Olympic sports that should be gotten rid of
- Thread starter colton
- Start date
#1 - We agree.
I played it as a kid and agree it's fun to play, kinda .. but have never enjoyed watching it.
MVP
Well-Known Member
Well and badminton and table tennis are played in way more then 28 countries. Plus I am sure in some of these countries baseball is not popular at all. I know for fact in Europe there are some baseball fans who have leagues and play, but there are in such small numbers that their games are attended by friends and family members only, nobody shows them on TV or cares about it.
And why it is ignorant to assume that Badminton is more interesting? To each its own, I could not stand watching baseball for more then 1 minute... sorry, only american football, cricket or softball rivals it when it comes to boredom.
And here is why baseball was dropped from Olympics according to wiki:
The elimination of baseball, along with softball, from the 2012 Olympic program enabled the IOC to consider adding two different sports, but none received the votes required for inclusion.[79] While the sport's lack of a following in much of the world was a factor more important was Major League Baseball's reluctance to have a break during the Games to allow its players to participate.
trigg3r
Well-Known Member
You are obviously a foreigner if you think this along with calling it American Football. In this case, it tells me A LOT. Major League Baseball is a business and can't just stop in the middle of their season to let their athletes play in the Olympics. This doesn't mean however that college kids can play in their place. I see no reason why this shouldn't be the case. The sport is growing whether you want to give it the credit it deserves or not. You being foreign, I don't really expect you to get it. Just as I don't get badminton or ping pong like you might. It doesn't mean however it shouldn't be included in the games.
Conclusion:
AK sucks.
Marty McFly
Well-Known Member
Most of them should be gotten rid of. I guess I'm just not that big of a sports fan besides the NBA, but damn, 90% of the summer Olympics are boring as hell.
all the separate stroke events in swimming should be condensed into one "pick your favorite stroke" event
I think they have it, it's called free style. Everyone does the same stroke because it's the fastest even if that particular swimmer is best at back stroke or whatever.
MVP
Well-Known Member
Yeah, thats exactly the point, rest of world could care less about baseball or other sports which are popular in USA only. Baseball is not popular enough for it to be olympic sport. Not enough strong countries to compete first of all, USA playing Cuba, Japan and Canada? Yeah maybe Aussies, Mexico and Kiwis will join in for fun as well. Boring! Period.
And even if I grew up in Europe that does not mean I did not try to play, understand and enjoy N.American sports. Unfortunately they are too weird and boring.
And yeah there is only one real football in the world - king of sports and most popular sport in the world. American clone of rugby with armor and commercial breaks every 5 seconds??? Well you can enjoy it, rest of world does not give a crap about it
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ok, so I was mistaken in thinking that the stroke was called "freestyle" - the stroke that is used is more commonly known as the front crawl or australian crawl - so have one set of races with that stroke, and another set where any OTHER stroke is used (swimmer's choice)
How about Olympic events for ordinary folk? Swimming the dog paddle, walking a straight line, sitting on the horse, hanging from the bar, or maybe sitting at the bar? I think we could even figure out how to make Synchronized Rhythmic Horse Walking work for everyday people.
trigg3r
Well-Known Member
Yeah, thats exactly the point, rest of world could care less about baseball or other sports which are popular in USA only. Baseball is not popular enough for it to be olympic sport. Not enough strong countries to compete first of all, USA playing Cuba, Japan and Canada? Yeah maybe Aussies, Mexico and Kiwis will join in for fun as well. Boring! Period.
And even if I grew up in Europe that does not mean I did not try to play, understand and enjoy N.American sports. Unfortunately they are too weird and boring.
And yeah there is only one real football in the world - king of sports and most popular sport in the world. American clone of rugby with armor and commercial breaks every 5 seconds??? Well you can enjoy it, rest of world does not give a crap about it
In other words.... Blah blah blah blah.
You: I hate it because there is nobody else interested in it besides maybe 6 countries....
Me: 28 teams participated in the WBC and there are more getting involved because it is a growing sport. BTW, the USA has yet to win a WBC. In fact, they have yet to finish above 4th in 2 tournaments. Showing that baseball is truly growing in other countries.
But hey, we should just disregard the Dominican Republic, South Korea, Venezuela, Cuba and other countries that have had major impacts on the sport because they just don't count any longer. Especially those pesky Japanese who have won both tournaments. Sorry kid, this is not just an American sport that I am pushing to get back into the Olympics just for my enjoyment. This sport has gone global and is getting more and more popular. It's pathetic that it was cut from the Olympics. But hey, you continue to pretend that you care anything for American sports. That's almost laughable.
MVP
Well-Known Member
Could you provide link to that WBC? I am interested to see what kind of level of competition was there besides top 4-6 baseball powerhouses.
And I do not hate it FYI... I just do not find it interesting or worth spending my time watching it, whenever I see it on TV I just switch channel. And to be fair lets not compare it to individual sports like badminton or table tennis... but how can baseball be even close to other team sports in Olympics like basketball, football, volleyball, handball, waterpolo or field hockey? Sorry, just not happening.
Darkwing Duck
Well-Known Member
The "powerhouses" are USA, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, The Netherlands (Curacao), and Puerto Rico. That's 9 teams that have a definite shot at winning a tournament. How many have a chance at winning a tournament in basketball? Softball? Handball?
That has more to do with the natural variance of the sport, the roster fielded by the US team, and the format of the WBC than anything else. And if you follow baseball even a moderate amount then you know that. You're also misrepresenting a lot of things to magnify the importance of the WBC, and I suspect you're doing so intentionally. To date, 16 countries have participated, not 28. The number you're citing may participate in the WBC in 2013.
Ping pong, by the way, really is like the baseball of China. It's the official national pastime. Extremely popular in other east asian countries as well.
That shows just how bad China sucks. Freaking commies.
Stifle Tower
Punch Bowl Re-Filler
Or bionics.
Stifle Tower
Punch Bowl Re-Filler
Asian countries.
So your counter argument re: baseball and softball fails by the same standards.