Quote:
Originally Posted by Thetagirl218
And they want to kick out baseball and softball....
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Re: baseball and softball, I actually understand their rationale somewhat. There are some misconceptions that led to the sports getting thrown out but also some more legitimate concerns.
First, baseball and softball are really not popular in many parts of the world. They are popular in Japan, US, and Latin America... less so elsewhere. In fact as a world sport cricket is probably just as popular as baseball (and they are trying to get cricket recognized for the Olympics, btw).
Secondly, the IOC became aware of the major US MLB doping issues and sort of overreacted to that. They've become so paranoid about doping, and they began to see it as a sport that is particularly likely to have doping going on. Of course, MLB players aren't eligible for the Olympics anyway (which, incidentally and paradoxically, is another problem the IOC had), but still (and I assume some college players prob. dope too).
The softball issue IMO wasn't as fair because they kicked out softball just because it was the "female complement" to baseball, which isn't totally accurate. Softball doesn't have some of the problems that baseball was perceived to have by the IOC.
Of course, another supposed issue is that no one can ever beat the Americans at softball in the Olympics.
The IOC gets a lot of crap for being anti-American. I sort of follow IOC policy half-heartedly (
www.gamesbids.com, y'all), and I think they really WANT to be anti-American but they can't - everyone knows the Olympics and the IOC itself are way too beholden to American dollars to be truly anti-American.
ETA:
My two favorite crazy former Olympic Events?
Tug of War (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tug_of_...ummer_Olympics)
AND
Men's Team Gymnastics (Free System) (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnast...m,_free_system)
Definitely click on the second link. The photo is hilarious.
ETA 2: One of my favorite links to a video mocking/celebrating cultural differences in sports:
http://www.theonion.com/content/vide...y_just_give_me
And dang, those sepak tekraw players are off the hook!
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