New Sports at Brisbane 2032

[Sir Rols]

Just came across this. It actually makes a lot of sense (at least in Australian terms). More so than Australians Rules Football

Lifesaving eyeing Olympic debut in Brisbane 2032

[Citius Altius Fortius]

Coastal rowing is planned to be part of Los Angeles 2028, which can be seen ais a kind of life-saving sport...

It really looks like that the next step is that Coastal rowing is switched from "Rowing sport" to a new created "Lifesaving sport" in 2032. 

[Sir Rols]

On 1/19/2024 at 7:39 PM, Citius Altius Fortius said:

Coastal rowing is planned to be part of Los Angeles 2028, which can be seen ais a kind of life-saving sport...

It really looks like that the next step is that Coastal rowing is switched from "Rowing sport" to a new created "Lifesaving sport" in 2032. 

It looks like the push is on…

Life Savings federations eye Olympic debut at Brisbane 2032

[TorchbearerSydney]

Life saving is ridiculous- how many countries participate in this sport? How many countries have a beach culture- many have no coastline?

And Brisbane 2032 is in mid-Winter - the sea and beach front will be cold and uninviting ( I was there last July and it was just horrible on the beach).

[yoshi]

Well I'm from a country that has quite a lot of coastline, as well as having a tendency to make a sport out of basically anything. And I've never heard of lifesaving as a sport. I'm guessing Australia wants some guaranteed gold medals 

[Sir Rols]

1 hour ago, TorchbearerSydney said:

Life saving is ridiculous- how many countries participate in this sport? How many countries have a beach culture- many have no coastline?

And Brisbane 2032 is in mid-Winter - the sea and beach front will be cold and uninviting ( I was there last July and it was just horrible on the beach).

How many countries regularly participate in Flag Football? How many are competitive in Surfing (which will also be in the cold and uninviting Brisbane July beach front)? The Olympic roster is full of sports which are dominated by, or popular in, just handful of countries. And it would be an elective sport for Brisbane - no reason to think it would become a regular addition any more than to expect Flag Football to feature again post 2028. I think it makes a good case for being stated in 2032, moreso than the suggestions I’ve seen for Aussie Rules football. Those optional additional sports SHOULD be used to help give a games a local flavour.

And, actually, looking at the International Life Saving Federation site, looks like they move than meet the universality criteria:

ILSF.org

1 hour ago, yoshi said:

Well I'm from a country that has quite a lot of coastline, as well as having a tendency to make a sport out of basically anything. And I've never heard of lifesaving as a sport. I'm guessing Australia wants some guaranteed gold medals 

Actually, according to Wikipedia, you Brits do practice it

Surf Live Saving

Edited April 21, 2024 by Sir Rols

[FYI]

Cricket comes quickly to mind. No one in the U.S. really follows it (only a handful of countries seriously do), & yet it’s on the Olympic roster for the L.A. 2028 Games.  

[TorchbearerSydney]

Flag Football and Cricket are stupid too....not a fan of sports turning up and disappearing again....

[Rob2012]

11 hours ago, FYI said:

No one in the U.S. really follows it

Right, and how many current Olympic sports can you say exactly the same thing about? The majority, I would guess.

[FYI]

Yeah, sure. But what does Cricket have to do with "to help give a Games a local flavor" in L.A.'s 2028 case, though? There's nothing 'local flavor' about Cricket in the U.S. or even California nor L.A. for that matter. The last time Cricket was on the Olympic roster was way back in Paris in 1900 (& the irony that Paris gets to miss out on it this time). 

And for all the talk that goes on, that the Olympics are just getting too big & too expensive for their own good, & yet all these niche sports keep getting added to the Olympic program. Even since the last time that L.A. hosted in 1984, the Olympic roster has been jacked-up with so many more events. It's really an oxymoron to the 'sustainability' of the Games, especially with the team niche sports.

[yoshi]

I certainly wouldn't have cricket in there, & I say that as a big cricket fan. I must admit think that age old idea that the Olympic gold should be the pinnacle of the sport is probably still the best guide - so yes to rugby sevens & the urban sports, no to cricket or golf. Football doesn't really fit either, especially as the Women's World Cup has finally achieved the status it deserves. I'd make an exception for tennis, because the Olympics has become a sort of fifth Grand Slam & there are major players like Nadal & Murray delaying retirement to play it - so it clearly does matter in the sport. I'd also want universality to apply to countries who have a chance at winning, not just practice it. Isn't flag football just guaranteed US gold before you start?

[FYI]

Talk about another (elitist) "sport" that was absent from the Olympic program for more than a century, that definitely should've never been brought back, is golf. They have plenty of championship games of their own anyway, so they definitely don't need to be in the Olympics. Even golf itself doesn't really know if they belong there. And talk about the wasteful construction of the new venue, of all places, in Rio 2016 when it made it's return. Tennis is another one with their own mega events for the game, so I'd still say that's another one that probably doesn't belong.

And soccer, while it's been in almost every Summer Olympics (except two of them 1896 & 1932), also has their own World Cup. So why does it also need to be in the Olympics as mainly an afterthought really for most who watch the Olympics TBW. And since soccer is so venue intense, it would take the burden off of many host cities/countries if it wasn't there. I know some of the arguments for it staying in would be "but it would be a great way to engage the rest of the host country in the Games", but when the marquee events of the Olympics take center stage anyway, the main focus is not on soccer. And for 2028, it'd mark the first time in the U.S. that Olympic soccer is not spread across the country like it was in '84 & '96, since all the 2028 Olympic soccer venues will all be within California, so there goes that theory anyway.

And as far as flag football is concerned, it's still not as popular here as tackle football. So IDK about 'guaranteed' gold medals in that category come 2028. But all this recent inclusion, especially of the team sports, is so contradictory of trying to cap athlete participation to 10,500, as Coates has recently said he wants to do for Brisbane 2032 (although, in there case it makes a lot of sense). But how can you do that when you just keep making the Olympic program that much bigger just for the sake of "inclusivity". Other things that need to go are skateboarding, mountain climbing & BMX biking (although for L.A. 2028, that makes a little more sense, since it's actually popular there).

[Sir Rols]

I’m not particularly a cricket fan, but I don’t have a problem with it in the games (beyond the fact I think team sports make balancing the competitor numbers that bit more problematic). I think it passes the internationality test, probably more so than baseball (baseball’s sorta the flip side of cricket, covering those regions - the Americas and East Asia - where cricket - Australasia, South Asia, Southern Africa, north west Europe - doesn’t hold sway).

Flag Football’s, of course, a novelty and the type of thing that would have been a medal-less “demonstration sport” in the old days. But again, I’m not opposed to the IOC’s new policy of optional sports - I quite like it - and tailoring some of those to the hosts.

It’s hard to pinpoint any sport that’s truly universal in terms of chances. Table Tennis is widely practiced, but in reality it’s China’s medal domain mostly. Badminton tends to be the south-East Asian’s big passion and medal chance (I remember how eye-opening in, Beijing I think it was, how passionately the south-east Asian members on GamesBids were following it). Would we ditch middle and long distance athletic events because you basically need to be an east-African or Moroccan to medal? I remember an argument with a Chinese member here way back, who argued swimming was unfair because it boosted western countries’ medals.

[Sir Rols]

7 minutes ago, FYI said:

Other things that need to go are skateboarding, mountain climbing & BMX biking

See, I’m actually quite enthusiastic with those - they’ve become some of my favourite events of the games. Love ‘em.
 

[yoshi]

I was more talking about how optional sports are decided than what's already in the core - although obviously tbf it does make sense to tailor them to what the host has. It's just that optional team sports do whack up the size of the job very quickly. Maybe that concept of the demonstration sport is due a comeback? Also yeah the urban sports like skateboarding, BMX, climbing absolutely belong - it's their pinnacle, they're universal, and popular - plus the athletes seem to uphold the Olympic spirit better than many of the more traditional sports. With full crowds on the Place de la Concorde, I'm certain they'll be among the absolute highlights of Paris

[FYI]

Meh, they seem to be more of a punk-ish past time, than being about the trained & disciplined athlete like a gymnast, swimmer, diver or T&F athlete that the Olympics should be about. 

[FYI]

Plus, all those "sports" have their own championship games anyway, like the X-games, or what-have-you.

[FYI]

18 minutes ago, Sir Rols said:

I’m not particularly a cricket fan, but I don’t have a problem with it in the games (beyond the fact I think team sports make balancing the competitor numbers that bit more problematic). I think it passes the internationality test, probably more so than baseball (baseball’s sorta the flip side of cricket, covering those regions - the Americas and East Asia - where cricket - Australasia, South Asia, Southern Africa, north west Europe - doesn’t hold sway).

Flag Football’s, of course, a novelty and the type of thing that would have been a medal-less “demonstration sport” in the old days. But again, I’m not opposed to the IOC’s new policy of optional sports - I quite like it - and tailoring some of those to the hosts.

And that's fine, but I'm not arguing that. Cricket, though, didn't need to be in L.A.'28. We already have softball/baseball on the 2028 roster (it really should've been re-introduced in Brisbane 2032, that would've been much more appropriate). So why the need to pack on even more onto the L.A. 2028 plate?

At one point, before that final decision was made, it was widely assumed that baseball/softball was going to get the axe in favor of Cricket. So how would've that been tailoring to the local host? So instead, they included all bat-&-ball games, thereby leaving L.A. 2028 to come up with yet another large venue for another (added) team sport.

[Sir Rols]

I think the Olympics absolutely need the street/park sports. It’s one thing I do agree with the IOC about, the need to keep up with emerging sports passion’s and interests. Appeal to the next generations. And they’re f*cking great to watch. I love the BMX format and races - a must watch for me now. And the medals to seem to be more universal than most - France, Latvia, Colombia etc. and the athleticism and daring in skateboarding is thrilling.

I guess at the end of the day, we all have our particular tastes and favourites. I love the equestrian events, for example, but I can see the challenge for those in future in terms of expense and elitism, not to mention the growing vegan/animal rights sentiment. I’ve got no interest in boxing, but I know it’s highly popular and accessible (in fact, thinking of true internationalism, boxing might just be the one truly universal and evenly chanced sport - if it can get it’s governance ever properly sorted).

[Sir Rols]

3 minutes ago, FYI said:

So why the need to pack on even more onto the L.A. 2028 plate?

At one point, before that final decision was made, it was widely assumed that baseball/softball was going to get the axe in favor of Cricket. So how would've that been tailoring to the local host?

That’s also a lot LA’s call. I agree, cricket was foisted on them, but it was LA who stuck by their guns that they’d still insist of including their choices - flag football and baseball/softball - as well. 

[FYI]

I can concede to the BMX biking (since you do need a lot of energy, strength & endurance to keep up with it), & as I said earlier, it even makes sense for L.A. 2028, but the skateboarding I just can't. It seems more of a nuisance than a "sport".

Equestrian I'm on the fence about since I do enjoy watching that (but I don't like horse racing). But agree, the expense has got to be staggering, especially nowadays. Plus, after that incident in Tokyo 202One, yes, that also starts to become a concern. Boxing I guess I can take or leave. It's never big on my Olympic watching list.

[FYI]

6 minutes ago, Sir Rols said:

That’s also a lot LA’s call. I agree, cricket was foisted on them, but it was LA who stuck by their guns that they’d still insist of including their choices - flag football and baseball/softball - as well. 

Yeah, but what about if they couldn't have included it all? And that's what I'm getting at. So "Sun King" would've twisted their arm to drop a sport in favor of one of his choosing instead (in order to appease a certain other country)? That would certainly in-effect cancel out any local flavor of the Games in favor of another kind of flavor.

[Sir Rols]

3 minutes ago, FYI said:

but the skateboarding I just can't. It seems more of a nuisance than a "sport".

Maybe it’s an American thing, I don’t think skateboarding here has the same negative connotations - delinquent youth etc - that it seems to have to Americans on social media. Councils setting up skate parks are considered to be community assets here now.

[Sir Rols]

17 minutes ago, FYI said:

Yeah, but what about if they couldn't have included it all? And that's what I'm getting at. So "Sun King" would've twisted their arm to drop a sport in favor of one of his choosing instead (in order to appease a certain other country)? That would certainly in-effect cancel out any local flavor of the Games in favor of another kind of flavor.

I think it’s great and to it’s credit that LA has the ability to just take them all on with little effort. But I agree it’s so typical of the Bach regime hypocrisy. After years of being so fastidious on capping athlete numbers, to then just shrug it off as a guideline rather than a rule when it suits his ulterior purposes.

[Bear]

27 minutes ago, Sir Rols said:

Councils setting up skate parks are considered to be community assets here now.

pretty sure the same thing is happening here, at least on the west coast. i don't know what FYI is on about, that's not really the mentality most of us have these days haha