Stickball
Dodgeball (especially the version we played called Bombardment)
P. J. O’Rourke’s Tennis (“Two players sit in big chairs on either side of the net. They have a hundred cans of tennis balls and unlimited amounts of drink. No-one is allowed to return a shot. The first person to get up to go to the bathroom loses.”)
Kabbadi
Thumb-wrestling
Ambulance chasing (the US would always win gold)
Farting (“And the British team has been disqualified for using a banned substance!” “Yeah, it really wrecks the sport when one team resorts to cold baked beans…”)
Kickball
Boat racing (old Oxford sport. Teams of twelve down pints in a relay)
Troll-baiting (and we’ve got all the judges right here on the SDMB)
“Co-ed Naked Twister”
Here is how I think the Olympics could be made more interesting. Instead of having well trained athletes compete, I think that 3 days prior to the start of the game, people ( from every country, but the USA would be used as an example) who are all liscensed drivers would be eligible for a random drawing.
:::rolling huge drum filled with every liscensed American Driver::::
Announcer: Competing in the Shot Put will be (picking out name) Olive Crantopoluous of 387 Walnut Lane, Pomona, California. Birthdate: March 3, 1922.
Now, that, IMHO, would be great to watch: some out of shape schmoe from Toledo giving their all to pole vault.
I think, however, the picking system would probably be corrupted in gymnastics when eventually only strippers performed in the floor event.
Oh, how a few words can totally change the meaning of a sentence.
That SHOULD read (even though I didn’t post it): “Someone should try to get on this roster”.
Some martial (and marital) arts should be included, and dodgeball and tug of war. And how about the standing high jump? Bob Ewry still holds records in those from the first 10 years or so of this century.
I would vote for more martial arts as well, except that the events that are included (Judo, Tae Kwon Do) get absolutely no television coverage here in the US as it is. What ticks me off about NBC is that they could easily have covered them, according to their “3 way coverage” plan.
NBC divided their coverage into three groups: NBC covers the popular events like swimming, diving, track, gymnastics, etc. MSNBC covers team sports, like soccer, baseball, softball, and basketball. This leaves CNBC, logically, for one-on-one competition: boxing, judo, tae kwon do, fencing, heck even badminton. But what do they show on CNBC? Boxing. Period. All boxing. Nothing else.
It’s like they don’t trust us with the ‘fringe’ sports.