Future Olympic Sports - What Should Be In And What Out ?

[Neil]

Cricket would be cool.  Baseball, less so.  Still, pro baseball is on during the Olympics, and without the pros what's the point?

The NHL makes it work.

For one thing, hockey doesn't suck.  For another, baseball is unlikely to change their timetable to suit the IOC.

[mongers]

This wiki page seems to be a good summary of the decision making process and the politics involved in choosing Olympic sports.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_sports

And apparently rugby and golf are returning at that next Olympiad.   

[Josquius]

Ice hockey is an interesting one in that the olympics there have truly become recognised as the pinacle of the game. There isn't an ice hockey world cup that I know of, instead you have the winter olympics which serves the same purpose as the world cup does for football fans.

[Grey Fox]

Out

Road Cycling - It's the same dudes but intead of Sky or Radio Shack, it's England & France. We've seen it all the month before.
Tennis - It's the same dudes but with a little flag next to their name on the overlay in the telecast. We've seen it all every 2 weeks.
A Reduction in the number of classes for the Archery & Shooting sports.

I have no suggestion on what to add. Whatever the X-games are doing.

[mongers]

A comparison between the 1948 and 2012 London Olympics is interesting; then there were 136 events of which 33 were athletics, now there's 302 events including 47 in athletics. 

edit:

Over the same time period swimming events have mushroomed from 11 to 34 as DG alluded to.

[alfred russel]

Swimming events should be cut by a factor of 4.  Phelps is good, but being able to win 37 gold medals in one year, because swimming with your left pinky up, and with it down, counts as two separate medal events, is ridiculous.  A lot of those events should be combined into either a combo event, or just a multi-round competition.

Damnit DGuller, Quiet! You are an american now, and we win at those events.

[mongers]

Swimming events should be cut by a factor of 4.  Phelps is good, but being able to win 37 gold medals in one year, because swimming with your left pinky up, and with it down, counts as two separate medal events, is ridiculous.  A lot of those events should be combined into either a combo event, or just a multi-round competition.

Damnit DGuller, Quiet! You are an american now, and we win at those events.

[Darth Wagtaros]

MMA with barbed wire matches.

[FunkMonk]

I know this is a really stupid idea but I'm going to say it anyway. I'd like to see football (american) at an Olympiad, at least just once. It'd be interesting to see what other countries would muster up to play the United States. Players less than half the size of the Americans, making crazy plays that would embarrass an FCS team. Hell, bring in some international cheerleading squads too.

There's another one: Olympic cheerleading.

[Ed Anger]

I know this is a really stupid idea but I'm going to say it anyway. I'd like to see football (american) at an Olympiad, at least just once. It'd be interesting to see what other countries would muster up to play the United States. Players less than half the size of the Americans, making crazy plays that would embarrass an FCS team. Hell, bring in some international cheerleading squads too.

There's another one: Olympic cheerleading.

Great, div II and div III players vs euro midgets. Sounds thrilling.

[Admiral Yi]

I know this is a really stupid idea but I'm going to say it anyway. I'd like to see football (american) at an Olympiad, at least just once. It'd be interesting to see what other countries would muster up to play the United States. Players less than half the size of the Americans, making crazy plays that would embarrass an FCS team. Hell, bring in some international cheerleading squads too.

Terrible idea.

[Neil]

I know this is a really stupid idea but I'm going to say it anyway. I'd like to see football (american) at an Olympiad, at least just once. It'd be interesting to see what other countries would muster up to play the United States. Players less than half the size of the Americans, making crazy plays that would embarrass an FCS team. Hell, bring in some international cheerleading squads too.

There's another one: Olympic cheerleading.

The international junior tourneys are interesting for that reason.  Actually, Canada just upset the US at the under-19s, with Japan and Austria rounding out the top 4.

[mongers]

On the subject of large international sports with established worldwide competitions conflicting with the Olympics, whether it be money, player availability, prestige of events like the world cup, here is my suggestion.

Lets have those games involved, but played like the popular, easy games as played my many of the amateur players.

So the soccer event would be five-a-side, American football would be touch football, cricket would be something live a 20-20 match etc. 
Is there a simplified version of baseball widely played ?

I think this would have a virtue of showcasing the fun, the fast and furious nature of the individual sports, whilst demonstrating to people,they themselves with a few friends or in small communities could set teams and play the games themselves without the need for too much specialist equipment or large dedicated playing areas.

[Admiral Yi]

Touch football is a terrible idea.

[Ed Anger]

Simplefied baseball is softball. Chug a beer at each at bat.