What’s Up With That?

I was home for a couple days in between some trips and caught the opening ceremonies. What has happened to the Olympics?

Athletes took a back seat to queens and rock stars… sigh.

So I was looking for the Track and Field schedule on the official 2012 Olympic Website, but it is not listed as a sport. If you look at the 2012 Schedule and Results page, you will find a sport named “Athletics.” If you click on Athletics, you will find that that sport is Track and Field. So Track and Field is athletics. But are swimmers not athletes? That sport is listed under Swimming.

I would consider swimmers athletes, although it is not listed under Athletics. I wonder about these; are these participants athletes?

• Badminton
• Cycling – hmm… would a lesser athlete win if his bike is better than the rest of the field?
• Equestrian – who is the athlete? The horse or the rider?
• Shooting
• Synchronized Swimming – WTF?
• Table Tennis

The first Olympics had one event, the Stadia, which was a foot race of about 200 yards. Of course this was a few thousand years ago.

The first modern Olympics were held in 1896 and had 9 sports with 43 events. The 2012 Olympics feature 26 sports and 302 events. Have we become more athletic or is there money to be made? Oh, I am not accusing the IOC of commercialization! Let’s keep adding sports so more people can win medals, the venue can be longer, and we can watch more commercials.

Some sports we should add might include:

• Auto racing
• Billiards and pool
• Bowling
• Bridge
• Checkers
• Chess
• Dodge ball
• Duck, duck, goose
• Four  square
• Hide-and-seek
• Hopscotch
• Jacks
• Jig-saw puzzles
• Jump rope
• Lifesaving
• Marbles
• Mother May I?
• Musical chairs
• Pin the Tail on the Donkey
• Pitch and toss
• Red light, green light
• Rock, paper, scissors
• Roller derby
• Skate boarding
• Speed boating
• Spin the bottle
• Tag
• Thumb war
• Tick-Tac-Toe
• Tiddley winks
• Touch football
• Tug of war