Olympic sports program review

[phelps 7,711]

10 hours ago, De_Gambassi said:

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1147999/tug-of-war-a-historic-sports-battle

 

It's nice the sport survives against all odds, but not thank you. 

if it's going to replace some of the non-sport judged activities that inflate the Olympic schedule right now, it's a big, big YES!

[phelps 7,711]

9 hours ago, JoshMartini007 said:

What's wrong with tug-of-war in theory? It's a team based strength competition, something you don't see on the program.

 

Of course, way too few nations actually participate (only 25 total nations are competing at the 2024 World Championships) so it won't be added any time soon

as if there were more Nations seriously participating in things like BMX Freestyle, Lacrosse, Flag Football and so on 

 

make it an Olympic sport and we'll see how many Nations start competing (just an example: look at the Karate usual medal tables before it was named Olympic and then look at the same medal tables in the 5-year span when it had the Olympic status...I know it's different than just participating, but still)

 

the Olympic aura changes everything for those non (fully) professional disciplines 

Edited August 24, 2024 by phelps

[heywoodu 15,174]

10 hours ago, JoshMartini007 said:

What's wrong with tug-of-war in theory? It's a team based strength competition, something you don't see on the program.

 

Of course, way too few nations actually participate (only 25 total nations are competing at the 2024 World Championships) so it won't be added any time soon

 

Bit of a mediocre website, by the way, with this somewhat vague schedule:

https://tow2024.de/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Schedule.pdf

 

It mentions weight classes in different times and sessions, but doesn't say what it actually is (group matches? finals? something?).

[JoshMartini007 2,547]

6 hours ago, phelps said:

as if there were more Nations seriously participating in things like BMX Freestyle, Lacrosse, Flag Football and so on 

 

make it an Olympic sport and we'll see how many Nations start competing (just an example: look at the Karate usual medal tables before it was named Olympic and then look at the same medal tables in the 5-year span when it had the Olympic status...I know it's different than just participating, but still)

 

the Olympic aura changes everything for those non (fully) professional disciplines 

It's a catch-22 for some sports. Won't be added because they aren't popular enough, but would be popular enough if they were on the Olympic program.

 

Of course, even some events are still not popular despite being in the Olympics (synchronized 10m platform diving, BMX freestyle, rowing eights) so clearly other forces are at play.

[De_Gambassi 1,225]

11 hours ago, Triplecast said:

Good story about tug-of-war’s history at the Olympics.  According to this story, it was taken off the program after the 1920 Olympics because the IOC thought there were too many sports in the Games and they wanted to streamline things.
 

 

http://www.tugofwar.co.uk/olympics-history

Yeah, the history of the olympic program is basically an ever losing battle against its expansion.

 

In 1930, the reduction of the program was already the main order of the IOC's congress. Nothing came from it.

Edited August 24, 2024 by De_Gambassi