King_Kohli
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In recent times, the Olympics have become a vast, all-encompassing festival, featuring a multitude of disciplines from across the sporting spectrum.
It wasn't always this way, though.
At the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, there were just nine different sports: athletics, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, shooting, swimming, tennis, weightlifting and wrestling.
In Tokyo, there will be 33 different sports represented by 50 separate disciplines across 339 events.
That's an awful lot of sport to cram into 17 days of competition.
Why are there so many?
Well, in addition to the 28 "core" sports, there have been five additions to the Tokyo program to improve local interest: karate, sport climbing, surfing, skateboarding and baseball/softball.
Wrestling, which had been dropped from the core group of sports by the IOC in 2013, earned a reprieve later that year, meaning there were no sports dropped from the previous Games at all.
But should there be?
Whether you think there should be five different cycling disciplines, why surfing was included or are wondering what the point of 3x3 basketball is, there are some sports that could reasonably be culled, based on two clear definitions.
If the best players aren't interested (or actually denied from attending), or an Olympic gold is not the pinnacle of that sport, then it's hard to make an argument that those sports deserve their slot.
With that in mind, here's a look at the sports that probably shouldn't be at the Olympics.
Baseball/softball
First appearance at a Games — 1904 (Softball in 1996)
Number of appearances — Baseball: 6 (plus 7 more times as a demonstration sport), Softball: 4
At the recent All Star game in Colorado, Major League Baseball put out a tweet that said baseball is "a global game".
That was based on the fact that Japanese pitcher and all-round sensation Shohei Ohtani recorded the win, Canadian-Dominican first-baseman Vladimir Guerrero Junior was named MVP and Australia's own pitcher, Liam Hendricks, was credited with the save.
That certainly placates accusers who hold that baseball is just an American sport, but does further illustrate where the power truly lies, because none of those players will be appearing at the Olympics.
Why? The sporting behemoth that is the Major League Baseball season is into the final stretch of its marathon, 162-game campaign and could not even begin to countenance some of its biggest stars jetting off to Japan for a couple of weeks.
That's the crux of why baseball should be dropped — its biggest stars simply have other, far more lucrative, priorities.
There have been exceptions, Australian baseball legend Dave Nilsson opted not to sign for an MLB team after becoming a free agent in 1999, turning down huge money contracts so he could represent Australia at the Sydney Games, but his example is incredibly rare.
Which is a shame. How incredible would it be to have Ohtani, arguably the most talented pitcher/hitter since Babe Ruth, headlining the host nation's line-up?
Logistically baseball is a bit awkward too.
Baseball and softball need a very specific, specialised stadium to host matches that only a handful of countries would already have a venue suitable for, meaning it's another significant cost to the host nation and will often leave a glaring white elephant — just think of the Sydney Showground Stadium.
All this is moot though. Neither baseball or softball will return in Paris in 2024.
Football
First appearance at a Games: 1900 (Women's competition added in 1996)
Number of appearances: 26
Football? The global game? Surely that can't be removed from the Olympics, I hear you cry.
The men's version of the game has appeared in all but two Olympic Games; 1986 and 1932 and has long been considered a guaranteed money spinner, regularly filling stadiums.
However, football's relationship with the Olympics is complicated.
Early tournaments were contested by club sides.
The first Olympic champions? Upton Park FC, representing Great Britain, who beat France's representatives, Club Français, in their one and only game of the three-team tournament at the 1900 Games in Paris.
They were not awarded medals at the time, and their status as Olympic champions has only recently been retrospectively awarded by the IOC, although FIFA does not recognise them as champions.
Football had its brief pinnacle at the Games during the 1920s, the brief period before the first World Cup where it was acknowledged that teams were sending their best players to the Games.
As such, the winners of the 1924 and 1928 Olympics were considered world champions by FIFA (that's why Uruguay has four stars above its crest, despite only having won two official World Cups).
But the FIFA World Cup soon became the premier competition for international teams.
Since 1984, when the Olympics finally admitted defeat and allowed professionals to play, FIFA has imposed an age limit of 23 or younger for the Olympic tournament to maintain the exclusivity of the World Cup.
So, with so many of the world's best barred from playing, it's hard to argue that the Games feature players capable of being faster, higher or stronger than their World Cup-playing counterparts.
There is no such limit on women's football though, so there is absolutely a case for that to stay.
You could also make the case that either futsal or beach football would be valuable inclusions at future Games, but the 11-a-side men's comp should be ditched.
Golf
First appearance at a Games: 1900
Number of appearances: 3
Despite there being some key voices in favour, the majority of the PGA Tour's playing members do not appear to be fully in favour of golf's inclusion in the Games.
In 2016, golf's first appearance at the Games in 112 years, the three top players in the world, Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth, and a host of others opted not to travel to Rio.
Publicly, this was due to concerns about the Zika virus, but privately, the issue was more to do with scheduling.
Current world number two Johnson pulled out of Tokyo too, about two months ago, citing scheduling issues as his primary concern, with the Olympic tournament coming just two weeks after The Open.
In 2016, Rory McIlroy said he wouldn't even watch golf at the Olympics, instead choosing to watch "sports that matter" at the Games and that it was not his role to grow the sport, only to win majors. Ouch.
The Northern Irishman is competing this time around though, for the Republic of Ireland, saying "it is the right thing to do", but didn't sound that convinced after The Open, saying "I don't know if there is much to look forward to [in Tokyo]".
Justin Rose and Inbee Park claimed gold for Great Britain and South Korea respectively in Rio, and Rose has since said winning gold was a huge moment in his career.
But does he rate his Olympic gold medal as highly as his 2013 US Open win?
The reality is none of the players currently on the tour would have dreamed of being an Olympic medallist, they simply have a higher regard for the four golfing majors.
Golf officials desperately pushed for the sport's inclusion in the Games to access the government funding that comes with it.
Tennis
First appearance at a Games: 1896
Number of appearances: 15 (plus twice as an exhibition sport)
Like golf, tennis had a long absence from the Games, a 64-year gap between 1924 and its fully fledged return in 1988.
However, in the intervening 33 years, a generation of players have grown up seeing their idols win gold at the Games, as well as prevailing in grand slams.
Because, make no mistake, the top players do play in the Olympics, and a fair number have come away with gold medals.
Steffi Graff, Lindsay Davenport, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Andy Murray … all big names who have won singles gold at the Olympics.
Murray's first singles triumph in 2012, when he beat Roger Federer on Wimbledon's grass, arguably gave him the belief that he could go on to win a grand slam of his own after four finals defeats.
However, even though Agassi said in his book that the feeling of standing on the medal dais in Atlanta "exceeds all [his] expectations", is the Olympics the pinnacle for tennis players?
With the regrettable cannibalisation of the Davis Cup as a genuine prize that a tennis player can win for their nation, perhaps the Olympics could become the key event outside of the slam circuit.
But ask Novak Djokovic or Federer if they'd give up one of their 20 grand slam titles for an Olympic singles gold (Federer has a doubles gold he won in 2008, but no singles title) and it's unlikely they'd take you up on it.
Sports on notice
Based on our criteria, you can certainly make an argument that basketball and boxing should both be on this list — and even road cycling, which former pro David Millar described as "a footnote" in comparison to the Tour de France.
For boxing, the counter argument is that, at amateur level, it is quite different to the pro ranks, even if the decision to allow some inexperienced pros to qualify has muddied the waters somewhat.
That and the frankly alarming list of dodgy decisions and allegations of corruption, means boxing at the Olympics should be on perilously shaky ground.
For NBA fans, and a fair few players, a championship title is much more important than an Olympic medal, but for non-American players, a gold medal is huge.
Even if the Boomers and Opals are going to be without key players Ben Simmons and Liz Cambage respectively, they still boast a host of top talent who desperately want to succeed for their country.
And yet, basketball inexplicably has a second discipline at this Games, the 3x3.
If the top stars would still rather focus on the NBA than on their country, it might be time to phase out the full-sized sport and go basketball-lite from here on out.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-23/tokyo-olympic-games-sports-should-not-be-there/100294178
It wasn't always this way, though.
At the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, there were just nine different sports: athletics, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, shooting, swimming, tennis, weightlifting and wrestling.
In Tokyo, there will be 33 different sports represented by 50 separate disciplines across 339 events.
That's an awful lot of sport to cram into 17 days of competition.
Why are there so many?
Well, in addition to the 28 "core" sports, there have been five additions to the Tokyo program to improve local interest: karate, sport climbing, surfing, skateboarding and baseball/softball.
Wrestling, which had been dropped from the core group of sports by the IOC in 2013, earned a reprieve later that year, meaning there were no sports dropped from the previous Games at all.
But should there be?
Whether you think there should be five different cycling disciplines, why surfing was included or are wondering what the point of 3x3 basketball is, there are some sports that could reasonably be culled, based on two clear definitions.
If the best players aren't interested (or actually denied from attending), or an Olympic gold is not the pinnacle of that sport, then it's hard to make an argument that those sports deserve their slot.
With that in mind, here's a look at the sports that probably shouldn't be at the Olympics.
Baseball/softball
First appearance at a Games — 1904 (Softball in 1996)
Number of appearances — Baseball: 6 (plus 7 more times as a demonstration sport), Softball: 4
At the recent All Star game in Colorado, Major League Baseball put out a tweet that said baseball is "a global game".
That was based on the fact that Japanese pitcher and all-round sensation Shohei Ohtani recorded the win, Canadian-Dominican first-baseman Vladimir Guerrero Junior was named MVP and Australia's own pitcher, Liam Hendricks, was credited with the save.
That certainly placates accusers who hold that baseball is just an American sport, but does further illustrate where the power truly lies, because none of those players will be appearing at the Olympics.
Why? The sporting behemoth that is the Major League Baseball season is into the final stretch of its marathon, 162-game campaign and could not even begin to countenance some of its biggest stars jetting off to Japan for a couple of weeks.
That's the crux of why baseball should be dropped — its biggest stars simply have other, far more lucrative, priorities.
There have been exceptions, Australian baseball legend Dave Nilsson opted not to sign for an MLB team after becoming a free agent in 1999, turning down huge money contracts so he could represent Australia at the Sydney Games, but his example is incredibly rare.
Which is a shame. How incredible would it be to have Ohtani, arguably the most talented pitcher/hitter since Babe Ruth, headlining the host nation's line-up?
Logistically baseball is a bit awkward too.
Baseball and softball need a very specific, specialised stadium to host matches that only a handful of countries would already have a venue suitable for, meaning it's another significant cost to the host nation and will often leave a glaring white elephant — just think of the Sydney Showground Stadium.
All this is moot though. Neither baseball or softball will return in Paris in 2024.
Football
First appearance at a Games: 1900 (Women's competition added in 1996)
Number of appearances: 26
Football? The global game? Surely that can't be removed from the Olympics, I hear you cry.
The men's version of the game has appeared in all but two Olympic Games; 1986 and 1932 and has long been considered a guaranteed money spinner, regularly filling stadiums.
However, football's relationship with the Olympics is complicated.
Early tournaments were contested by club sides.
The first Olympic champions? Upton Park FC, representing Great Britain, who beat France's representatives, Club Français, in their one and only game of the three-team tournament at the 1900 Games in Paris.
They were not awarded medals at the time, and their status as Olympic champions has only recently been retrospectively awarded by the IOC, although FIFA does not recognise them as champions.
Football had its brief pinnacle at the Games during the 1920s, the brief period before the first World Cup where it was acknowledged that teams were sending their best players to the Games.
As such, the winners of the 1924 and 1928 Olympics were considered world champions by FIFA (that's why Uruguay has four stars above its crest, despite only having won two official World Cups).
But the FIFA World Cup soon became the premier competition for international teams.
Since 1984, when the Olympics finally admitted defeat and allowed professionals to play, FIFA has imposed an age limit of 23 or younger for the Olympic tournament to maintain the exclusivity of the World Cup.
So, with so many of the world's best barred from playing, it's hard to argue that the Games feature players capable of being faster, higher or stronger than their World Cup-playing counterparts.
There is no such limit on women's football though, so there is absolutely a case for that to stay.
You could also make the case that either futsal or beach football would be valuable inclusions at future Games, but the 11-a-side men's comp should be ditched.
Golf
First appearance at a Games: 1900
Number of appearances: 3
Despite there being some key voices in favour, the majority of the PGA Tour's playing members do not appear to be fully in favour of golf's inclusion in the Games.
In 2016, golf's first appearance at the Games in 112 years, the three top players in the world, Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth, and a host of others opted not to travel to Rio.
Publicly, this was due to concerns about the Zika virus, but privately, the issue was more to do with scheduling.
Current world number two Johnson pulled out of Tokyo too, about two months ago, citing scheduling issues as his primary concern, with the Olympic tournament coming just two weeks after The Open.
In 2016, Rory McIlroy said he wouldn't even watch golf at the Olympics, instead choosing to watch "sports that matter" at the Games and that it was not his role to grow the sport, only to win majors. Ouch.
The Northern Irishman is competing this time around though, for the Republic of Ireland, saying "it is the right thing to do", but didn't sound that convinced after The Open, saying "I don't know if there is much to look forward to [in Tokyo]".
Justin Rose and Inbee Park claimed gold for Great Britain and South Korea respectively in Rio, and Rose has since said winning gold was a huge moment in his career.
But does he rate his Olympic gold medal as highly as his 2013 US Open win?
The reality is none of the players currently on the tour would have dreamed of being an Olympic medallist, they simply have a higher regard for the four golfing majors.
Golf officials desperately pushed for the sport's inclusion in the Games to access the government funding that comes with it.
Tennis
First appearance at a Games: 1896
Number of appearances: 15 (plus twice as an exhibition sport)
Like golf, tennis had a long absence from the Games, a 64-year gap between 1924 and its fully fledged return in 1988.
However, in the intervening 33 years, a generation of players have grown up seeing their idols win gold at the Games, as well as prevailing in grand slams.
Because, make no mistake, the top players do play in the Olympics, and a fair number have come away with gold medals.
Steffi Graff, Lindsay Davenport, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Andy Murray … all big names who have won singles gold at the Olympics.
Murray's first singles triumph in 2012, when he beat Roger Federer on Wimbledon's grass, arguably gave him the belief that he could go on to win a grand slam of his own after four finals defeats.
However, even though Agassi said in his book that the feeling of standing on the medal dais in Atlanta "exceeds all [his] expectations", is the Olympics the pinnacle for tennis players?
With the regrettable cannibalisation of the Davis Cup as a genuine prize that a tennis player can win for their nation, perhaps the Olympics could become the key event outside of the slam circuit.
But ask Novak Djokovic or Federer if they'd give up one of their 20 grand slam titles for an Olympic singles gold (Federer has a doubles gold he won in 2008, but no singles title) and it's unlikely they'd take you up on it.
Sports on notice
Based on our criteria, you can certainly make an argument that basketball and boxing should both be on this list — and even road cycling, which former pro David Millar described as "a footnote" in comparison to the Tour de France.
For boxing, the counter argument is that, at amateur level, it is quite different to the pro ranks, even if the decision to allow some inexperienced pros to qualify has muddied the waters somewhat.
That and the frankly alarming list of dodgy decisions and allegations of corruption, means boxing at the Olympics should be on perilously shaky ground.
For NBA fans, and a fair few players, a championship title is much more important than an Olympic medal, but for non-American players, a gold medal is huge.
Even if the Boomers and Opals are going to be without key players Ben Simmons and Liz Cambage respectively, they still boast a host of top talent who desperately want to succeed for their country.
And yet, basketball inexplicably has a second discipline at this Games, the 3x3.
If the top stars would still rather focus on the NBA than on their country, it might be time to phase out the full-sized sport and go basketball-lite from here on out.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-23/tokyo-olympic-games-sports-should-not-be-there/100294178
