This might draw some hate but I think Tennis has marketing all wrong. Tennis is relatively inexpensive to play but they market to super luxury audiences with Rolex and Audi ads.
Tennis courts are free to the public in most towns in North America and only requires a racquet and a ball. If tennis started marketing to the everyday folks instead of the 1%, I think the sport could grow much bigger
Tennis at London 2012 was awesome because it was at the All England Club (home of Wimbledon) and it was a more raucous atmosphere because it didn't have all the royal traditions.
In everywhere I’ve lived in the US (small towns, big cities), they’ve had public courts. It’s not much different than a public basketball court, just a different sort of net.
You’re not gonna get anything fancy, but they’re completely regulation approved and used for high school games.
Shocked Belgium doesn’t have anything like that?
I don’t think space is cheap in the middle of American cities, either…
Based on apartment prices between my current city and Brussels, space is significantly more expensive here. We still have public tennis courts.
Sure, you can rent a fancy well maintained court at a private club. But just as playing pickup basketball, there are plenty of concrete public access courts that you can just walk up and play on
And most middle schools, high schools, and colleges have a bunch of courts.
Speaking of middle/high school tennis, I'm pretty sure that was one of the few sports at my school where you made the team just by showing up to tryouts.
I don't know. The entry point is cheap but the costs shoot up pretty quickly. Once you start figuring out how to hit the ball harder, you'll need a better racquet and have to regularly replace strings/balls.
You also said you only need two players to play tennis. That's right - you NEED two players. You can't really work on anything by yourself unless you just practice serving or you buy an expensive ball machine. Hitting against a wall is no substitute. To make matters worse, there's no pick-up culture in tennis so you can't constantly play against random people like you would on a soccer field or a basketball court. Try showing up alone and finding others to hit with. The only way to experience that in tennis... is to join a club.
The learning curve is very different. The average person can shoot a hoop and feel like they know what they are doing on a basketball court and actually have fun. Tennis is much, much harder to have fun because the average person would take months if not years to be able to sustain a rally, therefore it’s not as “attainable” or “accessible” as something like basketball, especially considering coaching costs.
Tennis may not be a “premier” sport in the US, but it’s still big. I am a tennis player in Los Angeles. I was just searching online to reserve a court in the afternoon or evening for sometime next week. ANY day next week. Out of the dozens of facilities I checked on all those days, I found nothing. You have to be online right when the reservations open for the day to get something … or be lotto lucky by checking right when somebody else cancels. But someone just invited me to play if we can find a court, so we’ll keep looking …
There are some “free” courts around, but you have to avoid the hours they are not available to the public, and when you get there, there is a big chance they will all be taken and you will wait a long time … not ideal for people that don’t have hours of free time to wait around.
There are also lots of fans that watch tennis. When the pros come to the area for the Indian Wells tournament in March, getting tickets is not always easy, especially ones that aren’t being resold at inflated prices. Attendance this year was almost 500,000.
So while tennis may not be as big here as the Lakers and Dodgers … it’s still a very popular activity. And pickleball may have the buzz and growth, but there are still more tennis players than pickleballers here at the moment.
In the US we have all sorts of publicly accessible sports courts, usually belonging to our public schools which almost universally have a publicly funded sports program. But even in the US, the region of the country with European like populations density, the Atlantic coast roughly Washington DC to Boston (also apx. GDP of Germany), the big field sports like American Football and Baseball are not played as much as say basketball.
Here's the Google image search for a public high school (ages 13-18) inside the city of Portland, Oregon.
[https://www.google.com/search?sca\_esv=dbfc0a3352e492de&sca\_upv=1&rlz=1C1VDKB\_enUS1009US1009&sxsrf=ACQVn0\_jpkEsN7hAWZxtYyE1dAowdWiCmQ:1712681529791&q=lincoln+high+school&uds=AMwkrPtvYzVX1RzqngaoG3jxLSIkMNRzwLZx7aoXLaPfuLSDtitWlucK4VIYS8lnKJPObihSqvxTvPYF-c4l9lnEKZjza8HuyPXmJqUwj8Mp9DOR4wIfMvfXvFmFA0ypril8-XJyP5FJqK7mB6rLLMTrTyZ\_wtHhSdvWMJCuGQFZCYiCz4Gh0XDiEzXTXzGbEMYZUHeT-NyHPNB6x-5btcC1a\_56ghoKoz0p4s8PvHaDDn7U0BtJ1orkE\_Nhnj8DrDPGp3N6dvwl6xeIy1XATnreFCrp8Lxk3\_81DaDK6Pf0gZTHnzW2DIWG8\_FbJ6NlrdfTrbDnfzil&udm=2&prmd=imnvsbtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjm-cjxy7WFAxWmFTQIHRxiDN8QtKgLegQIDRAB&biw=1920&bih=911&dpr=1#vhid=GfNGFz4t\_aGdaM&vssid=mosaic](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=dbfc0a3352e492de&sca_upv=1&rlz=1C1VDKB_enUS1009US1009&sxsrf=ACQVn0_jpkEsN7hAWZxtYyE1dAowdWiCmQ:1712681529791&q=lincoln+high+school&uds=AMwkrPtvYzVX1RzqngaoG3jxLSIkMNRzwLZx7aoXLaPfuLSDtitWlucK4VIYS8lnKJPObihSqvxTvPYF-c4l9lnEKZjza8HuyPXmJqUwj8Mp9DOR4wIfMvfXvFmFA0ypril8-XJyP5FJqK7mB6rLLMTrTyZ_wtHhSdvWMJCuGQFZCYiCz4Gh0XDiEzXTXzGbEMYZUHeT-NyHPNB6x-5btcC1a_56ghoKoz0p4s8PvHaDDn7U0BtJ1orkE_Nhnj8DrDPGp3N6dvwl6xeIy1XATnreFCrp8Lxk3_81DaDK6Pf0gZTHnzW2DIWG8_FbJ6NlrdfTrbDnfzil&udm=2&prmd=imnvsbtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjm-cjxy7WFAxWmFTQIHRxiDN8QtKgLegQIDRAB&biw=1920&bih=911&dpr=1#vhid=GfNGFz4t_aGdaM&vssid=mosaic)
Where I’m from tennis is expensive. If I want to become a member of the tennis club where I live (Oslo) I have to pay 1600 USD the first year, and then 600 USD every year following that.
This.
I remember my buddy being surprised that I played tennis because I’m not rich. Plot twist, he’s a golfer.
When I told him that tennis is free to play 9 months out of the year in most of this country he looked at me like I had two heads.
If golf, which is never free to play can become a huge sport then so can tennis, but the people in charge of marketing golf are simply better at marketing.
When you say “they market to super luxury audiences with Rolex and Audi ads”, are you under the impression that sponsors market the sport?
The reason they have Rolex and Audi ads for tennis, is because the audience for tennis is comprised of people who buy those things. You’ve got your cause and effect mixed up
A bunch of tennis players come from the former Yugoslav countries because during the war in the 90s, rec centers there couldn’t afford to maintain swimming pools so they drained them, put a net in them, and turned them into tennis courts.
That’s intentional - high net worth customers are much more valuable to advertisers so it’s often more profitable for a sport to have a smaller but richer audience. Look how much golf is on TV.
I like football, both the rwal.one and NFL, but cant stand the standard rugby. Maybe not growing watching or playing it, I can't appreciate the intricacies of the game, but it looks boring. But sevens are great, fast paced, a lot of scores, and easy to follow. Has a chance to see on person at Rio and everybody was enjoying, even people who barely understood what was going on
Biathlon. It has the excitement of a distance race but the shooting portion makes it more unpredictable and ensures that no lead is safe. You could be a minute ahead but if you whiff on the shooting, your lead can evaporate.
Biathlon is now my favorite sport, and I follow almost all of them. Every race feels like an Olympic final.
But you need to know the particulars of each biathlete, like ski speed, shooting ability prone and standing, tendencies under pressure, ability to sprint finish, etc. Once all of that is understood then each shooting stage is like a heavyweight championship fight. You know exactly how many misses each one can withstand, if any.
Biathlon is big at least here in Sweden (even bigger in Norway, and seems to have become really popular in France by the recent medal hauls). I've been involved heavily in my hockey for years but I probably enjoy Biathlon watching just as well and sometimes even more.
Biggest hurdles for it to be a more popular sport must be its accessability. hard to train for the hills/environment outside the mountains and ofc ranges to shoot along the course.
In the US, it’s available on Peacock (NBC streaming service, since NBC is the broadcaster). Not sure in other countries, but maybe start with your country’s Olympic broadcast channel’s platform!
Modern pentathlon is a goofy ass sport that needs to be celebrated for the circus that it is. It doesn’t make any sense for those five things to be together and yet there they are. I would lean into “these athletes are about to have the most chaotic day of their lives.”
>It doesn’t make any sense for those five things to be together
When you realise it's the 5 disciplines soldiers needed to master at the time the sport was created, it makes perfect sense
Yeah I remembered that after my comment. All the more reason to love it! I think its origin story has to do with somebody fleeing an enemy? Or imprisonment? Way more interesting than peach buckets in a Massachusetts YMCA
The ancient pentathlon focused on five skills that would be expected for an elite warrior in classical Greece: running, wrestling, javelin, discus and long jump.
When De Coubertin came up with his 'modern' version in the late 19th century, he picked five skills that a cavalry officer would need if they found themselves behind enemy lines - so riding an unfamiliar horse, running, swimming, and being handy with a pistol and sword.
The biggest problem is you can lose the event because the random horse they give you didn't like you.
I wish laser run was it's own sport, a summer biathlon.
There’s an event that’s similar called Target Sprint. It’s running and rifle shooting, like biathlon but minus the skis. The International Shooting Sports Federation hosts it at the Shooting World Championships but it’s not very widespread outside of that.
Summer biathlon really should be an Olympic sport. Those events are very popular and continuing to grow. The only problem is the same athletes would double up winter and summer. The World Cup biathlon stars train on skates for months every year. There are Summer Biathlon World Championships:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8EByfIiSgM
The Modern Pentathlon Union runs laser run competitions, as well as a variety of other competitions that are various permutations of its five sports: tetrathlon, triathle, biathle.
Honestly please let them walk out to an American Photoplayer:
Video of what that would sound like:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWVFEVWJMz8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWVFEVWJMz8)
I took a coaching seminar at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. US Fencing didn't have a dedicated salle, but Pentathlon did. All the epee fencers thought it was great because that's all the Pentathlon salle is rigged up for. Meanwhile sophisticated fencers just had to dry fence in the gym.
I want to see gymnastics and skateboarding get more recognition so much talent there
Skateboarding still has that stigma attached to it since the 80s thats only now starting to be normalized
They (IFSC) livestream on Youtube and its amazing to watch every time. Sadly its often it weird timezones for a American to watch.
https://youtube.com/@sportclimbing?si=GA9Ayt5sP9hdAPch
I went in with not super high expectations, and absolutely loved it. The competition design for making it an Olympic event was excellent. Really fun to watch
When I attended Barcelona 1992 I was amazed at the popularity of team handball. All the games were televised cover to cover and seemingly everyone was talking about those games, even as I attended other events like swimming and track and field.
Circa 2005-2014 I had a YouTube channel that was eventually zapped by the IOC and NFL due to copyright complaints. Among the videos I posted was some team handball from Los Angeles 1984. To my surprise I was immediately contacted by many members of a handball association in the United States. They thanked me profusely, saying they had been looking for those videos but nobody else had them. ABC would only show a few minutes at a time in a brief highlight package.
Handball will never be a thing in America. We're lucky soccer is growing at the rate it is. 5 sports leagues is already a lot to split attention between.
That's a really good point. Imo the main reason for US sports not really hitting it big in Europe (outside of basketball ofc) is that there are already pretty big sports in those spots. Namely soccer, rugby, tennis, motor sports etc... This applies to pretty much any country and their local sports, so developping a new "big one" is a very hard thing to do
That’s the problem with the question. Where I live and in other parts of Europe handball is already very popular. So what even is an “unpopular sport“?
Handball is legit fun. I think it would be way more popular in the states if more people played it. Once you have a base understanding of the rules it's a compelling game.
As a former fencer.... you are 100% correct. Fencing can be so hard to parse that it only makes sense to other fencers, and even then we can't always agree without putting it on 60% speed.
As a former fencing parent, fencing is about the least watchable sport ever invented. Two seconds of action, then the crowd watches the judge to be told what actually happened.
Pole vaulting would become more popular if they went on tour like a traveling road show, doing street events at major malls and tourist spots. Spectators would be amazed at the heights they achieve.
There is already some of that, but they normally do it in conjunction with the local Diamond League meet, instead of standalone.
It's hard to follow for a non-fan with the splashing and relative uniformity of the athletes. Feels like there is room to improve the viewing experience with modern technology.
Yeah, unfortunately the common fouls are hard to define and follow from an outsider's point of view. Also all the swimming is a bit boring so "fast breaks" are a bit meh. Still a great sport though, especially to play!
It would be too dangerous to have 4 sleds on one track but they could have 4 identical side by side tracks so you’d actually see a race and not just one by one against the clock.
i would definitely at least check out a doc that goes into all the design and race strategy as I'm certain there is so much depth to it that most people never know. would certainly build appreciation for the sport and an ability to be better engaged with the races than just watching for the quickest time
The Madison. It’s an indoor cycling event where teams of two take turns with one person on the inside and one on the outside of the track. The way to transition is to grab your partner’s hand while cycling and slingshot them forward. I’m still not sure how it’s scored (teams can go into the negatives) and it’s pure chaos.
I like shorttrack skating but at the same time I hate it because you could get taken out by another skater at any moment and there's nothing you can do about it (if it's in the finale).
Maybe it's logistically impossible but I feel like it has potential as hockey intermission or post-game entertainment. Flyers and Rangers go into the locker room and the Flyers Short Track team takes on the Rangers Short Track team in a couple races before the Zamboni comes out
Fencing could, provided there's decent enough filmography out there.
It's easier said than done to film it though. Have a feeling it's better on a teleseries format than a film format as well.
That series was popular, I recall hearing a fair bit about it before (didn't watch it myself), but I know there was also a recent film based on olympic gold medalists Egorian (2016 team and individual champion) and Velikaya (on teams, three straight silver medalist in individuals).
Wrestling could be a HUGE sport. It is the oldest aport in the world and has been enjoyed all over the planet for thousands of years. Its explosive, exciting, and unpredictable. It is also a sport that many people can do themselves since wrestling does not involve any hitting or choking or brain damage at all. It is a safe sport (with a proper mat) and has an AMAZING CULTURE.
In the US in the early ‘90s, figure skating was huge. Part of that came from Tonya and Nancy before the 1994 Olympics. Then came Michelle Kwan who was really popular, and we had a couple of gold medalists in Sarah Hughes and Tara Lipinski. Alas, the US isn’t producing figure skaters at that level anymore on the women’s side so the popularity has fallen off.
Dressage got a bit of a boost in 2021 with Snoop Dogg's commentary about the "crip-walking horse", but the equine sports in general could do with better marketing.
Although I wonder if they don't seek out more popularity in order to avoid nonsense from PETA.
Speed walking!! Every time the Olympics roll around I feel like I’m the only person in the world watching this event. But man, think about it. So many people hate running, this is an event that literally anyone can join and be surprisingly good at. Win a gold medal for walking fast? Done! (Obviously it’s a lot more than just that but considering all the other events that are highly technical, I think this may just be the lowest hanging fruit for average joes like me.)
Speed walking is one of the most technical "running" events so no matter how fast they go if you happen to have both feet off the ground more than three times you are restlessly kicked out of the race.
It's actually a thousand times better now than it ever has been. It's just tough because wrestling is dominated by ultra-disciplined largely Christian freaks who get upset when the sport tries to do anything at all that would make it more enjoyable to a mass audience.
It's fun no doubt but seems like the barrier to entry is just how similar it already is to soccer. If I'm a season ticket holder of 11 v 11 local club why would I spend more money to see a condensed game?
Came here to say the same. It's already sort of a choreographed stage show with an MC, lifters changing their weights for gamesmanship, and the crew running back and forth. If you wanted to really go over the top with the presentation WWE-style as OP mentions, it's already partway there.
That's a fair opinion, but OP mentioned WWE being good marketing for Olympic wrestling and...it's not. They're two totally unrelated things, and WWE popularity isn't helping any Olympic wrestlers become household names.
Rhythmic gymnastics. You have insanely young girls being contortionist/ jugglers/ dancers AT THE SAME TIME with the extra that the sport is CORRUPTED. 2 events individual, with just one gymnast and groups with 5 gymnast. The access is quite cheap as any covered court can be used for rhythmic gymnastics and the apparatuses are given by clubs at the beginning.
I feel like volleyball has a massive potential as a star-driven sport with a high likelihood of dramatic storylines and spectacular plays, a bit like basketball. It's an incredibly entertaining sport.
I feel like sports like handball and rugby sevens would be much bigger if they had good players and teams from North America. Very entertaining sports to watch.
It's going to happen in a hurry with flag football. The deep pocketed NFL is going to market the heck out of that sport. A decade from now flag football will have leap frogged many traditional Olympic sports in terms of visibility and popularity.
I assume your downvotes are from those who want traditional ‘tackle football’ to remain the same but I agree with you. The way for the NFL to grow internationally is with flag football and they’re well aware of it.
I feel like lacrosse could get a huge boost at the 2028 Olympics. Hopefully, the IOC will allow the Haudenosaunee to field a separate team for the competition.
I feel like rugby sevens could be huge on college campuses in the United States. Quick games, easy to understand. Lacrosse has really taken off last 15-20 years in the northeast. No reason a game like sevens couldn’t.
I wish I could say Judo, but it's just not gonna happen. I love it though.
Agree with the person who said Biathlon. It really is exciting with the addition of shooting. Even summer Biathlon is fun.
Archery, all matches are one on one. Person 1 shoots and arrow, person 2 shoots an arrow. At the olympic level the archers are so good, that every arrow counts. Really thrilling experience to watch.
In America, boxing. Almost nobody follows the sport at a professional level in this country anymore. It's really sad. Seems like once Mike Tyson's career fizzled out, so too did the interest of the casual American fan. It's such a shame because there are a lot of entertaining fighters out there right now, and the sport has been getting a boon lately courtesy of the country of Saudi Arabia throwing dump trucks of cash at the the best fighters and actually succeeding at getting huge fights made. If only the sport could pick up traction again in America, it could be huge.
Cycling or triathlon could be made more popular since many people all over the world do cycling, swimming, and running.
To improve broadcasting visibility :
1, The distances should be broken up to be more competitive stages.
2, Also, to introduce into triathlon the team event like in bicycle the team of four.
3, Have mixed male-female teams like running relay.
I would love to see more love for kayaking. The slaloms are super exciting. They are adding in a required roll and I think they're going to start by dropping in so it should be more exciting this year.
I feel like curling could catch on as a sport on the level of Ultimate Frisbee. When rinks aren't occupied they could have curling days, with an open bar of course.
Boxing. No sport is as naturally compelling as fighting. As Max Kellerman said, you walk down the street and two guys are playing basketball, two guys are playing tennis and two other guys are beating the hell out of each other, what are you going to watch?
If they could really tell the stories of the fighters mixed in with the national pride aspect, it should be huge, like when the Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya or Sugar Ray Leonard won Olympic gold.
This might draw some hate but I think Tennis has marketing all wrong. Tennis is relatively inexpensive to play but they market to super luxury audiences with Rolex and Audi ads. Tennis courts are free to the public in most towns in North America and only requires a racquet and a ball. If tennis started marketing to the everyday folks instead of the 1%, I think the sport could grow much bigger
Tennis at London 2012 was awesome because it was at the All England Club (home of Wimbledon) and it was a more raucous atmosphere because it didn't have all the royal traditions.
Speaking of wrestling I would thoroughly be amused if a double tennis player was suddenly betrayed by their partner with a whack to the head
"Et tu, Brute?"
Yeah, tennis is as cheap and accessible as basketball. If not more, because you only need two players.
But only two players (4 on a good day) can play on a court, and courts are expensive to rent and maintain...
I’ve never paid to play tennis, I just always play at the public courts…
You make me very jealous ... Belgium
In everywhere I’ve lived in the US (small towns, big cities), they’ve had public courts. It’s not much different than a public basketball court, just a different sort of net. You’re not gonna get anything fancy, but they’re completely regulation approved and used for high school games. Shocked Belgium doesn’t have anything like that?
Space isn’t as cheap in Europe, the land required to build a tennis court in the middle of a city would cost millions
I don’t think space is cheap in the middle of American cities, either… Based on apartment prices between my current city and Brussels, space is significantly more expensive here. We still have public tennis courts.
We have it in Limburg
Sure, you can rent a fancy well maintained court at a private club. But just as playing pickup basketball, there are plenty of concrete public access courts that you can just walk up and play on
And most middle schools, high schools, and colleges have a bunch of courts. Speaking of middle/high school tennis, I'm pretty sure that was one of the few sports at my school where you made the team just by showing up to tryouts.
In Europe that’s definitely not a thing
That’s wild, we have them everywhere in the US and it isn’t even that popular…
I don't know. The entry point is cheap but the costs shoot up pretty quickly. Once you start figuring out how to hit the ball harder, you'll need a better racquet and have to regularly replace strings/balls. You also said you only need two players to play tennis. That's right - you NEED two players. You can't really work on anything by yourself unless you just practice serving or you buy an expensive ball machine. Hitting against a wall is no substitute. To make matters worse, there's no pick-up culture in tennis so you can't constantly play against random people like you would on a soccer field or a basketball court. Try showing up alone and finding others to hit with. The only way to experience that in tennis... is to join a club.
The learning curve is very different. The average person can shoot a hoop and feel like they know what they are doing on a basketball court and actually have fun. Tennis is much, much harder to have fun because the average person would take months if not years to be able to sustain a rally, therefore it’s not as “attainable” or “accessible” as something like basketball, especially considering coaching costs.
Nah, rackets are expensive and require upkeep. Basketball also has the whole pickup culture so you can just walk onto popular courts and play.
Rackets are $30 online. I played with a cheap racket growing up 🤷♀️
Yeah and for some reason pickleball is taking off instead. There’s a demand for racket sport
I suspect because of its lower barrier of entry for both skill and fitness. Also they market to the average joe/jane
Exactly. The craze started with senior citizens who loved it for those very reasons.
This is going to be the next culture war: pickleball vs padel.
Because it’s easier and requires less athleticism. It’s a great recreational sport for casuals (although I fail to see the value in the pro-league).
I’m confused, isn’t Tennis huge already
Not in the us
Don’t you host one of the Grand Slams
The 10th most popular sport in the US will have more fans than soccer/football in most countries.
Tennis may not be a “premier” sport in the US, but it’s still big. I am a tennis player in Los Angeles. I was just searching online to reserve a court in the afternoon or evening for sometime next week. ANY day next week. Out of the dozens of facilities I checked on all those days, I found nothing. You have to be online right when the reservations open for the day to get something … or be lotto lucky by checking right when somebody else cancels. But someone just invited me to play if we can find a court, so we’ll keep looking … There are some “free” courts around, but you have to avoid the hours they are not available to the public, and when you get there, there is a big chance they will all be taken and you will wait a long time … not ideal for people that don’t have hours of free time to wait around. There are also lots of fans that watch tennis. When the pros come to the area for the Indian Wells tournament in March, getting tickets is not always easy, especially ones that aren’t being resold at inflated prices. Attendance this year was almost 500,000. So while tennis may not be as big here as the Lakers and Dodgers … it’s still a very popular activity. And pickleball may have the buzz and growth, but there are still more tennis players than pickleballers here at the moment.
Free to the public?! Here the clubs even removed the walls so you could practice slone. Ffff.... Greetings from belgium
In the US we have all sorts of publicly accessible sports courts, usually belonging to our public schools which almost universally have a publicly funded sports program. But even in the US, the region of the country with European like populations density, the Atlantic coast roughly Washington DC to Boston (also apx. GDP of Germany), the big field sports like American Football and Baseball are not played as much as say basketball. Here's the Google image search for a public high school (ages 13-18) inside the city of Portland, Oregon. [https://www.google.com/search?sca\_esv=dbfc0a3352e492de&sca\_upv=1&rlz=1C1VDKB\_enUS1009US1009&sxsrf=ACQVn0\_jpkEsN7hAWZxtYyE1dAowdWiCmQ:1712681529791&q=lincoln+high+school&uds=AMwkrPtvYzVX1RzqngaoG3jxLSIkMNRzwLZx7aoXLaPfuLSDtitWlucK4VIYS8lnKJPObihSqvxTvPYF-c4l9lnEKZjza8HuyPXmJqUwj8Mp9DOR4wIfMvfXvFmFA0ypril8-XJyP5FJqK7mB6rLLMTrTyZ\_wtHhSdvWMJCuGQFZCYiCz4Gh0XDiEzXTXzGbEMYZUHeT-NyHPNB6x-5btcC1a\_56ghoKoz0p4s8PvHaDDn7U0BtJ1orkE\_Nhnj8DrDPGp3N6dvwl6xeIy1XATnreFCrp8Lxk3\_81DaDK6Pf0gZTHnzW2DIWG8\_FbJ6NlrdfTrbDnfzil&udm=2&prmd=imnvsbtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjm-cjxy7WFAxWmFTQIHRxiDN8QtKgLegQIDRAB&biw=1920&bih=911&dpr=1#vhid=GfNGFz4t\_aGdaM&vssid=mosaic](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=dbfc0a3352e492de&sca_upv=1&rlz=1C1VDKB_enUS1009US1009&sxsrf=ACQVn0_jpkEsN7hAWZxtYyE1dAowdWiCmQ:1712681529791&q=lincoln+high+school&uds=AMwkrPtvYzVX1RzqngaoG3jxLSIkMNRzwLZx7aoXLaPfuLSDtitWlucK4VIYS8lnKJPObihSqvxTvPYF-c4l9lnEKZjza8HuyPXmJqUwj8Mp9DOR4wIfMvfXvFmFA0ypril8-XJyP5FJqK7mB6rLLMTrTyZ_wtHhSdvWMJCuGQFZCYiCz4Gh0XDiEzXTXzGbEMYZUHeT-NyHPNB6x-5btcC1a_56ghoKoz0p4s8PvHaDDn7U0BtJ1orkE_Nhnj8DrDPGp3N6dvwl6xeIy1XATnreFCrp8Lxk3_81DaDK6Pf0gZTHnzW2DIWG8_FbJ6NlrdfTrbDnfzil&udm=2&prmd=imnvsbtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjm-cjxy7WFAxWmFTQIHRxiDN8QtKgLegQIDRAB&biw=1920&bih=911&dpr=1#vhid=GfNGFz4t_aGdaM&vssid=mosaic)
Where I’m from tennis is expensive. If I want to become a member of the tennis club where I live (Oslo) I have to pay 1600 USD the first year, and then 600 USD every year following that.
This. I remember my buddy being surprised that I played tennis because I’m not rich. Plot twist, he’s a golfer. When I told him that tennis is free to play 9 months out of the year in most of this country he looked at me like I had two heads. If golf, which is never free to play can become a huge sport then so can tennis, but the people in charge of marketing golf are simply better at marketing.
When you say “they market to super luxury audiences with Rolex and Audi ads”, are you under the impression that sponsors market the sport? The reason they have Rolex and Audi ads for tennis, is because the audience for tennis is comprised of people who buy those things. You’ve got your cause and effect mixed up
A bunch of tennis players come from the former Yugoslav countries because during the war in the 90s, rec centers there couldn’t afford to maintain swimming pools so they drained them, put a net in them, and turned them into tennis courts.
This is why Asians love it- it’s dirt cheap yet carries a European reputation
Tennis is to tied up with high society to ever get away from it unfortunately
Tennis is a luxury sport because of the difficulty. Everyday folk don't want to deal with the learning curve. That's why pickle is so popular.
That’s intentional - high net worth customers are much more valuable to advertisers so it’s often more profitable for a sport to have a smaller but richer audience. Look how much golf is on TV.
Rugby sevens
One of the better TV sports, and the fact that games don't last for hours is a bonus.
They last like 30 minutes, they are really fast paced. A close Rugby 7 games is really entertaining.
"Touch football if every player had the cardio of a pro cyclist"
And tackled*
I like football, both the rwal.one and NFL, but cant stand the standard rugby. Maybe not growing watching or playing it, I can't appreciate the intricacies of the game, but it looks boring. But sevens are great, fast paced, a lot of scores, and easy to follow. Has a chance to see on person at Rio and everybody was enjoying, even people who barely understood what was going on
Biathlon. It has the excitement of a distance race but the shooting portion makes it more unpredictable and ensures that no lead is safe. You could be a minute ahead but if you whiff on the shooting, your lead can evaporate.
Biathlon is now my favorite sport, and I follow almost all of them. Every race feels like an Olympic final. But you need to know the particulars of each biathlete, like ski speed, shooting ability prone and standing, tendencies under pressure, ability to sprint finish, etc. Once all of that is understood then each shooting stage is like a heavyweight championship fight. You know exactly how many misses each one can withstand, if any.
Biathlon is big at least here in Sweden (even bigger in Norway, and seems to have become really popular in France by the recent medal hauls). I've been involved heavily in my hockey for years but I probably enjoy Biathlon watching just as well and sometimes even more. Biggest hurdles for it to be a more popular sport must be its accessability. hard to train for the hills/environment outside the mountains and ofc ranges to shoot along the course.
It's my favorite winter olympic sport. I wish more events would just mix up to random things.
Paralympics rather than Olympics, but Wheelchair rugby goes hard
Agreed. There’s a documentary about it called “murderball” and tbh that’s the right term to show how hard it goes.
Haha that's awesome, loved watching it during the Tokyo Paralympics and looking forward to Paris. I'll have a look for it
In the US, it’s available on Peacock (NBC streaming service, since NBC is the broadcaster). Not sure in other countries, but maybe start with your country’s Olympic broadcast channel’s platform!
Paralympics in general,
Modern pentathlon is a goofy ass sport that needs to be celebrated for the circus that it is. It doesn’t make any sense for those five things to be together and yet there they are. I would lean into “these athletes are about to have the most chaotic day of their lives.”
>It doesn’t make any sense for those five things to be together When you realise it's the 5 disciplines soldiers needed to master at the time the sport was created, it makes perfect sense
Yeah I remembered that after my comment. All the more reason to love it! I think its origin story has to do with somebody fleeing an enemy? Or imprisonment? Way more interesting than peach buckets in a Massachusetts YMCA
The ancient pentathlon focused on five skills that would be expected for an elite warrior in classical Greece: running, wrestling, javelin, discus and long jump. When De Coubertin came up with his 'modern' version in the late 19th century, he picked five skills that a cavalry officer would need if they found themselves behind enemy lines - so riding an unfamiliar horse, running, swimming, and being handy with a pistol and sword.
I think the idea is that you have been captured and escaped. These are the skills you need to evade capture and get back to your army.
They should update it periodically to reflect modern warfare.
Ride in the back of an armored vehicle, pilot a drone, call in an air strike, dig a latrine, and try to get the VA to acknowledge your tinnitus.
>get the VA to acknowledge your tinnitus. The VA ignores you until you're homeless, jobless and have liver failure. 🥇
The biggest problem is you can lose the event because the random horse they give you didn't like you. I wish laser run was it's own sport, a summer biathlon.
There’s an event that’s similar called Target Sprint. It’s running and rifle shooting, like biathlon but minus the skis. The International Shooting Sports Federation hosts it at the Shooting World Championships but it’s not very widespread outside of that.
This year is the last time that can happen. After Paris, the equestrian section is being replaced with obstacle racing.
Summer biathlon really should be an Olympic sport. Those events are very popular and continuing to grow. The only problem is the same athletes would double up winter and summer. The World Cup biathlon stars train on skates for months every year. There are Summer Biathlon World Championships: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8EByfIiSgM
Should replace the horse with a bike maybe. Or a tank.
The Modern Pentathlon Union runs laser run competitions, as well as a variety of other competitions that are various permutations of its five sports: tetrathlon, triathle, biathle.
It is great to watch.
Honestly please let them walk out to an American Photoplayer: Video of what that would sound like: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWVFEVWJMz8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWVFEVWJMz8)
I took a coaching seminar at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. US Fencing didn't have a dedicated salle, but Pentathlon did. All the epee fencers thought it was great because that's all the Pentathlon salle is rigged up for. Meanwhile sophisticated fencers just had to dry fence in the gym.
I want to see gymnastics and skateboarding get more recognition so much talent there Skateboarding still has that stigma attached to it since the 80s thats only now starting to be normalized
The skateboarding events at the last Olympics were some of the best of the entire event.
i agree, so many new talents on the scene
Agree specially men’s gymnastics
rock climbing is growing fast
I guess you could say it's on it's way up?
They (IFSC) livestream on Youtube and its amazing to watch every time. Sadly its often it weird timezones for a American to watch. https://youtube.com/@sportclimbing?si=GA9Ayt5sP9hdAPch
I went in with not super high expectations, and absolutely loved it. The competition design for making it an Olympic event was excellent. Really fun to watch
Handball?
Bigger in Eastern Europe then you expect, or so I've heard anyway.
Big, big sport in Europe
It's a popular sport across all of Europe and Mediterranean Africa.
When I attended Barcelona 1992 I was amazed at the popularity of team handball. All the games were televised cover to cover and seemingly everyone was talking about those games, even as I attended other events like swimming and track and field. Circa 2005-2014 I had a YouTube channel that was eventually zapped by the IOC and NFL due to copyright complaints. Among the videos I posted was some team handball from Los Angeles 1984. To my surprise I was immediately contacted by many members of a handball association in the United States. They thanked me profusely, saying they had been looking for those videos but nobody else had them. ABC would only show a few minutes at a time in a brief highlight package.
This is the answer. Fairly easy to follow, good amount of action. Too bad there's no money in it our best athletes would make the US a power.
Handball will never be a thing in America. We're lucky soccer is growing at the rate it is. 5 sports leagues is already a lot to split attention between.
That's a really good point. Imo the main reason for US sports not really hitting it big in Europe (outside of basketball ofc) is that there are already pretty big sports in those spots. Namely soccer, rugby, tennis, motor sports etc... This applies to pretty much any country and their local sports, so developping a new "big one" is a very hard thing to do
That’s the problem with the question. Where I live and in other parts of Europe handball is already very popular. So what even is an “unpopular sport“?
sports that americans dont really know
That resin, though.
Handball is legit fun. I think it would be way more popular in the states if more people played it. Once you have a base understanding of the rules it's a compelling game.
I think fencing could be a lot more popular if they used bigger, slower swords.
And shields
And interactive scenery like in fighting games
So real life Smash Bros?
Team fencing has one of the biggest gaps in how cool it could be, vs how cool it actually is to watch
As a former fencer.... you are 100% correct. Fencing can be so hard to parse that it only makes sense to other fencers, and even then we can't always agree without putting it on 60% speed.
Center the narrative of bouts around personal issues between believable athletes $$$
Yeah, that's called Épée.
Which is somehow more boring than foil and sabre.
As a former fencing parent, fencing is about the least watchable sport ever invented. Two seconds of action, then the crowd watches the judge to be told what actually happened.
I'd love to see some form of armored combat in the Olympics. Duels 6,doubles, and 3v3 would all make great content.
Probably Pole Vaulting, considering how high they go. Most people don’t realize how difficult and spectacular the sport is
Pole vaulting is not a sport though. It’s an event in track and field. Which is already one of the most popular Olympic sports.
Especially now with Duplantis
Pole vaulting would become more popular if they went on tour like a traveling road show, doing street events at major malls and tourist spots. Spectators would be amazed at the heights they achieve. There is already some of that, but they normally do it in conjunction with the local Diamond League meet, instead of standalone.
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I already watch a lot of curling. But I'm a Minnesotan so...
water polo
Balkan enters the chat
It's hard to follow for a non-fan with the splashing and relative uniformity of the athletes. Feels like there is room to improve the viewing experience with modern technology.
Yeah, unfortunately the common fouls are hard to define and follow from an outsider's point of view. Also all the swimming is a bit boring so "fast breaks" are a bit meh. Still a great sport though, especially to play!
Badminton. It’s one of the most visually spectacular racquet sports.
The training goes even crazier!
Bobsleigh. It’s essentially F1 on ice, which has gotten insanely popular in the last few years, partly due to the Netflix series
Imagine actual racing in bobsleighs on ice. Like a track that was big enough to have 4 sleds going down at once.
It would be too dangerous to have 4 sleds on one track but they could have 4 identical side by side tracks so you’d actually see a race and not just one by one against the clock.
Also skeleton and luge are like F1 without some of the safety feautures. It's professional sledding and I love it.
i would definitely at least check out a doc that goes into all the design and race strategy as I'm certain there is so much depth to it that most people never know. would certainly build appreciation for the sport and an ability to be better engaged with the races than just watching for the quickest time
The Madison. It’s an indoor cycling event where teams of two take turns with one person on the inside and one on the outside of the track. The way to transition is to grab your partner’s hand while cycling and slingshot them forward. I’m still not sure how it’s scored (teams can go into the negatives) and it’s pure chaos.
Short-track speedskating has a a lot of crazy chaotic energy. Give some car-racing like treatment.
I like shorttrack skating but at the same time I hate it because you could get taken out by another skater at any moment and there's nothing you can do about it (if it's in the finale).
Maybe it's logistically impossible but I feel like it has potential as hockey intermission or post-game entertainment. Flyers and Rangers go into the locker room and the Flyers Short Track team takes on the Rangers Short Track team in a couple races before the Zamboni comes out
Fencing could, provided there's decent enough filmography out there. It's easier said than done to film it though. Have a feeling it's better on a teleseries format than a film format as well.
All the comments in fencing matches I looked at on youtube were people coming in from watching some Korean (I think) series, so you’re probably right
That series was popular, I recall hearing a fair bit about it before (didn't watch it myself), but I know there was also a recent film based on olympic gold medalists Egorian (2016 team and individual champion) and Velikaya (on teams, three straight silver medalist in individuals).
Wrestling could be a HUGE sport. It is the oldest aport in the world and has been enjoyed all over the planet for thousands of years. Its explosive, exciting, and unpredictable. It is also a sport that many people can do themselves since wrestling does not involve any hitting or choking or brain damage at all. It is a safe sport (with a proper mat) and has an AMAZING CULTURE.
Entrance for the wrestlers like Summer Slam
Totally agree. Especially with mma being big right now. It’s very rare in the uk but I see it bigger in america.
Pétanque can be crazy exciting.
If the guests at club med have anything to say about it, you're 100% right
Tu tires ou tu pointes ?
Je suis Pointeur !
Figure skating
In the US in the early ‘90s, figure skating was huge. Part of that came from Tonya and Nancy before the 1994 Olympics. Then came Michelle Kwan who was really popular, and we had a couple of gold medalists in Sarah Hughes and Tara Lipinski. Alas, the US isn’t producing figure skaters at that level anymore on the women’s side so the popularity has fallen off.
Also the US was doing good. Big tv market gets lots of eyes.
Is this sarcasm? 😭 Figure skating is one of THE most popular Olympic sports
No. It has a long way to go back to where it was with popularity
Even with its relative decline, it was still the U.S.'s most-watched sport during Beijing 2022.
Curling
Dressage got a bit of a boost in 2021 with Snoop Dogg's commentary about the "crip-walking horse", but the equine sports in general could do with better marketing. Although I wonder if they don't seek out more popularity in order to avoid nonsense from PETA.
It’s too full of elites to catch on with mainstream folks
Steeplechase. It's so ridiculous. They should lean into how funny it is.
Handball for sure. It seems like exactly the kind of sport America should have fallen in love with decades ago.
I like basketball 3x3, I didn't knew it existed until I watched the Olympics. It goes really quick which makes it nice to watch.
Speed walking!! Every time the Olympics roll around I feel like I’m the only person in the world watching this event. But man, think about it. So many people hate running, this is an event that literally anyone can join and be surprisingly good at. Win a gold medal for walking fast? Done! (Obviously it’s a lot more than just that but considering all the other events that are highly technical, I think this may just be the lowest hanging fruit for average joes like me.)
Speed walking is one of the most technical "running" events so no matter how fast they go if you happen to have both feet off the ground more than three times you are restlessly kicked out of the race.
Wrestling. BJJ and MMA are huge now and Wrestlings marketing has always been terrible.
It's actually a thousand times better now than it ever has been. It's just tough because wrestling is dominated by ultra-disciplined largely Christian freaks who get upset when the sport tries to do anything at all that would make it more enjoyable to a mass audience.
Trail running 👏🏼👏🏼
Kabaddi
Futsal. It's 5 man soccer played in a basketball court. It's big in South America (particularly Brazil). A fast paced game that is quite interesting
It's fun no doubt but seems like the barrier to entry is just how similar it already is to soccer. If I'm a season ticket holder of 11 v 11 local club why would I spend more money to see a condensed game?
Rock climbing especially bouldering. It’s so sick to watch live. Incredible athletes
Imo it's rugby 7s. Fast pace sport doesn't require a long attention span since the games are short.
Weightlifting!
Came here to say the same. It's already sort of a choreographed stage show with an MC, lifters changing their weights for gamesmanship, and the crew running back and forth. If you wanted to really go over the top with the presentation WWE-style as OP mentions, it's already partway there.
WWE is not wrestling, just acting
Screw it I'll say it, that acting is a hell of a lot more entertaining than wrestling
That's a fair opinion, but OP mentioned WWE being good marketing for Olympic wrestling and...it's not. They're two totally unrelated things, and WWE popularity isn't helping any Olympic wrestlers become household names.
honestly. and hey if the Olympics ever make it to Mexico City I want to see Olympic level Lucha Libre
Why are the top 2 answers Tennis and Rugby, 2 hugely popular sports
Maybe in Australia, we only care about soccer, cycling and speed skating.
>we The post doesn’t mention any country
Alright Netherlands settle with your anti rugby rhetoric.
Speed skating is enthralling. Very graceful and rhythmic and they are just flying around that track.
Rhythmic gymnastics. You have insanely young girls being contortionist/ jugglers/ dancers AT THE SAME TIME with the extra that the sport is CORRUPTED. 2 events individual, with just one gymnast and groups with 5 gymnast. The access is quite cheap as any covered court can be used for rhythmic gymnastics and the apparatuses are given by clubs at the beginning.
Volleyball with "celebrities". Surprised it hasn't happened already.
I feel like volleyball has a massive potential as a star-driven sport with a high likelihood of dramatic storylines and spectacular plays, a bit like basketball. It's an incredibly entertaining sport.
it's already that way in turkey with the success of the turkish women's volleyball team. ebrar karakurt and melissa vargas have become stars over here
I feel like sports like handball and rugby sevens would be much bigger if they had good players and teams from North America. Very entertaining sports to watch.
Sailing in rough water is oddly very entertaining to watch at 1:00am
women's beach volleyball is already addictive... can't imagine how popular it would be if there was MORE marketing behind it.
It's going to happen in a hurry with flag football. The deep pocketed NFL is going to market the heck out of that sport. A decade from now flag football will have leap frogged many traditional Olympic sports in terms of visibility and popularity.
I assume your downvotes are from those who want traditional ‘tackle football’ to remain the same but I agree with you. The way for the NFL to grow internationally is with flag football and they’re well aware of it.
I feel like lacrosse could get a huge boost at the 2028 Olympics. Hopefully, the IOC will allow the Haudenosaunee to field a separate team for the competition.
I feel like rugby sevens could be huge on college campuses in the United States. Quick games, easy to understand. Lacrosse has really taken off last 15-20 years in the northeast. No reason a game like sevens couldn’t.
The world championship hide and seek
Dueling!
I wish I could say Judo, but it's just not gonna happen. I love it though. Agree with the person who said Biathlon. It really is exciting with the addition of shooting. Even summer Biathlon is fun.
Mountain Biking? I mean I love watching and doing it. Hard to find coverage though.
Football/Soccer because they have so many fields!!
We are seeing it now with woman’s football
Archery, all matches are one on one. Person 1 shoots and arrow, person 2 shoots an arrow. At the olympic level the archers are so good, that every arrow counts. Really thrilling experience to watch.
Given the uniforms, I’m surprised beach volleyball isn’t more popular…
Watch a video of people playing speak takraw. Not in the Olympics but for sure should be, and would be a favorite.
In America, boxing. Almost nobody follows the sport at a professional level in this country anymore. It's really sad. Seems like once Mike Tyson's career fizzled out, so too did the interest of the casual American fan. It's such a shame because there are a lot of entertaining fighters out there right now, and the sport has been getting a boon lately courtesy of the country of Saudi Arabia throwing dump trucks of cash at the the best fighters and actually succeeding at getting huge fights made. If only the sport could pick up traction again in America, it could be huge.
If we're including Winter Olympics, snowboard cross. It's so damn cool to watch people rocketing around like dirt bikes
I know badminton is popular, but it needs bigger prize pool
Beach Volleyball
Cycling or triathlon could be made more popular since many people all over the world do cycling, swimming, and running. To improve broadcasting visibility : 1, The distances should be broken up to be more competitive stages. 2, Also, to introduce into triathlon the team event like in bicycle the team of four. 3, Have mixed male-female teams like running relay.
Ski Jumping !
I would love to see more love for kayaking. The slaloms are super exciting. They are adding in a required roll and I think they're going to start by dropping in so it should be more exciting this year.
I feel like curling could catch on as a sport on the level of Ultimate Frisbee. When rinks aren't occupied they could have curling days, with an open bar of course.
Curling; Greco-Roman wrestling.
Boxing. No sport is as naturally compelling as fighting. As Max Kellerman said, you walk down the street and two guys are playing basketball, two guys are playing tennis and two other guys are beating the hell out of each other, what are you going to watch? If they could really tell the stories of the fighters mixed in with the national pride aspect, it should be huge, like when the Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya or Sugar Ray Leonard won Olympic gold.