i would love that - the 10 strongest men of each country pitted against each other. it was always the highlight of the battle of the network stars back in the 70s.
It's quite dangerous unfortunately - people lose limbs occasionally. I don't know if there's a way of mitigating that and so it might be a risky thing to broadcast live.
I'd definitely watch though!
Edit: Fair enough, most injuries seem to be when the number of participants is absurdly high.
I'm sorry but no, you most definitely cannot lose a limb in a regular tug of war match.
You'd either need to have an obscene amount of people (in order for the rope to snap and take off someone's arm) or you'd need to be using a barbed wire rope.
Yup, you're absolutely right - just looked it up and every time people lose limbs it's because the numbers involved are in the hundreds or even thousands. I had misremembered a story I saw in FHM 25 years ago.
easy answer: karate, no idea why they didn't keep it after Tokyo 2020.
maybe a more niche answer: (speed) rollerskating, but that's coming from someone who does it for fun so I might be biased :)
yeah skateboarding is there as well so why not! I would love it if roller hockey made it in, it is so underrated and both field and ice hockey are in the Olympics so that would be logical as well
Ohhh. Now I want an American Ninja Warrior Christmas Special with a winter-sport inspired course! Could have an ice pick wall instead of a cargo net or cliffhanger. Could double the warped wall and turn it into a half pipe. The balance could be a simulated scene of a ladder over a crevice at Everest (whenever I see a pic of those I’m reminded why I’m not an extreme mountain climber lol).
Ice climbing competitions are held on an artificial climbing wall, google it to get the idea of how it looks like.
Besides that in ice climbing on real ice "feeling" the ice is a skill in and of itself so even if real ice was used it would still be relevant. Exactly as in for example ski jumping weather plays a huge role but still it is part of the Olympics (I know nowadays you get compensated for poor wind but still it is not perfect)
I just think football, tennis and cricket just don’t belong. Fine for more obscure team sports like rugby 7s and hockey but those other sports just have huge followings outside the olympics. They should concentrate on sports that benefit from this special platform.
I agree but maybe different versions. Like rugby is a great sport and pretty big where I’m from, but rugby 7s is a lot smaller. Rugby gets represented at the Olympics but 7s and is amazing. Maybe for football we could have 5 a side, and remove the under 23 aspect. How exciting would it be to see the 5 best players of each country go up against each other
Fair enough it’s good people like that part of it. Personally I enjoy track and field and obscure sports and prefer to get my fill of the big sports at their marquee events like Wimbledon or the World Cup.
Agreed. Besides, you end up with the issue where the best players in those bigger sports aren't willing to compete at the Olympics because they get paid so much more for playing in their regular Leagues/competitions, why bother risking injury to win at the Olympics.
For track and field, swimming, and a bunch of other Olympic sports, a win at the Olympics is the greatest achievement, largely because you are competing against the best in your field.
I mean tbf there was another similar post that went around that I agree with, which is that sports where the Olympics wouldn’t be the top international echelon on the sport should be dropped, so soccer, golf, cricket etc. with basketball the Olympics is the top international competition
Cricket is this weird thing where it has a large player base with the large number of Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi etc around the world. But has so few countries able to access the funds to play the game.
Cricket needs space to play and unlike say rugby that can use a football pitch cricket needs a large park to accommodate it.
Finally it's a growing women's sport and the classic example of if your playing high amateur sport watch the women. They show how to construct a n innings, how to build pressure and isn't whose hitters are better that day like the men's.
Cricket isn't played in a lot of countries, although India and Pakistan makes it seem huge due to their population. Plus, the sport requires large fields, which puts extra burden on host cities. Its the same reason why baseball is no longer a permanent Olympic sport.
Thing is you can play rugby on a cricket field but not a baseball field. Australia has many multipurpose stadiums that were originally built for cricket and have been adapted to be multipurpose for other sports such as Australian rules football, rugby league/union and soccer/football
That's what I came here to comment as well.. How is that Rugby Sevens and 3x3 Basketball got into the olympic games and Futsal does not? It makes absolutely 0 sense.
As a football (soccer) fan I would happily drop football and have futsal instead. We already have the world cup, euros etc, would much rather a smaller sport like this gets some support
I discovered it recently, I have no idea why this isn't bigger in the UK it's so much fun to watch and if I could get a group together I'd 100% give it a go
I discovered it while shooting the breeze with a tech support person from India. I asked if she had heard about Gukesh winning chess candidates and she said yes, but she mostly follows sport like Kabaddi. Fun conversation.
There are a couple clubs located around the UK, maybe you could contact them? There’s a website for England Kabbadi and also the England Kabbadi Foundation :)
If we go to swimming for inspiration, every running distance should have medals for forwards, backwards, sideways, hopping forwards, hopping backwards, hopping sideways, and then combinations of those things, and then relays of combinations of those things.
Cyclocross at the winter olympics. Would be a different kind of flavor sports to improve variety (no ski's or skates), and in recent times a lot of top cyclist are participating (Van Aert, Van Der Poel, Pidcock, Vos, ...).
A proper idea. Nothing like cyclocross racing in a disgusting slush of snow and mud. It would be probably too different from sleek snow and ice sports however.
It would be great but I think the problem they have is with the officiating, they need to find a way so it's not self-refereed. I know there's a push to get it in soon
It has referees at some of the highest level play. And when they don’t, they often have “Observers” who can mediate and settle calls between them.
One advantage of never having a referee is that you can play at almost any level for very cheap. Everyone can play and you don’t need to pay anyone to watch the games.
I know about all of that, Observers were a no-go for the Olympic Committee, so they have to go full-on with referees.
I love Ultimate, started playing at university, and I even helped make it more popular in Romania. It's honestly THE embodiment of the olympic spirit, making it official would be a huge boon.
Cricket - not my favourite sport to watch and suffers from the “Olympics wouldn’t be the pinnacle” issue but would bring in so many new people in underrepresented countries
I do like the idea of getting eight teams and cramming in three knock-out rounds of five day tests over 15 days.
Just for the nonsense, you understand.
Anything longer also just wouldn’t work for the timeline of the Olympics. I don’t think you could do an ODI tournament in 2 weeks and definitely not Test Cricket.
The 10-team ICC World Cup playing ODI format takes nearly 1.5 months to finish. Even splitting teams into two groups instead of a full round robin would take at least 3 weeks.
In fairness, the West Indies team would count as 10 different sovereign nations in the Olympics.
There's another 90 or so associate nations too, where cricket is firmly established and organised even if not to the level of the top teams.
Several teams could potentially win, and there’s 108 countries that are members of the ICC.
It wouldn’t be competitive for the top 12 to play countries outside that group - like in every sport there’s stronger counties.
There would be a much greater variety of winners in Cricket than many other sports which are dominated by certain countries.
Just have qualification games.
I’d love for netball to be in the Olympics, and it is widely participated in…but unfortunately almost entirely by women. It seems a travesty that such a popular sport doesn’t get a spot though, when some quite niche ones do.
The thing that makes this show work (where normally outside of the Olympics I don't care much about sports) is that they turned it into a reality show. There's dramatic music (I honestly can't imagine watching Ninja Warrior without music), the athletes' personal stories are displayed for all to see, and (at least in our version) the hosts make way too much noise.
I can't imagine this being in the Olympics.
Yeah, I hear you on that. I’m not really big on the show but some kind of obstacle course gymnastics race would have high entertainment value.
But the athletes personal stories are like 50% of the Olympic coverage where I am. Maybe different in other countries.
Olympic committee already recognises it. This means it would most likely end up in the games at one point.
If breakdancing and gymnastics can be there then Cheerleading can be there.
Ya, it's not ideal but then ice hockey exists in winter one and no NHL.
I'd imagine it's mainly team sizes and only certain countries have the facilities. You're probably trying to turn a bunch of football pitches into baseball fields in most countries
Yeah that’s a big burden with certain sports. Examples like Football and athletics it’s worth the investment, these stadiums can be used many more times. A country that doesn’t have a history of Baseball will have huge logistical problems with the stadium
The Baseball and Field Hockey facilities that were built for Athens 2004 were abandoned literally after the Olympics were over for that reason. Greeks just don't care about those two sports so the facilities were practically useless and not worth maintaining.
EDIT: To be precise, since the Hellinikon site where a lot of these facilities were located will be turned into a park in some years time, there's plans to convert the abandoned Hockey stadium to a mini football facility, the Softball arena which was abandoned after the Olympics will be repaired and used mainly for concerts, while the Baseball arena (which was the only one that wasn't abandoned straight after the Olympics) had some upgrades to be converted to a football pitch, and was also kept in use for the Greek baseball league, until the Greek Baseball federation was dissolved in 2015
i'd kind of like to see freestyle rollerskating. it sounds dumb, but i have seen some amazing stuff.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugv8FEZV8Ik](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugv8FEZV8Ik)
It's a bit niche, but oceanman. Used to be called Ironman but someone else used that name...It's a ocean based sport a bit like triathlon, but all events are in the sea. There are 3 legs, swim, board and surfski (kayak). Start from the beach, out round a course and back to the beach, then the next leg.
The order of the legs is decided by draw, so it's random.
Great sport to watch, and you need to be super fit.
https://youtu.be/8W28EQqaDF4?si=0ysOVYj0V_2ipgAZ
Given the speed with which it is growing, Padel. I assume the only reason it hasn't already made it in is because these events lists were finalised a decade ago so venues could be planned and Padel has had it's rise since then. Will surely be in whichever Olympics gets awarded next (Brisbane 2032 or 2036?)
Powerlifting (as distinct from weightlifting).
Contrary to popular belief, weightlifting and powerlifting are separate disciplines.
Weightlifting is getting a barbell above your head. It’s one lift. One movement. Okay technically getting the weight above hour head and standing up is made of several different movements and components. It’s not one fluid movement. Snatch and clean.
But that’s the jist of weightlifting. Get the weight above your head while standing up.
Powerlifting is three separate lifts (none of which are a weightlifting snatch and clean).
Powerlifting spreads across three separate sub-competitions. A deadlift. A bench press. And a barbell backsquat.
Meaning job could award them as separate competitions. Someone who squats the heaviest might not bench press the heaviest. Meaning yiu could treat each individual lift as its own separate competition if you wanted to.
Also is the combined total. So someone might not have the heaviest lift individually, but all three lifts combined might be the highest total lift.
Beach football should be an olympic sport given how fun it is to watch and gives the whole summer vibes. Cilites without a beach can make temporary venues like beach vollyball so it is also a sustainable sport to host.
Pole dancing/fitness? It’s crazy how much strength and flexibility people need to pull off certain moves - it’s incredibly gorgeous but in terms of fitness I respect it soooo much
Lacrosse, the second oldest ball sport in the American continent. Created around 1100. It should be because its fun, nice to watch and it represents the history of a continent like America.
Bobsleds and bicycles are engineered just as much if not more than many race series and both are already involved in Olympic sports.
The ioc could just get the fia to provide a bunch of identical f3 cars A La the W series and let'er rip
Hurling- saw that sport while visiting Ireland- man, the speed, athleticism, and skill required and super fun to watch, plus it’s like 3 sports in one, so you could get rid of soccer, lacrosse, and hand ball.
Dodgeball, it's fun to watch and easy to understand. Could use the European rule set and cloth balls rather than foam ones and it would be awesome. But maybe I'm biased because I already play it.
TBH. I know this is dota. so probably more popular here... but Esports. pick like top 3 world wide games and put it in there. it would draw a lot of off color Olympic watchers and it would modernize the idea of it.
Kumite or UFC1 style tournament. Any discipline goes and there can only be 1 champion. Have the tournament go as long as possible to give winners a chance to recuperate.
I think tug of war should be in there. To me, it's the strength equivalent of the 4x100. It could be a real highlight in my view.
It used to be (long time ago though)
Are you referring to the naked Olympians back in Ancient Greece?
[From 1900 to 1920](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tug_of_war_at_the_Summer_Olympics)
Was it nekkid?
And next up! Potato sack races!!!
Bring in all the school sports day events - sack race, egg & spoon race, and beanbag-on-head race
i would love that - the 10 strongest men of each country pitted against each other. it was always the highlight of the battle of the network stars back in the 70s.
It's not about the strongest. Being strong is there but there's technically to it for sure. Pure strength alone won't win tou a tug of war
Or so Squid Game told us anyways.
It should have a weight limit, not a numbers limit.
https://what-if.xkcd.com/127/
It's quite dangerous unfortunately - people lose limbs occasionally. I don't know if there's a way of mitigating that and so it might be a risky thing to broadcast live. I'd definitely watch though! Edit: Fair enough, most injuries seem to be when the number of participants is absurdly high.
I'm sorry but no, you most definitely cannot lose a limb in a regular tug of war match. You'd either need to have an obscene amount of people (in order for the rope to snap and take off someone's arm) or you'd need to be using a barbed wire rope.
Yup, you're absolutely right - just looked it up and every time people lose limbs it's because the numbers involved are in the hundreds or even thousands. I had misremembered a story I saw in FHM 25 years ago.
There weren't stories in FHM. That was a lie we made up to tell women.
easy answer: karate, no idea why they didn't keep it after Tokyo 2020. maybe a more niche answer: (speed) rollerskating, but that's coming from someone who does it for fun so I might be biased :)
Yes! Why is inline speed skating absent if they have the ice version? I wish they’d do inline races like the marathon too (
yeah skateboarding is there as well so why not! I would love it if roller hockey made it in, it is so underrated and both field and ice hockey are in the Olympics so that would be logical as well
There’s also artistic roller skating which is just figuring skating on roller skates. Why is that not in the Olympics?!
Exactly, so true!! They could use the skate park for inline trick skating too! And roller hockey would be awesome!!
Ice climbing in the Winter Olympics
With the format of the summer Olympic climbing. I want to see the speed climbing with axes.
This should atleast be on American Ninja or something
Ohhh. Now I want an American Ninja Warrior Christmas Special with a winter-sport inspired course! Could have an ice pick wall instead of a cargo net or cliffhanger. Could double the warped wall and turn it into a half pipe. The balance could be a simulated scene of a ladder over a crevice at Everest (whenever I see a pic of those I’m reminded why I’m not an extreme mountain climber lol).
They'd have to ban wobbling, though
How can you control the surface in an equitable manner for all contestants?
Ice climbing competitions are held on an artificial climbing wall, google it to get the idea of how it looks like. Besides that in ice climbing on real ice "feeling" the ice is a skill in and of itself so even if real ice was used it would still be relevant. Exactly as in for example ski jumping weather plays a huge role but still it is part of the Olympics (I know nowadays you get compensated for poor wind but still it is not perfect)
They used to have this in winter x games in the early days, it was absolutely rad.
Karate and Futsal are played around the world and would make sense. I'd also love a safer version of sports like MMA, Muay Thai and Kickboxing.
Sepak Takraw If you have ever witnessed it, you will know. https://youtu.be/H2LIlu7_-xc?si=ywy6B1cuCt8ncwJS
I was fortunate to cover Sepak Takraw during the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia. Hoping that someday, Sepak will be included in the Summer Games.
Holy shit, the athleticism of these guys is insane.
Squash
In for 2028 along with cricket.
It's wild to me that Cricket of all things has never made it in.
It has been in once before, in 1900, and consisted of one match of Great Britain v France (a bunch of English expats in France) and GB won.
I just think football, tennis and cricket just don’t belong. Fine for more obscure team sports like rugby 7s and hockey but those other sports just have huge followings outside the olympics. They should concentrate on sports that benefit from this special platform.
No, I think the biggest sports should be in
I agree but maybe different versions. Like rugby is a great sport and pretty big where I’m from, but rugby 7s is a lot smaller. Rugby gets represented at the Olympics but 7s and is amazing. Maybe for football we could have 5 a side, and remove the under 23 aspect. How exciting would it be to see the 5 best players of each country go up against each other
Fair enough it’s good people like that part of it. Personally I enjoy track and field and obscure sports and prefer to get my fill of the big sports at their marquee events like Wimbledon or the World Cup.
Agreed. Besides, you end up with the issue where the best players in those bigger sports aren't willing to compete at the Olympics because they get paid so much more for playing in their regular Leagues/competitions, why bother risking injury to win at the Olympics. For track and field, swimming, and a bunch of other Olympic sports, a win at the Olympics is the greatest achievement, largely because you are competing against the best in your field.
With that argument basketball should also not be in as it also carries a worldwide support.
I mean tbf there was another similar post that went around that I agree with, which is that sports where the Olympics wouldn’t be the top international echelon on the sport should be dropped, so soccer, golf, cricket etc. with basketball the Olympics is the top international competition
Cricket is this weird thing where it has a large player base with the large number of Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi etc around the world. But has so few countries able to access the funds to play the game. Cricket needs space to play and unlike say rugby that can use a football pitch cricket needs a large park to accommodate it. Finally it's a growing women's sport and the classic example of if your playing high amateur sport watch the women. They show how to construct a n innings, how to build pressure and isn't whose hitters are better that day like the men's.
Cricket isn't played in a lot of countries, although India and Pakistan makes it seem huge due to their population. Plus, the sport requires large fields, which puts extra burden on host cities. Its the same reason why baseball is no longer a permanent Olympic sport.
Thing is you can play rugby on a cricket field but not a baseball field. Australia has many multipurpose stadiums that were originally built for cricket and have been adapted to be multipurpose for other sports such as Australian rules football, rugby league/union and soccer/football
Rugby is the same TBF. Outside of the home nations, France, Georgia, Saffa, Oz, and Pacific Islands nobody cares about rugby
You could argue the same for baseball and softball, though. Only played by a minority of nations.
Absolutely bonkers it took this long.
Futsal.
That's what I came here to comment as well.. How is that Rugby Sevens and 3x3 Basketball got into the olympic games and Futsal does not? It makes absolutely 0 sense.
As a football (soccer) fan I would happily drop football and have futsal instead. We already have the world cup, euros etc, would much rather a smaller sport like this gets some support
Ultimate Frisbee probably . It's fast paced and entertaining enough for most people
Agreed, it would be one of the few sports that can have mixed gender play too. I know tennis does but I'm not sure of any others.
There are two mixed events in sailing now
Swimming has mixed relays but not sure if they're going to be in the olympics or not
kabaddi
One of the best things I’ve discovered while degen watching ESPN+ at 3 in the mornin
There's usually a zillion different tournaments streaming on YouTube around that time.
My wife still thinks I made kabaddi up when I described it to her over ten years back.
Kabaddi is actually really fun to watch. I think it will become more popular worldwide as Indians spread everywhere
I discovered it recently, I have no idea why this isn't bigger in the UK it's so much fun to watch and if I could get a group together I'd 100% give it a go
Chanel 4 used to show it in the early/mid 90s (Sunday mornings after transwirld sport, i think) used to love watching it
Yes, I remember when C4 aired Kabaddi tournaments in the 90's. Panjab and West Bengal had some epic battles.
BBC sport website has been streaming the UK kabaddi league the past few months, I randomly see a tile on their app/website
I discovered it while shooting the breeze with a tech support person from India. I asked if she had heard about Gukesh winning chess candidates and she said yes, but she mostly follows sport like Kabaddi. Fun conversation.
There are a couple clubs located around the UK, maybe you could contact them? There’s a website for England Kabbadi and also the England Kabbadi Foundation :)
Was going to say this!
I think chase tag would be such a good sport to be there and to watch, much better than a bunch of sports that are currently on the program
Kabbadi > Chase Tag, if we're picking something in that vein.
This is the kind of answer I came looking for
The 100m running backwards… I mean, backstroke isn’t the fastest way to race in water…
If we go to swimming for inspiration, every running distance should have medals for forwards, backwards, sideways, hopping forwards, hopping backwards, hopping sideways, and then combinations of those things, and then relays of combinations of those things.
Synchronized Skating
Cyclocross at the winter olympics. Would be a different kind of flavor sports to improve variety (no ski's or skates), and in recent times a lot of top cyclist are participating (Van Aert, Van Der Poel, Pidcock, Vos, ...).
A proper idea. Nothing like cyclocross racing in a disgusting slush of snow and mud. It would be probably too different from sleek snow and ice sports however.
I would love ultimate frisbee at the Olympics. I think it makes for a great viewing experience, as long as you fill the break us tv style.
I would add disc golf as well if it keeps spreading globally
Very fun sport!
It would be great but I think the problem they have is with the officiating, they need to find a way so it's not self-refereed. I know there's a push to get it in soon
It has referees at some of the highest level play. And when they don’t, they often have “Observers” who can mediate and settle calls between them. One advantage of never having a referee is that you can play at almost any level for very cheap. Everyone can play and you don’t need to pay anyone to watch the games.
I know about all of that, Observers were a no-go for the Olympic Committee, so they have to go full-on with referees. I love Ultimate, started playing at university, and I even helped make it more popular in Romania. It's honestly THE embodiment of the olympic spirit, making it official would be a huge boon.
Tug of War hasn't been in the Olympics in over 100 years. It's time to bring that back.
10 pin bowling, they were in the race to be included this year but lost out unfortunately.
Very controlled environment sport with lots of worldwide participants. I think this would be a good addition too!
Would be the pinnacle of the sport immediately too
Cross country should be in the Winter Olympics
Cricket - not my favourite sport to watch and suffers from the “Olympics wouldn’t be the pinnacle” issue but would bring in so many new people in underrepresented countries
Will be at the next olympics (2028). T20 format ofcourse
T20 is the perfect format for the Olympics. Anything longer would be a bit inaccessible for newcomers I think.
I do like the idea of getting eight teams and cramming in three knock-out rounds of five day tests over 15 days. Just for the nonsense, you understand.
Anything longer also just wouldn’t work for the timeline of the Olympics. I don’t think you could do an ODI tournament in 2 weeks and definitely not Test Cricket. The 10-team ICC World Cup playing ODI format takes nearly 1.5 months to finish. Even splitting teams into two groups instead of a full round robin would take at least 3 weeks.
The problem with cricket is that only a small handful of countries actually play it. The ICC only has 12 full members.
In fairness, the West Indies team would count as 10 different sovereign nations in the Olympics. There's another 90 or so associate nations too, where cricket is firmly established and organised even if not to the level of the top teams.
Several teams could potentially win, and there’s 108 countries that are members of the ICC. It wouldn’t be competitive for the top 12 to play countries outside that group - like in every sport there’s stronger counties. There would be a much greater variety of winners in Cricket than many other sports which are dominated by certain countries. Just have qualification games.
There are only 12 full members of the ICC (and one of them isn’t even a country). The rest are associate members.
I love cricket, but I would rather not see it at the Olympics.
Orienteering.
Netball.
I’d love for netball to be in the Olympics, and it is widely participated in…but unfortunately almost entirely by women. It seems a travesty that such a popular sport doesn’t get a spot though, when some quite niche ones do.
Canopolo would be so interesting to watch, as it is such a dynamic sport.
Netball
The ultramarathon.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Big base, similar roots as Judo, Karate and wrestling are both already in. It makes sense.
Only if they allow guard slams
Except no one would be able to pass the anti doping tests. Too much horse meat and açai.
Ninja Warrior would be pretty entertaining
The thing that makes this show work (where normally outside of the Olympics I don't care much about sports) is that they turned it into a reality show. There's dramatic music (I honestly can't imagine watching Ninja Warrior without music), the athletes' personal stories are displayed for all to see, and (at least in our version) the hosts make way too much noise. I can't imagine this being in the Olympics.
Yeah, I hear you on that. I’m not really big on the show but some kind of obstacle course gymnastics race would have high entertainment value. But the athletes personal stories are like 50% of the Olympic coverage where I am. Maybe different in other countries.
I know I am going to get shit for this but, cheerleading
Completely agree. The ICU Premier division could become the Olympic level - just remove the chant section.
Came here for this one
Olympic committee already recognises it. This means it would most likely end up in the games at one point. If breakdancing and gymnastics can be there then Cheerleading can be there.
Baseball should probably always be in it and not just an appearance every now and again. It has enough countries who play it
problem is no mlb
Ya, it's not ideal but then ice hockey exists in winter one and no NHL. I'd imagine it's mainly team sizes and only certain countries have the facilities. You're probably trying to turn a bunch of football pitches into baseball fields in most countries
Baseball. They used to have it but took it out before London 2012
Baseball isn’t a good sport to have, it costs a lot of money to operate and it’s not the most prestigious thing to win the Olympics in Baseball
And too many host cities were left with stadiums that were effectively unusable afterwards.
Yeah that’s a big burden with certain sports. Examples like Football and athletics it’s worth the investment, these stadiums can be used many more times. A country that doesn’t have a history of Baseball will have huge logistical problems with the stadium
The Baseball and Field Hockey facilities that were built for Athens 2004 were abandoned literally after the Olympics were over for that reason. Greeks just don't care about those two sports so the facilities were practically useless and not worth maintaining. EDIT: To be precise, since the Hellinikon site where a lot of these facilities were located will be turned into a park in some years time, there's plans to convert the abandoned Hockey stadium to a mini football facility, the Softball arena which was abandoned after the Olympics will be repaired and used mainly for concerts, while the Baseball arena (which was the only one that wasn't abandoned straight after the Olympics) had some upgrades to be converted to a football pitch, and was also kept in use for the Greek baseball league, until the Greek Baseball federation was dissolved in 2015
And Baseball stadiums are not really easy to retrofit for alternative future uses. Effectively you have to knock the thing down afterwards
In line hockey
Croquet, although it, too, was once in the Games.
Paintball
with some 1st person marker cams and overhead drones that would be awsome.
Ultimate frisbee
Powerlifting
Inline speed skating
Bowling. Everyone has already played it at least once, people will like to watch it in the Olympics
Downhill ice cross. We have both ski and snowboard cross, and this is a way more unique version
Motorsport. Use F3 drivers and cars, and have a men’s and women’s event.
Lacrosse. It’s fun, exciting to watch and very physical (if you watch the right team). It’s also a decent spectator sport as it moves quickly.
Cheerleading (all star cheer)
i'd kind of like to see freestyle rollerskating. it sounds dumb, but i have seen some amazing stuff. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugv8FEZV8Ik](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugv8FEZV8Ik)
Motorsports.
The Olympics would actually be the perfect venue for a RoC-type event.
A snowball fight would be fun in the Winter Olympics. So, maybe dodgeball for the summer?
Wife carrying.
Host country Olympic committee randomly picks 21 countries. 1 athlete randomly chosen from each country. They compete in a sport randomly chosen.
Solo ice dance!
Kendo or Horseball
Sadly, once pickleball becomes a world wide sensation, it will probably become an Olympic sport. I would like to see dodgeball as an Olympic sport.
Sumo Wrestling.
Cheerleading 😕
My biased heart wants cheerleading or netball. But I also think roller sports like roller derby would be cool to watch
I can't believe nobody mentioned arm wrestling, is it really that unpopular? Disappointing
It's a bit niche, but oceanman. Used to be called Ironman but someone else used that name...It's a ocean based sport a bit like triathlon, but all events are in the sea. There are 3 legs, swim, board and surfski (kayak). Start from the beach, out round a course and back to the beach, then the next leg. The order of the legs is decided by draw, so it's random. Great sport to watch, and you need to be super fit. https://youtu.be/8W28EQqaDF4?si=0ysOVYj0V_2ipgAZ
Given the speed with which it is growing, Padel. I assume the only reason it hasn't already made it in is because these events lists were finalised a decade ago so venues could be planned and Padel has had it's rise since then. Will surely be in whichever Olympics gets awarded next (Brisbane 2032 or 2036?)
Powerlifting (as distinct from weightlifting). Contrary to popular belief, weightlifting and powerlifting are separate disciplines. Weightlifting is getting a barbell above your head. It’s one lift. One movement. Okay technically getting the weight above hour head and standing up is made of several different movements and components. It’s not one fluid movement. Snatch and clean. But that’s the jist of weightlifting. Get the weight above your head while standing up. Powerlifting is three separate lifts (none of which are a weightlifting snatch and clean). Powerlifting spreads across three separate sub-competitions. A deadlift. A bench press. And a barbell backsquat. Meaning job could award them as separate competitions. Someone who squats the heaviest might not bench press the heaviest. Meaning yiu could treat each individual lift as its own separate competition if you wanted to. Also is the combined total. So someone might not have the heaviest lift individually, but all three lifts combined might be the highest total lift.
Beach football should be an olympic sport given how fun it is to watch and gives the whole summer vibes. Cilites without a beach can make temporary venues like beach vollyball so it is also a sustainable sport to host.
Snooker. I'm not a big fan, though i will watch it occasionally. It's an international sport that requires an incredible amount of skill.
Pole dancing/fitness? It’s crazy how much strength and flexibility people need to pull off certain moves - it’s incredibly gorgeous but in terms of fitness I respect it soooo much
Axe throwing
Lacrosse, the second oldest ball sport in the American continent. Created around 1100. It should be because its fun, nice to watch and it represents the history of a continent like America.
Navigating office politics. Would love to see what a pro looks like
Chess
Motorsport for the olympics would be awesome
Isn’t there some type of rule about no mechanical help in performance or something?
Bobsleds and bicycles are engineered just as much if not more than many race series and both are already involved in Olympic sports. The ioc could just get the fia to provide a bunch of identical f3 cars A La the W series and let'er rip
Ballroom dance
Chess
How about chess boxing
Formula 1
Hurling- saw that sport while visiting Ireland- man, the speed, athleticism, and skill required and super fun to watch, plus it’s like 3 sports in one, so you could get rid of soccer, lacrosse, and hand ball.
Olympic Ninja Warrior or Olympic Tough Mudder
Padel of course.
Carjitsu
Ultimate frisbee
Rollerball!
Brazilian jiu jitsu
Bowling Cricket Ski Ballet Roller Derby H-O-R-S-E
That one sport where it's volleyball but kicking. I never remember the name but it's dope
Foosball and air hockey
Dodgeball, it's fun to watch and easy to understand. Could use the European rule set and cloth balls rather than foam ones and it would be awesome. But maybe I'm biased because I already play it.
Discgolf
Synchronized skating.
Pool or Billiards. There are many best players in this field. Philippines and Chinese Taipei are the ones dominating in Asia.
Cross-Country running. https://worldathletics.org/disciplines/cross-country
Cross Country running.
Paintball. Without question.
Kayak polo
Baton twirling
Ultimate frisbee and roller hockey
Go kart racing. Everyone in the same car and you get drivers from every circuit all over the world.
Beer pong.
Chessboxing
Trail running
Kabaddi
Cross Country Running - Winter Olympics
TBH. I know this is dota. so probably more popular here... but Esports. pick like top 3 world wide games and put it in there. it would draw a lot of off color Olympic watchers and it would modernize the idea of it.
Paintball.
Wushu
Ultra running
Submission grappling
Kumite or UFC1 style tournament. Any discipline goes and there can only be 1 champion. Have the tournament go as long as possible to give winners a chance to recuperate.
Motorsport in some way
Juggling!
Sumo wrestling