This issue really evokes my emotions, because of how much I love sports. I think sports are a vitally important part of the human experience. I guess dance is, too, but we’re not talking about dance, in and of itself.
Dance isn’t a sport. Period. Ever. Nobody can change my mind about this. Dance is potentially expressive, beautiful, socially useful, entertaining, etc. But it IS NOT A FUCKING SPORT.
Only sports should be in the goddamned Olympics, and shoving non-sports into the mix is shameful and disgusting. It’s a wad of spit in the face of every great athlete who has ever taken the field. It’s a disgrace to the Ancient Greek tradition that the Olympics are attempting to continue.
I don’t give a fuck that there are already competitions for breakdancing. Or ballroom dancing. People can hold competitions for whatever they want. I actually think competitions shouldn’t be held for entirely subjective and artistic activities, but people can do whatever the fuck they want.
But not in the fucking Olympics. This shit makes me sick.
And before you start pointing out the other subjective, judged events that are already in the Olympics: THEY SHOULD ALL BE REMOVED, TOO. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. NONE OF THEM BELONG.
No more gymnastics (rhythmic or otherwise). No more figure skating and ice dancing. No more skateboarding. No more surfing. No more synchronized swimming. No more freestyle skiing. No more diving. No more BMX. No more ANYTHING that requires judging.
You might browbeat me into admitting that some of those subjectively judged activities are sports, but you will never convince me that they belong in the Olympics.
Olympic sports should be restricted to those which are determined by means of a clock, a measuring tape, the accumulation of OBJECTIVELY scored points, or a physical beating.
Even some of those should be on the chopping block. Some of the points-scoring events are too subjective. If a sport relies too much on fallible human judging, it should be excluded.
The vast majority of the events should be arbitrated only by the cold, merciless, absolute judgment of the clock or the measuring tape. Therein lies the truest purity of sport.
Honestly, the best thing to do would be to reset everything to the REAL tradition of the Olympics. Almost nothing, other than running, jumping, and fighting. With an absolute minimum of rules to get in the way, and all the athletes competing in the nude. Just sandals on their feet. No space-age materials to help anyone. Nothing for anyone to hide. Just human muscle and determination, on display at the greatest possible level.
But it’s all a forlorn dream. Instead, we have to have our stomachs turned, as a bunch of revolting little shitheads wobble and headspin.
The ancient Olympians are going to be spinning in their fucking graves.
EDIT: YES, I AM AWARE THAT THE FIRST COUPLE MODERN OLYMPICS FEATURED NON-SPORT ACTIVITIES, LIKE SCULPTURE AND PAINTING. THAT DOESN’T CHANGE MY VIEW. INCLUDING ART IN THE MODERN OLYMPICS WAS A RIDICULOUS MISTAKE. JUST BECAUSE IT WAS DONE BEFORE DOESN’T MEAN IT SHOULD BE DONE NOW.
Couple of questions… Why does it matter to you that some people consider it a sport? Does the very idea being contrary to your opinion, make the sports you consider as such any less sports? The first antique olympics had horse racing. Where does shooting, curling, archery, golf, equestrian, etc, fit in this definition? If no, why does dance bother you so much all of a sudden, and why not as much anger towards them?
What’s that “Ancient Greek tradition” you seem to want to protect the purity of, and why does or should it matter? There’s been events that were added, tested out, and many removed subsequently, throughout the olympics’ history. It’s not the first time some event doesn’t make unanimity as far as everyone liking the event. Some people threw a hissy fit when snowboarding and later skateboarding were included, for example. Who gets to decide if an event fits in there? Is the practice of trying it out and reevaluating next olympics that terrible?
It’s not like modern olympics are some sacred and pure untouchable event underlining human performance for the sake of it. Unless you’ve avoided the subject on purpose, which would be surprising considering your position here, the CIO itself isn’t made out of saints doing it all for the love of sports either…
There’s no problem with horse racing. It is judged by the clock. It is objective.
As I said in my post I WANT ALL THE SUBJECTIVELY JUDGED EVENTS OUT. NOT JUST THE DANCE-RELATED ONES. That means a lot of the team sports, too, because many of them have FAR too many finnicky, subjectively-interpreted rules.
I think the Olympics should only include sports arbitrated by THE CLOCK or THE MEASURING TAPE or THE LAST OPPONENT LEFT STANDING.
Did you not read any of this in my post? Did you really just read the title?
I was ready to downvite you but decided to not vote at all. I don’t necessarily agree with you but I appreciate you being consistent in your ideas. Before I read the body of the text I assumed you would be mad at breakdancers but ok with gymnasts, which would have earned you a downvite for hypocrisy but now I see that you have a more specific view on this after reading everything. Fair enough.
The fact that you actually read the body of my post (rather than accuse me of hypocrisy after just reading the title) gives me the slight amount of hope that will keep me going, to further torture myself by being on the Internet for another day.
So, like, I don’t know whether to thank you or insult you. :P
My question was more about how does it pass as a “sport” in your eyes while dance doesn’t? Equestrian as a whole also absolutely has judge/point based events, and isn’t limited to racing horses.
Literally none of the ones you quoted (“shooting, curling, archery, golf, equestrian, etc”) are judged particularly subjectively though, so not sure how your… very loud and angry answer relates to the question I asked. It’s also a pretty wide ask, and I’m curious how you suggest this would go. I honestly can’t think of many sports that doesn’t have some level of subjective judgement in certain situations outside pure athleticism, so aren’t you basically just conflating athleticism and sports as far as olympics goes, and that’s it? Can’t think of much more subjective than being at the whim of a horse’s health, fitness and good will, for example.
Based on what? There were a couple of questions I literally asked in my previous comment that would have helped clearing your views on this, for example, regarding why you feel the olympics as an event have this sanctity or aura that needs protecting.
You’re saying this, while having skipped most of the questions I asked, most of them exactly in response to the things you’re now saying I didn’t read. Note how my previous comment was purposefully a bunch of questions rather than me posing an opinion. I was merely trying to poke at the limits of your reasoning, to see if there are counter-arguments to be made.
Even re-reading my previous comment, I still feel like most of them were specifically on things you did not address in your original post. I therefore have a lot of trouble assuming anything but that you’re not looking to have a conversation but to have people to shout at, which I’m not interested in at all…