Poll 75/100 | If you could replace 3 existing sports with 3 new sports what would you choose? *

[heywoodu 15,141]

Of course, I forgot football and tennis, although they sadly might be in some way important for the Olympics, even though from a sporting point of view they hurt more than they add (but money...).

 

Now it's even harder to know what to add to replace these  

[mpjmcevoy 362]

15 hours ago, LDOG said:

It's impossible (or unhealthy) to play more than 3 rugby matches in two weeks using more or less the same players. Will never happen, unfortunately.

Agreed. BUT what if...The big team sports were brought together across, say, one moth as a Team Olympic Games....

[mpjmcevoy 362]

15 hours ago, OlympicIRL said:

Out:

 

• Basketball 3x3
• Karate
• Skateboarding

 

In:

 

• Darts (same format as World Cup or similar to that)
• Bowls
• Bowling

 

 

Would love to see squash and snooker there too but I think I would be genuinely more excited by the other 3.

Hard agree on inclusion of Darts and Cue Sports (suspect would ned to get Pool, billiards and Snooker together to make a presentation - plus it would feel more like a family of sports being included) - Darts is to Archery as table tennis is to tennis (and arguably Snooker is to golf, come to think of it). for darts, men's single, women's singles, men's pairs and women's pairs. I'd hold off on the 'team' event for a cycle or two - GBR and NED would still be far too dominant (fight between IRL, CAN, AUS, BEL and USA for the bronze would be cool though).

 

It occurred to me that such quintessential indoor sports as snooker and darts might actually be best placed at Winter Games, where a small pre-existing multi purpose hall, and relatively small number of players and officials, could create a relatively profitable event for a host. And it would VERY quickly become the pinnacle of the sport!

 

On bowls and Bowling - again, it seems perverse that the entire family of bowling sports is absent - 10 pin has more world reach, while lawn bowls has a much longer history of Games involvement, especially Commonwealth, and a very established event system - the latter also is rare in being a sport that one can continue to play as one gets older, and while we talk about the Youth of the world, sports that might encourage older people back into activity must be considered a genuine aim with an aging world population.

 

On the one's to dump, I'd hesitate at dumping 3x3, because I think small sided versions of the big team ball sports should be encouraged - better to have 24 nations repped in 3x3 than try and add an extra 4 teams to the main version, and having watched 3x3 at Youth Olympics, it does have some of the excitement and buzz of rugby sevens (a HUGE hit in Rio, which actually seems to have sparked interest in Rugby in general in Brazil). Indeed, a bigger 3x3 would justify a smaller pool of teams for the 'big event'.

 

That said, the team sports - especially basketball and football - are big ticket sellers for hosts, which ha to be factored in to why they keep their place.

 

To be honest, I can live without Karate - it's great fun to watch, but I find the scoring system impossible - the idea that a punch that connects must have some sort of artistic merit....nah - sort that out, you'd be welcome back - if Judo can have 15 events on its own, Taekwondo and Karate can have 16 events between them - so sort out the scoring and THEN come back.

 

On that note, I'd ditch Greco-Roman wrestling. Male only, somewhat obscure, and wrestling already has 24 events - chop those 8, and all the 'fighting' styles have a rather nice East v west, grappling v striking 'balance' that feels 'complete'

 

'Western' grappling = wrestling = 16

'Western' striking = boxing=15

'Eastern grappling = judo = 15

'Eastern' striking = Karate + taekwondo = 16

 

for full balance, i'd split the Judo team events into men's and women's, and add one women's weight category in Boxing.

 

Skateboarding...I dunno, I'd rather have it than surfing, personally

[mpjmcevoy 362]

2 hours ago, heywoodu said:

From a Dutch point of view I'd add korfbal, but I'd very much like to see that not being added because it'd be nonsense  

 

Artistic swimming out, surfing out, skateboarding out. Not sure which to add, which would also be realistic in terms of competitiveness  

On that note, I'd like to see Gaelic Football and hurling reintroduced.

 

Yep, that's right, REintroduced.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaelic_football_at_the_1904_Summer_Olympics

[mpjmcevoy 362]

2 hours ago, Dnl said:

out - Tennis,Boxing,Weightlifting (too many doping issues)

in- Acrobatics- teams/dues/mixed - i think it's more inclusive and you can mix genders so it's great (and i used to coached it)

Fuchivolly- or even beach footballing for me it's fun to watch

adopt  the concept of "The ninja warrior challenge" to the olympics

and maybe another martiel arts ?

Ninja Warrior can be fit in relatively easily, believe it or not - you take a step back - and its an extreme obstacle race - in other words, it fits pretty neatly in the wider family of cross country athletics.

 

One might imagine 4 cross country styles

 

'SprintX' - basically ninja Warrior, time trial format (one on course at any one time) followed by QF, SF and F

'MilitaryX' - basically an assault course, in the nature of Krypton Factor - much longer and more aerobic than NW, much more obstacle based than 'standard'

'Cross country' - What we recognise currently as World Athletics Cross country - highly aerobic

'EnduranceX' - basically Tough Mudder

[dodge 1,024]

I'd get rid of weightlifting. Maybe look at it again if they ever get the drugs under control (unlikely)

 

I'd get rid of skateboarding

 

I'd get rid of men's football and replace it with futsal.

 

If I'm allowed more I'd get rid of any that is down to umpire's interpretation of dance moves (synchro swimming, dressage etc) except for artistics gymnastics

 

I genuinely think futsal should be in there anyway. 

[mpjmcevoy 362]

9 minutes ago, dodge said:

I'd get rid of weightlifting. Maybe look at it again if they ever get the drugs under control (unlikely)

 

I'd get rid of skateboarding

 

I'd get rid of men's football and replace it with futsal.

 

If I'm allowed more I'd get rid of any that is down to umpire's interpretation of dance moves (synchro swimming, dressage etc) except for artistics gymnastics

 

I genuinely think futsal should be in there anyway. 

I agree whole heartedly on futsal - as I've said already, for a lot of the big, cumbersome ball sports, small sided 'Games friendly' versions should be encouraged - beach volleyball, 3x3 and 7s show the way, and Futsal would do the same. The old pre T20 version of cricket invented by the Kiwis (basically six a side cricket, all-rounder friendly,  small field, everyone but wicketkeeper bowls 2 overs each, done and dusted in an hour, rewards big hitting, and having '5' wickets instead of 10 is mathematically neat) would fit very well, I dare say baseball could invent something similar if it wanted to, leaving really only hand ball and hockey (water polo is already small sided by nature I think).

 

If I want a full blown world cup experience, I'll seek one out - to some extent the Olympics should be an amazing 2 week taster menu for those sort o sports, preferably with a version the Olympics is the pinnicle of. The Commonwealth Games used to have a rule that no team sports were allowed, and while that's a bit too drastic, I think 'small sided' is the way forward.

 

Agree, with great sadness, on weightlifting - it is, in fact, a brilliant spectator sport, crazy as it sounds. The tension, the poker of picking your lift, is magic, but the sport is utterly, utterly corrupted.

 

It's interesting that bmx freestyle, skateboard, surfing and breaking have all basically got in at once. If there's an itch for 'judged' youth sports beyond gymnastics, it's been well and truly scratched - though I wonder if ignoring dancesport in a world of "dancing with the stars" is actually a mad missed opportunity. see also 'Parkour pursuit'.

[heywoodu 15,141]

45 minutes ago, mpjmcevoy said:

I agree whole heartedly on futsal - as I've said already, for a lot of the big, cumbersome ball sports, small sided 'Games friendly' versions should be encouraged - beach volleyball, 3x3 and 7s show the way, and Futsal would do the same.

The problem is they don't really showcase a sport, they're just perfect for the viewers with short attention spans, which we have a whole lot more of nowadays  (myself often included, I must admit)

[MHSN 3,619]

6 hours ago, Fly_like_a_don said:

Kabaddi has very good players from Poland, Kenya, Argentina, Sierra Leone and so many I just can't count. Poland  even beat full strength Iran comfortably at the World Cup in 2016.

well not really, Iran lost that match intentionally to avoid India in the semifinal. they also won two other matches very narrowly for that purpose (to have a very low points difference)

 

Kabaddi has terrible organization, anybody knows when they will have the next world cup? they don't even have a proper website!  and not a global sport yet. almost doesn't exist outside of Asia. and top 2-3 teams beat the rest very easily. for example I know when Iran has to play any team in the world except India, Pakistan and South Korea they don't even warm up properly as they know a win is already in the bag.

 

the sport has some potential . it's not similar to any other sport which is a good thing but still a very long way to go to even think about being an Olympic sport.

 

[Fly_like_a_don 1,090]

23 minutes ago, MHSN said:

well not really, Iran lost that match intentionally to avoid India in the semifinal. they also won two other matches very narrowly for that purpose (to have a very low points difference)

 

Kabaddi has terrible organization, anybody knows when they will have the next world cup? they don't even have a proper website!  and not a global sport yet. almost doesn't exist outside of Asia. and top 2-3 teams beat the rest very easily. for example I know when Iran has to play any team in the world except India, Pakistan and South Korea they don't even warm up properly as they know a win is already in the bag.

 

the sport has some potential . it's not similar to any other sport which is a good thing but still a very long way to go to even think about being an Olympic sport.

 

I mean there are loopholes but in a decade it can be improved if it's in the right hands. Federation must do something to support the sport at grass root level in more nations.