The case for downsizing the Olympic Games

id like to see you go for a sail in more than 15 knots on a 49er and tell me the boat does all the work. And plus all the boats are identical.

ts a common misconception that the boat in both sailing and rowing provide a mechanical advantage. For example the 49er class in sailing is completely 1 design. Everyone has the same boat rig and sails. There are factors such as vang cunnigham and a whole lot more that can be changed on the boat, but each sailor has access to these controls. Sailors with more knowledge will know how to tune those settings to make the boat perform better, but that is half of the sport. Fyi sailing is one of the least funded sports in the world atm. sailing receives 19 million (including boats) in funding compared to a whopping 34 million in swimming, which if you ask me is a lot of money for someones swimming costume…

Bob but this is the point is these women are not forced to do boxing these women consent to participating, .

I'm sure this will upset a lot of people, but there are far too many "manly" women's events, and they keep adding more every single Olympics. Women bashing each other in thes heads in is disgusting, and women's power lifting is just gross. Yet, instead of targeting the ever growing number of such events, the writer proposes that Rythmic Gymnastics be eliminated? Interesting. The fact is, even if you have no moral problem with uber-manly women's events, the vast majority of females do not grow up desiring to participate in them, and not because of culture but because of nature. The pool of young women who wish or frankly will ever wish to box or bodybuild or do MMA, etc, is far lower than males and a very small percentage of the female population. Before you get your whatever in a knot, here, I'm not saying reduce the number of women's events but add more women specific events that more young women would actually wish to participate in at all levels. To that end, I would suggest adding more, not less, Rythmic Gymnastics events, as well as competitive dance, cheerleading (not bimbo pro-sports cheerleading but US High School and university level cheer which is a real sport), etc, etc. More activities that are both athletic and feminine. Before people rant that I wish to steer girls into "inferior" activites, I would refute that these things actually are inferior in any way, but beyond that few girls will ever desire to play many of the uber-manly sports such as boxing and this in fact is what's discriminatory against the larger number of young females. Female sport slots are taken by events few females will ever actually wish to participate in.

first thing I would do is dump any sport that has judges awarding a score based on thier interpretation of a performance I would have golf, but have an ambrose event with 2 or 3 players from each country, I would love scores of 15 under for each round, imagine if the US played it safe and had Tiger Woods put the ball in the centre of the fairway at 350m on a par 5 and you still had Bubba Watson and John Daley to hit and they knew they could just go for distance as they already had a ball in the fairway. Teams would be driving 400m+! I would kickout Walking, these guys are the biggest cheats out of any sport, and the so called judges must be turning a blind eye to it, they all have both feet off the ground at the same time. But the biggest change should be allowing only athletes who are good at an event to compete, why have 5 heats of swimming where some guys from Africa are 20seconds off the qualifying time? I would much rather see the top 24 performers in any sport get entry, if all 24 are from the same country then good on them, if some countries miss out the get better. There are too many poor performers who take the spot of great athletes in the name of spreading the word of the games. I would also ban laps of the stadium after each race with a flag. If you want this attention then run down the main street with a flag after you get your medal you bloody posers

Personally I'd like to see the bloated swimming program cut in half. Given it's lack of universality (only really popular in Europe, North America, Japan and Australia) and that it's essentially recreational it doesn't justify twice as many gold medal events as even the biggest of the other sports excluding the blue riband athletics. Yet somehow it has managed to keep inventing new strokes and now has more relays than athletics. Get rid of the medley and butterfly events (just a corruption of the breaststroke) and have individual freestyle (100, 200 & 800/1500m), backstroke (100 & 200m), breaststroke (100 & 200m) together with one 4 x 100m relay each for men and women.

It needs to be noted to all the people who are saying that 7's is like Basketball and Football, remember that many players in in 7's are specialists, and very few play both forms, and come the world cup 2013 for 7's it will be retired and replaced by the Olympic Tournament as their pinicle

Swimming dimishes the Olympic games by number of Golds it throws around. Football under 23s is against what the Olympics are about. Tennis and golf will go where the money is. Equestrian .. 20/20 cricket would be far more Inclusive. Pub darts next to join?

I'll stand up for sailing and the different classes. To the untrained eye the Finn and the Laser might look similar but they sail completely differently and the Finn demands a hell of a lot more muscle and endurance, and allows more tuning. The Star - what can I say? Pissed off its been dropped for Rio its the boat the master tacticians and tuners aspire to, including in the past many that went on to do well in the (now sadly debased) Americas Cup. I LOVE the 49ers but also the 470s offer a subtlly different challenge. Kite surfing WTF???? And the great thing aabout Olympic sailing is it is THE peak of the sport - let nobody tell you any different. Larry Ellison and his crew might win ocean races but he wont go down in the history books like Ben Ainslie or Paul Elvstrom.

I can't speak for other countries but it certainly isn't true in the UK where the riders come from many different backgrounds. For example Charlotte Dujardin who won double gold in London started out as a groom as her family had no money. Six time olympian Mary King made her way by working as a gardener and grocery deliverer. Although, I appreciate the point about cost - few competitors can afford to own their own horse - I support the retention of equestrian sports for three reasons:- 1/ It's the only sport in which men and women compete against each other (and women frequently beat men); 2/ It is the one sport which is suitable for people of all ages, eg. in London from 16-71; 3/ Three three day eventing and showjumping are among the most dramatic events at any olympics and have provided some of the great sporting moments.

I couldn't understand the point about sailing either! All the boats within each class are identical and success depends on physical strength and the ability to judge wind and currents. I'm not sure how it differs to canoeing or cycling for instance. As for cost the best bicycles used at the olympics cost as much as the cheaper dinghies used at the games. Finally if you look at the countries involved in olympic sailing the dividing line tends to be based on whether a country has a coast rather than wealth. P.S. If cost of equipment is to become an issue how many sports will be left in the winter games?

Agree that this is a good call. Basketball is a foregone conclusion every Olympics. If it remains, Australia should consider not sending male or female teams. Too many boats in rowing/kayaking/canoeing, with too many team and individual events. Likewise cycling. Get rid of mountain bikes and BMX. If we keep rowing sports, let's introduce Chinese dragon boats and ferry races. If we keep synchronised swimming and diving, bring in ballroom dancing. Too many strokes in swimming, too mant team and individual events. Tae Kwondo -- out. I don't mind the geegees, but agree that if we have beach volleyball we must have beach hockey, beach javelin, beach shotput and beach hurdles. WALKING must go -- this is a nonsense sport, as all competitors must run some or part of the time to get the times they end up with. Make it simple and get rid of it.

Ben. Good idea with the top ten in tennis ,how's this nobody over 23 yrs and no top ten players it sounds more credible for the sport. At least people could think it was a little more amateur that way.

Hi Adrian - as far as I was aware Jacques Rogge capped the 2012 Games with no extra sports, only extra disciplines/events within sports - so BMX is part of cycling, women's mountain-biking, etc, etc. Personally? If the Olympics is the pinnacle version, keep it. If NOT, but it is still rather popular (eg football/basketball) cap it. FIFA has under-23s for the football, that's fine. Basketball already has a 20-team-plus FIBA World Cup, but the Olympics provides a unique concentration of talent (a top 12 teams only) so it's not too bad. I agree I'd keep a lot of the individual events - swimming, diving, synchronised (perhaps unfortunately, yes), track cycling, road cycling, BMX (my surprise TV viewing enjoyment hit of the London Games), mountain-bikins, athletics, gymnastics, weight-lifting, boxing, wrestling, judo, archery, etc. Part of me would like to see an age restriction (say under 25?) brought in for tennis, or make it that the top 10 in the world can't enter... Would love to see MMA reintroduced as "Pankration", perhaps with cut-down modifications, eg five-roped ring, four three-minute rounds, etc, etc. Rugby union sevens isn't too bad, but what about Olympic netball? Surely that's popular enough beyond just the Commonwealth nations? And for those still wanting T20 cricket? Nah. Commonwealth Games first, maybe, not Olympics.

Two up, and jelly wrestling.

jameswm. Thats an interesting and solid point you make with the athletics example there, Rudisha.

Don't necessarily disagree but I think you're a bit blinkered with point 2 - I'd argue track cycling, much of the swimming and gymnastics don't have a worldwide appeal. Well you don't see too many Africans or South Americans in the velodrome finals anyway. I'd ditch the big 'pro' sports football, basketball, golf and tennis - although I like the ice hockey at the Winter Games!

Yep the 3 inferior stroke need to go. Cannot understand why more people don't think like this on swimming. Rowing - we have 1 man, 2 man 4 ,6 8 man teams, in a variety of similar boats - sculls, coxless, canoes, kayaks. Sailing - many different types of boats. Diving - Honestly who gets excited about 3m spring board when there are people doing handstands and 4 spins from 10m? Beach volleyball - r u serious? Personly, I would like to see rollersports get in - Speed skating, hockey. These are the summer versions of high interest sports at the winter olympics. Hockey is quiet similar to ice but Inline speed skating is very different from ice. Only problem is Rollersports are not high enough profile for the olympic commitee.

I was thinking the same thing with respect to rowing and sailing...

My issue with swimming is how easy it is to win multiple medals. In athletics, the disciplines are very different. As dominant as Rudisha is for example over 800, he'd have no chance of winning over 400 or 1500. Having said that - I've seen him run 400, but I'd love to see him have a crack at 1500. Difference is 800 is >50% anaerobic, whereas 1500 is >50% aerobic. Completely changes the training and types of fitness you need.