, including them, would say they are “athletes” competing in a “sport”.
To me, real sports are ones with simple, objective criteria: you win by being faster or scoring more points/goals. Gymnasts are in incredible shape. I think I once held a 45° iron cross for almost .2 seconds, let alone a 90° for the 5 seconds or so that they do. But when I’m strugling to count if they did 4 flips & 2½ twists cause they flipping around at amazing speed & some judge is decucting 1/10 of a point because his pinky wasn’t extended like at a fancy cocktail party, welll…
I wish there was an option for removing some events from a sport & not the whole sport. Swimming (laps) meets the objective criteria, you are faster than me, you win. Synchronized swimming, especially solo synchronized swimming needs to go. This ‘sport’ used to be called “water ballet” - I ain’t knocking their dedication, effort, or ability, but it’s an in-water dance routine.
In this poll, I voted equestrian because its the animal, not the human putting out the majority of the effort.
Equestrian is going to win this poll, as well it should.