Relevant Olympic Sports @ the I.O.C.

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In total only 17 of 54 Olympic sports involve face to face defense

I'm proposing head-to-head action (not just head-to-head defense) as being more "sports-relevant" than prepared-program sports or time trial-style runs. For example, speed skating doesn't have a defense, but people are competing interactively and that seems to have some merit. In fact, any kind of race occurs to me as being very relevant sports-wise. Maybe because head-to-head action with an adversary drives the athelete to be more innovative with his skills in order to overcome the situation.



Does that help get my scoring up from 17/54 ?

13 more. 30 of 54. But consider how nervewracking it is to take your turn and then wait out the competition. Or, watch your competition ace the event and then you have to go top it. I don't see ice skaters or gymnasts (two most popular sports in each Olympics) as any less athletic or competitive than any other sport. Skiers not only compete against their competition, they compete against the hill. The hill can injure them badly.

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Originally posted by JMoff:
The US stinks at Curling, but I can't stop watching...

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Curling is fabulous. I have become a curling fan for life. I want to take up curling. I want to learn the rules, I want to watch, I want to compete. It is the crown of the Olympics. Put it in the summer games, too!

Seriously, curling rocks. I can't get enough of it.

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Originally posted by igball:
Actually I've come to sort of like watching curling too.

I know, right?!!! I've got the same problem. I don't think its a sport (ref. my prior post), it doesn't seem that hard, its slow and boring, but I can't stop watching it. It's like watching a car wreck or staring at your 54 year-old boss's cl3vage. I just keep asking myself "why can't I stop doing this? ... what's wrong with me?...why can't I look away?".

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Originally posted by RJM:
... consider how nervewracking it is to take your turn and then wait out the competition. Or, watch your competition ace the event and then you have to go top it. ...

Agreed - its probably excruciating, and only for certain people with elite skillsets. But so are piano competitions.

The skier vs. the hill seems challenging and dangerous as well, but I propose it goes in the "Moderately Relevant" category for sports. Still not head-to-head action, but the athelete does have to deal with the uncertainties of the hill. Ski-cross racing, on the otherhand...awesome.

When the curling announcers talked about the "players" working out year round for the sport, maybe they were referring to sweeping.

From having skied both downhill (competitively) and cross country I believe downhill is more challenging. Cross country is about strength and endurance. Downhill is about strength, endurance and agility. There's very little room to screw up in downhill. Aside from wiping out, there's a reason skiers wear heavy padding on their arms in slalom.

Go figure my son isn't listening to me when I told him to take it easy on his snowboard this year (junior year) due to baseball. He threw it back in my face I skied competitively on weekends in high school and screwed off doing freestyle with my friends (no flips). Then he threw in the jumping off bridges and cliffs in the summer. Is it possible to convince a kid because we did something doesn't mean it was sensible? Had there been half pipe boarding when I was a kid that's where you would have found me.

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Originally posted by igball:
When the curling announcers talked about the "players" working out year round for the sport, maybe they were referring to sweeping.

Maybe they could practice in my house.

Personally with the exception of some sort of relay I don't think there should be any team sports in the Olympics. Team sports have other venues with witch to compete. However since there are team sports I truly agree with the OP about how Baseball and softball can be left out with some of the other events still there. But forget about comparing it to the winter Olympics IMO there are far more outrageous events in the summer Olympics. For example SHOOTING A BB GUN.

USA and the Swiss in the hockey quarterfinal right now---lots of hitting and banging

Golf and rugby are being added in 2016.

I believe the host country is allowed to choose two specific sports that are not normally in the Olympics.

I'm kinda surprised that nobody has mentioned George Carlin's definition of sports...if you haven't heard it, it is well worth finding and listening to it...

So what were Canada's adder-sports this year?

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I believe the host country is allowed to choose two specific sports that are not normally in the Olympics.

I don't know what was chosen. But they're exhibition, not medal sports. In the 1984 LA Olympics, baseball was an exhibition sport.

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Originally posted by dub-L-play:

I would assume anyone of us on here could compete in curing.

Which event? Ham, Bacon or Sausage?

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Originally posted by dub-L-play:

I would assume anyone of us on here could compete in curing.

I'm sure you could. All you need to do is put your family and careers on hold for years, live for a passion outside of normal life, compete against the best around the world with the same passion, and then put your soul on the line not to embarrass your Country.

Piece of cake, get signed up tomorrow, and I'll see you in 4 years.

With work we all could compete in any sport. However, Passion and expertise is not bought, it is acquired through hard work and commitment. No one ridicules curling in my neck of the woods because it takes strategy, touch, teamwork, practice, and commitment. The attitude of many of those in the warmer parts of the Country about Curling is embarrassing.

On behalf of the Northern tier of the United States, we are sorry for not living up to your Southern expectations on how to live life with the resources we have.

This is not pointed to any specific person/group on this board but toward the press, blogs, message boards, opinion pages, and anyone else who has made a mockery of a sport that is played throughout the world.

rz

i agree

RZ -I have many southern friends who absolutely love curling. I like it, I even watched the show "how its made" showing how the stones were manufactured. Did you know the Norwegian team PANTS has its own FB fan page. :-)

I prefer the "faster" sports. I'm skeered of heights, so there is no way on God's frozen earth, I'm sliding down the side of a mountain. I really appreciate when others make it seem so easy.

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Originally posted by rz1:
and anyone else who has made a mockery of a sport that is played throughout the world.

To me, The Olympics were ALWAYS about sports you didn't see every day.

And how about those Canadian curling announcers dressing down the American announcer for suggesting that Great Britain call a time-out to 'freeze' Sweden's thrower on the last shot in the extra end.

Just once... I'd love to take my Flexible Flyer down that bobsled run.

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AntzDad quote:
And how about those Canadian curling announcers dressing down the American announcer for suggesting that Great Britain call a time-out to 'freeze' Sweden's thrower on the last shot in the extra end.

That's what it's all about. While the scores are kept between the lines, passion oozes between the cracks of every border. That is Olympic competition.

IMHO, I can say this without sarcasm that the world is a safer place because of the years of Olympic competition. We are a competitive species by nature, and while governments play their political games, the "people" of the world would rather have battles on the "fields of competition" rather than the "fields of death". Athletics, regardless of the event, brings nations eye-2-eye competitively without the carnage and that very well may be the reason we still inhabit this Earth.

The BIG picture is often overlooked because of the materialistic value put on the Games.