Things that are and are not Olympic events

[madlori]

Inevitably, when it's time for the every-two-years Festival of Sport that is the Olympics, talk turns to things that are and are not Olympic events. I mean, it isn't representing all of sports. There are plenty of sports that don't make the cut, and plenty that do that make us wonder why

Comments

[owlmoose]

(psst... you forgot soccer from your list of Olympic team sports.)

I think you may be right about why golf isn't involved. Also, Olympic parkour would *rule*.

[apolla]

Actually, cricket would be pretty widespread and really NOT monopolised by England. Australia, New Zealand... anywhere that the apparently great British Empire spread. But it's also a long game, unless you're talking the one-day stuff.

[morganmuffle]

They're suggesting Twenty20 cricket, not that I understand what that means but apparently it's a shorter version, 3 hours or so rather than days and days *g*

(much as they're suggesting Sevens Rugby)

[schnoogle]

Twenty20 just isn't cricket. :P To have proper cricket you'd need 5-day tests and that's just not feasible in the Olympics.

[ladymirth]

Why not One-Day Internationals? That's how they do it in the World Cup.

[slice254]

I think I read somewhere (though I might have imagined it, too) that skateboarding would either be a "real" sport or an exhibition sport in London.

[sefkhet]

[...] the gold medal round would always be the UK vs. India

I think you overestimate how good we are at cricket. :)

there are these non-sport sports like synchronized swimming, and its new cousin, synchronized diving. And shooting, which I really don't get.

I may be splitting hairs, but an important distinction in my mind is that they're not the Olympic *Sports*, they're the Olympic *Games*, a game being defined as "a competitive activity involving skill, chance, or endurance on the part of two or more persons who play according to a set of rules." For obvious reasons, there are no Olympic events that are based on chance, but besides that, that pretty accurately represents the lineup of modern Olympic events.

And keeping in mind the origins of the Games, you could argue that shooting is the modern-day equivalent of javelin throwing.

[rookie131]

I don't know about the golf course thing. I think that is similar to cycling for the course being different everywhere. One of the American cyclists was there for months before the Olympics so that she could ride the course to get used to it. No reason why golfers couldn't do the same, I think.