Olympic Events
 

So baseball is out but synchronized diving X 6 events, synchronized swimming X 3 events exists? :wf

Olympic Events
 

Yep, and team handball is in also. Never heard of it or saw it being played in my life but, WTF.

When did trampoline become a sport?

Dropping baseball had to be more about the lack of countries without teams as opposed to the number countries playing full contact team handball which gave them a way to leave no generous sized child behind....:eek:

There are a number of nations that have good baseball teams
US, Japan, Dom Rep. Venzuela, S. Korea, P Rico, Mexico, Canada, Curaco, Cuba, ect. but bcause "stars" cant play because of ML seson they dropped it because wasnt getting tv ratings or attendance. They dropped softball because US won every year. Once they go to under 23 for basketball no one will really care much about olympic basketball either just as olympic soccer is an after thought.

Some of the sports are funny. Doubles ping pong?

The under 23 soccer thing makes no sense to me.

I never knew there was a Professional Water Polo League thriving in Europe

Just because someone's never heard of team handball doesn't mean it's not a pretty big deal in places other than the US. Step outside of the box every once in awhile.

But yes, baseball and softball being out while any sport that requires judging remains in does not make sense. Synchronized swimming is on top of that list.

FIFA doesnt want the olympics to take away any of their thunder and the clubs hate that the guys they have under contract play for free obviously risking injury. The NBA owners hate that "their" players are financially benefiting someone else hence this idea about a basketball world cup. Of course the players might not be so willing to play for free in a set up like that so who knows what will happen.

We would play indoor team handball in gym class at my high school.

Basically, we would use a volleyball, two hockey goals with nets, 6 players to a team (5 position and 1 goalie) and you could only take two steps with the ball or else it's a traveling -- once you stop and start again -- it's also a turnover.

I was so good -- that people would ask to go to the bathroom, snag the hall pass, and hurry down to the gym to watch me play.

Before me, all of the other people who played goalie "stayed at home" and guarded the net. I was technically a goalie, but also a forward on offense who would leave the net wide open at the other end of the gym.

If I ever get rich -- I have made a vow to have a bronzed statue erected of me playing handball in gym class -- and I will pay the school to let me put it on the front lawn.

Dodgeball could be an olympic sport.
Easily

:tro::tro::tro:

Highest ratings ever.

How about a charity game at the end featuring all of the leaders of the teams participating.

Ahmednajad and Netanyahu as captains drafting the teams. It would be HUGE!

loved dodgeball..

they could add tetherball. that was always fun.

Is "tetherball" what we urban types used to call "4 Square" ......which was the ultimate schoolyard nasty where you stand in line for 15 minutes waiting to play this one point and done version of rectangular singles ping pong with your hands. Defend your square against a higher square, you knock them out and move up......lose a point your at the end of line again.

The Olympic version would be a ratings bananza.

Doc

Here is one of the best tetherball examples

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=DuIGFC88wFo

How do red-blooded Americans not know what tetherball is? What has happened to this country?

:tro:


and rather than baseball, they could add kickball. i really think they need to clean up some of the 'sports' that are included. synchronized swimming?! seriously? that's a sport? i think they are confused between sport and event. anything that is judged should be kicked out.

Never knew a punch to the nuts, even the second time was considered a common foul in International Basketball

I think they need to claen them up too but kinda in the opposite way.

It's not that I wish they'd get rid of basketball, tennis, etc. but just that I hate seeing these kids who have worked so hard and for so long for this chance where it means the world to them and than seeing Kobe et al.

I hate that professonals are allowed. I think it should be all about the other sports, events or whatever you want to call them.

I agree with this. If they are going to keep Tennis and the other pro sports they should use the 23 and under rule that they are using in soccer.

Not yet Tom. Ryan Giggs, the captain of this Olympic's Great Britain team, is 38.

I love the quirky sports. Let them have their day once every four years. It's the only place we can see them after the demise of Wide World of Sports.

Personally, I have watched several hours of Olympics on tv. Of those several hours, I've watched zero minutes of basketball (male or female) and about 10 minutes of soccer.

Why so no one will watch?

Of the sports that people wath swimming, gymnastic, track and field, basketball, tennis virtually all of the participants are pros. Beach volleyball is a pro sport as well.

Look at boxing and soccer, virtually no one shows up or watches

Why isnt Golf an olympic sport?
Or baseball?
Or Rugby?
Bowling?
Cricket?
Polo?
Lacrosse?

Golf is in in 2016.

Just what we want to see Pro's playing for a gold medal. Yawn.

:tro:

i haven't watched any. :o

I have a hard time understanding why anyone would want to watch a competition knowing that the participants are vastly inferior to others that could be competing in that sport. It wouldnt be more interesting to watch Tiger and Rory and Luke Donald and Ernie Els and other guys playing for their countries than a bunch of amatuers that no one has ever heard of?

I guess some people like all the flowery prose and nonsense that the olympic telecasts feed you. They are fixing badmiton matches. The damn ping pong players are professionals. Some amateur boxing matches have been fixed. Virtually every female gymnastic participant appears to be a borderline victim of child abuse.

At least the pros there are playing for free

Your point was well made. I just remember the good old days of a USA vs USSR basketball game where I lived and died with every possession

Oh my God, for real?

Isn't that kind of the point?

No. I want to see the amatures who don't get paid, who don't get recognition, who do it strictly for the reasons that they do and who get to do it at - what is for them - the absolute highest level.

It makes me sick to see the professionals here.

... and for the record I don't give a **** about the network drivel that they're trying to spoonfeed and I doubt anyone here does. I'm pretty sure were all beyond that nonsense here.

Well at least one thing hasnt changed, Int'l refs are still horrid

The point of what? The olympic ideal is a bunch of bullshit. It is big business, period. NBC tells them what to do, money talks. Have any idea how much tickets to the top events go for?

Are you not aware that outside of the fringe sports they are mostly professionals right? You think those little girls who are on the gymnastic team are going to turn down the millions in endorsements coming to them? You know their parents who have pushed them since they were 5 wont.

I dont get the complaint about professionals in sports where professionals play. Do you not think if there was professional fencing that the pro fencing players wouldnt be here? No one gives a damn about fencing or kayaking or most of those other events except for 2 weeks 4 times a year and then alot of times only if there is an American to root for. There is plenty of these things shown as they are using 4 or 5 channels and the internet. If you want to follow the non pros there is ample opportunity. But if you think that the majority of viewers wish to see Mongolia versus East Timor non-pros in basketball rather than US versus Spain or Argentina or want to see the golf version of Eddie the Eagle for more than a few holes you are mistaken.

Yeah, give me the pros. If I want to see the Eddie the Eagle of golf, all I gotta do is keep teeing it up with the Tampa Show Parlay team.:D

I can't respond to this without sounding melodramatic and affected so I will simply say that i think it's a shame that an event with traditions that date back so far is being so, well..... changed.

It has been changing for a long time. The olympics are probably the original sporting event that featured widespead abuse of performance enhancing drugs (See virtually all Soviet Bloc athletes from 60's till fall of Berlin Wall), was one of the first to have an active doping scandal while in session (Ben Johnson), has had terrorist murders, boycotts, questions of gender problems, corrupt judging, bribery scandals, match fixing, overt racism and a lengthy list of questionable practices with sorid details too long to list. Other than that and those mega rich NBA guys it is a pure display of sport.

I think you are allowed 2 or 3 overage players in men's soccer. I agree the fun of the olympics is watching the quirky sports, that is why I don't want to see golf or tennis. We already have 4 majors in each every year. That is enough of the same 4 players in tennis winning over and over.

Any sport that includes a score for artistic anything belongs in a theater or on a stage; not in the Olympics

Mexico beating Brazil 2-0 in the 75th minute of the gold medal soccer match. A victory for Mexico would be huge for them, no matter who is in the line-up for both sides.

Should be a hectic finish as Brazil will surely pull out all the stops.

:tro::tro::tro:
i watched NO basketball men or women and i wouldn't watch soccer if they played in my back yard.

if they started allowing checking, i might start watching soccer...but that won't happen.