The olympics

[GhanBuriGhan]

Well, in a circus you can show wahtever you want, here you can't. All of these competitions have clear sets of rules afaik, e.g. specific points are awarded for specific figures/jumps/etc. accoding to difficulty, and defined score penalties for mistakes. Of course there is the more subjective "B-score" for the overall aesthetic expression. I like how they do it in the high diving competitions, where only the panel scores near the median are retained - that seems to be a good solution to balance out subjectiveness.

 

[Couchpotato]

I don't follow or really care about the Olympics anyway it's football season again. Let me enjoy my barbaric roman like coliseum sport according to the Olympic committee. Ironic isn't it given how the Olympics started back in the BC era in coliseums.

 

[GothicGothicness]

Well, in a circus you can show wahtever you want, here you can't. All of these competitions have clear sets of rules afaik, e.g. specific points are awarded for specific figures/jumps/etc. accoding to difficulty, and defined score penalties for mistakes. Of course there is the more subjective "B-score" for the overall aesthetic expression. I like how they do it in the high diving competitions, where only the panel scores near the median are retained - that seems to be a good solution to balance out subjectiveness.

In the team synchronized swimming ( there is only a team version of this) there is no such a rules defining what points you get for different jumps and so on, that also makes it different from individual sports such as figure skating or the gymnastics individual program. Same for the team program in the other sports I mentioned.

Individual program is better, and diving they do have clearly defined rules, so I am not complaining about that.

As far as boxing goes, the judges all press the button at the same time if they think there was a clear hit. It is unlikely for this to occur if there isn't a clear hit from one of the boxers.

 

[JDR13]

As far as boxing goes, the judges all press the button at the same time if they think there was a clear hit. It is unlikely for this to occur if there isn't a clear hit from one of the boxers.

Yet it does quite often. The problem is that a hit isn't always "clear", and not all judges have the exact same opinion about what constitutes a clear hit. That's why there's been so many controversial matches in olympic boxing over the years.

 

[GothicGothicness]

I agree with you that it is not perfect JDR13, but in the latest Olympics, I haven't seen any big scandals ( might be I have missed them though ). In boxing it is also quite easy to do a re-run in slow-motion and you can see whatever judges where actually right or wrong according to the rules of boxing and you can replace "bad" judges.

In team synchronized swimming, it is only subjective, even if you watch a slow-motion re-run there is no way to determine whatever a decision was right or wrong. There is also no way for a normal spectator to know which team is going to win.

 

[JDR13]

Except they don't use instant replay in olympic boxing, and inconsistencies in the scoring are simply accepted as different judging perspectives.

And yes, there were some major controversies this year.
http://m.bleacherreport.com/article...incident-highlights-why-ioc-should-cut-boxing

Here's a good article that talks about how "objective" the scoring system in olympic boxing is.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blo...-boxing-controversies-failures-scoring-system

As far as synchronized swimming is concerned, you may be correct in that a spectator without specific knowledge of the sport isn't going to be able to tell what team is winning, but that doesn't make it less deserving.

 

[GothicGothicness]

Those scandals are almost "nothing" compared to all the ones in wrestling this year, still corruption and questionable scoring-systems, is the same thing I complained about in wrestling.

I'm all for throwing out sports, with corrupt judges or bad scoring systems. If they fix the corruption and system, they could be welcome back at another time. Still boxing will always be a sport to me, since the base scoring is easy, hit the opponent with your punches as many times as possible or win directly by knocking them down.

It is much more clear compared to, "swim as beautiful and synchronized as possible and make the judges like it as much as possible by whatever means"

 

[JDR13]

If they got rid of all the sports that involve some kind of human judging, that would eliminate about half the competitions.

Just because certain sports seems more clear to you, doesn't make them that way to everyone else. While I'm no fan of synchronized swimming, it certainly wouldn't be the first sport to get booted if it were up to me.

 

[GothicGothicness]

This is to funny not to write about.

In the women's shot-put they interview the silver medalist and she said " I am sure I'll get a olympic gold medal BEFORE the next olympics"

She was right. Today it became apparent that winner had used substances which are not allowed on her body, and she got the gold instead

 

[pibbur who]

I can agree there are few sports that I'd like removed from the oilympics. As long as they keep handball, where we Norwegians have a fair chance at winning the gold medal (we won both the Beijing OL and now London).

Regarding the sports only available for female competitors. Are there now any sports reserved for men in the summer olympics?

pibbur who is not fascinated by rythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming, but who would like to see tug of war reintroduced as an olympic discipline

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

What would you get rid of, Pibbur and JDR?
There are certainly a few I find odd myself - modern penthathlon, walking, and yes, I could live without synchronized swimming.
Gymnastics, I would vote for keeping, though.

Also I have a question: Why do the high divers always go sit in that little pool after their dive? It made me laugh because they always looked so serious, sitting in that litte tub

 

[GothicGothicness]

It is a hot tube with bubbles, they need to to soften up their body and get ready for the next jump and most importantly prevent from getting cold down.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

It is a hot tube with bubbles, they need to to soften up their body and get ready for the next jump and most importantly prevent from getting cold down.

I see, thanks. But I guess they don't stay in there to keep warm, there were always only one or two guys in there.

 

[pibbur who]

What would you get rid of, Pibbur and JDR?
There are certainly a few I find odd myself - modern penthathlon, walking, and yes, I could live without synchronized swimming.
Gymnastics, I would vote for keeping, though.

Also I have a question: Why do the high divers always go sit in that little pool after their dive? It made me laugh because they always looked so serious, sitting in that litte tub

I think the horse events are archaic and should be removed. As for modern penthatlon - I like the idea of combining very different sports. But I would replace the horse event with something else, for instance kayak racing.

pibbur

 

[JDR13]

What would you get rid of, Pibbur and JDR?
There are certainly a few I find odd myself - modern penthathlon, walking, and yes, I could live without synchronized swimming.
Gymnastics, I would vote for keeping, though.

The Equestrian events, walking, and sailing would be my top three.

 

[pibbur who]

The Equestrian events, walking, and sailing would be my top three.

I agree with skipping sailing. But I think walking has its place.

pibbur who sometimes listens to Lou Reed

 

[blatantninja]

I can agree there are few sports that I'd like removed from the oilympics. As long as they keep handball, where we Norwegians have a fair chance at winning the gold medal (we won both the Beijing OL and now London).

Regarding the sports only available for female competitors. Are there now any sports reserved for men in the summer olympics?

pibbur who is not fascinated by rythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming, but who would like to see tug of war reintroduced as an olympic discipline

I had no idea that handball was a team sport. We had handball courts in college, but it was more like Racquetball without the racquets.

The thing I don't understand is that they get rid of events like baseball because it was not played 'internationally' enough, but they keep things like water polo, handball, etc. that are not played widely either.

Baseball should be returned, but where's rugby? Rugby is played across the entire globe.
Where's American football? The Super Bowl is consistently one of the top American broadcasts shown internationally.

I'd also like to see it go back to amateurs. While I have my doubts that someone is an amateur while collecting millions in endorsement deals, sports like ice hockey, basketball, soccer, etc. were a lot more interesting when they were played by amateurs.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

Bit of an americacentrist view. Superbowl may be watched internationally, but seriously, there are a few amateur clubs playing the sport outside US/Canada, and that's it. It's called american football for a reason.
It would be even worse than Basketball, where other countries at least have serious leagues, although nothing on the level of the NBA. Same for baseball (anyway would that even be fun with national teams, without seasons worth of player and team statistics to chew on?). Rugby is more widely played with at least a handful of seriously competitive countries, so that could indeed be considered - I guess it's just considered a bit too rough for the olympics?
Water polo is different, it's rather exotic in most countries (most popular in eastern europe, I believe), but also played in a lot of countries on a similar quasi-amateur level, so it's a more level playing field.

 

[blatantninja]

Bit of an americacentrist view. Superbowl may be watched internationally, but seriously, there are a few amateur clubs playing the sport outside US/Canada, and that's it. It's called american football for a reason.

My point was that there are plenty of other sports that have limited international appeal beyond competing in the Olympics, yet are Olympic sports. Also, not to be rude, but there are tons of amateur/semi-pro American football leagues in both Western Europe and Asia. The skill level is definitely way down there, but they do exist.

It would be even worse than Basketball, where other countries at least have serious leagues, although nothing on the level of the NBA.

They do play basketball in the Olympics.

Same for baseball (anyway would that even be fun with national teams, without seasons worth of player and team statistics to chew on?).

I'm not a big stats person when it comes to sports, so yes, I would enjoy it. They've hosted an international tournament for teams in the NYC several times and its been a blast.

Rugby is more widely played with at least a handful of seriously competitive countries, so that could indeed be considered - I guess it's just considered a bit too rough for the olympics?

Probably.

Water polo is different, it's rather exotic in most countries (most popular in eastern europe, I believe), but also played in a lot of countries on a similar quasi-amateur level, so it's a more level playing field.

It's not necessarily about level playing fields, its about world wide interest. Water Polo just doesn't really have it for most people, yet there it is.

 

[pibbur who]

According to Wikipedia golf and rugby will be included in 2016. Sadly not baseball.

Wikipedia has a quite interesting piece about olympic sports, how they are selected and such: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_sports#Discontinued_summer_sports. Apart from tradition, one of the main issues is that the IOC want to keep the number of sports in summer olympics <=28. This will exclude sports that otherwise could be included.

pibbur who?