I’d knock out quite a few events in that list but we need to go back to basics. What is the purpose of the Olympic Games? Should the Games be focused on individuals? Should there be at least a nod to the ancient events? Should team sports be included (I suspect yes if only to capture national pride and interest in the Games)?
Personally I find swimming exquisitely boring but many lap it up. 
Cut the team sports. Of the ones listed, I dislike basketball the most, so that’s the one I actually voted for.
I picked Basketball, but I would pick any sport where winning the Olympic is not the pinnacle of the sport.
Summer:
B-Ball
Tennis
Soccer
Golf (in 2016)
Winter:
Hockey
If it’s been added any time over the last 20 years, get rid of it. BMX? Trampoline? Please.
That notwithstanding, how does the Olympic Committee justify eliminating any event when they’re always adding more events? It can’t possibly hurt anything to have wrestling, can it? They’re not paying for it, the host city is, and after a multi-billion dollar outlay what’s a few thousand more for the wrestlers?
Hockey is about the only thing I would bother to watch in the Winter Olympics, especially in the medal rounds. I’d also say that it’s one of the team sports where it is the pinnacle for international competition (and it might even be the pinnacle overall ahead of the Stanley Cup depending on who you ask - it would be interesting to ask Sidney Crosby whether winning a Stanley Cup was bigger for him than winning an Olympic Gold medal, for instance - cue someone saying this has already been asked of him…)
The answer to the poll for me is soccer. U23 is a made up category of soccer - most international tournaments at age grade level are at U19 or U21 and it’s further diluted by the “wild card” overage players you can pick. It’s a bullshit tournament, that very few people care about and is wildly overshadowed by the World Cup. If anything should go, it should be that.
I have no love for synchro or rhythmic gymnastics or what have you and would prefer them not to be there - but at least being Olympic champion is what all the competitors dream of.
I voted for Equestrian. But what I specifically mean is dressage.
Show jumping is tolerable. The cross-country element is actually pretty cool. But dressage is just unbelievably pointless and hideously boring.
I remember during the 1992 Olympics I was living at a University residence in Canberra (Australia). A friend was away for a few days and I got to borrow their TV. Fellow sports fans would pour into my tiny room every night to watch the Games. It could potentially have been really cool, but from memory 95% of what was aired was bloody dressage.
Dressage is about as exciting as seeing which catwalk model can do the best flip of their hair as they turn at the end of the runway. And it’s probably liked by the same vacuous and pretentious rich cretins that go to fashion shows. It’s not sport.
You could just as easily award a gold medal to whichever clown could do the best “Blue Steel” Zoolander face. Utterly inane drivel.
-Swimming could stand to lose a few categories and distances, it´s the same people over and over.
-All sports where juries decide who´s won. It says ¨faster, higher, stronger¨ not ¨liked better by old farts¨.
-Shooting and Archery are dubious, I mean, what´s next? Darts? Chess?
-Horses… well what should i say? A sport dominated by old men and saudi princes, really?
I voted for tennis, it has plenty of overexposure as it is without taking up the Olympics.
Get rid of boxing unless they change the scoring system. Trampoline? WTF?
Soccer is nowhere near as meaningful to professional players as the Premier League or the World Cup, it can go.
Sailing? Piffle. Who cares?
Wrestling should stay. Baseball should come back.
Boxing
Basketball
Beach Volleyball
Any sport where scoring is subjective.
Olympic ice hockey is great, and very different from the NHL.
Just after winning a Cup but before he had a gold, Crosby was asked which is bigger and said, “Stanley Cup… eh, that’s a tough one. Can I say both? Both.”
See here for more on the comparison. While current top-level players, with big paychecks tied to their professional club performance, usually put the Cup first, the comparison for fans and for history more favors the Olympics.
I am in agreement with the sentiment on equestrian and sailing in the Olympics. Seems like these were added to appeal to rich people, while lowly wresting may not appeal to the same demographic.
Regarding the event being the pinnacle of competition in the Olympics, I kinda agree, but for Basketball, there really is no other international competition. Granted, there are leagues in Europe, and the NBA is made up of players from all over, but a basketball World Cup would fit the bill, but does not exist.
I also agree that sports not necessarily favored in the US shuold not be discounted. Cricket is enjoyed by millions, as is badminton, and team handball. I do not see anything wrong with those as Olympic sports (unless you are discounting team sports altogether).
I think the IOC wants to keep the spectacle relevant, so they add stuff that is popular, like snowboarding and trampoline. There are so many sub-events that could be considered as well, like the above mentioned rythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming, and redundant swimming events. The list could be even bigger (and with more potential omissions).
Is cricket compatible with the Olympic format? I was under the impression that quality matches take days to complete. Is there a rules distinction I don’t know about? I’m utterly lost when it comes to cricket.
Like Rugby 7s, you could play a truncated format (like the 20 over version of the game) and play a number of games back to back in the same grounds, with potentially all the matches being finished within the span of the games. Rugby 7s is done in 3 days max. Twenty20 cricket would likely take the entire span of the games to complete but would be feasible.
Not that I would support its inclusion necessarily.
“An NBA title will always mean more than a gold medal in basketball.”
Ask a basketball fan who won the '72 NBA title and ask who won the '72 Olympic gold. I would bet that far more can answer the Olympics question.
Although not a fan of wrestling, I am shocked at the sport’s removal.
For hockey and soccer, Olympic gold is still important. It may not be the biggest deal, but so what? It’s significant to participants of those sports and widely viewed around the world. Representing one’s country in one’s profession remains a very significant honor in those sports, worldwide.
It’s true for men’s soccer that the World Cup dwarfs the importance of the Olympics, especially since the men’s teams are more or less under-23 teams. However, the Olympic matches have implications for the future, and are absolutely taken seriously in the sport. It’s not a throwaway event by any means.
For women’s soccer, there is much more parity in importance between the Olympics and the women’s World Cup. Just ask the U.S. women’s team after last summer. Part of this is because there are no age restrictions for the women. I for one thoroughly enjoyed last year’s Olympic women’s soccer, and TV ratings suggest this was true across the U.S.*
*Bracing myself for Red Fury to show up and denounce anyone who enjoys women’s soccer, again. Yes, the men’s game demonstrates greater athleticism. Big deal.
I voted Equestrian. Its stupid, the horse does most of the work, and even more economically selective than sports which require a lot of equipment. You need to own a fucking horse to do it! How small is that demographic?
There’s been a FIBA Basketball World Cup since 1950 and pro-players have been allowed to play in it since 1994.
No one cares though, because it’s so overshadowed by the Olympics…
I am a massive soccer fan, but I doubt whether it really fits in as an Olympic sport. In terms of prestige the Olympic tournament ranks way behind the World Cup and the European Championship and lacks the entertainment of the African Nations Cup. It is basically an U-23 tournaments anyway.
Wow. Really? Maybe it’s because when I was a child I grew up with the whole “Miracle on Ice” thing. Still, Olympic hockey is just fun to watch for me. I can’t imaging the Winter Olympics (my favorite olympics) without hockey.
And drop racewalking. “I can get from Point A to Point B faster than you, so long as we agree not to bend our knees much or run for more than a couple of steps.”