The Olympics are coming.
In July, the 2012 London Summer Olympics kick off and hours spent in front of the television will increase dramatically worldwide.
The event has changed significantly since the ancient Greeks’ time. I doubt they would ever have envisaged synchronised swimming or beach volleyball as an Olympic event.
There are plenty of events that at one time or another were part of the Summer Olympics that no longer are. These include baseball, basque pelota, cricket, croquet, golf, lacrosse, Jeu de Paume, Polo, Rackets, Roque, Rugby Union, Softball, Tug of War, and Water Motorsports.
Also, Demonstration events that did not count toward official medal tallies have included some interesting sports. Such as American Football, Australian Rules Football, Ballooning, Bowling, Boules, Budo, Finnish Baseball, glima, Gliding, Kaatsen, Korfball, La Canne, Surf Lifesaving, Longue paume, Motorsport, Roller hockey, Savate, Swedish (Ling) Gymnastics, Weight training with dumbbells, and Water skiing.
Interestingly, the only summer sports that have never been absent from the Olympic program are athletics, swimming, fencing, and gymnastics
In the 2016 Olympics that are to be held in Rio, will see the return of Golf as an Olympic event, and the introduction of Rugby Sevens.
Do you question the rightful place of some Olympic events? If you could add one event, what would it be? Are you looking forward to watching the games and are there particular events that you especially cannot wait to watch?
I dislike Olympic or any sports events that have an arbitrary way of picking the winner, that is, the ones that use judges. Like diving, synchronised swimming, gymnastics etc. I will probably be in the minority but, to me, these sports just seem to be too open to personal bias. And I know they try to eliminate the bias by having multiple judges and cutting out the highest and lowest scores but there have been many controversies over the past 100 years or so.
I’ve always found it surprising that golf has not been included in the modern Olympics any more. But hooray for the inclusion of the Rugby Sevens. That’s a hoot
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I love watching the diving, I think the divers are amazing. But I have the same reservations as you regarding the judging. Unfortunately, apart from the measures already taken, I don’t see any way around it. It’s the same with the gymnastics.
I think it would be interesting if none of the scores were shared until all athletes had competed. Sometimes I think the judging of some of these sports can turn into a bit of a reality tv show. There’s someone that’s done really well, and is the current front running, but then the favourite does their thing, and will it be enough? What will the judges score them? Will the crabby judge be crabby? You’ll find out… straight after this commercial break…
If none of the scores were shown to anyone (including the other judges) until after everyone had competed, I think that while it’s still subjective, you might get a slightly more objective outcome. Judges can’t help but be biased. It will happen. But if they don’t know who the front runner is (because they don’t know the other judges’ scores) then they’re less likely to end up in that reality tv show situation.
I suppose it’s not as entertaining for the audience though. And it would be fairly excruciating for the competitors. Just a thought.
Olympic haiku
Political backflips and
Jumps to conclusions
Being first to splat
I get the silver today
Thought I’d retired?
I’d like to see squash as an Olympic event but I know it’s not going to happen due to the difficulty of getting a big enough audience around a court (not much money in ticket sales there) and the difficulty of televising it.
There are a few sports I think could go, but I’m sure their fans would see it differently.
We saw the handball at the Sydney Olympics due to the ballot system and it wasn’t what I expected. We really enjoyed it. I think one of the good things about the Olympics is the chance to see and appreciate sports we don’t normally see or know much about.
I’m looking forward to the Olympics myself, in spite of reservations about the controlling body being corrupt to the core.
As you all know by now I am not a sporting person. I don’t play, nor generally watch. Having said that, I don’t mind watching the swimming, even though it seems to be full of douchebags these days. As for what shouldn’t be there… I haven’t put much thought into it myself, but Pokey’s stance seems good. The point of being an Olympian is being the fastest, or strongest, or whatever. You should get to be that by winning, not by someone else judging that you are.
A thought that occurred to me – is swimming full of douchebags because they float better (and are naturally drawn to the sport) or because we treat swimmers in such a way as to turn them into douchebags?
Or option number 3 swimmers are simply young, fit people with money who shouldn’t be considered as anyone else’s role model and whose private life is pretty irrelevant except to tabloid journalists and the part of the population who read the articles produced by such.
*sigh*
I know that given sales figures a lot of people must care about what people do when they are not playing sport but I really don’t. Same goes for what politicians and actors do. As long as they are doing it using their own funds with consenting adults I just don’t care.
I love watching the Olympics… and like loller I used to enjoy watching the swimming, but the men’s team, without Heugil(?), are all massive douchebags and really makes me question watching them. The women’s however should be great (nothing suss).
Harlequin is bang on. The Olympics does allow everyone, regardless of experience, the chance to enjoy and become an armchair expert in some of the most obscure sports around ie. greco roman wrestling.
I can’t wait
I still can’t believe I’m actually going to be at the Olympics
Granted, I’m only going to see the Equestrian on account of my cousin. I am in the UK for the first time ever with lots of other things to do, so would rather pop into a pub somewhere and watch it on TV with a pint, if there is a particular sport I really want to see.
As for the other Olympic sports. I love diving and gymnastics but agree with Pokey about sports that are judged and being open to personal bias.
Synchronized swimming just seems silly to me.
I am oh so excited that I finally get to meet you Kanga, fancy having to travel to the UK to arrange a splat up
I really enjoy watching the swimming, but I think the Australian team needs a bit of a personality reality check these days. In particular the men. I’m sick of all the crap D’arcy has caused.
I also enjoy watching the diving and the gymnastics. The scoring can be annoying though.
The cycling is something else I watch, although I do think the velodrome riders are slightly insane. Better them than me!
And pesäpallo (Finnish baseball) is a strange game. If it were to come back, then Australia would surprisingly be able to field a team… Unsurprisingly… We’d probably lose.
Okay, slightly un-related.
I had a crazy dream last night that I was asked to compete as a swimmer in the Olympics and I accepted (odd, as I cant swim). We flew over and I realised when we got there that I was there to be the loser (‘Someone has to loose, why not you?’ says my coach) so I have to prove them wrong, I come third and and am super duper excited… I get to the upstairs viewing area and I turn to someone and say ‘even if I did come last, at least I can always say I was an Olympian!’
Anyway… I find sport very dull. Cant get into it… Don’t mind the running or hurdles but for the most part I will be probably be the person complaining that the Olympics have taken over TV too much! (or that they aren’t naked any more… Why aren’t the Olympics played naked any more?)
I wouldn’t mind seeing shoe shopping as an Olympic competition… Now *that* is something I would watch…
Beach Volleyball’s close
Hurdles would be funnier
Don’t mention pole vault
I really like the Olympics, wish we could have gotten tickets to a decent event but they were too expensive and quite limited. Ah well, we will still go check out the Olympic complex and maybe see some road racing. Soak up the vibe and all that.
Despite any judging flaws I really like a lot of the judged events so I am in favour of them staying. I really admire the dedication that goes into sports like gymnastics so I’m all for them getting a moment on the Olympic stage. Plus it’s not like timed sports like athletics have been without drugs controversies and all that.
Had a good long weekend in Brisbane, lots of laughs with out friends. Weather was quite crap yesterday though (and yet somehow the Europeans insisted we go to Surfers Paradise :-/). We were staying at New Farm right on the river, amazing location! Mado restaurant in Southbank was also tops.
I do take the point on judged events, but I also think that Gymnastics and for the winter games, figure skating, are iconic to olympics and therefore should stay.
I was not really keen when events like tennis started to get included and permit professional players to participate, blurring the line between amateur and professional sports where the olympics had previously been an amateur event by definition.
But I also think opening that door has increased financial support for some sports like athletics so I am now okay with it.
I do admire athletes that train so hard, and at best expect to have the opportunity to compete at this level 2-3 times in their career before they pass their physical peak. They put in so much, and almost nobody gets rich by being an olympic athlete. I admire that level of passion and dedication.
I’m still thawing from the weekend, after spending two days outside in single-digit weather, but I’ve just about come good.
Personally, I reckon any sport that has its own world cup every four years doesn’t really have a place at the Olympics. If we have soccer there then why not Thugby or cricket? For the record I quite like watching the soccer.
Otherwise, I’d love to see the tug of war return. And maybe competitive eating. Otherwise, in the absence of me paying for cable or spending too much time at the pub I do hope they show something other than swimming on the free to air broadcast.
Some of my favourite events never have Aussies in them, and the best of all are won by the rank outsiders. One of my favourite Olympic moments is still the guy from Togo winning bronze in the kayaking. The guy who won silver was devastated by he (Having just scored his country’s first ever medal) was so excited he busted his oar over his kayak. There weren’t any Aussies in that event either.
I like the idea of the Olympics but I never really end up watching that much of it, sometimes just the finals of some of the really big events. I don’t watch a lot of scheduled TV at the best of times and I can’t see it being different this year.
I am intrigued as to what impact HEA’s suggestion would have on judged sports, that might be one way to make it more about everyone competing and less about the “TV” or viewing aspect of it which does seem to have an impact on the results.
In other news we have been told to brace ourselves for a “level 2″ cyclone tonight, probably just means strong winds and a bad storm, still not fun.
Oh not good! Stay safe x
Ditto to that. Take care. xo
The Olympics are as much commercialized and politicized as anything else these days. And with the time difference between the events and prime-time viewing around the world, the events are more than likely edited for the viewing audience. Why show the Colombian white water kayaking participant at prime-time in Los Angeles when you can show the local favorite and all the other highlights for the home team?
One of the reasons for the failure of Chicago to win the bid for the 2016 Olympics was the announcement by US producers that they planned to launch an Olympic Network channel on cable television. The IOC keeps dragging their heels and trying to figure out how to keep the profits from that sort of thing for themselves, so they were ticked off that a US company would dare make an announcement before they figured out how to do it themselves.
Then there was the whole Salt Lake City Olympic corruption scandal which current Presidential candidate Mitt Romney helped rein in. Of course bribery and gifts are nothing new in getting the vote for your city to host the Olympics. Gifts of land, scholarships for IOC member’s children; these were the currency of the realm for a very long time.
Sure, there will be some outstanding achievement by an individual or a team. But that’ll be in the highlight reel.