After reading the excellent posting on the debate going on concerning what sports to include in future Olympic games, I would like to weigh in with the following suggestions to the Olympic Committee:

First off, pitch baseball and softball. The latter because it’s boring the former because the pro-game is better in all countries that care about the game. The Olympics should be about seeing the best and when the best are in pro leagues they often skip the Olympics which means you are seeing the best of the ones who bothered to come–not my idea of the Olympic ideal. Next, get rid of soccer and basketball both of which have superior pro venues for seeing these sports too. I’d get rid of rhythm gymnastics for the sole reason that they are dumb though this is likely to be an unpopular decision in Kyrgyzstan where the sport’s popularity is second only to playing polo with goat heads. By the way, they didn’t add ballroom dancing did they? If so, kill that one as well and it goes without saying that modern pentathlon should go the way of the standing high jump (dropped as an Olympic sport 1912) as should any event that requires a horse (goodbye dessage) or a gun. Fencing goes bye-bye. Sailing and white water kayaking are hobbies and pastimes not competitive Olympic sports. If we’re going to have these why not add bass fishing and rock climbing? Also, while not yet an Olympic sport put the ixnay on golf and dump tennis (once again because the existing pro circuits are superior to the Olympics and Tiger Woods doesn’t really need an Olympic medal and an Olympic golf event without Tiger means the best aren’t there). I mean if I want to watch substandard golf I’ll watch the LPGA.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 20th, 2005 at 5:15 pm by Insider and is filed under Brilliant, but uncategorizable, Weekend Edition / Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.