If you could create new Olympic Events...

[JoshMartini007 2,571]

Pretty much, a sport/event being dominated by one nation should have no bearing on its inclusion in the Olympics. Now if the sport is dominated because only a small handful of nations play it is one thing, but in reality table tennis is one of the most played sports in the Olympics. The Chinese and East Asia in general are that good

[De_Gambassi 1,225]

  On 8/28/2016 at 3:20 PM, orangeman said:

 

I think the majority of users here don't think baseball adds diversity because a majority of users here are European.  But even then, the Netherlands and Italy have added to the global diversity in the last decade.  Sorry, it's hugely popular in the Americas and East Asia, and even to an extent in Australia.  But sure let's have water polo because 3 countries outside the Balkans play it.  This isn't against water polo, I'm just saying there are tons of sports currently in the Olympics that are much less global than baseball, but their popularity in Europe ensures their continued inclusion.  As I said, though, requiring a city like, say Paris, to build venues for baseball/softball is unreasonable.  And as you say, the lack of professional involvement is another concern.  Those are real issues, the sport itself not being global enough is not.  

 

Talk about not being global, China has won 53% of the available medals since Table Tennis was added to the Olympics, with Korea winning another 18%.  Only one other team has ever won a gold medal in the sport (Sweden in 1992).  The only reason other countries have won medals in TT is bronze for the team event, where China and Korea can only win one each.  That's just ridiculous.  The same amount of countries have won golds in women's hockey since 1998 as in all TT events combined - men and women's singles, doubles and teams- in the same time period (one gold by South Korea in 2004 in men's singles).  Think about that for a moment.  I say this as someone who lives in East Asia and has witnessed the 'passion' for this sport first hand: Table Tennis has no place in the Olympic Games.  

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hem... please stop ?

 

- The only one who stated on theses boards "lol, no, nobody cares about baseball except americans and japanese" was actually an american, not an european. The lack of professional involvement is not simply a concern, for many but a reason enough not to include it (and most of them actually think men soccer should be dropped for the same reason). There is no need to overestimate the popularity of the sport neither, the game barely exists south of Venezuela and north or Korea, and is marginal at best in Australia.

 

- (Really, still moaning about TT ?). First, by itself, the over-domination of one country shouldn't be a reason enough to drop a sport.,  if it was the case, basketball should be out also and no one should think about baseball then (which would be over dominated by a MLB stars led US team). Secondly - and most importantly -, TT is a competitive sport played by millions, including thousands of professionnals (Pro TT leagues actually exists in Europe for a reason). By any stretch, TT is actually a bigger sport than squash, and probably badminton too (more countries play it, more professionnals play it, bigger crowds for top events, etc.). Domination by one country is not a good reason enough to remplace one sport by a smaller one, or then call for netball to remplace women's basketball.

 

[intoronto 5,903]

  On 8/28/2016 at 4:05 PM, De_Gambassi said:

 

hem... please stop ?

 

- The only one who stated on theses boards "lol, no, nobody cares about baseball except americans and japanese" was actually an american, not an european. The lack of professional involvement is not simply a concern, for many but a reason enough not to include it (and most of them actually think men soccer should be dropped for the same reason). There is no need to overestimate the popularity of the sport neither, the game barely exists south of Venezuela and north or Korea, and is marginal at best in Australia.

 

- (Really, still moaning about TT ?). First, by itself, the over-domination of one country shouldn't be a reason enough to drop a sport.,  if it was the case, basketball should be out also and no one should think about baseball then (which would be over dominated by a MLB stars led US team). Secondly - and most importantly -, TT is a competitive sport played by millions, including thousands of professionnals (Pro TT leagues actually exists in Europe for a reason). By any stretch, TT is actually a bigger sport than squash, and probably badminton too (more countries play it, more professionnals play it, bigger crowds for top events, etc.). Domination by one country is not a good reason enough to remplace one sport by a smaller one, or then call for netball to remplace women's basketball.

 

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The Usa has never won the World Baseball Classic... Which is full of Mlb stars.

[carivan 73]

  On 8/28/2016 at 4:05 PM, De_Gambassi said:

 

hem... please stop ?

 

- The only one who stated on theses boards "lol, no, nobody cares about baseball except americans and japanese" was actually an american, not an european. The lack of professional involvement is not simply a concern, for many but a reason enough not to include it (and most of them actually think men soccer should be dropped for the same reason). There is no need to overestimate the popularity of the sport neither, the game barely exists south of Venezuela and north or Korea, and is marginal at best in Australia.

 

- (Really, still moaning about TT ?). First, by itself, the over-domination of one country shouldn't be a reason enough to drop a sport.,  if it was the case, basketball should be out also and no one should think about baseball then (which would be over dominated by a MLB stars led US team). Secondly - and most importantly -, TT is a competitive sport played by millions, including thousands of professionnals (Pro TT leagues actually exists in Europe for a reason). By any stretch, TT is actually a bigger sport than squash, and probably badminton too (more countries play it, more professionnals play it, bigger crowds for top events, etc.). Domination by one country is not a good reason enough to remplace one sport by a smaller one, or then call for netball to remplace women's basketball.

 

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One tiny nitpick, but the USA would not dominate baseball. Just look at the Classic. Dominican Rep, Japan and a couple others do have strong teams to make it interesting. And the format would lend itself to upsets anyway, we won't have best of 7 series at the games. Baseball would not be basketball.

[De_Gambassi 1,225]

  On 8/28/2016 at 4:11 PM, carivan said:

 

One tiny nitpick, but the USA would not dominate baseball. Just look at the Classic. Dominican Rep, Japan and a couple others do have strong teams to make it interesting. And the format would lend itself to upsets anyway, we won't have best of 7 series at the games. Baseball would not be basketball.

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Fine, point taken. Doesn't change my argument though.

[Gianlu33 4,750]

I read a lot of post in this thared, and i think that it was a bit stupid  So, i tryed to work on the international federation members. It's only the 1st part, I worked for some days for this datas. In next day i'll post the 2nd part

 

• Diving, Waterpolo, Syncronized Swimming, Swimming - FINA [1450 athletes, 46 events] Low-Medium level

FINA actually have 208 national members. The sport aren't praticated in all center-africa and in some zone of Middle east.

Waterpolo situation in the world is dramatic. We haven't African nations in Rio and we have only 5 asian country in the men's qualification and only 2 in the women's tournament.

Synconized Swimming have a reat traditions in eastern Europe and in mediterranean country like Spain, Greece and Spain, all other europan country haven't a competitive team. We have 2 country in Africa (Spain and Egypt), some country in Asia and North America but the situation is better that the waterpolo's situation.

Diving is play in Europe, East asia, Americas and in some country of north america and south africa and the world level is very high.

 

• Archery - WA [128 athletes, 4 events] High Level

The World Archery federation actually have 156 members but the soort is played at good level in all continents

 

• Athletics - IAAF [?? athlete, 47 events] High Level

Really I must write anything about Athletics?  

 

• Badminton - BWF [172 athlete, 5 events] Low Level

Badminton is played whit a good level in Asia and Europe. All other continente have a low level of badminton. The BWF is totally absent in arabian goulf, northen africa and some zone of center africa, center america and Oceania.

Some big country like Saudi Arabia, Bolivia and Egypt haven't a badminton federation.

 

• Basketball - FIBA [24 teams, 2 events] High Level

I haven't interessing dates to write here  

 

• Boxing - AIBA [286 athletes, 13 events] High Level

This federation in one of the most corruppted but it have a good numbers of competition in all continents.

 

• Canoeing, Slalom Canoe - ICF [334 athlets, 16 events] Medium-High level

I haven't found a lot of data, but this sport isn't played in some zone of africa and Asia. Th only big county whitout federation is Saudi Arabia.

 

• BMX, Road Cycling, Mountain Bike, Track Cycling [?? athletes, 18 events] Low-Medium Level

UCI have a different situation for all disciplines. I haven't any interessing statistics for road cycling. MTB and Track Cycling aren't played in Africa and BMX is praticatd only in Americas, Europe and Australia.

 

• Equestrian - FEI [?? Athletes, 6 events] Low Level

This sport is unknowed in almost all Africa and Asia.. Only 134 National Federation are associated at FEI

 

• Fencing - FIE [212 athletes, 10 events] High Level

The fencing world level is very high, in London 2012 all continents won almost 1 medal. In some zone of Africa fencing is totally absent and in Oceania only Australia, Guam, New Zealand and Samoa have a National Federation. 

 

• Field Hockey - FIH [24 teams, 2 events] Low Level

So, really? I haven't found a continent when all NOCs are in the FIH.

In Europe a lot of small country (but it's normal) and some balcanic country haven't a field hockey federation.

In Africa we have only 13 national federations, in Asia the sport is played in almost all continents if we remove the Arabian Goulf.

in America we have a lot of center and souther country whitout a federations.

Big country whitout a field hockey federation are Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Albania, Bosnia and Tunisia.

 

• Football - FIFA [28 teams, 2 events] High Level

Only in Monaco we haven't a Football federation  

[JoshMartini007 2,571]

I’m going to analyze each sport a bit more in-depth. Overall I will look at each event within the sport and any potential changes and additions, keeping in mind athlete and event limitations seen in the games. I would like to hear your opinions as well (I am going to split aquatics).

 

Archery

 

Current Events:

Individual Recurve

Team Recurve

 

Recurve archery has been a mainstay at the Olympics since 1972 though the sport also had some appearances during the early days of the games. Overall the format is pretty good, a 64 person single elimination tournament for the singles and a 12 team singles elimination tournament for the team event. The sport is able to find a balance between bringing the best and increasing universality.

 

In a world where athlete quotas didn’t matter there would be very little doubt about the addition of compound events. Despite not having the Olympics compound archery is highly competitive and is played by many nations. Of course adding another 128 athletes for an event that to a person unfamiliar with archery would see as a duplicate would be a hard sell.

 

While an athlete neutral option is possible where the recurve and compound become a 32 person tournaments and the team event becomes a mixed team (one man and one woman) I feel the reduction of quotas for the recurve will hurt the sport. The event will become less diverse overall, especially if you allow two athletes from the same NOC to compete in the same event and if you only allow one athlete per NOC in the individual event you lose a bit of strength.

 

A happy medium would be two 48 person tournaments with mixed team which would increase the total athlete quota by 64. Again it will likely be a tough sell overall.

 

In the current format I prefer the team event over the mixed team. Having three people shoot is a bit more interesting than two people as it can add more variation to the event. I guess you could just add the mixed team event since the athletes would come from the individual pool and thus keep things quota neutral.

[Jur 687]

Saudi Arabia, Albania and Bosnia hardly go over 10 athletes at Olympics, with all the respect but calling them "big countrys" seems wrong.

 

Hockey is one of the most open team sports, with a lot of country's with real chances of doing something. Maybe is not present in all countrys in the world, but is not like we are talking about waterpolo that needs a big venue to even train, is accessible for all countrys.

[Майкл 561]

  On 8/28/2016 at 6:23 PM, Jur said:

Saudi Arabia, Albania and Bosnia hardly go over 10 athletes at Olympics, with all the respect but calling them "big countrys" seems wrong.

 

Hockey is one of the most open team sports, with a lot of country's with real chances of doing something. Maybe is not present in all countrys in the world, but is not like we are talking about waterpolo that needs a big venue to even train, is accessible for all countrys.

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Well, Saudi Arabia is a big country... B&H and Albania - not so much.

[Gianlu33 4,750]

  On 8/28/2016 at 6:23 PM, Jur said:

Saudi Arabia, Albania and Bosnia hardly go over 10 athletes at Olympics, with all the respect but calling them "big countrys" seems wrong.

 

Hockey is one of the most open team sports, with a lot of country's with real chances of doing something. Maybe is not present in all countrys in the world, but is not like we are talking about waterpolo that needs a big venue to even train, is accessible for all countrys.

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So, i speak of big countries for the population and not for the Sport. I won't considerate how a sport is closed but where i can play a sport  

Edited August 28, 2016 by Gianlu33