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538: People just hate Equestrian events in the Olympics

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A

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
azyless said:
Whaaaat. I didn't realize. That's disappointing, I enjoyed wrestling.
All of that for half the golfers to not even bother showing up, yikes.
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Holy shit why would they eliminate wrestling? It's like one of the few Greek sports that's still participated in today virtually unchanged! Plus it's basically zero cost so any country can participate.

There needs to be a push to return that plus MMA to the Olympics, since the Greeks had a similar event that was basically "No rules wrestling".
 
T

TarpitCarnivore

Member
Those top sports all have one thing in common: Immediate results and back & forth action

Swimming & gymnastics will dominate NBC coverage, as usual, but often are the most annoying and boring to watch. "Welcome back to the 20th heat of the preliminary rounds of the freestyle inverted backstroke"
 
S

shiftplusone

Member
fuck swimming

Fuck Dressage

fuck mitt romney too

Beach volleyball #1 for a reason!

HStallion said:
I'll be honest, I really don't find watching swimming or most track and field events all that exciting or interesting to watch especially with how repetitive they are. Swim across the same pool but go a little farther or perhaps do a slightly different stroke. I'd rather they focus on events like wrestling... oh wait they took that out of the Olympics to give us golf.
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might see someone get got by a big fuckin snake this year tho

you dont get that in wrestling
 
M

madp

The Light of El Cantare
Not surprised; it was just four years ago that Ann Romney's Olympic horse Rafalca was (successfully?) employed in painting the larger picture of Mitt Romney as an out-of-touch elite. It's seen as a profligate, exclusionary rich people pastime like those dog shows that air after the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade every year.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
ahoyhoy said:
Holy shit why would they eliminate wrestling? It's like one of the few Greek sports that's still participated in today virtually unchanged! Plus it's basically zero cost so any country can participate.

There needs to be a push to return that plus MMA to the Olympics, since the Greeks had a similar event that was basically "No rules wrestling".
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After what happened to stuff like Judo and Boxing it would probably be boring as fuck. You can only throw 4 kinds of punches and kicks and would make it all about scoring points instead of trying to knock each other out.
 
N

Nista

Member
Guess I'm an Olympics hipster, cause everything I enjoy watching the most is in the bottom half of the chart. I actually like the equestrian stuff because horses are fun to ride, but I'm not crazy enough to try jumping them over things in real life. Love Judo and Archery as well. Team sports just aren't my thing.

Though NBC makes it damn hard at times, cause they have a hardon for all the swimming and gymnastics fluff.
 
M

massoluk

Banned
ahoyhoy said:
Holy shit why would they eliminate wrestling? It's like one of the few Greek sports that's still participated in today virtually unchanged! Plus it's basically zero cost so any country can participate.

There needs to be a push to return that plus MMA to the Olympics, since the Greeks had a similar event that was basically "No rules wrestling".
Click to expand...

Yeah, it was fucking criminal wrestling is going out before dressage. You would think they'd keep it out of respect of history.
 
T

ThreePiMatt

Member
#sorrynotsorry said:
Golf is kinda affordable. But yeah, no surprise on the others.
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I mean, its affordable in comparison to owning a horse. But by the time you get to high school level competition your equipment costs are in the hundreds to $1000+ in many cases. Not to mention the necessity of private lessons.

That said, I personally hate most swimming, gymnastics, and track events. For gymnastics (and also diving, figure skating, etc) anything that uses a judging system is just bad.

As for swimming and track, too many medals for too many variations on the same thing. Getting a medal for winning the decathalon is a lot different then medaling for like just one type of race. I think the medal bloat of swimming and track cheapens medal winners.
 
A

Apathy

Member
Beach volleyball is the single handedly the best addition to the olympics ever. Equestrian is basically just there because the rich participate in it and they fund it.
 
E

eyeball_kid

Member
ahoyhoy said:
Holy shit why would they eliminate wrestling? It's like one of the few Greek sports that's still participated in today virtually unchanged! Plus it's basically zero cost so any country can participate.
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That's just what I was thinking. Had no idea they took out wrestling for golf. Wrestling as you said is one of the original fucking Olympic sports! Like, there's wrestling scenes on ancient Greek vases. The IOC is complete jackassery.
 
W

weekev

Banned
MSMSMSM said:
Also surprised how high modern pentathlon is...
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I was too till I thought about how batshit crazy the selection of sports is. Swimming, fencing, horse riding, running and shooting. How did they even put them together and call it one event?
 
K

Kettch

Member
I don't really agree with the top, but equestrian, synchronized swimming, golf, rhythmic gymnastics and race walking would definitely be my bottom 5 as well.
 
T

TheSecondSpitter

Member
There's no need for Soccer to be at the Olympics, tbh. It's a watered-down competition, it's less relevant than the Confederation's Cup and nobody gives a shit about it.
 
A

azyless

Member
The Second Spitter said:
There's no need for Soccer to be at the Olympics, tbh. It's a watered-down competition, it's less relevant than the Confederation's Cup and nobody gives a shit about it.
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The women's competition is absolutely relevant. And I doubt you can have one without the other.

Female soccer doesn't have those limitations, but the level of play is even worse of course and people (other than the US apparently) couldn't care less about it.
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Speak for yourself.
 
C

crazygambit

Member
Lexxus said:
Maybe just 3 billion people. Not that much.
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But Olympic soccer is terrible. It's essentially Sub 23 teams with 3 older guys playing. It's just a shittier World Cup. The stakes are very low (most countries care about as much as golfers do about getting an Olympic medal) and the level of competition is not very high.

Female soccer doesn't have those limitations, but the level of play is even worse of course and people (other than the US apparently) couldn't care less about it.

I think people would much rather watch stuff they don't get to see all that often like track and field and swimming. I know I do.
 
A

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
I don't care about most Olympic sports but I super don't give a fuck about equestrian sports. I can't imagine any scenario in life where I would sit down and think "Let's watch some equestrian events"

edit: A 50KM race walk seems like one of the most impressive televised wastes of time imaginable too
 
J

JarrodL

Member
Surprised to see synchronized swimming so low. If anything, it has pretty girls in revealing ... I mean very artistic swimsuits.
 
P

Peter Ian Staker

Member
The Second Spitter said:
There's no need for Soccer to be at the Olympics, tbh. It's a watered-down competition, it's less relevant than the Confederation's Cup and nobody gives a shit about it.
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Yeah we already have enough of it. Between national championships, national cups, champions league/copa libertadores and Euro/Copa America/Copa Africa olympic years have football matches all year round.
Remove football and give the spot to a different sport.
Most current olympic sports are catastrophically boring anyway.Bring something more interesting.
I nominate rallycross
 
30yearsofhurt

30yearsofhurt

Member
Apathy said:
Beach volleyball is the single handedly the best addition to the olympics ever. Equestrian is basically just there because the rich participate in it and they fund it.
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It's there for the same reason as the pentathlon and decathlon. Military traditions.
 
Wag

Wag

Member
I would guess because it's seen as elitist. The average person can't afford to own a horse.
 
D

digdug2k

Member
I thought the Olympics were for people anyway. Why the fuck are horses competing in them. What's next: Fastest dolphin?
 
M

Miletius

Member
The trend in that chart definitely seems like the more hoity toity your sport is, the less likely people will care about it. Except taekwondo for some reason. Taekwondo got screwed.
 
N

neoanarch

Member
Race walking is the best even at the Olympics by far. It's hot even close. If you doubt all you need to do is time in this year. You will be amazed at how amazing of an event it is and what those athletes actually go thru.
 
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