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Fewer olympic sports
Remove the ones where winning the olympic medal isn't the high point of your career | |
Basically, the number of olympic sports is just getting silly. And, there are a whole load of them where there is a world cup (or equivalent tournament) which is more prestigious than winning the olympic title (football is a case in point). So, we just remove these sports and leave the ones (e.g. athletics,
swimming) where the olympic title is what people really care about.
motto interpretation?
http://www.halfbake...dea/Anabolympics_3f
fits the 'higher' criteria [chud, Feb 25 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004]
Olympics would gain by returning to old ways
http://www.usatoday...020225/3890387s.htm
Letter to the editor in today's McPaper . . . er, USA Today. The author advocates a reduction in events. [bristolz, Feb 25 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004]
[link]
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I think you'll find that the other sports you mention (and presumably others inferred) have similar tournament level competition that carries the same level of meaning as your football example (guessing you're referring to World Cup non-US 'football' there) to the competitors. Those events just aren't as news-worthy (sports-worthy?) and have a lower profile than others, but they exist. They compete more than once every four years, you know. |
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Not doable, as you'd need to eliminate every event. |
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No; gotta weigh in on vince's side here - olympic soccer is just silly. Have a croissant. |
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Now olympic skateboarding....That would kick ass.... |
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I have to disagree with waugsqueke. There's a whole load of sports you never see on TV except in the olympics like rowing, field hockey and judo which could stay in; you'd never hear about them if it wasn't for their inclusion in olympic TV broadcasts. But things like tennis should go, especially when most of the best players in the world aren't even taking part. |
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I don't think you understand my point. I agree that it's ridiculous to have tennis and hockey competition in the Olympics, particularly using professional athletes. But vince's criteria for elimination is sports where the Olympic medal is not the highest achievement. Thereby inferring that for the sports that would be left in, the medal _would_ be the highest achievement. |
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I refute that by pointing out if you were a field hockey player or say, on a bobsled team, winning a non-Olympic championship tournament is every bit as prestigious to those athletes, if not moreso, than Olympic medals. In a non-Olympic year, especially so. |
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So the criteria is faulty here. |
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Maybe then, it should be based on the public's perception of the quality of the medal...i.e. In Britain we consider that Steve Redgrave's olympic medals are more important than any rowing championships he might have won, but of course we care a lot more about winning the World Cup than the Olympic football gold. As it is the public, through taxes (and here the lottery), that is putting up the money to fund Olympic teams and events then it should be what the public are interested in seeing in the olymics that should be used. |
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On the other hand if people that play olympic football, get any sence of achivement and esteem from doing so who are we to want to take that awayfrom them? |
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[rampant sappiness] This idea has a mistaken assumption that the point of the olympic games is winning and competition. From their original, ancient Greek inception, and their modern rebirth, their charter is to foster international relations and promote that whole silly "world peace" bit. |
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Hmmm. How about allowing people to donate money to the event of their choice? Underfunded events would be canceled. |
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they should introduce thailand's national sport: that thing they do with the ping pong
balls |
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[Zircon]: We don't care about winning the Olympic football gold for the simple reason that we're not allowed to. We enter the Olympics as Great Britain which encompasses all of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Each of these countries have their own national team and own Football Association, but there is no association for Great Britain as a whole, as, other than the Olympics, there would be no competition for the team to compete in. Other countries don't have that problem. |
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Some "New" events are reintroduced - take "Skeleton" for example - I think that is going to be an oldie but a goodie. Synchronized swimming would be better if it was outdoors in an isolated, fixed location - say Alaska - and in Winter Olympics - without anyone around. Just a remote camera and some barbed wire fencing and the competitors all in the water awaiting their turn as starving polar bears walk around interior circumference. |
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Would we have the figure skaters circling around the frozen edges of that Alaskan lake, being smacked upside of the head and out of the air by angry polar bears, right in the middle of a triple toe loop, th'wax? Could we, could we, huh, huh? |
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If it involves points for 'artisitic interpretation', then it doesn't belong in the Olympics, IMHO. Or if it involves sequins. What is this? The f*cking Olympics or Priscilla, Queen of the Desert? |
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//who are we to want to take that away from them?// |
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Taxpayers, zircon, taxpayers... or just bitter and twisted geek-boys with a grudge against all jocks and the sports that give them their evil power. Or both; I'm not proud. |
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I quite enjoy sitting down to watch the olympic coverage and finding that I am sitting watching one of the more obscure events (particularly in the winter olympics) but I guess I am just rather strange. Obviously your standard track and field are the meat and two veg of the (Summer) Olympics. I rather like an afternoon watching Judo (for the Summer Olympics) and the Hotdog (for the winter Olympics).
Besides how could you get rid of curling? |
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Yes, please - I beg of you - toss all the figure skaters in there. Bear in mind, these competitors (R.I.P.) were still competing on artistic and technical merits while being mauled by Polar Bears. That's the beauty of the premise. Think of it as a Win-Win-Win Situation. |
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I would echo a lot of the sentiments here, especially Guy Fox. The olympic Movement's slogan is "Cetius, Altius, Fortius" "Faster, Higher, Stronger". Events which rely on a judge's view don't fit in with this ethic e.g. Figure skating, synchronised swimming.
An interesting case would be snowboarding where I would say Snowbaord downhill ans slalom - YES, Snowboard half-pipe and freestyle - NO.
In this scenario, however, I'm afraid gymnastics would be out.
In applying the faster higher stronger rule, may be I'd also have to put in 'objectively assessably better' i.e. not by a judge, like archery.
My biggest problem would be where judo or boxing stands here, as it is assessed by a judge, but on clearly defined rules for giving points, and is defintely about being faster and stronger
I also agree that sports like football and tennis shouldn't be in, and therefore, under these rules, neither should hockey (field or ice). But what woiuld the winter olympics be without ice hockey?
It's a tricky one... |
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It's the curse of professionalism that's ruined the olympics. Gone are the days when postman Bert Smith used to get up at three in the morning, do a days work and then go to the gym and spar with 'Basher' Burton for 30 rounds, every day. After four years of knackering hard work he'd trundle off to the olympics, draw the Cuban world champion in the first round and get battered senseless. Winning under such circumstances was far more of an achievement than it is for today's full-time athletes and so the medal was treasured more. It's not the sports that are the problem, vince It's the people who are allowed to participate. I exempt the olympic boxing from this accusation even though I used it to illustrate my point. |
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But I LIKE figure skating....especially that pair that did their short program to Pink Floyd's "Shine on you Crazy Diamond". Would you remove gymnastics from the summer games? |
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How about we just change the olympic slogan to "Faster, Higher, Stronger, Prettier"? |
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Anybody who thinks figure-skating is just about being 'pretty' should go try it sometime. Ever seen a figure-skater who was out of shape?
What I think we should do is combine some of the sillier events into one competition, like they do in that commercial that I can't think of the name of. Hence, skeleton-curling. Athletes slide head-first down a sled-tunnel, while guys with brooms along the tunnel side attempt to clean the ice and occasionaly bat them over the head in an attempt to end as close to a target as possible. |
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