Sports that should be removed of the Summer Olympic program.

[Sir Rols]

Think everyone has there own opinions.

I like all the events but the one i think that should go is Equestrian it is so boring!

You just proved you point. I love equestrian. In fact, I'm about to go out an see if I can score a spare ticket from the crowds heading to to the jumping now!

[micheal_warren]

You just proved you point. I love equestrian. In fact, I'm about to go out an see if I can score a spare ticket from the crowds heading to to the jumping now!

I agree equestrian is great to watch... The three day event is a highlight for me.

[Faster]

Lacrosse would be a fight between Canada, Australia, USA and England.

I just think that they need to even up the genders and that should include adding more events, not addition by subtraction. Though wouldn't mind seeing greco-roman out in favour of evening up freestyle.

[intoronto]

Lacrosse would be a fight between Canada, Australia, USA and England.

I just think that they need to even up the genders and that should include adding more events, not addition by subtraction. Though wouldn't mind seeing greco-roman out in favour of evening up freestyle.

No chance for Lacrosse. And the greco Roman idea is a good one.

[Lord David]

Lacrosse would be pointless to host, even if you can argue a shared venue for that sport.

You'd be having pointless Olympic Qualifiers worldwide, which cost money to host, having no name teams qualify, only to see the top 4 as you note fighting for the medals. increase public awareness, perhaps have it as a demonstration sport in a future Toronto or Canadian Summer Olympics, then we'll see.

That being said, if Lacrosse is possible, then why not Bandy for Winter Olympics? All that sport needs is an existing soccer sized stadium, with temporary ice on the field.

[intoronto]

Any syncrho is a joke unlike curling. Curling barring Canadian dominance you do see Canada losing and other countries winning. For syncrho the judges have their favourites and the medals are predictable.

[intoronto]

Lacrosse would be pointless to host, even if you can argue a shared venue for that sport.

You'd be having pointless Olympic Qualifiers worldwide, which cost money to host, having no name teams qualify, only to see the top 4 as you note fighting for the medals. increase public awareness, perhaps have it as a demonstration sport in a future Toronto or Canadian Summer Olympics, then we'll see.

That being said, if Lacrosse is possible, then why not Bandy for Winter Olympics? All that sport needs is an existing soccer sized stadium, with temporary ice on the field.

Lacrosse I doubt it at least for the next few cycles. It is a fun sport no doubt about it better then field hockey or handball (they are actually very similar). Hasn't the IOC phased out demonstration sports? As for bandy interesting idea, but I think the hockey federation wouldn't be thrilled to have a sport similar to it on the program. Bandy also suffers from a few competitive teams and a very minor women's program.

[Juso]

Were the baseball and softball stadiums used at past Games permanent structures? Athens' obviously was, but how about Sydney's and Beijing's?

Really, after London, you can argue that most, if not all, venues at the Games on the current program could be temporary or mostly temporary. So the likelihood of the venue becoming a white elephant shouldn't be THAT big of a reason from removing a sport in the future.

Hi NY,

The permanent baseball stadium for sydney was cleverly planned from the beginning and included an arena dirt track as the area of olympic in which it sat was part of the new sydney show ground (the show ground hosts Sydney's Annual royal easter show - A country/livestock show similar to the calgary stampede). Thus this dual legacy use was built in from the very beginning.

Before the olympics there were some Australian Baseball Leagues games held in the venue before the league was disbanded so the stadium was used for rugby and football events in a somewhat odd configuration. Interestingly just this year the stadium has been renovated and expanded host cricket and AFL matches and overall looks to have a successful post games story.

Games Mode:

Reconfigured:

The Softball venue was also permanent but was built in Blacktown Olympic Park in suburban sydney was built with a small permanent stand and used temporary stands in games time. These venues continue to serve sydney's limited softball and baseball needs.

[tikus_kecil]

this kind of topic just show you how egoistic you are how could you ask to drop some sports, where this sport is the only medals hope for another country ?my country is one of the country that's very dependent to badminton -and now we try to focus on weightlifting and archery- but the idea to drop some sport because the dominance of 1 country is very very egoistic

[intoronto]

this kind of topic just show you how egoistic you are how could you ask to drop some sports, where this sport is the only medals hope for another country ?my country is one of the country that's very dependent to badminton -and now we try to focus on weightlifting and archery- but the idea to drop some sport because the dominance of 1 country is very very egoistic

Sure let China win all the golds that is unfair. You need to have a mix. I suggested Syncro and trampoline two events Canadians are always threats at.

[baron-pierreIV]

And what about them fence designers? What would they do?

EXACTLY!! Luv your comment, LD!! Those gates are AMONG the most whimsical elements of any Olympics. As a matter of fact, we should START a whole new thread on them!!

That's like arguing Curling being a sport when it's essentially brooms on ice.

How 'bout a more senior version of Curling? Zombonis instead of brooms!! A Zomboni mash-up!!

[PyroKinesis]

Not gonna happen. Very limited appeal. I mean, how many int'l teams can be fielded? How many athletes & support staff per team, 50? W/ 12 teams that's ANOTHER 600 bodies for the Village. No female component. NOT going to happen.

Which is why it would do better in the Winter Olympics, which clearly needs a boost in the athletes department.

[intoronto]

Which is why it would do better in the Winter Olympics, which clearly needs a boost in the athletes department.

Winter Olympics? American football is boring and will never be on the Olympic program.

[PyroKinesis]

Winter Olympics? American football is boring and will never be on the Olympic program.

Just like the Winter Olympics.

I kid, of course. Goodell is a fool. I would like to see an NFL team in London though, but that is neither here nor there.

[intoronto]

Just like the Winter Olympics.

I kid, of course. Goodell is a fool. I would like to see an NFL team in London though, but that is neither here nor there.

I doubt an NFL team is sustainable in London.

[Lord David]

Lacrosse I doubt it at least for the next few cycles. It is a fun sport no doubt about it better then field hockey or handball (they are actually very similar). Hasn't the IOC phased out demonstration sports? As for bandy interesting idea, but I think the hockey federation wouldn't be thrilled to have a sport similar to it on the program. Bandy also suffers from a few competitive teams and a very minor women's program.

Shock! Better not tell them about Field Hockey then! I'm sure they wouldn't mind, as events for Bandy would probably not conflict with the Ice Hockey schedule and have a smaller amount of competing qualified teams anyways.

Hey if the Summer Olympics can have sports held simultaneously which are similar in nature, surely the Winter Olympics (which needs a boost in athletes) could do so.

[intoronto]

Shock! Better not tell them about Field Hockey then! I'm sure they wouldn't mind, as events for Bandy would probably not conflict with the Ice Hockey schedule and have a smaller amount of competing qualified teams anyways.

Hey if the Summer Olympics can have sports held simultaneously which are similar in nature, surely the Winter Olympics (which needs a boost in athletes) could do so.

I think the IOC is trying to cap the athletes for both.

Why not add dual moguls, the skills event in hockey, mass start in speed skating, the 3000m in short track, mixed doubles curling, combined skeleton/bobsleigh event, big air in snowboarding, alpine skiing team event.

That is 12 more events = 110 events.

[Olympic Fan Darcy]

You just proved you point. I love equestrian. In fact, I'm about to go out an see if I can score a spare ticket from the crowds heading to to the jumping now!

Yeah but i'm not calling for it to be cut from the games. Lots of people hate and like it

[intoronto]

Yeah but i'm not calling for it to be cut from the games. Lots of people hate and like it

Dressage should go. Its so boring. Jumping is exciting IMO. Eventing is too long lol.

[Olympic Fan Darcy]

Yeah dressage is crap

[Triffle]

The only "sport" I can see absolutely no justification for its inclusion is Modern Pentathlon and the faster it is removed, the better.

There is one sport that I personally regard as definitely an Olympic sport that is unfortunately not on the Olympic programme yet and that is Squash. So unquestionably I'd remove Modern Pentathlon for Squash.

I also think the Cycling programme urgently needs to be addressed. I can't see the point of including BMX. Its inclusion means that the host city needs to construct a velodrome, BMX course, mountain biking course and temporarily portion off areas of the city for the road events all for one sport. So I would remove BMX and replace it with additional events for mountain biking (i.e a team event- relay?) to make better use of the venue. The Track Cycling programme should also be reformed: remove Omnium (pointless) and Team Sprint (too many similar events) and re-introduce Time Trials, Points Race and Individual Pursuit.

Greco-Roman Wrestling should be ditched and women's component of Freestyle increased.

Gender equalise Rowing and Canoeing.

IF another sport was to be included, I think Cricket (Twenty20 form) has the most compelling claim for the future IF it can gain the support of all national boards (specifically India). Of all the other sports vying for inclusion, none of them are going to bring a huge new following to the Olympics. Yes Baseball/Softball is especially popular in North America and Japan, but these are countries which are already successful and where the Olympics are already very popular. Cricket however can pull 1.5 billion people into the Olympic sphere. 1.5 BILLION! The Indian subcontinent has been notoriously unsuccessful at the Olympic Games and surely that is partly because of the region's almost total interest in just one sport; Cricket. Without Cricket, the IOC can never hope for the Games to be as popular in India as it is throughout the globe. With Cricket, you suddenly gain an audience of over a billion. Cricket would be an expensive sport to host but surely the costs would be outweighed by accumulative interest the Olympics would have gained through Cricket's inclusion? Cricket's popularity is also geographically spread across the globe, there exists strong women's international competition and the sport would provide medal chances for countries which haven't traditionally been strong at the Games (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Jamaica, Barbados etc). Baseball/Softball, conversely, would be medal opportunities only for the Olympic powers (USA, Cuba, Canada, Japan, Korea, China, Australia).

[Kenadian]

Golf should be dropped before it is included.

[Lord David]

I think the IOC is trying to cap the athletes for both.

Why not add dual moguls, the skills event in hockey, mass start in speed skating, the 3000m in short track, mixed doubles curling, combined skeleton/bobsleigh event, big air in snowboarding, alpine skiing team event.

That is 12 more events = 110 events.

Sliding combined? I like it. You have a 1 man sled, 1 man luge then finish with 1 man skeleton.

[ht00272]

Sports that should be dropped:

-Golf

-Cycling BMX

-Modern pentathlon: Especially after the newly combined running-shooting event.

-Football: no interest for a U23 competition. could be replaced by Futsal or beach-soccer

my opinion for program change is some Sports:

-Table Tennis: remove the team competition and bring back the doubles. There is no interest for team competition. It has been added dimply to avoid China to win Gold-Silver or Gold-Bronze.

-Equestrian: remove dressage (already included in Eventing) and remove team competitions for the other events, which is not really a team competition, but the addition od indivdual results.

-Shooting: try to have same number of events for men and women

-Weightlifting: change the quota system, unfair for the dominant nations. Due to the quota system, there is not a real competition for medal.

-Track cycling: Re-add the individual pursuit

-Tennis: remove the mixed double, there is no interest for this event. In addition, qualified pairs were decided during the Games.

-Fencing: why there are only 4 team events? I think the remaining 25 teams events could be added without any problem

Sports that could be added:

Maybe some more specific continental sports

Cue sports: no need to have expensive venues

Dragonboat: can reuse rowing and canoeing venues

In addition, people who say that badminton should be dropped because of dominance of Asian team surely did not watch the final between Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei. It was a great moment of the Games.

BMX is dominated by European and American athletes, and there is no interest shown in Asia (except Japan) for this event.

In addition, Handball is dominated by European nations only, and except from Europe, almost nobody knows this sport.

So, dominance by a nation or a continent should not be a valid criteria.

[Athan]

I'd like to see roller sports, karate or squash included in the programme, but right now there's only one sport I'd drop, modern pentathlon. I find it a random mixture of other sports. We could pick any other 5 sports and it could still work the same way. It's kind of strange...

I also agree with those who say badminton should not be dropped. I remember many of us supported rugby to be in the programme because, among other things, it would help nations like Fiji or Tonga that don't usually win many medals to have some more chances at the Olympics. Well, badminton is more or less the same. Thanks to badminton, countries like Malaysia or Indonesia have real chances of winning some medals.

And then, I think football should be changed. Men's tournament is a disaster. I'd reduce the number of teams from 16 to 12, but most importantly, the world's best players should be able to take part. If FIFA doesn't want the Olympics to overshadow their World Cups, perhaps they may want to consider replacing football by beach football or futsal.