For me its synchronized anything diving or swimming. I’m not sating its easy, I’m just saying its dumb.
The Kayaks going down the fake water rapids is pretty pathetic, too. I feel sorry for the competitors. I’m sure that they are very skilled kayakers in a real river. It just looks like they are competing in a “river” at a Disneyland ride.
Swimming, can’t stand the jingoistic cheering from the Aussie commentators and really swimming is just so unremarkable. Yes I do like the relays but the individual stuff?. Boring and boorish.
I recognize and appreciate that gymnastics and other such events (figure skating, diving, etc.) are extremely, even transcendantly difficult, but the judging brings it down a peg from other events.
For my “worst” Olympic event, I’m going to go with Equestrian. It has the judging element, plus, the horse is doing all the work.
Pommel horse. As compared to the other gymnastic sports, all the pommel horse routines look pretty much alike, and a sport where you’re always on a stationary apparatus just can’t be as exciting or creative as one where you are doing flips and spins in the air.
Personally, I think they should have more sports in the Olympics. It should be far more inclusive. Bring back baseball. Have golf, croquet, billiards, and squash and rqcquetball and cricket. Why not? They’re all sports played internationally.
I’d love to see chess, bridge, and go added. I was distressed to see that they have pimped the gymnastics apparati. The balance beam now has padding and is springy and the floor exercise area has actual springs underneath.
Golf is part of the Rio Games.
Other sports I’d add: Lacrosse, karate (only MA not currently in), agree about the other court/diamond games
Echo the silliness of equestrian
I think the first two posts hit the nail on the head. Anything subjective is below anything objective. And synchro and kayaking both look pretty dumb.
The synchronized diving is a good example of why the judging drives me nuts. There were plenty of times that even to my untrained eye, I could tell the two weren’t really synchronized (e.g., one guy started his spin too early) but wouldn’t get deducted for it. There was even one dive where one diver turned far inwards towards his partner instead of staying straight, but because all the judges sit on the side, didn’t seem to be a deduction for it.
I like the whitewater kayak and canoe. Yeah, it’s in an artificial river, but that’s probably the only way to assure that the course stays absolutely consistent from one competitor to the next. And there may not be any suitable natural rapids near London, and you’d need areas for press and spectators, etc.
I saw one in the men’s platform where the two British divers were about a quarter turn out of sync. I could see it in the full-speed shot and in the slow-mo. Neither of the commentators said a thing and their synchronization scores were 9.5s.