What sports should be in the Olympics?

[mommyoffive]

In your opinion what sports that are in the Olympics should not be in the Olympics?

What sports that are not in the Olympics should be put in?

[Jean in Newcastle]

I am not going to say that any sports that are in the Olympics should not be there.  People around the world work very hard at those sports.  They show dedication, concentration, and training. 

[MrsMommy]

1 minute ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I am not going to say that any sports that are in the Olympics should not be there.  People around the world work very hard at those sports.  They show dedication, concentration, and training. 

I totally agree! It doesn't matter what sport I'm watching, I'm seeing high-caliber athletes who can do amazing things!

[Faith-manor]

Hmmmm. I haven't thought about that much. I thunk that while things like golf and tennis, soccer, etc. do have a lot of international play so I don't think they need the Olympics, a lot of sports only have national level play so the Olympics are very important to those athletes. I do wonder about the addition of sports for whom there are very few countries with athletes interested in them. It doesn't end up being much of a "world" event so to speak. But, mostly I am happy for the diversity. And hey, it is very, very important because we love that Jamaican Bobsled team! 😀

[Dmmetler]

I really want to see what happens now that IOC has approved cheer as an Olympic sport. I'm assuming it will follow a similar format to ICU cheer, which is level 7, 18+, and usually college grads.  It's pretty impressive, especially given that the team only practices together in a few weekend sessions through the season, due to being geographically scattered (L's coach for the 2018-2019 season was on this team, so we got to hear and see a lot more of the process than might otherwise be the case).  https://youtu.be/Ly4mrPLlmAk. Here's Team USA Co-ed from the last normal ICU season. 

 

I wish that many sports were covered better. It doesn't seem right for someone to work so hard to get there and represent their country, only to not even be viewable in their home country, or viewable only at 3:00 in the morning. 

 

[Faith-manor]

1 minute ago, Dmmetler said:

I really want to see what happens now that IOC has approved cheer as an Olympic sport. I'm assuming it will follow a similar format to ICU cheer, which is level 7, 18+, and usually college grads.  It's pretty impressive, especially given that the team only practices together in a few weekend sessions through the season, due to being geographically scattered (L's coach for the 2018-2019 season was on this team, so we got to hear and see a lot more of the process than might otherwise be the case).  https://youtu.be/Ly4mrPLlmAk. Here's Team USA Co-ed from the last normal ICU season. 

 

I wish that many sports were covered better. It doesn't seem right for someone to work so hard to get there and represent their country, only to not even be viewable in their home country, or viewable only at 3:00 in the morning. 

 

Agreed. I do feel like the BBC does a better job covering as many sports as possible, and having a lot of replay to watch. NBC is wretched. Truly wretched, and I am tired of how few sports actually get any seconds of air time much less decent coverage.

[Jean in Newcastle]

This year I have been able to see a lot more varied sports than before.  There are actually a lot more countries participating than are often shown in news coverage because they usually only show those athletes that have moved on to be able to actually compete for the medals. 

[SKL]

I always thought sleeping should be an Olympic sport.  I would have a real chance at the gold.  [Missing the slink-away emoji....]

[Jean in Newcastle]

I was watching archery the other day.  I have to admit that I don't think of it as much as a "sport" but I could see the skill involved.

Also skateboarding.  I see how the Olympics have codified things more (don't know if that's the right word) for judging purposes. 

[wathe]

I am glad to see a bigger effort to move toward gender parity this year.  It's unbelievable to me that women's sprint canoe is in the Olympics for the first time this year (previously is was only men).  There is nothing particularly male about canoe!

[DawnM]

My dad and I just had an argument over women's weight lifting.   He thinks women shouldn't lift heavy weights because they are women.   His comment?, "They don't look happy doing it."

DH's comment back, "No one looks happy lifting 600 pounds, the men don't either!"

Dad didn't get it.   

ARGH!

[Faith-manor]

How about things that should not be in the Olympics?

Hunting. Definitely not. Hours of watching someone do nothing from a deer blind. Nope.

Fishing. Just no. No one wants to watch fishing. Seriously, PBS, give it up.

Tag football.

Dodgeball.

Snowball fight. Though let's be fair, this could be QUITE entertaining, and some countries would be pretty wicked with each other! 😂

 

 

[cjzimmer1]

1 hour ago, Faith-manor said:

Agreed. I do feel like the BBC does a better job covering as many sports as possible, and having a lot of replay to watch. NBC is wretched. Truly wretched, and I am tired of how few sports actually get any seconds of air time much less decent coverage.

I agree about NBC's coverage.  There is no reason is today's digital age of on demand, that I shouldn't be able to sit down and watch gymnastics at whatever time of day I want but no.  Either watch at 3:00AM or wait till 7PM but then you can only watch it mixed in as their primetime coverage so I'm stuck listening to commentaries and interviews and portions of other sports all of which I don't care about.  But I would really like to watch gymnastics.  All the the gymnastics, you know like I'd like to see the ones from other countries that aren't medal contenders.  I see snipets of other gymnasts in the background so I know they are there but no we are not allowed to watch them because NBC is sure we only care about USA gymnasts. 

[mommyoffive]

1 hour ago, Dmmetler said:

I really want to see what happens now that IOC has approved cheer as an Olympic sport. I'm assuming it will follow a similar format to ICU cheer, which is level 7, 18+, and usually college grads.  It's pretty impressive, especially given that the team only practices together in a few weekend sessions through the season, due to being geographically scattered (L's coach for the 2018-2019 season was on this team, so we got to hear and see a lot more of the process than might otherwise be the case).  https://youtu.be/Ly4mrPLlmAk. Here's Team USA Co-ed from the last normal ICU season. 

 

I wish that many sports were covered better. It doesn't seem right for someone to work so hard to get there and represent their country, only to not even be viewable in their home country, or viewable only at 3:00 in the morning. 

 

Oh I hadn't heard about cheer.  What Olympics are they in?

[Jean in Newcastle]

23 minutes ago, DawnM said:

My dad and I just had an argument over women's weight lifting.   He thinks women shouldn't lift heavy weights because they are women.   His comment?, "They don't look happy doing it."

DH's comment back, "No one looks happy lifting 600 pounds, the men don't either!"

Dad didn't get it.   

ARGH!

The Filipina who won the Philippines first gold medal sure looked happy! 

[Corraleno]

7 minutes ago, cjzimmer1 said:

I agree about NBC's coverage.  There is no reason is today's digital age of on demand, that I shouldn't be able to sit down and watch gymnastics at whatever time of day I want but no.  Either watch at 3:00AM or wait till 7PM but then you can only watch it mixed in as their primetime coverage so I'm stuck listening to commentaries and interviews and portions of other sports all of which I don't care about.  But I would really like to watch gymnastics.  All the the gymnastics, you know like I'd like to see the ones from other countries that aren't medal contenders.  I see snipets of other gymnasts in the background so I know they are there but no we are not allowed to watch them because NBC is sure we only care about USA gymnasts. 

Do you have cable? I held off on cancelling Comcast until after the Olympics, so I've been able to watch most sports (either live or recorded) on my laptop with Xfinity. DS and I watched almost all of the preliminary bouts in fencing, including those between athletes/countries with little to no chance of a medal, but the medal buts were at 2-3 AM, so we watched recordings of those the next day. I can also watch hours and hours of recorded gymnastics, including qualifiers and even some practice sessions.

[mommyoffive]

35 minutes ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I was watching archery the other day.  I have to admit that I don't think of it as much as a "sport" but I could see the skill involved.

Also skateboarding.  I see how the Olympics have codified things more (don't know if that's the right word) for judging purposes. 

I agree with you on those.  All the shooting events compare to archery in my thoughts as not much a sport.

I am kind of back and forth on table tennis.

I am wondering about break dancing.  To me I don't get why they made the olympics but all the other styles of dance didn't?   

[Jean in Newcastle]

Just now, mommyoffive said:

I agree with you on those.  All the shooting events compare to archery in my thoughts as not much a sport.

I am kind of back and forth on table tennis.

I am wondering about break dancing.  To me I don't get why they made the olympics but all the other styles of dance didn't?   

Table tennis has been an Olympic sport since 1988.  I was actually taught to play by a Japanese table tennis pro (pre Olympics) who dumbed /slowed things down considerably for me!

[TheReader]

1 hour ago, Dmmetler said:

I wish that many sports were covered better. It doesn't seem right for someone to work so hard to get there and represent their country, only to not even be viewable in their home country, or viewable only at 3:00 in the morning. 

 

 

23 minutes ago, cjzimmer1 said:

I agree about NBC's coverage.  There is no reason is today's digital age of on demand, that I shouldn't be able to sit down and watch gymnastics at whatever time of day I want but no.  Either watch at 3:00AM or wait till 7PM but then you can only watch it mixed in as their primetime coverage so I'm stuck listening to commentaries and interviews and portions of other sports all of which I don't care about.  But I would really like to watch gymnastics.  All the the gymnastics, you know like I'd like to see the ones from other countries that aren't medal contenders.  I see snipets of other gymnasts in the background so I know they are there but no we are not allowed to watch them because NBC is sure we only care about USA gymnasts. 

 

3 minutes ago, Corraleno said:

Do you have cable? I held off on cancelling Comcast until after the Olympics, so I've been able to watch most sports (either live or recorded) on my laptop with Xfinity. DS and I watched almost all of the preliminary bouts in fencing, including those between athletes/countries with little to no chance of a medal, but the medal buts were at 2-3 AM, so we watched recordings of those the next day. I can also watch hours and hours of recorded gymnastics, including qualifiers and even some practice sessions.

We have Xfinity, but haven't been able to track down, easily, all the things we want.....or we get "highlights of", instead of the full thing, even though we *think/thought* we set "Record every single Olympic thing no matter what" -- it was so hard to track it all down. I think we had to hit record on 4 or 5 different channels, programming things, etc. to be able to try and catch it, and then sorting through it (even with voice access, asking for fencing, finding the one we want has been a pain). 

So, we saw some, but not all, of the fencing. Went looking for more, only to find 'highlights of...." and even something labeled "full gold medal match recording" but it was only 2 minutes long.....? 

And then, I'm sorry, but the "let's cut away from the (recorded last night, and you've already heard the winners on all social media, radio, news, etc.) gymnastics for a commercial, but then we won't come back to the competitor who was up next, because we have only this little amount of time before we get to the (being broadcast live, because obviously this is way more important) men's track 1st of 4 rounds to see who qualifies for the finals (even though the gymnastics is all recorded, and is for the medal, but no, really, seeing 4 rounds of guys run the 400m to see who will make it to the final is way more important, because hey, "it's live!" 

NBC has really really really dropped the ball on their coverage. 

[DawnM]

11 minutes ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

The Filipina who won the Philippines first gold medal sure looked happy! 

He only watched them performing, not actually winning.   

I wanted to point out that the swimmers aren't smiling in the water and the basket ball players aren't smiling while playing, but, it wasn't worth it.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I really like NBC's coverage this year because it isn't just all about gymnastics any more. 

[mommyoffive]

4 minutes ago, TheReader said:

 

 

We have Xfinity, but haven't been able to track down, easily, all the things we want.....or we get "highlights of", instead of the full thing, even though we *think/thought* we set "Record every single Olympic thing no matter what" -- it was so hard to track it all down. I think we had to hit record on 4 or 5 different channels, programming things, etc. to be able to try and catch it, and then sorting through it (even with voice access, asking for fencing, finding the one we want has been a pain). 

So, we saw some, but not all, of the fencing. Went looking for more, only to find 'highlights of...." and even something labeled "full gold medal match recording" but it was only 2 minutes long.....? 

And then, I'm sorry, but the "let's cut away from the (recorded last night, and you've already heard the winners on all social media, radio, news, etc.) gymnastics for a commercial, but then we won't come back to the competitor who was up next, because we have only this little amount of time before we get to the (being broadcast live, because obviously this is way more important) men's track 1st of 4 rounds to see who qualifies for the finals (even though the gymnastics is all recorded, and is for the medal, but no, really, seeing 4 rounds of guys run the 400m to see who will make it to the final is way more important, because hey, "it's live!" 

NBC has really really really dropped the ball on their coverage. 

I wonder how much of it is the time change?   Honestly I watch a lot less of it because I already saw in the news who got the medals.  I don't let my younger ones see the news and they are more excited to watch it in primetime.

[cjzimmer1]

12 minutes ago, Corraleno said:

Do you have cable? I held off on cancelling Comcast until after the Olympics, so I've been able to watch most sports (either live or recorded) on my laptop with Xfinity. DS and I watched almost all of the preliminary bouts in fencing, including those between athletes/countries with little to no chance of a medal, but the medal buts were at 2-3 AM, so we watched recordings of those the next day. I can also watch hours and hours of recorded gymnastics, including qualifiers and even some practice sessions.

No. I signed up for Hulu + TV since it said it had 5 channels  of olympics coverage.  However it was pretty sad coverage.  I canceled before the week was over because I couldn't actually watch anything I wanted to.

[TheReader]

Just now, mommyoffive said:

I wonder how much of it is the time change?   Honestly I watch a lot less of it because I already saw in the news who got the medals.  I don't let my younger ones see the news and they are more excited to watch it in primetime.

I'm sure that's part of it, the time change, but it seems like gymnastics, swimming, and track are usually the Prime Time things (along with beach volleyball and some of the bigger team sports). 

the other stuff tend to be shuffled to harder-to-find viewing options, times, channels, etc. Always. I'm sure it's based on what draws the crowds, but....oof. 

 

[Corraleno]

12 minutes ago, TheReader said:

 

 

We have Xfinity, but haven't been able to track down, easily, all the things we want.....or we get "highlights of", instead of the full thing, even though we *think/thought* we set "Record every single Olympic thing no matter what" -- it was so hard to track it all down. I think we had to hit record on 4 or 5 different channels, programming things, etc. to be able to try and catch it, and then sorting through it (even with voice access, asking for fencing, finding the one we want has been a pain). 

So, we saw some, but not all, of the fencing. Went looking for more, only to find 'highlights of...." and even something labeled "full gold medal match recording" but it was only 2 minutes long.....? 

And then, I'm sorry, but the "let's cut away from the (recorded last night, and you've already heard the winners on all social media, radio, news, etc.) gymnastics for a commercial, but then we won't come back to the competitor who was up next, because we have only this little amount of time before we get to the (being broadcast live, because obviously this is way more important) men's track 1st of 4 rounds to see who qualifies for the finals (even though the gymnastics is all recorded, and is for the medal, but no, really, seeing 4 rounds of guys run the 400m to see who will make it to the final is way more important, because hey, "it's live!" 

NBC has really really really dropped the ball on their coverage. 

Are you watching on TV or a laptop? This may be irrelevant now that the fencing competitions are all finished, but if you're still interested, I believe all the bouts are still accessible online here: https://results.nbcolympics.com/results?sportid=208. Just click the down arrow on the right, then click watch replay. I think you do have to be signed in to Xfinity to access these.

To watch gymnastics, you can just change the drop down menu from Fencing to Gymnastics and then click on the one you want, although it looks like the gymnastics replays are in 2-4 hours blocks, not broken down by competitor or country, so you'd have to poke around within the video to find specific people or teams. 

 

[TheReader]

2 minutes ago, Corraleno said:

Are you watching on TV or a laptop? This may be irrelevant now that the fencing competitions are all finished, but if you're still interested, I believe all the bouts are still accessible online here: https://results.nbcolympics.com/results?sportid=208. Just click the down arrow on the right, then click watch replay. I think you do have to be signed in to Xfinity to access these.

To watch gymnastics, you can just change the drop down menu from Fencing to Gymnastics and then click on the one you want, although it looks like the gymnastics replays are in 2-4 hours blocks, not broken down by competitor or country, so you'd have to poke around within the video to find specific people or teams. 

 

oh, thank you! 

we've been watching on TV and it's maddening to sort through it all. I'd love to go back and watch some of the fencing, even though they are done. Thank you so much!!! 

[LucyStoner]

I can find a reason or three to keep pretty much any sport.  

I totally disagree with those who don’t think shooting events are sports- the level of concentration and training it takes to reach the Olympics in shooting sports is impressive.       The archery events were some of the ones my son was most interested in watching.  If golf is a sport, sharpshooting and archery are sports.  

There are some sports that I don’t get into watching but I don’t know that that means they can’t be Olympic sports.  

Re: skateboarding and other newly added sports like BMX, I think they are trying to appeal to a younger audience. There have been international competitions in skateboarding for awhile now.  

I was happy to see softball back at the games this year and I am next level annoyed that it is not coming back for 2024.  It will likely be contested in 2028 and 2032 though.  

I can see the argument for taking out sports for which the Olympics isn’t the highest level of competition or the pinnacle of achievement in that sport.  At the same time, some of those sports (Basketball, Soccer, Tennis) are some of the most fun for me to watch.  
 

[Jean in Newcastle]

Just now, LucyStoner said:

I can find a reason or three to keep pretty much any sport.  

I totally disagree with those who don’t think shooting events are sports- the level of concentration and training it takes to reach the Olympics in shooting sports is impressive.       The archery events were some of the ones my son was most interested in watching.  If golf is a sport, sharpshooting and archery are sports.  

There are some sports that I don’t get into watching but I don’t know that that means they can’t be Olympic sports.  

Re: skateboarding and other newly added sports like BMX, I think they are trying to appeal to a younger audience. There have been international competitions in skateboarding for awhile now.  

I was happy to see softball back at the games this year and I am next level annoyed that it is not coming back for 2024.  It will likely be contested in 2028 and 2032 though.  

I can see the argument for taking out sports for which the Olympics isn’t the highest level of competition or the pinnacle of achievement in that sport.  At the same time, some of those sports (Basketball, Soccer, Tennis) are some of the most fun for me to watch.  
 

I appreciate seeing basketball and soccer players from teams all over the country coming together to play for their country.   

[lmrich]

My dd is interning with NBC this summer is on the Olympics ad team. 

If you have the NBC paid subscription channel, Peacock, you can watch more Olympics. I know my tv show many different options for Olympics. I have watched rowing, beach volleyball, water polo, as well as the prime time coverage. 

Sport added - ? seems like they are keeping with this - 

Sport taken away - shooting. 

[Terabith]

Apparently pistol dueling and ballooning used to be in the Olympics.  I agree that pulling pistol dueling was a good call.

[PaxEtLux]

I can't say that any sport shouldn't be in the Olympics.  I do know that there are way, way too many for us to follow, especially in the Summer Olympics.  I wonder if it would make sense to move one or more of the big indoor-only sports, like Swimming or Gymnastics to the Winter Olympics, to balance out the number of sports a bit more?

[LucyStoner]

14 minutes ago, PaxEtLux said:

I can't say that any sport shouldn't be in the Olympics.  I do know that there are way, way too many for us to follow, especially in the Summer Olympics.  I wonder if it would make sense to move one or more of the big indoor-only sports, like Swimming or Gymnastics to the Winter Olympics, to balance out the number of sports a bit more?

IOC rules require that a sport be contested on ice or snow to be included in the Winter Olympics.  This is why the summer games are so packed relative to the winter ones . 

Edited August 5, 2021 by LucyStoner

[Clarita]

I'm enjoying watching skateboarding in the Olympics but, does it feel like it's 30 years late to anyone??

Sports to add: ultimate frisbee

Sports I'd like to be aired more (in US): fencing, wrestling/judo/martial arts. synchronous swimming

I did like watching trampoline this year.

Is softball/baseball hard for them to do because the professional teams are playing at the same time? I don't understand why it keeps getting contested in the Olympics. Cynically, I'm thinking because Europe isn't as in to it?  

[PaxEtLux]

2 minutes ago, LucyStoner said:

IOC rules require that a sport be contested on ice or snow to be included in the Winter Olympics.  This is why the summer games are so packed relative to the winter ones . 

Presumably these rules could be changed.  This would be a smaller change than allowing professionals to compete.

Edited August 5, 2021 by PaxEtLux

[dirty ethel rackham]

6 hours ago, cjzimmer1 said:

I agree about NBC's coverage.  There is no reason is today's digital age of on demand, that I shouldn't be able to sit down and watch gymnastics at whatever time of day I want but no.  Either watch at 3:00AM or wait till 7PM but then you can only watch it mixed in as their primetime coverage so I'm stuck listening to commentaries and interviews and portions of other sports all of which I don't care about.  But I would really like to watch gymnastics.  All the the gymnastics, you know like I'd like to see the ones from other countries that aren't medal contenders.  I see snipets of other gymnasts in the background so I know they are there but no we are not allowed to watch them because NBC is sure we only care about USA gymnasts. 

I agree about NBC's coverage.  Way too much jingoism and trying to manufacture drama.  I want to see the athletes doing athletic things, not see a bunch of talking heads who look like they haven't done a sport in a very long time! 😁

We have been watching sport climbing (my daughter competed against one of the Olympians), but I haven't been able to get up at 3 am to watch the live stream.  I tried watching the re-broadcast on USA but it was so edited that it seemed like a highlight reel rather than a competition.  But, I've also been sorely disappointed in the live stream (replay).  The camera work left much to be desired.  They often showed an athlete standing around contemplating her next attempt while ignoring a top athlete who solved a boulder problem that no one else in the field had solved.  The also had to show their fancy graphics in the middle of the attempt rather than during the changeover of athletes.

And the commentating !!  Arrgh.  They picked 2 people for their ability to spew lots of words every minute.  Unfortunately, not many of those words were useful as it appears that they learned about climbing last week.  I heard that one is a commentator for rugby (which doesn't surprise me..)   They couldn't be bothered to learn the proper pronunciation of the climbers' names, especially those from non-English speaking countries. There are only 40. They didn't know basic lingo.  They explained the scoring system wrong.  They could have watched about 6 hours of world cup climbing competitions for a minimum of research. Heck, I could have done a better job.  

[LucyStoner]

6 minutes ago, Clarita said:

I'm enjoying watching skateboarding in the Olympics but, does it feel like it's 30 years late to anyone??

Sports to add: ultimate frisbee

Sports I'd like to be aired more (in US): fencing, wrestling/judo/martial arts. synchronous swimming

I did like watching trampoline this year.

Is softball/baseball hard for them to do because the professional teams are playing at the same time? I don't understand why it keeps getting contested in the Olympics. Cynically, I'm thinking because Europe isn't as in to it?  

Softball and Baseball were in from 1996-2008 and then taken out for 2012 and 2016.  The main reason for the removal was that relatively few countries play these sports.  I believe that the main reason they won’t be in the 2024 Olympics is so Paris doesn’t need to construct a stadium.  That said, I’m not sure why another field couldn’t be used- our triple A baseball team plays in the same stadium as two different professional soccer teams.  The 2028 and 2032 games though are in countries where softball is played (US and Australia). The removal of Softball from the Olympic Games inhibited the growth of the game.  College softball (which features players that will play for many different countries’ national teams) is a $450 million dollar revenue generating sport at this point though.  Honestly, I paid far less attention to the 2012 and 2016 Summer games because for me, Softball is the main reason I sought out a TV streaming plan that would let me watch the Olympics at all.  

[Corraleno]

Suggestions from British comedian Laura Lexx:

In the Olympics, before each event I think there should just be a normal person having a go to show you the scale of how phenomenal the Olympians are. Like I’d volunteer to plant face first into a vault to show how a regular body doesn’t whizz over it in 6 twists. I just think then, when the commentators are going “oooh that’s not so good” after something superhuman, we have a little scale

A load of blokes do a 100m race, we make a sandwich between the gun and the whistle; then a sun 11sec race will seem CRAZY COOL

Imagine being the member of the public who just gets handed a horse and someone says “this is Twinkle: make her dance like a sexy crab on ants”

“This is Maureen from Tring, she’ll be showing you what the average person can do on the parallel bars. And there you go: she held on swinging faintly in the breeze for almost 20 seconds”

“We will be watching the amateur dive, just as soon as Richard stops muttering ‘ooh it’s higher than it looks on TV, isn’t it?’”

“The judges there just explaining to our amateur jumper how the long wobbly vertical stick is in anyway helpful to getting a body over a horizontal stick many feet in the air”

“It’s not the first time we’ve seen someone include the Macarena in their floor routine but every year I do hope it will be the last- oh, and there’s the half roly poly before a messy exit into an exhausted vomit”

“It’s a VERY fast row for our amateur in the white water canoe. Never seen it done entirely upside down before though.”

“Interestingly, that is the 26th broken foot suffered by an amateur shot putter”

“100m freestyle now. Obviously usually freestyle refers to a swimming race while this is track, but I cannot bring myself to say that what this woman is doing is sprinting”

“Actually, this fella is pretty good at archery. Weirdly good. Worryingly good… and, yes, it’s as we feared: beneath that costume is a handsome fox looking to rob the rich to feed the poor”

“Dave from Kent has been selected as the amateur marathon competitor and it looks like as we enter the 8th mile we are well on the way to what experts call the “Double Barrelled Radcliffe”

“They look very pleased with themselves but judges are now explaining to Kathy and Beryl that the synchronised diving is unfortunately not measured by how much pool water you displace”

“Our gymnasts are expected to do 3 twists and leaps on the beam, but we will be really pretty impressed if Linda makes it to the other side just walking without a fracture”

“Men’s Eight rowing now. We’ve found 8 volunteers but have so far not managed to get more than 3 of them in the boat at once. It will have to be called off once any of the rowers has more than a litre of river water in their lungs”

“Jodie from Portsmouth there looking dismayed to find out there are still 6 more events she has to have a go at. She currently explaining to judges that she’s ‘bust a fookin lung’ on the running and that she’s not throwing anything without a ciggie”

“Laura, from Somerset, actually starting her gymnastics routine on minus points after judges were shown video footage of her wrestling herself into her leotard”

“It’s not a fast swim but as he comes up for air the gold medal for biggest snot bubble into a chlorinated pool absolutely goes to the man from Rochester in the armbands”

Credit: @lauralexx. (Source: https://threader.app/thread/1420088659563405313)  

Edited August 5, 2021 by Corraleno

[Dmmetler]

6 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

Oh I hadn't heard about cheer.  What Olympics are they in?

They just got approval from the IOC this year. It’s unknown if they will be able to make it work for 2024 or whether it will have to wait for 2028. There was an exhibition at the 2018 Winter Olympics (IIRC, the US sent University of Kentucky because Team USA isn’t picked until UCA college nationals in Feb), and would have been one this year if it had not been for COVID. 

[Drama Llama]

I think this is the sport we need: so elegant

 

[Terabith]

Worm summoning seems like it should be an Olympic sport

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/gallery/cornwalls-gloriously-bonkers-worm-charming-5697813?fbclid=IwAR1YQKSBCxGxiZJBHq6ZWx5JgANEB70y_HfkHhfHpe52GWgMi6R3-QK-Kx4

[mommyoffive]

4 minutes ago, BaseballandHockey said:

I think this is the sport we need: so elegant

 

This was just on a commercial during the Olympics tonight as a possible sport.  I can't remember what company, Nike maybe?

[Corraleno]

2 hours ago, BaseballandHockey said:

I think this is the sport we need: so elegant

 

That is hilarious! There are at least two Olympians in there, I recognize Guenter Seidel and Steffen Peters (who finished 10th last week). 

Hobby horse dressage is a real thing now, though! They do jumping, too. It started in Finland, where they even have a national hobby horse championship, lol.

[Clarita]

5 hours ago, LucyStoner said:

Softball and Baseball were in from 1996-2008 and then taken out for 2012 and 2016.  The main reason for the removal was that relatively few countries play these sports.  I believe that the main reason they won’t be in the 2024 Olympics is so Paris doesn’t need to construct a stadium.

I did a little digging. Yes it is cited as a reason that few countries played the game (US (including Puerto Rico’s league), Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Colombia, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Phillippines, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and Australia). Another reason (some argue the biggest reason) though is because MLB refuses to send its players to the Olympics because it is during their regular season. This means the players that get to go to the Olympics won't be "the best" since, MLB also recruits players from outside the US, so other countries would also not be able to send their best either. Japan asked to have baseball and softball for their Olympics because it is such a popular sport in their country and so for Paris they are essentially just going back to their standard fare.    

[ieta_cassiopeia]

I do not think the BBC's coverage is as good as earlier Olympics. Part of this is because Eurosport now has the pan-European rights and only allows 2 channels to free-to-air channels, However, the commentary has also felt more British-biased and also less informative when discussing British athletes. Live coverage also suffers from not resembling the TV listing very much (equestrianism was frequently missed in favour of tennis, football or tae kwon do, despite the listings saying it was going to be equestrianism). On the other hand, the catch-up streaming option is a lot easier to search through, meaning that if I can avoid discovering who won, watching it after the fact is simple.

[Faith-manor]

12 hours ago, Corraleno said:

Suggestions from British comedian Laura Lexx:

In the Olympics, before each event I think there should just be a normal person having a go to show you the scale of how phenomenal the Olympians are. Like I’d volunteer to plant face first into a vault to show how a regular body doesn’t whizz over it in 6 twists. I just think then, when the commentators are going “oooh that’s not so good” after something superhuman, we have a little scale

A load of blokes do a 100m race, we make a sandwich between the gun and the whistle; then a sun 11sec race will seem CRAZY COOL

Imagine being the member of the public who just gets handed a horse and someone says “this is Twinkle: make her dance like a sexy crab on ants”

“This is Maureen from Tring, she’ll be showing you what the average person can do on the parallel bars. And there you go: she held on swinging faintly in the breeze for almost 20 seconds”

“We will be watching the amateur dive, just as soon as Richard stops muttering ‘ooh it’s higher than it looks on TV, isn’t it?’”

“The judges there just explaining to our amateur jumper how the long wobbly vertical stick is in anyway helpful to getting a body over a horizontal stick many feet in the air”

“It’s not the first time we’ve seen someone include the Macarena in their floor routine but every year I do hope it will be the last- oh, and there’s the half roly poly before a messy exit into an exhausted vomit”

“It’s a VERY fast row for our amateur in the white water canoe. Never seen it done entirely upside down before though.”

“Interestingly, that is the 26th broken foot suffered by an amateur shot putter”

“100m freestyle now. Obviously usually freestyle refers to a swimming race while this is track, but I cannot bring myself to say that what this woman is doing is sprinting”

“Actually, this fella is pretty good at archery. Weirdly good. Worryingly good… and, yes, it’s as we feared: beneath that costume is a handsome fox looking to rob the rich to feed the poor”

“Dave from Kent has been selected as the amateur marathon competitor and it looks like as we enter the 8th mile we are well on the way to what experts call the “Double Barrelled Radcliffe”

“They look very pleased with themselves but judges are now explaining to Kathy and Beryl that the synchronised diving is unfortunately not measured by how much pool water you displace”

“Our gymnasts are expected to do 3 twists and leaps on the beam, but we will be really pretty impressed if Linda makes it to the other side just walking without a fracture”

“Men’s Eight rowing now. We’ve found 8 volunteers but have so far not managed to get more than 3 of them in the boat at once. It will have to be called off once any of the rowers has more than a litre of river water in their lungs”

“Jodie from Portsmouth there looking dismayed to find out there are still 6 more events she has to have a go at. She currently explaining to judges that she’s ‘bust a fookin lung’ on the running and that she’s not throwing anything without a ciggie”

“Laura, from Somerset, actually starting her gymnastics routine on minus points after judges were shown video footage of her wrestling herself into her leotard”

“It’s not a fast swim but as he comes up for air the gold medal for biggest snot bubble into a chlorinated pool absolutely goes to the man from Rochester in the armbands”

Credit: @lauralexx. (Source: https://threader.app/thread/1420088659563405313)  

I would gladly tune in for this! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[Faith-manor]

Hey, I used to play volleyball in high school, and so have played it a couple of times on the beach. So I volunteer to be on the "regular Joe" beach volleyball team. Wanna bet after seeing me in the uniform, the IOC decides that the German team's board shorts and full shirts are 👍! 😲

[Ausmumof3]

21 hours ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I am not going to say that any sports that are in the Olympics should not be there.  People around the world work very hard at those sports.  They show dedication, concentration, and training. 

Yep.  I like all the quirky sports. I like that people with crazy level of skill in various areas get the opportunity every few years to show the world.  

[LucyStoner]

12 hours ago, Clarita said:

I did a little digging. Yes it is cited as a reason that few countries played the game (US (including Puerto Rico’s league), Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Colombia, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Phillippines, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and Australia). Another reason (some argue the biggest reason) though is because MLB refuses to send its players to the Olympics because it is during their regular season. This means the players that get to go to the Olympics won't be "the best" since, MLB also recruits players from outside the US, so other countries would also not be able to send their best either. Japan asked to have baseball and softball for their Olympics because it is such a popular sport in their country and so for Paris they are essentially just going back to their standard fare.    

Baseball and softball are wildly popular in Japan so it makes sense they would want it included. MLB and MiLB are loathe to send players to play in any sort of other league not just due to it being in their season but also due to the risk of injuries- you don't want your top players or prospects waylaid by injuries that they didn't even get while playing for your team.  I will admit that I absolutely don't care *that much* about Olympic baseball.  I'll watch it/follow it but I am not setting alarms for it like softball.  The WNBA builds a pause into their season for the Olympics because the Olympics are not just an opportunity for women's basketball to rise in profile but also represent an income generator for their players (sponsorships).  Women's pro soccer doesn't shut down for the Olympics, they use the opportunity to let their development players get some playing time.  This is because women's teams/athletes have a vested interest in the Olympics that don't really exist for MLB.  For the women's teams, the Olympics is as big as it gets but for baseball, the MLB represents the pinnacle of the sport.  

Olympic softball, unlike baseball, represents an opportunity to grow and expand the sport and is the highest level exposure the athletes get.  The starting pitchers for the gold medal softball game *were the same* in 2008 and 2021.  I think it's a shame that softball players didn't get the opportunity to participate in 2012 and 2016.  Yes, there's a world championship for softball but it doesn't get the same media coverage as the Olympics or even NCAA.  

Edited August 5, 2021 by LucyStoner

[Clarita]

4 hours ago, LucyStoner said:

Olympic softball, unlike baseball, represents an opportunity to grow and expand the sport and is the highest level exposure the athletes get.  The starting pitchers for the gold medal softball game *were the same* in 2008 and 2021.  I think it's a shame that softball players didn't get the opportunity to participate in 2012 and 2016.  Yes, there's a world championship for softball but it doesn't get the same media coverage as the Olympics or even NCAA.  

I totally agree with what you are saying. I read some people's opinion is either sport individually is a hard sell for the Olympics (I'm unclear as to why, or perhaps heaven forbid we just have the female sport without the male equivalent?). For what it's worth I like baseball but I don't need baseball in the Olympics, because it gets plenty of coverage. Hopefully the US will petition for softball to be in the summer Olympics when it's in Los Angeles.

[KSera]

22 hours ago, Clarita said:

I'm enjoying watching skateboarding in the Olympics but, does it feel like it's 30 years late to anyone??

 

Really? We are loving it. The women’s skateboarding have been my favorite events this time around. I can’t see any reason it wouldn’t be appropriate for the olympics—it’s super athletic and takes a lot of skill. Better late than never, I say 😊.