Dumb Olympic sports

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**generalgrog**

OK so I was watching a bit of the olympics this year. So I was watching the figure skating and thought to myself, I'm really watching "dancing on ice". It's not a true sport!... it's dancing. When are the summer olympics going to allow disco dancing or break dancing in as a sport? It's almost the same thing.

So having said that.. here goes my list of dumb olympic sports. Not in any particular order.

Ice dancing (a.k.a Figure skating)
Curling (come on is it really a sport?)
Synchonized water dancing (a.k.a. synchonrized swimming)
Speed walking (don't "walk" too fast or your really jogging!)
Badminton (I mean really, badminton? why not horse shoes or croquette?)
Horse dancing (a.k.a Dressage)
Ribbon Dancing(a.k.a. rhytmic gymnastics)

GG

**whatwhat**

Why only olympic sports? Darts needs a mention, if you can call that a sport.

Badminton, while not my thing, I don't really see as dumb. I also see an imense amount of physical skill in "ice dancing" as you call it. Fair point on everything else.

**theocd**

Badminton? What's wrong with Badminton? Boxing, making someone fall over when you punch them. Badminton, making someone fall over when you fire feathers at them.

The OC-D

**Albatross**

Yeah, I play Badminton occasionally - but in general, most Olympic sports are a bit daft aren't they? Isn't that the point?

Most sports are quite daft when you think about it - 'kicking an air-filled bladder about' and 'running really fast' spring to mind.

**SilverMK2**

If it has a subjective score system, it is not a sport.

**Kilkrazy**

Nearly anything can be a sport, so long as the players enjoy it and it contains an element of physical skill.

When it becomes competitive it doesn't really make sense without some kind of objective scoring.

**Flashman**

I thought throwing yourself headfirst down an ice slide on a teatray at 90mph was pretty dumb...

...and then we won a gold medal in it, so now "Yay, Skeleton!"

**Shaman**

All sports are dumb when you think about it.

Doesn't stop them being fun. Or not..

**dogma**

Badminton is pretty intense at upper level competition, same with table tennis.

Curling is tough as well, if not in the sense of being tiring.

**squilverine**

I think most of these daft sports come about when countries are no good at an existing sport, so rather than train for years they just make up a new one.

Where I come from "curling" is slang for taking a poo. When I first heard there was an olympic sport of the same name I honestly thought "I could be an athelete".

**Albatross**

@Dogma - I dunno mate, all that lunging during a curling match? I bet it's murder on the arse. So to speak.

**dogma**

Yeah, I could see that. If nothing else being able to push off those blocks must take decent flexibility.

But yeah, worst sport ever? Competitive speed walking. Just run damn you!

**Flashman**

I'd like to give a nod to those "Olympic sports" where the people who are usually really good at it, turn up and apparently can't do it for toffee... or possibly don't really give a damn about winning a gold medal cos there's no money in it. Tennis and football being the obvious examples.

**dogma**

The American Basketball team is similarly filled with fail, at least intermittently.

**Kid_Kyoto**

Come on is anything as dumb as first you ski then you shoot then you ski?

Why not mix the 1500 meter dash wtih skeet shooting! or how about a 1k swim with an archery match in the middle? Or maybe a soccer game where you stop and throw javelins for a while?

Mixing 2 unrelated games DOES NOT equal a new sport.

**dogma**

I've always wanted to see short track speed curling.

**Flashman**

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Come on is anything as dumb as first you ski then you shoot then you ski?

Why not mix the 1500 meter dash wtih skeet shooting! or how about a 1k swim with an archery match in the middle? Or maybe a soccer game where you stop and throw javelins for a while?

Mixing 2 unrelated games DOES NOT equal a new sport.

KK wins the thread

**Albatross**

Competitive Air-Hockey.

I would quite like to watch Olympic Arm-Wrestling, too. I tend to be fairly good at sports you can do whilst sitting down.

**squilverine**

How about some sort of Dakka olympics?

What sort of events do you think we could come up with?

I vote for dwarf tossing (as in throwing)

**Flashman**

I think most would do pretty well at Off Topic Rambling

**dogma**

Albatross wrote:I tend to be fairly good at sports you can do whilst sitting down.

Sixteen ounce curls?

**Albatross**

@Dogma - Let's be clear: are you talking about poo?

**dogma**

Pints, but I here you can use cups for poo as well.

**Albatross**

Not in my local!

**generalgrog**

OK guys....back OT please.

GG

**khuffy**

really they should take some of the horrible sports and replace them with better ones. . . . ski/shoot(don't know real name) replaced with. . . .GLADIATORIAL COMBAT, in the arena!

**Huffy**

KHuffy's post should actually be attributed to me. . . .he logged in when I wasn't watching

**Guitardian**

I was just writing an article on much curling rocks just because it does. Its like watching a couple of terribly animated housewives. Why they have synchronized swimming but still give no cred to skateboarding is beyond me. Skaters are some of the most talented, agile, creative athletes on earth, and are way more fun to watch than greco-roman wrestlers or curlers, but they never get invited to the olympics (probably because of drug laws).

**barlio**

Curling is great. After I had first heard of it I thought that it was a terrible idea, but after watching several games this weekend I realized that it takes a lot of skill to perfectly place the rock (the giant puck thing). The best Curlers are also older. That leads me to believe that it is a sport that takes a lot longer to master.

Speed walking is an awful idea though.

**generalgrog**

Guitardian wrote:.... Why they have synchronized swimming but still give no cred to skateboarding is beyond me. Skaters are some of the most talented, agile, creative athletes on earth, and are way more fun to watch than greco-roman wrestlers or curlers, but they never get invited to the olympics (probably because of drug laws).

Not a big skateboard fan but agree with the point. They allready have winter skateboarding with snowbaording. It's basically the same concept.

GG