Olympics are crap--about to get crappier

[candycorn]

Adults on skateboards look ridiculous

The Olympics mainly celebrate sports that no one gives a shit about. None of us would pay to see people cross country ski and shoot at targets.

Why isn’t there a pro bobsled league? Because no one cares.

And then the olympics got rid of wrestling? Something people actually are interested in. It’s crazy.

I do like to see who the fastest 100 yard dash person is though.

I probably like 10% of the olymp

The core Olympic sports are...
Track and Field, Swimming, Boxing, Wrestling, Gymnastics...
Anything else is fluff

There should be no team sports in the Olympics
Basketball, Soccer, Hockey....All have there own championships

And can you believe they took wrestling out? Insane.

I wish the olympics were all the greatest athletes assembled every 4 years. Who’s the greatest karate person in the world? Who can bench, squat, clean and jerk and deadlift the most? Who’s the fastest? Who’s the best gymnast? Figure skater.

whats that show where contestants run through that obstacle? That would be a great olympic event. American gladiators? Only have people from all over the world compete.

I like the idea.

The big problem I have with ANW is that the course is different in different cities for the sake of television. Some of the obstacles are harder than others as a result.

Hide and Go Seek is a demonstration event for 2028. Not really. But would it shock you?

What about tennis? I would like to see amateur tennis.

But make it a tournament. If you lose once you fall into the losers bracket where you can still win a bronze.

basketball too.

Hell, even the 100 yard dash. One run. Whoever wins gets gold.

It would probably dilute the already diminished product further and blow the budget outward on some fronts but why not have a professional round and an amateur round? Like Spain's entry into the Pro round is Rafael Nadal for men's singles. He plays the Federers and Jocovich (sp?) of the world. Spains top amateur male tennis player plays other amateurs in a completely separate round. There is a gold medal for professional winner and a gold medal for the amateur winner.

So the profession basketball players in europ3 can’t compete in the Olympics? I’m ok with that. If they are making a living playing the sport they can’t be in the Olympics.

Otherwise dirk nowitski goes to Germany to play with the Germans and yianni atootocombo plays for Greece but lebron can’t play?

Well what I was saying was that (and it's a pipe dream) that have two rounds for sports that have a professional component. Like table tennis for example doesn't have (as far as I know) a professional league. But lets say that they did. You have one competition for professional players and one competition for amateurs at the same Olympics. I don't follow college basketball much any more but what I was suggesting was that James Harden shouldn't be on the same Olympic team as college players from Gonzaga. Harden should be on a team with Le Bron and Michael Westbrook and the guys from Gonzaga should be on a team with guys from Notre Dame and Stanford. Award a gold medal to the professional team that wins and the amateur team that wins.

I would prefer to see no professionals in the Olympics but the Eastern Bloc used to have obvious professionals playing against our less experienced collegiate players and it became rather humorous to see.

 

[candycorn]

Always amazes me the time people waste posting about things they claim they don't care about.

As far as the topic of the posts go, the Olympics are faltering. The public cares more about team events than it used to. The Olympics are still "stuck" on the individual sports. I don't know if it's still the case or not but I remember hearing once that Ice Hockey was the only team sport in the Winter Olympics. You see the expansion of the NFL, the NBA, the expansion of the EPL, rise of soccer in the US. The Olympics are still very heavy with individualized sports such as Figure Skating, Gymnastics, Track and Field, Swimming, etc... There are team events but by "team" I mean multiple athletes on the field taking part at one time...forwards, centers, defensemen, etc... Not just a track and field 4X100M team.

There aren't any easy solutions to the issue from a commercial standpoint. Expanding the roster of "sports" is likely not the answer if you're still talking about the Olympics as being a sports festival. The only obvious solution is to re-brand it as a recreational festival instead. And in the early days of the modern Olympics--the organizers did have an entire arts component that went by the wayside. That ended in 1948. The feeling back then was to have it be a cultural event as opposed to just a sporting one.

It looks as though it may be getting back toward that in some way.

One thing they should do, in my view, is shift sports from the Summer to the Winter games.

Summer Olympics:
View attachment 426528

Winter Olympics:
View attachment 426529

You probably don't want to do yatching or beach volleyball in the winter but certainly the boxing, fencing, and wrestling, judo, taekwondo events could be shifted to the winter. As could basketball.

Something else they should do is do what the NFL used to do with the Super Bowl. Have it rotate between three cities and a fourth to be named later. The Olympics should be held in a few cities only...cities that don't have to break the budget to host it and more importantly, can host it. I'm sure Lake Placid was great but hundreds of thouands of people coming to upstate New York strains the infrastructure. That some hundred thousand going to Denver...not so much.

Anyway, good to see the Olympics being discussed. I say expand the roster as much as you want. You want to put poker in the Olympics? Do it. But you've got much bigger problems than that IOC.

Agree

Billions of dollars have been wasted on Olympic infrastructure that is abandoned once the games are over.

They should have set locations that host non major events every four years. Events held in Olympic style stadiums can be rotated.

in the past there was a return on what was built. Olympics became to big for its britches. Commercials galore and events that are not what it was in the past. The product for what is paid and what it costs does not equal the entertainment expected. The athletes however, put a lot of time into their sport and deserve some recognition for it.

I was in Athens in 2011, seven years after the 2004 Olympics. The Olympic Village was in shambles, overgrown, graffiti over everything, venues sitting unused. It bankrupted the country.

I hear the Beijing stadium was essentially being looted in 2010--2 years after it's use. The Brazil games were a prime example of what we shouldn't do with them. Have it in LA, Paris, Tokyo and every fourth games, let there be a bid for a wild card from Africa, South America or Oceana based on portability....Maybe if you're going to have it in Oceana... have events in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Jakarta, or Rio, Buenos Aires, Sao Palo, Santiago, Maricabo. Home cities still host the opening/closing ceremonies but the major expenses are shared across a lot of nations instead of just one.

I’d agree
Rotate the hosting to include Open/Closing and events that can be conducted in the Olympic Stadium/arenas

Move other sports to the six continents and have a permanent venue for bicycling, swimming, kayaking, equestrian......

Not sure about that...whoa. Are you suggesting always having kayaking on Long Island Sound for example while the opening and closing ceremonies are in, for example...Miami?

What I was trying and failing to say was this: as I'm sure you know currently the IOC accepts bids from cities and, depending on the political infrastructure, the nations themselves usually foot the bill for their city's bids. Cairo may host the games but Egypt is the one paying the bill. I think that is fine except what I'd want to see is that it be a multi-country bid so the costs are spread over an entire region instead of having one nation and a Trumpian type leader who is only concerned with the grandeur blow $15B on the games and wreck his nation's budget for years. So you may have some events in Cairo but you also have some events in Israel, Saudi Arabia, Greece, etc... No one nation has to come up with $15B. As a result, if Cairo doesn't have a good swimming facility but Tel Aviv does.... you host swimming in Tel Aviv and Cairo doesn't have to build a massive swimming complex or velodrome or massive olympic village since many of the athletes will only be there for the opening and closing ceremonies.

 

[sealybobo]

Always amazes me the time people waste posting about things they claim they don't care about.

As far as the topic of the posts go, the Olympics are faltering. The public cares more about team events than it used to. The Olympics are still "stuck" on the individual sports. I don't know if it's still the case or not but I remember hearing once that Ice Hockey was the only team sport in the Winter Olympics. You see the expansion of the NFL, the NBA, the expansion of the EPL, rise of soccer in the US. The Olympics are still very heavy with individualized sports such as Figure Skating, Gymnastics, Track and Field, Swimming, etc... There are team events but by "team" I mean multiple athletes on the field taking part at one time...forwards, centers, defensemen, etc... Not just a track and field 4X100M team.

There aren't any easy solutions to the issue from a commercial standpoint. Expanding the roster of "sports" is likely not the answer if you're still talking about the Olympics as being a sports festival. The only obvious solution is to re-brand it as a recreational festival instead. And in the early days of the modern Olympics--the organizers did have an entire arts component that went by the wayside. That ended in 1948. The feeling back then was to have it be a cultural event as opposed to just a sporting one.

It looks as though it may be getting back toward that in some way.

One thing they should do, in my view, is shift sports from the Summer to the Winter games.

Summer Olympics:
View attachment 426528

Winter Olympics:
View attachment 426529

You probably don't want to do yatching or beach volleyball in the winter but certainly the boxing, fencing, and wrestling, judo, taekwondo events could be shifted to the winter. As could basketball.

Something else they should do is do what the NFL used to do with the Super Bowl. Have it rotate between three cities and a fourth to be named later. The Olympics should be held in a few cities only...cities that don't have to break the budget to host it and more importantly, can host it. I'm sure Lake Placid was great but hundreds of thouands of people coming to upstate New York strains the infrastructure. That some hundred thousand going to Denver...not so much.

Anyway, good to see the Olympics being discussed. I say expand the roster as much as you want. You want to put poker in the Olympics? Do it. But you've got much bigger problems than that IOC.

Agree

Billions of dollars have been wasted on Olympic infrastructure that is abandoned once the games are over.

They should have set locations that host non major events every four years. Events held in Olympic style stadiums can be rotated.

in the past there was a return on what was built. Olympics became to big for its britches. Commercials galore and events that are not what it was in the past. The product for what is paid and what it costs does not equal the entertainment expected. The athletes however, put a lot of time into their sport and deserve some recognition for it.

I was in Athens in 2011, seven years after the 2004 Olympics. The Olympic Village was in shambles, overgrown, graffiti over everything, venues sitting unused. It bankrupted the country.

No, misadventures in socialism bankrupted the country.

Is that what you are going to say when someday the USA goes bankrupt? I’ll say it was too big of tax cuts to the rich and corporations and too much pentagon spending.

How come Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, New Zealand and Belgium aren’t going bankrupt? They along with China are the top 10 most socialist countries in the world.

They blow your theory.

 

[candycorn]

Beach Volleyball is a lot different than conventional volleyball.

You have "good side/bad side" depending on the sun and the wind.
No substitutions and fatigue becomes a factor
No coaching so you need two very collaborative players
It favors all around players much more than specialists.

A great many differences.

 

[rightwinger]

Beach Volleyball is a lot different than conventional volleyball.

You have "good side/bad side" depending on the sun and the wind.
No substitutions and fatigue becomes a factor
No coaching so you need two very collaborative players
It favors all around players much more than specialists.

A great many differences.

I always watched Beach Volleyball and thought it would be more fun than on a hard surface

I tried it and hated it.
It is so hard to move around and jump in the sand
When you jump, the sand shifts under your feet

 

[Polishprince]

I always watched Beach Volleyball and thought it would be more fun than on a hard surface

I tried it and hated it.
It is so hard to move around and jump in the sand
When you jump, the sand shifts under your feet

Beach volleyball is more of a spectator sport, the wardrobes that the dames where is what attracts the crowd.

 

[candycorn]

I always watched Beach Volleyball and thought it would be more fun than on a hard surface

I tried it and hated it.
It is so hard to move around and jump in the sand
When you jump, the sand shifts under your feet

Its a hard sport. Some nut was saying that it was just another form of volley ball. It isn't. A very good conventional volley ball player may have a hard time on the sand.

 

[22lcidw]

I always watched Beach Volleyball and thought it would be more fun than on a hard surface

I tried it and hated it.
It is so hard to move around and jump in the sand
When you jump, the sand shifts under your feet

Beach volleyball may mean more stamina is needed. The sand is an added impediment to mobility but the volleys are not as vicious as on hard surfaces. There are many tournaments at some beaches.

 

[basquebromance]

it's Rodman!

 

[task0778]

When it gets political, I stop watching and supporting. MLB, NBA, NFL, Olympics, etc., fuck 'em.