[QUOTE=jekoh;53148727]Baseball is not popular in South America, it's popular in Venezuela, which is somewhat contiguous to or in the vicinity of Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic. So that's just one region.
Colombia, too. And fine, even if it's just two areas, we're still talking about three of the larger Olympic countries in the guise of the United States, Japan, and Canada.
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Half of these teams are not really competitive and some like Italy can't even field an actual team and rely on Americans instead.
True about Italy, forgot that's how that worked in the WBC for them, but if we're only talking about amateur play I think you'd see a more balanced playing field between most of the countries I mentioned, especially in the middle of the pack.
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Maybe it would be if the very top players would actually attend.
It'd certainly help, but the lack of the best of the best in other sports, especially boxing (seriously, the Olympic boxers would get utterly stomped by just about every ranking professional), hasn't prevented those sports from remaining Olympic sports.
Please explain how telling a horse to jump and guiding with reins takes more effort than not driving into a wall at 300 km/h. I understand the horse needs to be trained beforehand, but in terms of the actual sporting event, I don't think they compare.
If air rifle is a sport then my local cub scout chapter should be allowed to race their tiny cars down tracks for medals. Or even 8ball or 9 ball billiads. Darts.
If beach volleyball (pairs) can be considered a sport above and beyond the traditional court volleyball then almost anything that is competitive can be a sport. How about piggy-in-the-middle?
Baseball is not popular in South America, it's popular in Venezuela, which is somewhat contiguous to or in the vicinity of Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic. So that's just one region.
Half of these teams are not really competitive and some like Italy can't even field an actual team and rely on Americans instead.
Maybe it would be if the very top players would actually attend.
Beach volleyball is not exactly a popular sport in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Estonia but that doesn't necessarily disqualify it from being an olympic sport now. I don't see too many women's gymnastics teams from the Middle East either.
If air rifle is a sport then my local cub scout chapter should be allowed to race their tiny cars down tracks for medals. Or even 8ball or 9 ball billiads. Darts.
If beach volleyball (pairs) can be considered a sport above and beyond the traditional court volleyball then almost anything that is competitive can be a sport. How about piggy-in-the-middle?
Sorry, Beach Volleyball has to be one of the most difficult sports to be good at. My team came 8th in Indoor nationals, and when I made the transition to beach I was probably the worst player on the beach. I lost to two 60 year olds. The game is about being able to read and make shots. This isn't even mentioning the physical training that is required for the sport.
Shooting has been an art form for years. Archery is an ancient form of shooting, and it is a perfectly fine sport.
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Originally Posted by Hyack57
Beach volleyball is not exactly a popular sport in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Estonia but that doesn't necessarily disqualify it from being an olympic sport now. I don't see too many women's gymnastics teams from the Middle East either.
Rugby is too physical for a short event like the Olympics, the world cup takes almost two months to play as you can only really play one game per week. Also we'll have rugby sevens at the 2016 Olympics. It's good format that's widely played and followed and is way less taxing on the body. You can play a full tournament in the space of a weekend without and bother. Having a second rugby format wouldn't be best.
I agree with this. A full rugby union tournament would take far too long for the Olympic games, as players need at least four, if not five or six, days rest between matches. The only way for it to fit would be a small tournament with just a few teams. If there were eight teams with five days rest between matches, then the finalists would only play four games and it would take 19 days. It would not be a very prestigious event when compared to the world cup. The same problems would arise with rugby league, with the added problem that Australia would win it nearly every year. Complete dominance was one of the reasons that softball was done away with, as the US won it every year until, ironically, the last year.
Rugby sevens seems tailor made to be an Olympic event: it's short, fast, and action packed. It's also easy for non-rugby fans to get into for a few days or so. If they stretched the tournament out over four of five days instead of two, and used the 10 minute championship match rules in all matches, then we would have lots of high quality sevens matches to fawn over.
Please explain how telling a horse to jump and guiding with reins takes more effort than not driving into a wall at 300 km/h. I understand the horse needs to be trained beforehand, but in terms of the actual sporting event, I don't think they compare.
Riding at a high level requires incredible amounts of lower body strength and endurance. I can already tell you've never ridden a horse (at least not much) because you guide with your legs as much as the reins. Not to mention the fact the the English style saddles aren't easy to sit, and require a great deal of balance... exponentially more so if you're jumping the horse.
Explain to me how that's easier than turning a wheel
Riding at a high level requires incredible amounts of lower body strength and endurance. I can already tell you've never ridden a horse (at least not much) because you guide with your legs as much as the reins. Not to mention the fact the the English style saddles aren't easy to sit, and require a great deal of balance... exponentially more so if you're jumping the horse.
Explain to me how that's easier than turning a wheel
Beach volleyball is not exactly a popular sport in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Estonia but that doesn't necessarily disqualify it from being an olympic sport now.
Baseball is unpopular in 95% of the planet, not just in those four rather insignificant countries.
And Norway had three teams in the last 16 in Beijing, mind you.
I can't understand this water polo thing being olympic sport.
It's boring to watch and basically handball in water and it's hard to see which player belongs to which team.
What's with volleyball being an Olympic sport? All they do is toss a ball back and forth.
What's with swimming being an Olympic sport? All they do is go in a straight line.
What's with hockey being an Olympic sport? All they do is slap a biscuit.
What's with fencing being an Olympic sport? All they do is poke each other.
What's with track and field being an Olympic sport? All they do is play around on a field.
What's with basketball being an Olympic sport? It's just glorified ball in a cup.
You can argue that any sport is boring because wether it is or not is entirely subjective. If you don't like water polo, don't watch it.
Football - the recent u19 IFAF world cup was won by Canada. Maybe they could have u19 football at the games. There were 8 countries at the u19. It could work, but the football preliminaries would have to be played on the 3 sundays leading up to the games. Then on the first Sunday of the Olympics - QF, second Sunday - SF, and the final Sunday play the medal games.
Baseball - would force MLB to shut down in the summer, but it might actually be good for the game. The US never won the Baseball Classic that was attempted, so the Olympics might be what's needed. These are the countries that participated in the Classic: Australia Canada China Chinese Taipei Cuba Dominican Republic Italy Japan Mexico Netherlands Panama Puerto Rico South Africa South Korea United States Venezuela. How can you say it's a US Japan thing, when the US never even medalled in either of the Classics? Although, I do believe the US has the best ball players, so I'm not sure why they didn't win.
Snooker, would be cool to watch the best on a big stage, with lots of pressure, even though it's not athletic, it would still be great to watch the highest level of play.
Football - the recent u19 IFAF world cup was won by Canada. Maybe they could have u19 football at the games. There were 8 countries at the u19. It could work, but the football preliminaries would have to be played on the 3 sundays leading up to the games. Then on the first Sunday of the Olympics - QF, second Sunday - SF, and the final Sunday play the medal games.
Baseball - would force MLB to shut down in the summer, but it might actually be good for the game. The US never won the Baseball Classic that was attempted, so the Olympics might be what's needed. These are the countries that participated in the Classic: Australia Canada China Chinese Taipei Cuba Dominican Republic Italy Japan Mexico Netherlands Panama Puerto Rico South Africa South Korea United States Venezuela. How can you say it's a US Japan thing, when the US never even medalled in either of the Classics? Although, I do believe the US has the best ball players, so I'm not sure why they didn't win.
Snooker, would be cool to watch the best on a big stage, with lots of pressure, even though it's not athletic, it would still be great to watch the highest level of play.
Would be down for Lacrosse and Snooker if there is enough international interest
Baseball and Football do not have enough international interest, and would be dominated by to few countries
Does anyone think table tennis should be taken out for not having enough competition?
Would be down for Lacrosse and Snooker if there is enough international interest
Baseball and Football do not have enough international interest, and would be dominated by to few countries
Does anyone think table tennis should be taken out for not having enough competition?
Not sure how I feel about that
If the US would agree not to send their best football players for the first few times, it might work. Like back in the day when Canada sent local amateur hockey clubs. Don't form a national team until you start getting beat. Give it time and the sport might grow in enough countries to make it competatively viable. As for baseball, I disagree. All kinds of talent in many countries. How many countries is necessary? I would say 6 to 8, and I think baseball has that.
If the US would agree not to send their best football players for the first few times, it might work. Like back in the day when Canada sent local amateur hockey clubs. Don't form a national team until you start getting beat. Give it time and the sport might grow in enough countries to make it competatively viable. As for baseball, I disagree. All kinds of talent in many countries. How many countries is necessary? I would say 6 to 8, and I think baseball has that.
US would still be best by far, and Canada would be 2nd best by far, and nobody else would care.
US would still be best by far, and Canada would be 2nd best by far, and nobody else would care.
Look at baseball's medal table
Since 92, the US has 1 gold and 2 bronze in 5 appearances. Cuba has 3 golds 2 silvers. South Korea has the other gold, and Japan has a silver and 2 bronze.
These were not best on best tournements, and there looks to be some parity here.
Having a best on best, assuming both MLB and the Japanese league shut down for the games, would be epic.
Since 92, the US has 1 gold and 2 bronze in 5 appearances. Cuba has 3 golds 2 silvers. South Korea has the other gold, and Japan has a silver and 2 bronze.
These were not best on best tournements, and there looks to be some parity here.
Having a best on best, assuming both MLB and the Japanese league shut down for the games, would be epic.
6 countries meddling, and 2 of them having only 1 is not enough to be in the summer Olympics
6 countries meddling, and 2 of them having only 1 is not enough to be in the summer Olympics
It's comparable to hockey in the winter games. It's only one set of medals. Judo has 14 sets of male medals, similar to tai kwon do and boxing and wrestling and weight lifting. Tons of medals given out here. Yet, can't give out 1 set of medals for baseball? What's the big deal? Money? Building a baseball stadium in a country that can't find a use for it after the games are over?
It's comparable to hockey in the winter games. It's only one set of medals. Judo has 14 sets of male medals, similar to tai kwon do and boxing and wrestling and weight lifting. Tons of medals given out here. Yet, can't give out 1 set of medals for baseball? What's the big deal? Money? Building a baseball stadium in a country that can't find a use for it after the games are over?
Cuba has 3 golds 2 silvers. South Korea has the other gold, and Japan has a silver and 2 bronze.
