If you could get rid of one Olympic sport, which would it be?

I'd probably get rid of football as it currently is, or change the football to a smaller format like 5-a-side like they have done with the rugby 7s. Unfortunately, women's football doesn't get half as much coverage as the mens it seems. It's also already got a massive following and WC, various leagues etc and is all pretty big money.

I like that rugby is there in the form of 7s, and that the women's game seems to be getting so much coverage! especially as whilst there is a 7s world cup, it's not the same as pro league/union rugby and isn't half as big as union/league and more accessible to 'non-rugby' nations.

Definitely get rid of beach volleyball - normal volleyball is in the Olympics so I don't see why they can't just combine the two.
 
ScottyJ said:
Speed walking!! although it is kind of hilarious to watch
Click to expand...

I had no idea that was a thing!

ScottyJ said:
This is a great thought actually. It would mean our eventing would go though! I do see the sense in it not being included though.
Click to expand...

i don't agree with that. I still think the Olympics is the pinnacle of this sport - Badminton is a huge achievement and a win there is beyond anyones wildest dreams but i think even those who have achieved the feat would still be after a win or even just a team place at olympic level.

i would be away with rhythmic gymnastics (although i love all the other gymnastics) and golf.

One thing i would like to change is making the dressage of the 3DE a free style routine (with or without music) there is only so many times you can watch the same test and keep non horsey peoples interest/ attention!
 
LeannePip said:
One thing i would like to change is making the dressage of the 3DE a free style routine (with or without music) there is only so many times you can watch the same test and keep non horsey peoples interest/ attention!
Click to expand...

But that distracts from the origins of the sport. At least in eventing dressage you' see the mistakes
 
ycbm said:
Seriously? I'd remove all the equestrian sport. You can't get there without equipment (the horse) worth many hundreds of thousands of pounds. It costs ridiculous amounts of money to transport and support that equipment, and it's as elitist as you can possibly get.

It's a farce when the eventing is reduced in height and difficulty to a three star instead of a four star to give more countries a chance.

The starving poor of Rio (and there are a lot of them) have been making it clear how they feel about the kind of money that's been spent on building the equestrian venue.
Click to expand...

It was already there as was used for the pan am games. If you're going down that line then the whole of the games in Rio is bloody ridiculous - there's no way I'd be sailing in that water!
 
teapot said:
But that distracts from the origins of the sport. At least in eventing dressage you' see the mistakes
Click to expand...

But then surely so does the pure dressage final?

I think there are enough opportunities over the three days for mistakes to be shown that we shouldn't need to sit through 2days of the same test. Every competitor still has to execute the same moves but as with the pure dressage they can highlight their strengths. there was lots of talk after London about making it more interesting viewing for non horsey viewers to the point where there where discussions of binning top hat and tails as it was viewed to elitist
 
the football - none of the football fans I know give a toss about olympic football, its not a coveted title in the sport at all.

And rhythmic gymnastics - don't get it at all, but I suspect a lot of people think that about dressage!
 
I do wonder if we need quite so much swimming :p, so many distances, so many strokes and the same people competing and winning several times over, more so than in any other olympic sport.
 
GOLF. both my brother and dad are huge followers of the sport however both agree that none of the players are bothered by the title and so it really has no place. very much agree with this as i can't even tolerate being in the same room as it when its on the tv!
 
Football, golf and tennis. They have their own professional circuits.

I am just glad that snooker, darts, shovehappeny and other pub games have not been included.
 
Cant wholeheartedly agree that equestrian events should be banned as it's elitist, most riders don't ride their own horses anyway. Really, to get to Olympian level in the vast majority of sports, you are relying on money to be able to devote your life to training and competing. Most athletes here rely on funding to enable them to train. I expect its a similar case for other countries. What I really disagree with is the 'target' amount of medals athletes are expected to win at each games, if its down on the target, funding gets reduced or pulled from certain athletes for the next games. I guess what it all really comes down to is the country that can spend the most will triumph in a lot of cases. No easy answer to this one really. Lots of countries, including our own, have homeless, starving and downtrodden people, I guess that in Rio, with the favellas being so close to the uber smart dwellings of the rich, the disparity really does come under the spotlight.
I enjoy watching a lot of the minority sports and really am looking forward to the surfing in 2020.
 
I always think the shooting is a bit of an odd one too, though it is at least one of those things you don't have to be a professional at to do well.

Yes lots of countries have homeless, starving people. I think Brazil probably has more than anywhere else that has held an olympic games in recent times though? In Rio one in seven lives in a favela and I think it would be wrong to sweep that under the carpet and the amount of money spent on this short period given the current economic and political issues in Brazil.

One thing I thought yesterday was I bet they had nicer water to get that grass to grow than most of the city have access to.
 
You can only hope that perhaps being the first south american nation to host the games that this creates more interest in people going to Brazil, and promoting sport in the country. Maybe it will inspire a surge in interest in sports accessible to those in the favelas? I think the Zika virus amongst other things has created bad feeling towards these games, whereas realistically the risk for a tourist staying in a clean hotel is probably reasonably minimal.

Yes, there's a lot of poverty in Brazil however there's no reason to think this Olympic money would have been spent on those people sadly!

And I'm not so sure about the water quality either - a bit of ammonia in it would make the grass grow lovely ;)

I also love the fact that the diving and swimming are outside, now there's confidence in your weather!
 
Fewer lumpy bits to get it through the sprinklers ;)

Oh I don't expect for a minute it would have been spent on them, I just don't think it should be ignored or said that oh well, everywhere is like that. I do hope it brings enough money in to be worth it.
 
Boxing! for an event that is supposed to promote peace and working together I realy dont get how beating each others brains out is fitting?
Not to mention the major health concerns due to repeated blows to the head!
 
Modern pentathlon, surely? Or at least the element when bad riders get on borrowed horses and hammer them round a show jumping course. If this is an Olympic sport, surely the athletes should be able to perform at a high standard in each of the disciplines.
 
Have to agree about golf, esp. considering the comments of some "top" golfers on the subject: they can't be bothered going to the olympics, well I can't be bothered watching golf!

I like the tennis, maybe because we have the current olympic champion in andy murray, but when you see how upset Djokociv was at losing his first round match, I think he def. cared a lot.
 
ester said:
Yes lots of countries have homeless, starving people. I think Brazil probably has more than anywhere else that has held an olympic games in recent times though? In Rio one in seven lives in a favela and I think it would be wrong to sweep that under the carpet and the amount of money spent on this short period given the current economic and political issues in Brazil.

One thing I thought yesterday was I bet they had nicer water to get that grass to grow than most of the city have access to.
Click to expand...

I think China has more poverty than Brazil, they certainly have controversial politics and human rights records. I know it has a bigger population, but some parts of China are very impoverished, whilst others do well.
 
I did say probably, and as with all things just because it is also a problem elsewhere doesn't mean the issue should be swept under the carpet.
and China had an economy booming, Brazil is in recession and political turmoil.
 
If the Olympics is not the biggest thing in the sport, it shouldn't be in the Olympics so definitely golf. If the top players can't be bothered why should the rest of us care? Same with the football (men's at least). Limiting it to under 23s is a bit of a cop out to explain why the top players aren't there. Having said that 20 years ago I would have classed Tennis in the same bracket, but it seems to be more of a priority now so maybe things will change.
 
LeannePip said:
But then surely so does the pure dressage final?

I think there are enough opportunities over the three days for mistakes to be shown that we shouldn't need to sit through 2days of the same test. Every competitor still has to execute the same moves but as with the pure dressage they can highlight their strengths. there was lots of talk after London about making it more interesting viewing for non horsey viewers to the point where there where discussions of binning top hat and tails as it was viewed to elitist
Click to expand...

If you changed it for the Olympics, you'd have to change throughout the sport and eventing dressage isn't about 'highlighting individual strengths' imho.

I'd bin pure dressage, because it doesn't do anything for me but that's a personal thing.
 
My choice would be golf. Nothing against it in general, but it seems clear to me that a lot of players aren't bothered.

I think if competitors of a sport don't regard Olympic selection (let alone a medal) as a major highlight in their career then drop the sport and give another one a chance for exposure.
 
While we're all having a mini Olympics rant, I'd standardise it so that there are either automatic joint bronzes for anything involving a semi final or that all losing semi finalists in all sports have to have a playoff for bronze. I don't really care which way it goes but it seems really unfair that judo, boxing etc get treated differently from fencing, rugby and suchlike.
 
teapot said:
judo does have bronze medals matches though?
Click to expand...

Well there were definitely two people on the bronze bit of the podium the other day!

Nitpicking about sports aside, it's still not a fair process across the whole games.
 
Lexi_ said:
Well there were definitely two people on the bronze bit of the podium the other day!

Nitpicking about sports aside, it's still not a fair process across the whole games.
Click to expand...

Identical scores? Or offer two medals because of the vast numbers of competitors?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top