I am having trouble completely understanding the complete array of sports included in the Olympics. The track and field, swimming, wrestling, weightlifting and other traditional Olympic sports make sense but I wonder about the limited popularity sports like synchronized diving/swimming, badminton, rowing, kayaking, equestrian, and ping pong. One of the most interesting developments lately was the dropping of baseball and softball and the suggestion that squash and karate replace them. Squash???? If they wanted to harm America, banning baseball was silly as the game has been outsourced to Latin American and Asia, they only really hurt Cuba. Does this make sense to you?
No way this two sports are better then squash and karate. It is senseless. You will find more baseball fans then Squash and karate.
I guess if they combine Squash and Karate it would be interesting like Chess Boxing. Hit the ball, kick your opponent.
MLB has never cooperated with the Olympics. Summer Olympics fall in the middle of the MLB season, but MLB still holds games. NHL temporarily suspends their season for Winter Olympics. That is my guess as to why Baseball is being dropped. And Softball is being dropped just to not show any gender discrimination. And since when is Swimming a limited popularity sport??
i like NBA , 2008 Beijing Olympic Basketball Games , all of usa players from NBA , they are great , they will get the champion
I didn't realise they'd dropped baseball. For London in 2012 there's talk of entering a Great Britain football team. Everyone's opposed because they think FIFA will make us compete as one nation in the World Cup. With the new Twenty/20 format cricket could make a come-back; also 7-a-side Rugby could be included.
I don't see it as an MLB thing as baseball is much more important to the countries of Cuba, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, etc than it is to MLB. The NHL is playing catch up and is more international with world championships and a great Olympic history. I think the US team has skunked the world like 805 runs for with an ERA of 0.000. Our local pool has at least a dozen national AAU team championship plaques, there are always two or more Olympic medalist from our little area, and swimming still ranks behind football, baseball, basketball, soccer, track & field and golf in public interest. Without the Olympics, when would you see swimmming on TV, Monday Night Swimming, Swimming Night in Canada?? I'd like to see the Welsh side out there representing. I'd be good with either of those. Is that version of Rugby an universal choice, would the majority of Rugby fans be happy with that? Cricket would mean India would need more than two taxis to get their delegation to the opening ceremonies.
I think we'd prefer to see a full 15-a-side version, after all, football and hockey are 'full strength' competitions, but 7-a-side would be acceptable. For cricket I'd personally like to see full five-day Test matches. The problem is the tournament would last about three months - and then they'd probably have to give out two sets of gold medals as the final would finish as a draw. No, seriously I think Twenty/20 would work, just don't let the ICC organise it.
I would love to see karate added as an Olympic event, then we could have kata, weapons kata and kumite events that really showcase the sport and art involved. But honestly at the rate that mixed martial arts is gaining in popularity why not just have a UFC style competition? That could be a fantastic sport to watch as two people just pound the tar out of one another and the winner gets the gold The only issue is taht it takes a ton of time to recover from those fights before you are ready to fight again. But we still need to have at least one stick and ball sport like baseball. I guess lacrosse counts there. I'd hate to see cricket as an Olympic sport though. Talk about an awful game
I think T20 is good idea to introduce in Olympics becuase it will be good for host city as Indians are crazy about this sports ( Not me I am soccer fan ) and more people will go to watch this events.
Couldn't agree more with you man. Beach Volleyball??? COME ON! That's ridiculous! I really do think the sports have gotten out of control. I blogged about this a few days ago (too lazy to find the post lol).
I am fine with beach volleyball. It is widely played. It has interest to the point that it can have a professional league including sponsors. I am not sure if you can say that about rhythmic gymnastics, rowing, synchronized diving, shooting, etc.