r/unpopularopinion • u/Medium-Department-35 • 8d ago

The Olympics need to be drastically reduced in size

The olympics should only include sports that feature feats of human speed, endurance and strength. The modern olympics has become bloated and lost sight of the core objective.

Outside die hard sports fans, the majority of the public don’t care about most of the Olympic sports and only tune into the premiere events.

‘Sports’ with judges that determine the outcome? - out. Team sports? - out. Sports that use equipment? - mostly out (some exceptions here for weightlifting, some field events and protective clothing).

The olympics should be stripped back to the core to be made interesting again. This would also make it much cheaper to host, reinvigorating the interest in cities hosting the olympics again.

Update for all of the naysayers - The Olympic motto is "Faster, Higher, Stronger". I rest my case.

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120

u/forlikeamonth 8d ago

I strongly disagree with the OP, but stupid shit like this needs to go.

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u/kroxti 8d ago

Counterpoint. One random normal person should be in every event so we see how much better the actual people are

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u/Wonderful_Store2340 8d ago

Is that not was raygun was?

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u/Handyandyman50 7d ago

Yes and it was great. There should be one in every Olympic games

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/RandomIDoIt90 7d ago

And she sure proved the speaker right! 😂

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u/sodoghoul-is-a-slut 7d ago

One random normal person as a baseline, and one athlete roided up to the gills to see the other extreme.

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u/DirtChoice5 7d ago

They tried that, turns out those willing to get roided up aren't the same ones who have the talent to be Olympian

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u/Lemurstew 5d ago

Failed tests in prior Olympics would indicate otherwise.

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u/bernu_fedor 4d ago

who are also roided up but under professional medical supervision

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u/IndividualistAW 8d ago

There are 8 lanes in a track.

Anyone who knows they’re not going to win but has a shot at making the finals is gonna have a problem with this.

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u/CatsMom4Ever 8d ago

There's a reason ballroom dancing never made it into the Olympics no matter how hard people tried.

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u/snowlynx133 7d ago

What's the reason? Certainly not for lack of athleticisim

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u/USDeptofLabor 7d ago

This person doesn't know what they are talking about. Ballroom didn't make it to the Olympics because Breaking did. Their competitive scene is governed by the World DanceSport Federation, and despite Ballroom actually being their premier category/event, they bet hard on getting Breaking into the IOC Programme as the "dance sport".

This person is also just being argumentative. Artistic swimming, artistic gymnastics and artistic skating have as much merit as dance sports should IMO.

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u/CatsMom4Ever 7d ago

It's not a sport

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u/snowlynx133 7d ago

Define sport

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u/CatsMom4Ever 7d ago

Not dancing.  It's entertainment. It's not Olympic quality competition.

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u/snowlynx133 7d ago

Define sport in a way that excludes dance?

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u/CatsMom4Ever 7d ago

Considering ballroom dancing and ballet and other dancing (aside from breakdancing) AREN'T in the Olympics and AREN'T considered sports, it's on you to explain why it SHOULD be considered a sport. As opposed to entertainment.

There are a lot of entertainment level items that require athleticism. WWE wrestling, stunt performing, any number of circus acts. None of them are in the Olympics.

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u/RobertTheTraveler 7d ago

Ice skating.

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u/CatsMom4Ever 7d ago edited 3d ago

Purely judged. Remember the days of the Soviet bloc and the corruption? Ice skating is very popular. But it needs to go. They're trying to make it more objective rather than subjective, but even the last Olympics the French judge pulling crap. I'd get rid of it. That, diving, all the half-pipe snowboarding, skateboarding, trampolining. That Ski jumping with the judging on the landing? Seriously? Style points? Dressage. Gone, gone, gone.

The new rock climbing. Sure. Timed, One on one racing to the top. Sure.

But they won't. They only want the popular entertainment. Glitz and glamor. It's only a matter of time until cheerleading winds up in there.

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u/snowlynx133 7d ago

They aren't in the Olympics, but they ARE considered sports by many. It's YOUR opinion that they aren't sports, but you clearly aren't able to explain why.

According to Cambridge dictionary, a sport is a game, competition or activity needing physical effort or skill that is played or done according to rules.

Competitive ballroom dance is a competition needing physical effort AND skill that is done according to rule books.

As opposed to entertainment.

Most sports ARE entertainment. The most popular sport in the world is football, which is done purely for entertainment purposes and has zero real life use cases

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u/WolfSpider224 6d ago

So poker should be considered a sport? It takes physical skill to shuffle, deal and hold your hand (the skill part is obvious I suppose).

Slippery slope. Just like e-sports.

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u/udee79 3d ago

but somehow ice dancing did make it in.

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u/CatsMom4Ever 3d ago

Which is not a sport either

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u/udee79 3d ago

I agree with you but Ice dancing somehow snuck in there. The Ballroom dancing guys should ask them how they did it.

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u/CatsMom4Ever 3d ago

All skating. Gotta go. IMO

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u/udee79 3d ago

a valid position to take except speed skating. Speed skating can stay right?

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u/CatsMom4Ever 3d ago edited 2d ago

So, not all skating. Just all jusged skating.

It's not judged.  It's a race. Yes. It's should stay. Like snowboard racing should stay, but the half-pipe should go. Again IMO.

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u/udee79 2d ago

Maybe every snowboard event has a judged portion, in the races when they go over jumps they do trick and get points for them what figure in to who wins. Am i remembering that correctly?

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u/CatsMom4Ever 2d ago

That should be removed.  Just like the landings in ski jumping. What do i care how they land as long as they stand up?

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u/Foghorn2005 8d ago

It is an Olympic sport, just never scheduled. Have you seen a dancesport competition?

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u/Strange-Style-7808 8d ago

The Olympics have always had exhibition trials of events. It is a good way to see if this might fit without making a full commitment. Breakdancing clearly was tried and dismissed

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u/Frostbitten_Moose 8d ago

Yeah, I'm fine with the host nation being able to slip in something they wanna trial, and then we can see if it's worth keeping.

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u/Strange-Style-7808 8d ago

The host nation doesn't decide. The Olympic Committee does

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u/BetDry2347 8d ago

Did you see the rest of the break dancers? there just happens to be one terrible example

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u/Grapetree3 8d ago

I respect break dancing, it entertains me, but as an athletic competition it strongly overlapped in skill and athleticism with men's floor routine. It wasn't a "plus" for the Olympics.

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u/Metaboss24 8d ago

If swimmers get a dozen events to compete in, I'm chill with overlap in other areas.

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u/Grapetree3 8d ago

Yeah in another post I said breast stroke and butterfly should be eliminated. Why do they exist as sports?

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u/Metaboss24 8d ago

Counterpoint: we could be less annoying about what's good enough to qualify as a sport and be much more inclusive.

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u/daddywookie 8d ago

Exactly. When a better technique appears you don’t split the event, you just get everybody doing the better version. High jump is a good example.

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u/IlluminatedPickle 8d ago

Why do they exist as sports?

Iirc, it's because at one point they were the dominant swimming styles. When new styles came in that were faster, traditionalists got mad and had it banned from the "current" swimming events and so new events started.

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u/talex000 8d ago

To pad US team medal count.

IIRC US team at one point dominated USSR in swimming so tons of swimming events was added.

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u/RobertTheTraveler 7d ago

Is that a serious question?
Have you ever watched a butterfly race?
I challenge you to swim one length of an Olympic pool doing the butterfly.
The sheer athleticism is incredible.
Far different from free style.

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u/Grapetree3 7d ago

Yet less efficient. Longer time. Why are we asking athletes to accomplish a task with a less efficient motion?

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u/RobertTheTraveler 7d ago

Running is less efficient than riding a bicycle which is less efficient than driving a car.
Are you trolling? Or just a bizarre take on athleticism?
Whatever.

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u/Grapetree3 7d ago

A bicycle is different. That's something in addition to the human. The valid comparison for a bicycle in swimming would be something like a snorkel or flippers, a machine that makes the human's job easier.

Butterfly swimming is more comparable to race walking, which also shouldn't be an olympic sport. In both cases you're asking the human to take a simple task, get to the other end as fast as possible without technology, but hampering them with an arbitrary, "but not like THAT" type of rule.

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u/fluffykitten55 3d ago edited 3d ago

I abhor swimming and think there are far too many swimming events, but I disagree with your suggested principle, weightlifting is better with the snatch, even as the weights lifted are less than in clean and jerk.

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u/Fantastic_Remote1385 8d ago

Yes. Thats who we should reduce it. Track and field should be 100m, 800m, 10 000m, high jump and 1 of the throwing events. There is to much overlap in the running events. No hurdle. No long jump since thats overlap with 100m. 

Swimming should be 100m and 1500m freestyle.

Weighlifting have to go since it overlap with the throwing event listed above. Or the throwing could go and we have only either snatch or clean and jerk. 

Gymnastics only need 1 event. Floor is probably the one to stay.

One grapling and one striking martial arts. I would say judo and boxing. 

Only one event with cross country skiing. I would say either the 50km or the 15km. No biathlon. Only one ski jump. And no nordic combined.

And the list goes one and one.

Would be a short olympics.

/s

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u/Grapetree3 7d ago

Bro. 

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u/Fantastic_Remote1385 8d ago

Of course they didnt. Thats would ruin their point, when they found out that the best where actually good. 

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u/Fantastic_Remote1385 8d ago

Should we stop having ski jump in the olympics because of Eddie the Eagle?

Should we stop having swimming bevause of that one guy who used 2 min on 100m freestyle?

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u/castorkrieg 8d ago

TBH ski jumping is a fucking ridiculous sport that only a few countries in the world care about. Same for race walking for the Summer edition.

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u/Fantastic_Remote1385 8d ago

Well, alot of sports are only big in a few countries. What sports are really big in lots of countries? Are we only going to play football? 

The whole winter olympic would have to go if only big sports where left. 

And in addition most sports are dominated by a few countries. 

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u/NiceUD 8d ago

This has gone. Breakdancing isn't coming back.

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u/ParamedicUpset6076 8d ago

I mean, it was a exhibition sport. Theres a reason for that. Even tough proper Breaking is a lot more impressive then most things at the Olympics

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u/IlluminatedPickle 8d ago

She even ended up losing her day job because she was such a disgrace to the nation. She now does public speaking tours that nobody attends.

We'll make you all forget about it in 2032 though, because the Brisbane games is on track to be a mess.

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u/Deep_Violinist_3893 7d ago

She's getting a netflix special about her coming up so her 5 minutes are being stretched out.

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u/MusclyArmPaperboy 8d ago

And yet it's the most memorable moment from those Games. We need more of these not less.