JoshMartini007

We also have artistic swimming and figure skating. Dancing will be a part of the Olympics, even if DanceSport never returns.

Yeah, the sport/event program needs to be able to change as trends and interest change. With that said, once an event is added it should stay for a while (only exception is demonstration events). The addition/removal of an event should be a well thoughtful and researched process and not be done on a whim.

Panama is also likely influenced by the United States, thanks to the large military base by the canal. In fact, most of the top nations have US military bases in their borders where military personnel brought exposure to American Football.

There's still a long way to go. Of the 42 members of World Boxing the following actually competed at the 2024 Olympics. . That's 20/68 nations, including refugees. Medal-wise they represent 14/52 medals. There's still quite a few major nations missing, but there's enough here for them to have some legitimacy. I imagine the nations are in a wait and see mode to see the first few competitions play out.

Proclaiming the removal of multiple sports was always going to bring on the ire of fans. It does bring an interesting thought experiment in the event the Olympics gets "Thanos snapped." Which of the 165 events would survive and still feel like the Olympics? Do you completely toss out many sports or do you try to save as many as possible?

It'll probably return when the United States hosts the next Olympics. Maybe Canada if IFAF lobbies hard enough The advantage it has over baseball and cricket is the field size is a lot smaller and can be hosted in more multipurpose venues (less cost to host). The downside over baseball/cricket is that it doesn't attract many "smaller nations." Only Israel and Panama compete at a high level.

Yeah, you're better off going with men's softball than trying to bring women's baseball to the Olympics

Unpopular opinion (even for me): Remove rowing eights When the world championship struggles to find double digit entrants you know the event is not global enough for the Olympics. I hate to say it, but the numbers don't lie. It is by far the least played event on the Olympic schedule.

I'd like to cram as many events as possible. Obviously you can't do team events solo and I would avoid combat sports from a safety perspective. Plus the modern pentathlon and triathlon would by redundant. I'd make it 16 events, one per day where the Ultimate Olympian is crowned at the closing ceremony. I'll have to think about which ones to include.

Fun. In the past I've done something similar except I just assumed the highest ranked athlete/team qualified. I've also did the same for the Commonwealth Nations and former Soviet Nations (not as in 2024 exciting without Russia).

There's no easy answer for this and can sometimes get a bit philosophical. "What is a woman?" "Does the sport classification of a woman differ?" "If so, in what ways?" "Do some biological women not fit the definition of a sports classification woman?" "Can some trans women fit the definition of a sports classification woman?" Not a fun exercise...

That won't be fully finalized until early 2026, likely after the Winter Olympics

Only a matter of time before short course swimming is added. Just imagine, swimming during the entire Olympics

If Canada ever wants to make the jump into the top 10, expanding our sport strength sphere is key. Now we need to win multiple medals in more sports. The added sports for 2028 benefit us. Lacrosse should be two easy medals while we'll have a great chance in softball. If we can qualify in baseball we could sneak a medal. Flag football could be an option if we focus on it (let's see how we do at the World Championships later this month). Qualifying might be difficult as Mexico is pretty good.

Here's a comparison of how nations performed between 2020 and 2024. More Gold Medals +7 +6 +5 +5 +3 South Korea recovered well after a poor 2020 while France benefited greatly from being the host nation. The Netherlands and Uzbekistan see their increase investment in sport yield good results. Fewer Gold Medals -20 -8 -7 -5 -4 -3 -3 Obviously Russia was going to have the least amount of golds, even accounting for they did not win a single gold. Despite having similar amount of medals as 2020, Great Britain just couldn't convert them to gold this time. The same can be said for Brazil. Japan loses out in their host nation boost while economic troubles continues to hurt Cuba. More Total Medals +31 +13 +12 +8 +7 +6 +5 +5 France with the host boost saw a huge jump in total medals. Despite only getting 1 more gold medal compared to 2020, the United States wins an additional 13 medals. As with the gold medals, South Korea saw a nice increase in total medals as well. Uzbekistan and Australia saw nice increases. North Korea is only here because they did not participate in 2020. One can only imagine their increase had they attempted to qualify during the entire period as oppose to the second half. Fewer Total Medals -70 -13 -7 -6 -6 -5 -5 -5 Russia got banned and lost out on almost all their medals. Again, Japan lost its host boost. Ukraine suffered from the war while the other nations face either economic issues or returned to the mean after a great 2020.

Honestly, I don't understand the vitriol breaking received. Some of the hate gave serious "old man" vibes of complaining. We have ice and water dancing at the Olympics. Would we have gotten the same had Latin or Classical dance been added instead? In the end this is a sport practiced around the world, it checked all the boxes for Olympic inclusion

If the IOC ever decides to fully add DanceSport to the Olympics I can see breaking returning as one of the styles.

Since we are at the end, here's my tier list based on the amount I watched of each discipline. Extensively Watched Athletics Swimming Canoe Slalom Well Watched Gymnastics Artistic Diving Cycling Track Archery Football Basketball 3x3 Beach Volleyball Rugby Sevens Basketball Breaking Decently Watched Skateboarding Volleyball Indoor Weightlifting Cycling Road Canoe Sprint Shooting Taekwondo Table Tennis Wrestling Judo Cycling BMX Freestyle Water Polo Equestrian Eventing Cycling Mountain Gymnastics Rhythmic Equestrian Dressage Barely Watched Handball Fencing Badminton Sailing Artistic Swimming Surfing Boxing Equestrian Jumping Tennis Rowing Gymnastics Trampoline Didn't Watched Cycling BMX Race Field Hockey Golf Modern Pentathlon Open Water Swimming Sport Climbing Triathlon Just to be clear, this does not accurately represent which are my favourite sports. Due to the time difference I did not watch the morning sessions which caused many morning sports to suffer. Canoe sprint is an exception as I watched recordings later in the day. Additionally, some sports benefited from being scheduled in between other events. Most notably, canoe slalom received a lot of watch time despite being a mid-tier sport for me because it was the most desirable thing to watch.

The biggest hurdle for esports is creating a unifying sports federation. The scene is way too fragmented plus you have the issue of video game companies wanting a say on how their games are represented. It's just not worth the headache at this point. We will also have to have a shift of acceptance towards "mind sports" like chess which is already a huge hurdle for some people.

I mean, she can lift at 90% of her capacity and still easily win gold. Another scenario: The Chinese rider intentionally crashes into the United States during the points race of the omnium to prevent her from winning gold. Or maybe the United States wins one of those golds, but somehow chokes the basketball game.

China takes a 1 gold lead over the United States going into the final day. 13 events remaining specifically: Athletics - Women's Marathon Basketball - Women's Tournament Cycling - Men's Keirin Cycling - Women's Individual Sprint Cycling - Women's Omnium Handball - Men's Tournament Modern Pentathlon - Women's Individual Volleyball - Women's Tournament Water Polo - Men's Tournament Weightlifting - Women's +81kg Wrestling - Men's Freestyle -65kg Wrestling - Men's Freestyle -97kg Wrestling - Women's Freestyle -76kg Of these events, here are the ones with either China or the United States still active China Athletics - Women's Marathon Cycling - Women's Omnium Modern Pentathlon - Women's Individual Weightlifting - Women's +81kg United States Athletics - Women's Marathon Basketball - Women's Tournament Cycling - Women's Omnium Volleyball - Women's Tournament Weightlifting - Women's +81kg Wrestling - Women's Freestyle -76kg China is heavily favoured to win the women's +81kg weightlifting, after that their gold medal chances become quite non-existent. Honestly, out of the three remaining events for them they have the best chance in women's marathon and that's pretty much near 0%. Will the United States find at least two more golds to win? The women's basketball will be their best chance for gold which counters the weightlifting medal China will win tomorrow. After that they have a trio of events; women's omnium, women's volleyball, and women's freestyle -76kg to win gold. Statistically, they should win at least one gold from the three, but there is a big enough chance that they could miss in all three.

What's with all the doom and gloom on the United States? They still have many opportunities over the day and tomorrow. China isn't making any mistakes so the United States needs to be up to the task in converting their opportunities.

China with the women's rhythmic group all-around gold. That puts them in a better position. Gotta see how the United States handles the athletic events.

I'd give it to one of our hammer throwers

It's not that surprising, China does have the second most medals so by chance they would be likely to finish ahead of us. We'd have to do a more deeper look to see if it's actually significant.