Friday, August 3, 2012

Sports that should (and shouldn’t) be in the Olympics


The list of Olympic Sports goes on and on. Athletics, Archery, Swimming, etc.; it almost never ends. However, there are some sports that I believe should, and shouldn’t be in the Olympiad. Here are my opinions.

For the I.O.C. (International Olympic Committee) to admit a sport into either the winter or summer Olympics, the sport must be compliant with the Olympic Charter, be administrated by an Internation Federation, be widely played world-wide and be approved by the I.O.C.  There are some sports that will be a part of the 2016 Rio de Janero Olympiad, that weren’t part of the London Games. These sports are Golf and Rugby Union. I am perplexed by golf, because, it should have been a part of the games a long time ago, which it was, but then taken off. Golf is pretty widely played worldwide, thank you to an international Professional Golf Association (PGA) Tour. Most Americans are wondering how Rugby, but not American Football, is going to make the games, but actually, Rugby Union, is very wide spread. It’s played a lot in Canada, and believe it or not, Rugby Sevens is somewhat of a major thing in NCAA. And, of course, Rugby is huge in Europe, and a little bit of Asia.

Well, there are only a few Olympic sports I think should be added. Baseball has a decent international base. It’s played in America and Canada, much of the Carribean, and South Africa, and last but not least, it’s huge in Japan, which is why all most all of the gloves I’ve ever owned have been Mizouno. Of course, the main agreement against, what I am saying is, “Only men play baseball.” Well, true, in a way, but you see, there is always softball. Softball may be seen as a totally different game, but you can also look at it as a modification of baseball. Ice Hockey is a good example to help my case. Womens’ Hockey is non-contact, which may seem minor, but the lack of contact is totally alien to the mens’ version. Also, many other sports, such as Swimming and Track have abbreviated distances for women. I really don’t see why not to add Baseball/Softball to the list of Olympic Sports.

The one sport I think should be removed from the roster of Olympic Sports is Table Tennis. Table Tennis, or simply, ping-pong, doesn’t really strike me as a sport any more than poker or billards. Maybe it is just my personal bias, and I will be the first to admit, that it very well does fit the criteria set by the I.O.C. I guess it is very opinionated to say such a thing, but it is just my personal judgments and you can disagree with me if you like, just saying.

London 2012 has been very entertaining, and it can only get more exciting from here!

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