Olympic sports

[Blaze09]

Golf has a fat chance of making it in, as I don't see anyone outside of England and America winning a medal (well you got Vijay and Ernie but fuck those guys) and I hate sports without parody

[I Love Pokemon]

Baseball/softball, do they even play those games in countries other than USA, Cuba and Japan?

Yes they do. In (atleast) Finland of all the places. :S

Thats gotta be hard, isn't their alot of wind and snow that would cancel alot of games. of course you could hold them inside.

And China has a good team in softball too. I know alot of others do. Italy does for instance they are in the WBC.

[naiwf]

A lot of countries play softball but Canada, Japan & the US are the only three teams that are any good at it. They got rid of it because it's not a competitively balanced sport. International baseball is just crap though. I wouldn't be sad if neither got back into the '16 Olympics, but I've watched the NCAA Women's College World Series for a while now and was able to follow a lot of my favorite players on Team USA.

[sahyder1]

Golf has a fat chance of making it in, as I don't see anyone outside of England and America winning a medal (well you got Vijay and Ernie but fuck those guys) and I hate sports without parody

Do you watch golf at all?

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Golf has a fat chance of making it in, as I don't see anyone outside of England and America winning a medal (well you got Vijay and Ernie but fuck those guys) and I hate sports without parody

Do you watch golf at all?

I dunno, he has a point. I haven't seen nearly as many golf parodies since Payne Stewart died and Craig Stadler retired.

[Farmer Reil]

Golf has a fat chance of making it in, as I don't see anyone outside of England and America winning a medal (well you got Vijay and Ernie but fuck those guys) and I hate sports without parody

Padraig Harrington, Geoff Ogilvi, Serge Garcia and Jose Maria Olazabal say hi. That's just off the top of my head, I don't watch golf. JMO might've retired by now, and I know one of the best recently is a Swede, but dunno his name. So... yeah.

Unfortunately, golf isn't a sport.

[Lowerdeck]

No reason to bring back softball. America was kicking everyone's teeth in, and everyone else was fighting for silver.

I have no idea what rugby sevens is... but that or squash makes more sense than that. And perhaps baseball. I love baseball, but all you need to do is take a look at the World Baseball Classic to see that international baseball is (a) a joke and (b) only means shit to about 6 countries anyway.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

No reason to bring back softball. America was kicking everyone's teeth in, and everyone else was fighting for silver.

I have no idea what rugby sevens is... but that or squash makes more sense than that. And perhaps baseball. I love baseball, but all you need to do is take a look at the World Baseball Classic to see that international baseball is (a) a joke and (b) only means shit to about 6 countries anyway.

I have pretty good memories of the 2006 edition.

[Slogger]

No reason to bring back softball. America was kicking everyone's teeth in, and everyone else was fighting for silver.

I have no idea what rugby sevens is... but that or squash makes more sense than that. And perhaps baseball. I love baseball, but all you need to do is take a look at the World Baseball Classic to see that international baseball is (a) a joke and (b) only means shit to about 6 countries anyway.

7 a side Rugby. It's been in the Commonwealth games for awhile now, IIRC.

[Lowerdeck]

No reason to bring back softball. America was kicking everyone's teeth in, and everyone else was fighting for silver.

I have no idea what rugby sevens is... but that or squash makes more sense than that. And perhaps baseball. I love baseball, but all you need to do is take a look at the World Baseball Classic to see that international baseball is (a) a joke and (b) only means shit to about 6 countries anyway.

I have pretty good memories of the 2006 edition.

I'm not even talking about Canada beating the United States. That's whatever.

I'm talking about the fact that teams like the Italians are really just a bunch of third-generation Italian Americans who couldn't actually get a spot on Team USA. Or third generation some other nationality just to get a spot, even though they never been to the country they're playing for.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Squash should be back in - dunno why they took it out in the first place.

Golf is like tennis and should have no part of the Olympics for me.

Rugby Sevens and 20/20 Cricket would be cool though.

Is 20/20 being pitched as unofficial for the London Olympics?

[sahyder1]

I've read some mentions of Twenty20 for 2020. They dropped the ball on it being in 2012.

[Jayzon]

Baseball/softball, do they even play those games in countries other than USA, Cuba and Japan?

Yes they do. In (atleast) Finland of all the places. :S

I did not know this.

Thats gotta be hard, isn't their alot of wind and snow that would cancel alot of games. of course you could hold them inside.

Umm... It's not like it snows all year round in Finland... Just during the wintertime, from around November-December to March-April. And apart from this year, the last few winters have been pretty much snowless.

In the summer we can have up to 25-30 degrees Celsius, which is 77-86 degrees Fahrenheit, and the hottest we've ever had was 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit). So playing baseball would in the summer wouldn't be that difficult.

[I Love Pokemon]

Baseball/softball, do they even play those games in countries other than USA, Cuba and Japan?

Yes they do. In (atleast) Finland of all the places. :S

I did not know this.

Thats gotta be hard, isn't their alot of wind and snow that would cancel alot of games. of course you could hold them inside.

Umm... It's not like it snows all year round in Finland... Just during the wintertime, from around November-December to March-April. And apart from this year, the last few winters have been pretty much snowless.

In the summer we can have up to 25-30 degrees Celsius, which is 77-86 degrees Fahrenheit, and the hottest we've ever had was 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit). So playing baseball would in the summer wouldn't be that difficult.

oh... well i have a few family members in Finland, and they always tell me how cold it is, i can't rember the town they stay in but it's way north it's in lapland, i've personally even though my whole family is 100% Finnish (even my Wife) have never been to Finland. i do plan on going though, so thats good to know.

[DFF]

For those that say golf isn't a sport, the IOC dictates what actually can be called a sport and they recognise Orienteering, Tug of War, Chess and Life Saving as sports. Thus, I'm pretty sure we can assume Golf is a sport.

Anywho, Karate makes the most sense as Taekwondo and Judo are already in. As for the others, I'd say Squash makes the most sense, but that I'd personally prefer Rugby Sevens just out of what I'd more likely watch.

But yeah, 20/20 should have been in consideration. But it could still be our exhibition event (I haven't heard it announced yet, so it's possible), though I heard that Snooker was being considered to be put forward.

[Farmer Reil]

Orienteering is a sport? Bwahahahaha, awesome.

[Marcos]

Golf has a fat chance of making it in, as I don't see anyone outside of England and America winning a medal (well you got Vijay and Ernie but fuck those guys) and I hate sports without parody

If you are looking for a sport which would have the biggest international catchment for the Olympic Games then Golf would probably be the best choice. I agree that it shouldn't be in the Olympic Games because like some of the other "international" sports being participated at the games the competitors would probably take it as just another week rather than something bigger. Golfers would rather win The Open or The Masters, Tennis players Wimbledon or US Open, which is why they shouldn't be allowed in as the Olympics should be the biggest achievement for that sport.

But to say that no-one outside England or America would win is just ridiculous, with Garcia (Spain), Ogilvy (Aus), Harrington (Ireland), Singh (Fiji), Stenson (Sweden), Karlsson (Sweden) and Villegas (Colombia) all outside of England and America and all being inside the top ten golfers in the world just now. Continuing on, you have Mike Weir (Canada), KJ Choi (South Korea), Martin Kaymer (German), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain), Trevor Immelman/Tim Clark (South Africa), Anders Romero (Argentina), Jeev Singh (India) and Prayad Marksaeng (Thailand), who have also won on the tours recently.

Seriously, if you want a true international sport the golf is the only one that comes remotely close to football. If you want to make a claim for Golf being allowed in then you could say that it does bring players from all over the world, which is what the Olympics should be about. But I'm against it for reasons I've already said.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

If you are looking for a sport which would have the biggest international catchment for the Olympic Games then Golf would probably be the best choice. I agree that it shouldn't be in the Olympic Games because like some of the other "international" sports being participated at the games the competitors would probably take it as just another week rather than something bigger. Golfers would rather win The Open or The Masters, Tennis players Wimbledon or US Open, which is why they shouldn't be allowed in as the Olympics should be the biggest achievement for that sport.

Counter-example, ice hockey players consider an Olympic gold bigger than a Stanley Cup. Maybe that's because it's still relatively new and thus somewhat of a novelty, but there are some professional big-sport athletes who would rather win gold than anything else.

[Marcos]

If you are looking for a sport which would have the biggest international catchment for the Olympic Games then Golf would probably be the best choice. I agree that it shouldn't be in the Olympic Games because like some of the other "international" sports being participated at the games the competitors would probably take it as just another week rather than something bigger. Golfers would rather win The Open or The Masters, Tennis players Wimbledon or US Open, which is why they shouldn't be allowed in as the Olympics should be the biggest achievement for that sport.

Counter-example, ice hockey players consider an Olympic gold bigger than a Stanley Cup. Maybe that's because it's still relatively new and thus somewhat of a novelty, but there are some professional big-sport athletes who would rather win gold than anything else.

I'm not up on my Ice Hockey, but isn't the Stanley Cup just a trophy for North America and is played in a knock-out format, basically just like the FA Cup in English football? The Stanley Cup is not international and as such the only time you will be playing against teams from different countries is in the Olympics? Or do you have a World Cup or something similar? Footballers would rather win the World Cup, Tennis and Golfers a Major, Baseball the World Series, Rugby the Webb Ellis Cup, than win a gold medal, or 90% of them would.

The difference also between your example of Ice Hockey and mine of Golf and Tennis, is that mine are played in all continents of the world, while I think Ice Hockey is just North America and some of Europe. That's maybe why they would rather win a gold medal as they don't have a big tournament or something with more prestige to play for.

[Liam]

Ice Hockey has World Championships, like most other sports. But I guess there is something about the Olympics, and winning an Olympic gold, which would make it feel more important than winning just the World championships.

Then again, I don't play the game, so I don't know if that how someone playing would feel.