New Sports At The Olympics

fretmeister

fob said:

scrumhalf said:

If you can have multiple medals for some sports then why not others?

For football we could have the normal eleven-a-side and in addition we could have medals for head tennis, keepy uppie, penalties (insert joke here), five-a-side, six-a-side and more.

For me the Olympics lost its allure when highly-paid competitors were allowed in. It can only redeem itself by bringing in test cricket. 

Another bugbear of mine. I love the swimming - I think it really does a great job of opening the games - but to have anything other than freestyle is a nonsense really. In the athletics you don't have the 100m, 100m backwards, 100m sideways while clapping your hands above your head.

So you'd get rid of the hurdles events?

sinbaadi

Mattharrier said:

Regarding climbing, speed climbing is the most obvious, accessible and easily understood form of climbing - it's a race, pure and simple. It's very cool to watch when you only see the actual climbs, but I would imagine that watching it live there will be a lot of down time in between - this isn't really any different to 100m, 110m hurdles and so on so it should work. If it proves popular, there are other forms of competitive climbing that could be introduced (although the resulting upsurge in grass roots participation would potentially have a horrendous impact on the sport - access, littering, erosion, parking are all massive issues for a lot of crags and climbing spots as it is, and a large increase in numbers would absolutely amplify that).

The combined sport climbing medal already includes lead and bouldering with the speed discipline.  Agreed that to the newbie Speed is perhaps the most exciting but there's a reason why it will split from the two other types in the next Olympics.  Speed is for specialists, the best in the world will have no chance in the lead and bouldering rounds, everybody knew this the minute it was announced.
So what we have is an event where the winner will be whoever of the top few "normal" climbers, has been able to get good enough, and consistent enough, to limit the damage in the speed round.

This format has also meant that a lot of brilliant climbers haven't made it, because they haven't been able to get where they need to be with Speed, whilst others have just been put off by the combined format and stuck to world cups of lead and bouldering.

fob

fretmeister said:

fob said:

scrumhalf said:

If you can have multiple medals for some sports then why not others?
For football we could have the normal eleven-a-side and in addition we could have medals for head tennis, keepy uppie, penalties (insert joke here), five-a-side, six-a-side and more.
For me the Olympics lost its allure when highly-paid competitors were allowed in. It can only redeem itself by bringing in test cricket. 

Another bugbear of mine. I love the swimming - I think it really does a great job of opening the games - but to have anything other than freestyle is a nonsense really. In the athletics you don't have the 100m, 100m backwards, 100m sideways while clapping your hands above your head.

So you'd get rid of the hurdles events?

No. I think that's a different event and you can see how it relates as such to the 'real world' e.g. chasing something down in a forest as opposed to on a plain. The task is different, not the style in which it's accomplished. 

fretmeister

fob said:

fretmeister said:

fob said:

scrumhalf said:

If you can have multiple medals for some sports then why not others?
For football we could have the normal eleven-a-side and in addition we could have medals for head tennis, keepy uppie, penalties (insert joke here), five-a-side, six-a-side and more.
For me the Olympics lost its allure when highly-paid competitors were allowed in. It can only redeem itself by bringing in test cricket. 

Another bugbear of mine. I love the swimming - I think it really does a great job of opening the games - but to have anything other than freestyle is a nonsense really. In the athletics you don't have the 100m, 100m backwards, 100m sideways while clapping your hands above your head.

So you'd get rid of the hurdles events?

No. I think that's a different event and you can see how it relates as such to the 'real world' e.g. chasing something down in a forest as opposed to on a plain. The task is different, not the style in which it's accomplished. 

Real world like the pole vault?

I reckon I would watch about 25% of Olympic sports and make a real effort to see 10%. But I'm not upset the others exist as other people love their favourites just as much.

I don't have a problem with basketball being in, as then I'd have to have a problem with Ice Hockey, and I love ice hockey.
I think the purely artistic events have a real place too. While many of them are not my taste, they do provide a bit of art in the middle of the science of being fastest. I think that's a good thing.

Let the games evolve. New events will either be popular or they won't.

fob

Scaling castle walls?

fretmeister

fob said:

Scaling castle walls?

I don't have a problem with non real world stuff so no example on those lines is going to affect me.
The nature of the wall is irrelevant. The skill in climbing it is the real subject.

fob

One of the charms of the Olympics for me is to see sports I wouldn't normally watch. Table-tennis is well established but I think I've only ever watched it at the Olympics (and enjoyed it).

I don't mind judged events either - the boxing, for instance, generally worked quite well but was open to corruption/incompetence (Roy Jones Jnr being the best example). The drive to make it fairer - electronic scoring - changed the sport and it lost some nuances that resulted in a poorer competition. 

fretmeister

I feel that way about the fencing. I only ever watch it in the Olympics.
The reaction speeds are mind blowing.

Philly_Q

To be honest I'm happy for them to feature whatever sports - or games! - they like so long as they fit in the schedule and the finances are there.  I said earlier that I'm not a fan of baseball or basketball but nobody's forcing me to watch them.

fob

For the amateur vs professional debate there is an interesting take by Joe Rogan that, I have to say, I agree with:

ronnyb

I’m looking forward to the men’s final of the being eaten by a crocodile competition. First one down the gullet gets the posthumous gold.

guitars4you

Whatever happened to the old school favourites from junior school - slow cycle race - bag 'n' bean - 3 legged - sac race and last but not least the parents race

rogd

Pancake race.

underdog

They have a 16 day period set aside for surfing, the competition will only take 2 days to complete, so they have a good waiting period for the right conditions. Speaking as someone that loved to surf, competitive surfing is pretty boring most of the time to watch.

Skateboarding should be excellent, I think the UK has a young medal hopeful in the women pool event, she's in her teens. Some big names from skating will be taking part.

the_jaffa

Yup, Sky Brown and she’s only 13. Amazing skater 

Mattharrier

underdog said:

Speaking as someone that loved to surf, competitive surfing is pretty boring most of the time to watch.

Skateboarding should be excellent, I think the UK has a young medal hopeful in the women pool event, she's in her teens. Some big names from skating will be taking part.

(Disclaimer - I can't, by any real metric, surf, however I love falling over repeatedly in the sea attempting to learn)

This is very true, and true of most "action" sports, the doing is amazing, the watching others do is less so (most sports, personally - I'll happily play football, but I can't be arsed to watch other people do it). Highlights isn't too bad, and I imagine that a big live event may well have a good atmosphere, but often live action sports are lots of chat, very little doing.

Skateboarding seems to be a bit less "standing around and waiting" between runs, but that may not be true - I'll find out soon I suppose!

underdog

Skateboarding competitions are high on action and low on waiting around, so it should make for some good TV 

guitars4you

Just had a youtube browse of the climbing - My daughter climbs quite a bit at an indoor venue (bouldering mainly) But she talked me through some of it

Wow that speed climbing is quick and maybe to quick to pick up what is going on - 5 or 6 seconds for a race makes the 100M a slow event - Find the lead climbing and bouldering more interesting - Speed climbing is like a rat up a drain pipe 

Reverend

some real world suggestions:

Answer the door before postie puts sorry we missed you card through door and drives off
Making it along Richmond high street without being caught by chuggers or paintball stand
10 metre sprint across platform to catch connecting train as driver deliberately closes doors too early

Mattharrier

guitars4you said:

Wow that speed climbing is quick and maybe to quick to pick up what is going on - 5 or 6 seconds for a race makes the 100M a slow event - Find the lead climbing and bouldering more interesting - Speed climbing is like a rat up a drain pipe 

As someone who does a bit of climbing, I am utterly impressed by how fast people can climb in these events - it almost looks fake, like they're being pulled up by the rope and just moving their arms and legs, like in the old Spider-Man series. But I have no personal interest in it (admittedly my tubby 43 year old frame wouldn't stand a chance, but I like to delude myself with the illusion of choice). Even sport climbing, which involves ascending specific routes with pre-placed bolts to connect to, is less appealing to me than trad climbing, where you have to place your protection as you go, using only the natural rock surface to find somewhere to fit a nut or a hex or a cam.

But trad climbing, while making for an amazing film like Free Solo or The Dawn Wall, doesn't make for such easily packaged TV as sport and speed climbing, as watching someone clean out a crack with their finger tips and placing a succession of tiny metal lumps on wire until they're happy it will hold is far from exciting!