Given some of the ‘marginal’ sports that are now in the Olympics (synchro diving, beach volleyball, etc), there seem to be some startling omissions from the Olympics. For instance, Golf. Why isn’t Golf an Olympic sport? It has a sanctioning body. It has international competition (the Davis Cup), and it’s been around for a long, long time. So how come it’s not in the Olympics?
Another is Karate. Karate has national sanctioning bodies like the JKF. It would seem to me that it would be an ideal sport. You could have Kata, weapons Kata, light contact and full contact sparring.
Billiards. Hey, if curling can be a sport, why not snooker? Or nine ball? Or straight pool?
‘extreme’ sports. Okay, some if not most of them are goofy. But surely there must be some that are suffiently well defined and judged that they could qualify. Water Skiing would be a natural addition.
Aerobatics. There’s a world ranking system. There are international competitions. The judging is highly evolved and standardized. It’d be a GREAT addition to the Olympics. And it’s one of the few sports where men and women compete directly against each other.
Twenty20 Cricket. Shorter, faster and much higher run rates make it a lot of fun than test or one day cricket, and this from a fan of the more traditional format.
Plus, if baseball can be an Olympic sport, then why the hell not?
There’s been too many marginal sports tacked on, as it is. The Olympics have become bloated with events. I would reduce the number of events by half. Feh.
I see no advantage to reducing the number of events at the Olympics. I’d increase it. Get more people participating.
Sports I’d add:
Golf - absolutely the first one I’d add
Rugby
Cricket
Croquet
Billiards - snooker AND eight ball. Nine ball isn’t sufficiently distinct to bother with.
Karate
Chess isn’t a sport. Aerobatics is dependent upon complex vehicles, which I’d be a little hesitant to add (I’d take sailing events out.) A lot of sports just aren’t played in enough countries, like football or sumo.
A cool addition would be co-ed slo-pitch, but I don’t think it’s popular outside of the USA and Canada. Too bad; you’d have men and women playing together, which would be cool.
9-ball is a far superior competition game than 8-ball, which is why there isn’t a professional 8-ball tour. Played at a high level, 8-ball involves far too much luck. Because players are shooting at different balls, how the balls wind up after the break has a huge impact on who’s going to win the rack.
Actually, the best game for competition is, in my opinion, straight pool. But hell, if we’re going to add billiarsds, why not add them all? And then you can have an overall champion, too. That’d be the most prestigious award in pool. The person who does best at 8-ball, 9-ball, straight pool, snooker, and one-pocket becomes the olympic champion and the best pool player in the world.
But you know what? The Phillippines would kick the world’s butt.
Skateboarding.
Cheerleading.
Climbing.
Street luge.
Team gymnastics where they’re all out there doing their stuff at the same time, like in those gymnastic shows that old Olympians go to put themselves through college in.
Ultimate Frisbee.
Shot put (both genders)
50km race walk
20km race walk (both genders)
Hammer throw (both genders)
Men’s 1500m wheelchair
Women’s 800m wheelchair
Baseball (simply not global enough; should be left to regional games)
All canoe/kayak
Dressage
Football (soccer); when the Olympics is not the premier international competition, it should just stay away
Tennis (unless it returned to amateur)
Trampoline
Sailing
Synchronized diving
I would add:
Golf (if it remained amateur, top-level international professional events already exist, and there is a usable amateur structure in place)
Cricket
Pool/Billiards of some sort
Rugby
Martial arts, blend them all into one competitive event. Who cares if you’re best at karate if the tae kwon do guy could beat you.
pickle ball (just because it is a game I play)
…
I have seen eight-ball played professionally on television … what do you mean “no tour”? Do you mean it is only played in more or less ad hoc tournaments here and there?
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