# Worst Olympic Sports
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001
**Category:** The Game Room
**Created:** [July 31, 2012, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001 "2012-07-31T23:06:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2012, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001/61 "2012-08-01T16:20:01Z")
> [@etv78](#):
>
> The people who call football soccer are the people who saved you from annahilation, many times.
Whether or not this is true, WTactualF does it have to do with sport?
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2012, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001/62 "2012-08-01T16:23:58Z")
Yeah, we don’t need any more swimming races, but does any organization use the sidestroke competitively I wonder? Yes it would probably look rather gay…
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### Author:  [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2012, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001/63 "2012-08-01T16:27:25Z")
> [@Colophon](#):
>
> [QUOTE=etv78]
> The people who call football soccer are the people who saved you from annahilation, many times.
Whether or not this is true, WTactualF does it have to do with sport?
[/QUOTE]
It is true, in a way; the British coined the term “soccer” and still use it regularly, and British people saved their own country in WW2 (with huge help from Americans, Canadians, Russians, etc.)
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### Author:  [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2012, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001/64 "2012-08-01T16:30:21Z")
I’ll be the voice of contention. While I understand the hate for judged events as being subjective they are clearly more of a ‘sport’ than curling, bobsledding, archery or any other activity you can do while smoking.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2012, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001/65 "2012-08-01T16:30:27Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> I don’t care about judging, mostly because I don’t care about who wins. For my money, any Olympic performance that involves being upside down part of the time is better than one that doesn’t. Snowboarding, gymnastics, high diving, probably trampolining? Awesome. Soccer, weightlifting, swimming, probably croquet? Yawn.
Swimmers go upside down; at least, some of them do. In the freestyle and backstroke, the swimmers do a flip at the end of the pool and then push off their legs. Your rule would only get rid of the butterfly and breaststroke events, and freestyle and backstroke that are only one length of the pool.
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### Author:  [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001/66 "2012-08-01T16:47:10Z")
I think most of the sports/games in this thread could be revitalized with the simple addition of two words: full contact.
Let the curlers sharpen their brooms. Swimmers carry a bludgeon. Simultaneous rhythmic gymnastics with spikes in their balls (come to think of it, any mens’ competition where ‘spikes in their balls’ is a possible outcome would surely increase the sport’s intensity).
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2012, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001/67 "2012-08-01T17:08:48Z")
> [@Sitnam](#):
>
> While I understand the hate for judged events as being subjective they are clearly more of a ‘sport’ than curling, bobsledding, archery or any other activity you can do while smoking.
Hang on a tick – aside from swimming, what Olympic events _can’t_ you do while smoking?
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2012, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001/68 "2012-08-01T17:15:02Z")
> [@hogarth](#):
>
> Hang on a tick – aside from swimming, what Olympic events _can’t_ you do while smoking?
Most of the track & field program, cycling gymnastics, wrestling, just to name a few.
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### Author:  [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2012, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001/69 "2012-08-01T17:15:16Z")
> [@hogarth](#):
>
> Hang on a tick – aside from swimming, what Olympic events _can’t_ you do while smoking?
Boxing woudl be pretty difficult, particularly as the gloves would be really cumbersome.
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001/70 "2012-08-01T17:17:07Z")
> [@hogarth](#):
>
> Hang on a tick – aside from swimming, what Olympic events _can’t_ you do while smoking?
Fencing?
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2012, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001/71 "2012-08-01T17:20:35Z")
> [@hogarth](#):
>
> Hang on a tick – aside from swimming, what Olympic events _can’t_ you do while smoking?
No experience with e-cigs, but could they be used in a pool?
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2012, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001/72 "2012-08-01T17:21:28Z")
> [@runner pat](#):
>
> Most of the track & field program, cycling gymnastics, wrestling, just to name a few.
Pretty sure a dedicated smoker could smoke during all of the track and field events (OK, pole vault needs both hands for a bit, but just clamp the smoke in your mouth). and all the cycling events. The smoker would have terrible technique, mind.
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### Author:  [@markdash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdash)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2012, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001/73 "2012-08-01T17:28:26Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#):
>
> Tennis: Any Grand Slam is better
I could see someone thinking a gold medal was more important than winning the Australian (or perhaps US) Open. I guess winning the Aussie would be more financially beneficial, though.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2012, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001/74 "2012-08-01T17:43:10Z")
BMX. Really? Come on…
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2012, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001/75 "2012-08-01T17:43:56Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#):
>
> (OK, pole vault needs both hands for a bit, but just clamp the smoke in your mouth).
Considering he said archery and curling are possible while smoking, clearly needing both hands in not a requirement.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2012, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001/76 "2012-08-01T17:48:13Z")
You can’t smoke while curling. The ash dropping on the ice would affect the path of the stone.
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### Author:  [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2012, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001/77 "2012-08-01T18:09:27Z")
BMX - adult men riding little kid bikes.
Basketball - In the U.S. at least we already get Kobe the Rapist and his friends shoved down our throats every single day.
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### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001/78 "2012-08-01T18:53:00Z")
Add me to the list of people who think judged events \< objectively measured events.
I’d be interested in someone doing a statistical analysis of which countries do better in judged events, and if it’s statistically significantly different from how they do in non-judged events. Because since 2002 (couples ice dancing) I’ve been convinced much of it is fixed.
I’d never thought about sports where the Olympic medal is not the biggest recognition in the sport. That’s a pretty good rule-of-thumb, but including winter Olympics in the mix, we have a problem. The men’s ice hockey tournament is one of the greatest things about Olympic competition, although a Stanley Cup is probably a bigger deal to an NHL player.
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### Author:  [@Victor\_Charlie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Victor_Charlie)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001/79 "2012-08-01T19:13:32Z")
The Olympic motto is Citius, Altius, Fortius meaning, of course, Faster, Higher, Stronger. If an event doesn’t include at least one of these elements, it should get booted. That would be all of the summer shooting sports, archery, diving, equestrian and curling… basically anything that doesn’t require some degree of genuine physical exertion.
Plus, I agree we dump any sport where judges and “artistic merit” decide the winner. I say we grandfather in gymnastics and figure skating (because they’re wildly popular, have the highest degree of melodrama and go back to the roots of the modern Olympics), but everything else goes.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-olympic-sports/630001/80 "2012-08-01T19:29:27Z")
I actually kind of like handball. Its a sport where the primary defensive move is to draw a foul from the ref - all it does it give the ball back to the team on offense and reset everyone.
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