My unpopular Olympic take.

[EACarlson]

My wife and I were arguing about this today. It is my opinion that a sport should not be in the Olympics if it has subjective criteria for who wins. I understand that there are many popular sports that are included currently that would no longer be around if I had my way, and many more would have to have their systems changed, or changed back to comply. There are so many complaints every Olympiad about the judging in various sports, let's get rid of them all.

 

[LuvOrlando]

What I'm hearing is that you feel it would be more appropriate to have sports which are most fair to remove the human influence on the results. Thinking on it I am wondering isn't everything subjective though? I mean, interpretation of rules would mean there is always a way for bias to get into the mix. Also, what rules you leave in or take away creates bias even if the rules are intended to promote fairness unintentionally create bias.

 

[EACarlson]

Officiating is going to occur, but the determination of the winner should not be left entirely to the minds of judges. If you look at all of the team sports, officiating is a necessity but you still have concrete rules on gets awarded points. Some sports like gymnastics have moved more towards that.

 

[Jennasis]

No. Sorry. I side with your wife.

 

[JaxDad]

 

[sam_gordon]

I feel the athletes should be amateurs. If you get paid for participating in your sport, you shouldn't qualify for the Olympics.

 

[RedAngie]

And they added even MORE subjectively judged events: surfing, rock climbing!!!, and maybe another.

 

[ronandannette]

Officiating is going to occur, but the determination of the winner should not be left entirely to the minds of judges. If you look at all of the team sports, officiating is a necessity but you still have concrete rules on gets awarded points. Some sports like gymnastics have moved more towards that.

I must say much of the frustration in watching these sports is not knowing exactly how subjective judging criteria are applied, which often makes the outcome baffling and disappointing. It’s much more exhilarating and satisfying to see a racer lunge across the finish line or a team score last-minute points to take the match.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

I feel the athletes should be amateurs. If you get paid for participating in your sport, you shouldn't qualify for the Olympics.

Disagree as I want to see the best in the world go head to head.

 

[1GoldenSun]

I don't know about objectivity vs subjectivity, but I think we're getting carried away with adding new sports. There are SO MANY activities that involve a high degree of athleticism, and could be called "sports," but they can't ALL be Olympic sports. When yoga is an Olympic event is when I'll stop watching. And I like yoga.

 

[ronandannette]

I feel the athletes should be amateurs. If you get paid for participating in your sport, you shouldn't qualify for the Olympics.

I couldn’t agree more.

 

[SirDuff]

And they added even MORE subjectively judged events: surfing, rock climbing!!!, and maybe another.

Which of the rock climbing events is subjective? When I read through them, I thought that they were all speed or distance/height based.

 

[mrs. magoo]

I love the Olympics both the winter and the summer. I love to watch and cheer for the athletes. I don't care if they are paid or not. I appreciate how hard they have worked to reach this accomplishment. My son rowed in college and his former teammates' brother is rowing in the Olympics. I have meet an Olympian. My son rowed against an Olympian and his boat beat them once. Justin has given up so much to have this moment that I can't wait to watch him on Sunday. To answer the original question - everything is subjective. I say let them play.

 

[sam_gordon]

Disagree as I want to see the best in the world go head to head.

Each sport (ok, most) already HAS competitions that pit the best in the world.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

Each sport (ok, most) already HAS competitions that pit the best in the world.

I think if you dug into that you would find that most have some type of endorsement deal that pays them for participating in their sport.

The only exception was college athletes because of the NCAA restrictions but that changed at the beginning of the month.

 

[ronandannette]

I think if you dug into that you would find that most have some type of endorsement deal that pays them for participating in their sport.

The only exception was college athletes because of the NCAA restrictions but that changed at the beginning of the month.

Far from most, at least not in the way we think of individual corporate sponsorship. Our National Olympic Program for training and development supports many athletes who simply couldn’t afford to train otherwise, although a lot of the funds do come from large corporate donors.

 

[georgina]

I feel the athletes should be amateurs. If you get paid for participating in your sport, you shouldn't qualify for the Olympics.

I agree, especially with sports like basketball. I know many countries have an NBA player or two these days, but I actively cheer against the US team because it is so unfair.

 

[mrodgers]

Technically it is the "Olympic Games", correct? Team "sports" should be the only ones in the Olympics because they aren't sports. "Sports" like hockey, soccer, rugby, football, basketball, baseball are not sports. They are games. Individuals competing against each other are sports. Figure skating, gymnastics, and like judged sports should not be in the "Olympic Games" because they are not games. Running, jumping, skiing, speed skating, bicycling, and like competitions, are all sports, should not be in the "Olympic Games."

 

[soccerdad72]

I think a large part of why many people (including me) have issues with judged events is that the vast majority of people watching these sports (let's face it, how many people watch most of these sports more than once every four years?) don't really understand what judges are looking for.

I mean, if I'm watching diving, per se, and see one diver make no splash and another one have a little splash, I'm going to think that the first diver would have a better score, not realizing that the two dives they just did are different degrees of difficulty. As one example.

There are so few sports that don't have some level of subjectiveness involved. Even sports like basketball and soccer can greatly depend on officiating.

 

[sam_gordon]

I think if you dug into that you would find that most have some type of endorsement deal that pays them for participating in their sport.

As PP said, I doubt MOST have an endorsement. But, if I were making the rules, it would be a simple question... are you getting paid for participating in your sport? I don't know about other countries, but the US Soccer and Basketball teams immediately come to mind. Those are professionals.

The only exception was college athletes because of the NCAA restrictions but that changed at the beginning of the month.

Don't get me started on that.