2008 Summer Olympics - Which sport shouldn't be in there?

I guess if you think the marathon is really stupid or you've got a personal vendetta against the Men's Butterfly you'll have to vote for the whole sport.

Baseball

Rowing

And your wish is the Olympic committee's desire, for it is out in 2012.

ooops, xp - baseball is out not rowing.

I find the cycling very dull.

Voted for tennis, but football came close

Rowing

-- The stickman from the hilarious "xkcd" comics, Sunday, 3 August 2008 23:14

Lol class hatred.

Anyway, of this list, synchronised swimming and diving. Anything that involves some level of aesthetic judgement = NOT A SPORT.

You might as well put ballet or contemporary dance in there. However diving looks cool whereas sync swimming is just lame.

I enjoy the diving but they should scientificize it for the reasons as mentioned.

i'd vote sailing if the though of watching people sailing in hideous green algae this summer wasn't quite so attractive. i'd vote equestrian if dressage weren't quite so surreal and, well, wtf?!

there are so many sports here that should get the chop but my predictable vote has to go to synchronised swimming.

by the way, is there a male synchronised swimming event?

on the one hand i like tennis being in there cuz it's always nice to have another big, hyped tennis tournament, but really it's the 5th most important tournament of the year at best (unless you're a mentalist like elena dementieva) and completely fucks up the actual tennis calendar.

synchronised swimming is fun to watch! and divers are hott.

football obv should be out.

if you got rid of diving you would have to get rid of gymnastics on the same grounds. i actually find the gymnastics and the diving to be the highlights of the whole thing. basically the only sports other than the athlectics that i would watch.

Gymnastics should go as well.

Would have said "Rowing" out of spite to the tossers who infested my recent university life, until I started dating a rower. Now I've gotta be more understanding. Torn between the overhyped drug-farce that is Athletics, the abysmal parade of pomp that is Equestrianism, and the sheer educationless growth-stunting rape-hell of Gymnastics. Don't get me wrong, the hoops and balls thing (and the ribbons thing) is beautiful, artistic, meticulous, spectacular. But I can't get out of my head the shit they do to 'em.

you are so wrong. gymnastics is always reliably amazing. SVETLANA KHORKINA

xp

xps
I like watching the synchronised swimming too but I see your point. I find it diffiuclt to follow the scoring in the judo and wrestling as well (and probably the taekwondo but I can't ever remember watching that).

What do you think of the wrestling Dom?

Football probably shouldn't be there either.

rowing is a v excellent sport, btw. also none of you people who like FOOTBALL can claim any other sport's practitioners are wankers

Anyway, this poll is fundementally flawed. No dressage, no credibility.

I suppose it comes under equestrian but still...

maybe i will vote for baseball. they shouldn't have sports that basically only one country plays. what's the diff between baseball and softball? do we really need both? or either of them?

wtf no more Olympic beisbol? Baseball is a fine sport sirs.

if you got rid of the gymnastics then you'd have to get rid of the figure skating at the olympic games and if you are seriously willing to do that then you fail at being a good human

winter olympics i mean

http://www.ushmm.org/lcmedia/photo/lc/image/73/73495.jpg

ANYTHING THAT INVOLVES AESTHETIC JUDGEMENT = NOT A SPORT.

I can't bring myself to vote for Table Tennis

I'm slowly learning the wonder of rowing. She's slowly accepting cricket into her life. But these are early, touchy-feely stages.

Gymnastics is great to watch, I emphasise, but I have such moral difficulties with it as to be insurmountable.

the winter olympics should be got rid of in its entirety.

Table Tennis is mad awesome, wtf you on about Crutis :p

Figure skating = rub.

People going down hills very fast = brilliant.

Don't get me wrong, the hoops and balls thing (and the ribbons thing) is beautiful, artistic, meticulous, spectacular. But I can't get out of my head the shit they do to 'em.

the hoops and balls and ribbons thing (rhythmic gymnastics) isn't in the olympics.

god you all suck so much

xp to actually everyone

Anyway, this poll is fundementally flawed. No dressage, no credibility.

Yeah, it was too complicated to include every event in every sport so it does come under equestrian, sorry.

by the way, is there a male synchronised swimming event?

No! Shockingly.

o yes it is actually, my mistake, but it's not the same sport as gymnastics. it's kind of the synchonised swimming of gymnastics.

xposts to myself.

i can't comprehend how anyone could dislike figure skating? it's so intense. skiing obv also cool. i mean pretty much all individual sports are cool except, like, the speed walking one.

so is synchronised swimming the only sport in the olympics that only one gender takes part in?

they shouldn't have sports that basically only one country plays.

lol u have never been to japan cuba dominican republic colombia panama nicaragua canada korea

the hoops and balls and ribbons thing (rhythmic gymnastics) isn't in the olympics.

WHAT?! I've SEEN IT, man! SEEN IT!

actually casting my eye over the list again and bearing in mind the would/would not watch criterion, weightlifting probably loses heavily

I am struggling to think of any sport that could be gayer than all-male synchronised swimming and failing.

Handball is one of those games that only people who are self-consciously trying to get to the Olympics actually play, right? Why is it in the Olympics ahead of squash?

Sorry 'sport' in scare quotes.

1.21 of pure olympic table tennis fabulousness
Ah voila!

ok, here's my beef with gymnastics spelt out

TAKING young people from their HOMES aged about 10, SYSTEMATICALLY abusing them, forcing them to train 14 hours a day, denying them education, feeding them drugs to STUNT THEIR GROWTH, then brutally casting them out WITH NO APPLICABLE LIFE-SKILL aged, what, 22? Disgusting.

Squash's absence genuinely shocks me.

Opted for the horsey one over the weightlifting. pretty lol watching a guy making the 'shitting myself' expression in a leotard.

Carom billiards should also be an Olympic sport. It quite honestly wins all indoor games.

I might go Equestrianism after all that, lol

that's a problem with the soviet union not with gymnastics which is clearly one of the top 3 sports in the olympiad.

xxpost

TAKING young people from their HOMES aged about 10, SYSTEMATICALLY abusing them, forcing them to train 14 hours a day, denying them education, feeding them drugs to STUNT THEIR GROWTH, then brutally casting them out WITH NO APPLICABLE LIFE-SKILL aged, what, 22? Disgusting.

I dunno, David Cameron looks like he's going to do quite well out of it.

There's a lot of shit in that list but somehow the accumulation of stupid bollocksy sports for weirdos who are no good at proper sport gives the Olympics most of what's left of its charm. That and taking place in excitingly authoritarian police states with appalling human rights records.

Fencing should be replaced by that Prussian shit where dudes stand toe to toe and scar each other. Rowing can fuck off, obv, but maybe that only applies to its Brit practitioners. LJ otm about the organised child abuse that = pro gymnastics. Synchronised Swimming clearly too risible to vote for here. Always had an irrational disdain for water polo so I;
'm a vote for that.

gymnastics is like the quintessential Olympic sport tards

i think water polo players in this country are like rowers in your country nv

or whatever sport rich british twats play

hiring hookers to dress up like nazis i guess

There's an article in either this or last month's details about some teenage duder who is ace at sync swimming can't go to the Olympics. It was the best thing in the magazine.

I forget the summer olypmics even exist – winter olympics is only olympics in my mind.

rowing clearly has some of the best eye candy in the games. james cracknell in his prime <3

therefore it STAYS.

i don' think i even knew water polo was an olympic sport until today tbh. i must keep an eye out for it

Winter Olympics >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Summer Olympics is something we should all, I feel, agree on.

lex otm re: rowing.

Dunno, the winter Olympics' way of finding endless variations on 'sliding down a hill really fast' strikes me as cheating somewhat.

xposts

Yeah all water polo players have that look of "we are too wanky to do real sport", the whole thing gives off a pony club vibe.

I'm looking very forward to Misty May-Treanor's ass .....

I would petition for the installment of snow volleyball at the next winter olympics.

i still feel sad that michelle kwan never got her gold medal :((

Went with Equestrian in the end. Sliding down a hill really fast is great especially if you hit a ramp at the end and do a load of tricks. Why isn't skateboarding a Summer Olympic sport?

Water polo is actually a very strenuous, skilful activity, but yeah it's a bit posh so stuff it

Is beach volleyball really anything other than synchronised perving? That can go as well.

~I forgot there was fucking BMXing in that The Mummy/Olympics crossover trailer. That can fuck right off and take skateboarding and snowboarding with it. Triathlon is shite too, and features some of the least aesthetically pleasing P.E. kit known to humanity.

I think Matt's Olympics would be pretty short. And not desperately televisual.

Archery? Shooting? Yeah, umm, no.

archery is actually quite entertaining! i found this out accidentally during the athens olympics

If you ask Europe, Baseball was dropped because: MLB wouldn't release players to play and the drug testing regime they play under for the 3.9 years they're not competing in the Olympics is not strict enough.

Dropping softball was bullshit though. No good reason to do that, especially if they weren't even going to replace it with squash or karate.

gymnastics is like the quintessential Olympic sport tards

-- Curt1s Stephens, Monday, 4 August 2008 00:43 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

OTM. Dropping gymnastics = ludicrous.

is beach volleyball in the games? it sure as hell shouldn't be.

Let's get rid of sports involving aesthetic judgments and replace them with motorsport and poker.

You'd think the USA would field stronger shooting teams.

If there was an "indiscriminate attack" category they might.

yeah what about stabbing?

I don't mind the "sports with aesthetic judgements" thing at all. I mind the druggy ones, the rapey ones, and the horsey ones. And the boring ones. Which, neatly, are mostly the druggy/horsey ones.

UK Badmington is the exclusive preserve of vicars' children. With knee strapping.

xpost

Yeah who can forget that horse-raping scandal during the Seoul games?

And Stuart-from-Big-Brother (the one Michelle bagged, remember) lookalikes. xpost

I think there are some gymnasts who are there because they want to be and are not the victims of sexual violence.

Modern Pentathlon is kind of sinisterly Teutonic also.

pole dancing should be added

I enjoyed that year where the chubby American girl gymnast broke her ankle.

Rogge tried to get rid of modern pentathlon along with baseball and softball back in 2005

Hmm, maybe caek (xposts). But I look at the coaches and they're ALWAYS haggard greying 50 year-old men. Profiling maybe, but it makes me shudder even if it isn't true.

For something that takes place in raging mountain torrents canoeing is pretty boringly shit. It's always shit in Olympics video games too.

american football should be added. it would be really fucking hilarious watching a USA-Saudi Arabia gridiron game

Gymnastics: providing the publicly acceptable face of pedophilia since 1912. xxpost

Really there should have been an option for Walking up there. You're not walking, people.

mentalists all for even considering anything but synchronized swimming!

Flat water canoeing is tedious, but I'd keep the downhill (is it called "downhill")

Walking is awesome, because you can walk for like 15 miles and then have some dude run at you with a red flag when yr 20 yards from the line :D

I vote for "Salinr" because I have no fucking idea what that is.

It is a competition to see who can swallow the most saline solution without puking.

If G4 network was allowed to create Olympic sports........

Sailing really captures the imagination of working class kids around the world, who rush down to the park after its been on and have a sail-around in the duck pond, jumpers for marker buoys.

Shooting is a bit rubbish. Why not include Giant Hoopla?

Sailing is kinda shitty as well, yeah. Kinda wishing I'd voted for Athletics, tho, altho it would have been a massive and unconscionable challop

Yeah, I love watching a bunch of drugged-up cheats testing out who's got the best drugs.

The team sports are all kind of not in the spirit of the thing, but football gets my vote because the national teams ALREADY compete every four years on a giant and well-publicized stage.

'athletics'??? wtf

You know that feeling, of vague sickness, when you know you've posted far too much unnecessary crap to a thread, but haven't been able to help yourself?

I'm going to bed. ;_;

LJ: I think this post has your challop quota for this thread covered:

TAKING young people from their HOMES aged about 10, SYSTEMATICALLY abusing them, forcing them to train 14 hours a day, denying them education, feeding them drugs to STUNT THEIR GROWTH, then brutally casting them out WITH NO APPLICABLE LIFE-SKILL aged, what, 22? Disgusting.

xp, haha!

Walking is awesome, because you can walk for like 15 miles and then have some dude run at you with a red flag when yr 20 yards from the line :D

omg that was my favorite part of the sydney olympics!

Man, fuck badminton.

^^ I would play that.

well the olympics needs sports like badminton, tables tennis, judo, taekwondo, etc so the asians can win some medals too

"lol u have never been to japan cuba dominican republic colombia panama nicaragua canada korea"

that's not many places. why not have cricket? it's like 100 times more popular than baseball globally, and would give the soth asians a chance to pick up some medals

south

i still feel sad that michelle kwan never got her gold medal :((

silver's okay michelle

My brother has a formula for this: If the sport has no bigger stage than the olympics then it should be in, if not out. So Athletics, swimming, ping pong gymnastics pentathlon, cycling, rowing etc. in Football, Baseball etc. out. He wavers on Basketball because there is no real international tournament but it is played widely and for countries that are not the US the olympics in Basketball is a much bigger deal.

Synchronised Swimming because it's lame. And sexist. And lame. Should be replaced with waterslide racing - it's just like the Luge!

Handball is one of those games that only people who are self-consciously trying to get to the Olympics actually play, right? Why is it in the Olympics ahead of squash?

'Cause it's the BASKETBALL OF MITTLEEUROPA!!

Oh come on, handball is awesome. i love watching it. Would love watching squash games too, but it sounds like seeing the ball on a TV wouldnt be too easy?

I am struggling to think of any sport that could be gayer than all-male synchronised swimming and failing.

-- Matt DC, Monday, 4 August 2008 00:36 (9 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Rugby

OTM.

Should be replaced with waterslide racing - it's just like the Luge!

Finally a Pato suggestion we can all get behind.

Oh come on, rugby isnt gay, its just manly appreciation for one another.

Synchronised Swimming is really effing hard.

Basically if it there's a chance that a US "superteam" can be beat by a groups of Latvian part timers it should be in.

The football is pointless with it's age limit rule.

Also, I'd like to know how the teams competing in the football are picked?
Agree about the Latvian part timers bit.
My vote would go to baseball but since it's already on its way out, I dont know yet what I'll vote for.

But I look at the coaches and they're ALWAYS haggard greying 50 year-old men

in what sport is this not true

also, basing your appreciation of a sport on the social class of its participants strikes me as a v poor way to live one's life

as long as we can still do that with musics

it's the same people!

I voted equestrian, just cos owning the best horse should not be an Olympic event.

Equestrian should be kept in but only if the horses themselves get the medals around their necks.

shooting

I mean if they're going to let carnival games in they might as well just add darts and billiards and so on, really

Pretty much have the whole Indoor League in there. Skittles, bar billiards and shove ha'penny.

Why the badminton hate? It's an amazingly enjoyable and athletic sport that requires massive skill.

The fastest recorded tennis stroke is Andy Roddick's 153 mph (246 km/h) serve;[21] the fastest recorded badminton stroke is Fu Haifeng's 206 mph (332 km/h) smash, says Wikipedia.

yeah but the cocks is lighter than the balls

I forget the summer olypmics even exist – winter olympics is only olympics in my mind.

-- Abbott, Sunday, August 3, 2008 6:44 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

otm

endless variations of going fast downhill >>>>> endless variations of running in a circle

gymnastics are as olympic as all get out, getting rid of them would be weird. baseball, football should both be out. basketball in, per Ed's criteria.

winter olympics is stupid for not realising that most of the summer olympics sports can be done in winter as well

I would pay good money to see the equestrian events on ice.

also the rowing

ice polo

100m sprint, no spikes

diving onto solid ice :\

inverse, curling in the pool.

also ice rowing is an actual sport.

synchronized swimming is so unbelievably absurd

Handball is one of those games that only people who are self-consciously trying to get to the Olympics actually play, right?

No - handball is very very big with all generations of New Yorkers. Even on the hottest day of the year you'll see kids playing this all day long. All you need is a ball and a wall.

and a hand

or a prosthetic paddle

Uh tracer, that's not handball, you're thinking of handball instead. Different thing.

Sorry?

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41119000/jpg/_41119960_handball_416.jpg

^Handball. No wall involved.

WTF is that? Basketball for idiots?

Hand soccer?

Something like that..

Big in (parts of) continental Europe and the Nordic countries.

Regarding baseball's inclusion in the Olympics, at least countries that actively hate the United States also play it. i.e. Cuba and China. With cricket you've really only got former colonies where it's got a massive following.

neither baseball nor cricket should be in the olympics

cricket probably shouldn't exist at all

ban the lex :D

I can agree with that. Cricket is like watching someone else play roulette. Yes it's exciting when you finally land on a winner but sheesh.

xpost

though i enjoyed playing cricket at school, they would only let me field anyway so i used to go to a far corner of the pitch and read a book. bastards would shout at me if the ball came near me though, i tried to point out that i was never ever going to throw it back to them but they wouldn't listen

owning the best horse should not be an Olympic event.

Cool thing about the modern pentathlon: horses are assigned to the athletes by a draw.

modern pentathlon manages to be both completely eccentric and totally hardcore

Yeah:

Coubertin created the contest to simulate the experience of a 19th century cavalry soldier behind enemy lines: he must ride an unfamiliar horse, fight with pistol and sword, swim, and run.

lex, cricket's hot men standards are at least as high as rowing.

well, maybe not, but they are quite high.

mmm, they don't really show it off much though, not while playing their sport

the whole olympics is a corrupt ugly farce, what's the point of picking one sport or another

why yes it is challops time!

why do anything. fuck going back to the moon tho.

moon olympics, now yer talkin'. imagine the pole vault record.

http://www.mobygames.com/images/covers/small/1021216346-00.jpg

Ditch taekwondo, replace with Pancration.

boxing, you mean?

Least likely to be fucked with on this thread: Boxing, Field Hockey, Judo

oh wow lol xpost

pancration = boxing

no, not really. Pretty close to Sombo, though.

Nah, pancration = Greek wrestling, very different to boxing. Gouging permitted, no gloves, much more body contact.

With cricket you've really only got former colonies where it's got a massive following.

haha "only"

(note I am not suggesting cricket should be in the Olympics)

I don't think cricket should be in the Olympics and I'm the biggest cricket nut you'll meet. The biggest international team sports are a no-no as far as I'm concerned.

Yes. Just wanted to note that, for better a worse, a "massive" following in Britain's former colonies is not exactly a small constituency.

Well, yeah. It's probably the second-most followed team sport in the world. Which is why it shouldn't be an Olympic sport; it has its own championships.

Football is SO big and SO flexible that there is, perhaps, an argument for some sort of 5-a-side competition at the Games. I think this would be a super spectacle, and it'd help small nations who only have a few good players.

like Britain

Although that would place a premium on goalkeepers who can also play a bit. I get the feeling Brazil would do ok in that department with their Rogerio Cenis and all.

fuck, did netshare get yanked again?

wrong thread (ON IPHONE)

welp if farting were an olympic sport i just won the gold medal

I don't think cricket should be in the Olympics and I'm the biggest cricket nut you'll meet.

You're only saying that because it's a guaranteed gold for a minor South Pacific country (not New Zealand).

Cricket should not be anywhere near the Olympics

Cricket should not be anywhere near the Olympics

^^^^ I pity the fool

I had to look up handball, I suspect that anything I've ever heard called handball wasn't this handball. But because I'm the voice of the working classes, down with equestrianism.

5-a-side football could be interesting, yes, lots of African, smaller South American, east European etc. teams could be in with a good chance. Although I don't imagine the clubs would ever be happy to make it as interesting as possible and agree to doing away with the u-23 aspect.

Not to get DJ Martian on y'all, but how about:

a) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futsal
b) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_Football

5-a-side football could be interesting, yes, lots of African, smaller South American, east European etc. teams could be in with a good chance.

Why is it a good thing that lots of African, smaller South American, east European etc. teams could be in with a good chance?

they add to the number of teams who are strong competitors, therefore more interesting!

Futsal rather than Association Football in the Olympic games would be a marked improvement IMO.

Not enough triathlon hate. Weekend sport for brokers.

Disappointed that MMA hasn't been mentioned yet - it's less crooked than most Olympic sports!

Disappointed that MMA hasn't been mentioned yet - it's less crooked than most Olympic sports!

-- King Boy Pato, Tuesday, 5 August 2008 13:09 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

I am struggling to think of any sport that could be gayer than all-male synchronised swimming and failing.

-- Matt DC, Monday, 4 August 2008 00:36 (9 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Yes triathlon is for those that can afford a bike, a wetsuit and a pair of trainers. xxpost

what's MMA?

I am struggling to think of any sport that could be gayer than all-male synchronised swimming and failing.

Synchronised failing = British Olympics Team

mixed marital aids

x-post

oh god I've just turned ten again. have banned myself henceforth.

Field hockey

LOL Americans

jed otm re gymnastics.

gymnastics is the whole reason anybody watches olympics. who the fuck gives a shit about how fast some dude can run 0.0000004 mph faster than everyone else in history?!?!?!? EVERYBODY cares about when this 14 year old FAILED when she misses a grip and fucks up EVERYTHING that she had practiced for 12 years and stunned her growth for. THE DRAMA. amazing.

table tennis is amazing obv cos china wins every single medal there is.

sailing is maybe less of a spectator sport than fishing.

when will poker become an olympic sport?

Snooker ftO

top five olympics sport as spectator sport

1. gymnastics (except floor)
2. volleyball
3. diving
4. athletics (mainly pole vault)
5. badminton

top five games on olympics video games

1. diving
2. javelin
3. pole vault
4. archery
5. hurdles

Boxing is the best

sailing is maybe less of a spectator sport than fishing.

when will poker become an olympic sport?

-- ken c, Tuesday, August 5, 2008 5:43 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

u crazee x 2

no, best to watch =

swimming
boxing
pentathalon
badminton
volleyball

Weighlifting is a fun sport to watch!

that would have been my 6.

I was going to say this:

The team sports are all kind of not in the spirit of the thing, but football gets my vote because the national teams ALREADY compete every four years on a giant and well-publicized stage.

-- Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, August 4, 2008 2:15 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

so there.

I don't think I've ever watched an Olympics football match, which says it all really

me neither but then i don't think i've ever watched any football match

will there be a great britain football team?

will it be better/worse than england/scotland/wales/northern ireland?

will almunia be playing?!

aside from baseball, boxing and wrestling, they all suck.

stop being wrong

there will not be a GB football team

see the article entitled "Why is there no GB Olympic football team?"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/football/7529807.stm

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v356/kenjuggle3/arrrgh.jpg

Soon there might be no Great Britain to have a Great Britain football team

Ever since Barry Ferguson became London Mayor it's all gone tits-up

BMX
BMX
BMX
BMX
BMX
BMX
BMX
BMX
BMX

Why because it's new.

I'm going to try and avoid anything Olympics-related.

Live images to be delayed worldwide so they can cut out human rights protesters. The IOC has agreed to this.

so you're protesting that huh

Through associations with my mother, badminton = bellringing, basket weaving, pottery g(l)azing, and general middle-class female geekery. Out out out.

We need an official 2008 Summer Olympics thread.

Softball. Not enough interest worldwide.

Forgetting the lesbian market there.

what is it with you guys ?/ u are willing to spend money showing sports such as hand ball but no equestrian events !! my partner and two daughters arent pleased at all - have u any idea how many people in this country ride horses ?? a lot more then play hand ball i would suggest , thanks very much !!

gymnastics is great because we can prove we are better than all those socialist countries that train gymnasts since they were born. oh yeah

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Athletics 3

Aren't those like the only sports that should be in the olympics?

YES! 9 other people call bullshit on baseball.

Typical domination from the modern pentathlon lobby.

wtf at athletics and badminton polling so high, assume the former is down to prankster votes but what do people have against the latter??

yeah for serious, what sort of fkn madpeople be votin' for badminton

those who vote for gymnastics would deny us this simple pleasure: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7JkDjYp2Jok

Similarly, no athletics, no guy getting hit in the knackers by a pole.

Synchronised swimming seems to offer less opportunity for that sort of painful mishap than almost any other sport I think.

yeah, not enough running on the side, bombing or heavy petting for my taste.

Baseball as an olympics sport, maybe not, but baseball is probably a more international sport than say, cricket (controversial opinion) as far as it being widely popular in more non-English speaking countries, so it'd be nice to have some kind-of actual world championship.

you people deserve this pantywaist nationalist orgy.

also wtf is "athletics" except ALL SPORTS?

(except that ice dancing / figure skating bullshit in the winter games that isn't even sports)

You're right, of course, but generally, "athletics" = "track and field"

Baseball as an olympics sport, maybe not, but baseball is probably a more international sport than say, cricket (controversial opinion) as far as it being widely popular in more non-English speaking countries

Huh? What's the population of India again?

By the way, that synchronised diving thing sucks

English is an official language of India, hence English-speaking. It's not like English is an official language of Venezuela, Cuba, or Japan.

By the way, that synchronised diving thing sucks

Those two Chinese girls today were pretty amazing though. A lot better than the men.

Baseball as an olympics sport, maybe not, but baseball is probably a more international sport than say, cricket (controversial opinion) as far as it being widely popular in more non-English speaking countries, so it'd be nice to have some kind-of actual world championship.

-- burt_stanton, Monday, August 11, 2008 7:17 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

I don't know why the language thing is important but they have the World Baseball Classic.