quote:

Originally posted by Captain Morgan:
And still no LaCross. I guess its too manly. An over looked Native American game by the woke PC crowd.

100% agreed.

Mayan basketball was also pretty good - except that the losing side were clubbed to death.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
In at least one Three Stooges short (unfortunately I can't remember which one), Curly did what could be considered break-dancing. I'm sure it takes a good deal of skill, but Olympic sport worthy?

Here are some 3 stooges examples.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
I'm just waiting for the IOC to get serious and make carjacking an Olympic event.

Could be right in there with Track and Field. Sprint up to the car, javelin the driver, high jump over the car, then hurdles over chain link fences.

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Are we to pretend that we don't know the reasons why this is happening?

Attracting more viewership from youngins?

It's a male dominated "sport". What else am I failing to see?

Break dancing is a Gen X thing, I wouldn't exactly call them youngins at this point, mid 40's and older.

I just glad there's an event I will enjoy watching, most of the Olympics are super boring.

If it was 1983, this would be a dumb idea. But at least you could understand why someone had the thought, dumb as it was. But in 2023?

What other outdated fads can we do? Pole sitting? Stuffing people in VW bugs?

I dont even consider break dancing to be dancing. Its just so much wiggling around to some noise which is not music. I determined long ago as the shooting sports, even at the Olympic level didn't get fair news coverage because they didn't involve sweaty people chasing a ball, the rest of the so called sports were of no interest. But what the hell, anything goes any more. And if you've not seen the Amish break dancing on youtube.. . For real.

Dancing, figure skating, synchronized swimming, etc- none of these things should be Olympic events. The participants in these events aren't athletes, at least, not in the capacity in which they appear in the games.

They are not actually competing against each other. Figure skaters choose their own routines, which are different from the routines of others. How is this supposed to be measured? A panel of judges who are applying their subjective judgements? Ridiculous.

When an athlete runs faster than his competitors, jumps farther than his competitors, or when one team of athletes defeats another team in hockey, basketball, etc- these things are not open to interpretation and the opinions and feelings of individuals. Either you win, or you don't. All the rest of it is fine outside of the Olympics, but I can't take it seriously when Suzy Ice Skater gets the Gold for not falling on the ice.

I gave up on the Olympics when they introduced ribbon twirling. Imagine the human interest segments with Katie Couric and company on break dancers. Maybe naked trans/fluid wrestling would spike viewer interest.

quote:

Originally posted by k5blazer:
I gave up on the Olympics when they introduced ribbon twirling.

Yes, the visual appeal and nothing more. The ancient Greeks would have plotzed.

If I understand correctly, some of the competitors in the orignal Olympic games competed naked. If the IOC wants to boost viewership, there's the answer.

Naked ice skating, yes. Naked weight lifting, no.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
They don't live in a bubble. They know, and this is pandering ten ways from Sunday.

I agree.

Maybe they'll get the "Games" to this level:

Soon they'll be holding the starting pistol sideways

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
They are not actually competing against each other. Figure skaters choose their own routines, which are different from the routines of others. How is this supposed to be measured? A panel of judges who are applying their subjective judgements? Ridiculous.

What would the Olympics be w/o gymnastics? Gymnasts choreograph all their routines. The women even do their floor routines to music (I never understood why the women get music but the men don't). Divers pick what twists, turns, & flips go into their dives.

If it were up to me to streamline the Olympics, I'd get rid of every sport that can't be measured or scored objectively, and that includes gymnastics and diving.

quote:

Originally posted by Captain Morgan:
And still no LaCross. I guess its too manly. An over looked Native American game by the woke PC crowd.

Lacrosse currently has provisional status, so it's on the table for Los Angeles 2028, but then so is competitive cheerleading. Lacrosse's main hurdles are:

1. It have very regional appeal. Outside of USA, Canada and to a lesser extent England and Australia lacrosse is not played much. One Olympic sport criterion is a sport must be practiced widely by men in 75 countries on four continents and by women in 40 countries on three continents as key criteria for Olympic eligibility.

Baseball/softball also faces this problem, which is why it comes & goes in Olympic years. Joke all you want, but field hockey doesn't face this problem, which is why field hockey has been in the Olympics since 1908, and team handball has been an Olympic fixture since 1972.

2. Low viewership - we've had professional men's field lacrosse in the US for over 20 yrs now. How's that working out? Probably about as well as the WNBA? Professional indoor lacrosse has been around since the mid-80s. It might be doing about as well as minor league hockey.

3. Lobbying - you need to lobby hard and pad the right palms. It's how low-viewership sports such as equestrian and sailing keep from being removed. Think about the type of people who participate in those sports and the resources at their disposal.

On the other hand, I don't know how sports such as canoeing and Modern pentathlon have survived the chopping block while original - as in ancient Greece original - sports such as wrestling and weightlifting are in danger of being cut.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Curling is an Olympic sport.

Can't wait for an IOC rules change to allow these:



Lolololololololololol.

quote:

Originally posted by iron chef:
...competitive cheerleading.

Yet another event that would be best conducted naked.

Seriously, though, how are they supposed to "compete" against each other when all those cheerleading squads are performing different routines?

Aerobics competitions. Remember those? It's so silly. "I'm gonna exercise better than you!"

quote:

Originally posted by Captain Morgan:
And still no LaCross. I guess its too manly. An over looked Native American game by the woke PC crowd.

[DEJAVU]Let's petition the IOC to add the ancient New World team sport Pok A Tok (Mayan version) or Tlatchli (Aztec version).

Reportedly, they had men's teams and womens teams and co-ed teams, so it shouldn't be hard to slide in a few modern trans-thletes.[/DEJAVU]

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Are we to pretend that we don't know the reasons why this is happening?

Attracting more viewership from youngins?

It's a male dominated "sport". What else am I failing to see?

Break dancing is a Gen X thing, I wouldn't exactly call them youngins at this point, mid 40's and older.

I just glad there's an event I will enjoy watching, most of the Olympics are super boring.

No, there's definitely a huge amount of young kids into it and, as Aeteocles said, they're quite often Asian. Look at Jabbawokkeez...there's like one black guy in the crew and the rest are Vietnamese or Korean (or at least were in previous lineups).

While the style evolved as a black urban phenomenon in the 80s, it is not necessarily that now.

Breakdancing and hip hop dance (like doing the robot, among others) competitions are very common in Asia (Japan, Korea, SE Asia, Taiwan), as is "sneaker culture".

Curly did break dancing before it was ever called that.



(hat tip to Patrick-SP2022)

Does Break Dancing have standard moves? How would it be judged? Who would be the judges?

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
Does Break Dancing have standard moves? How would it be judged? Who would be the judges?

flashguy

Yes it does, but it's more akin to figure skating or women's floor. While a flip is a flip and a spin is a spin. It's all about the combination and execution that makes it skillful.