Oodles of people across the globe have devoted their lives to advocating for the inclusion of various "sports" in future Olympic games: Armwrestling, Bowling , Cheerleading, not to mention billiards, bodybuilding, chess, competitive ballroom dancing (a.k.a. "dancesports"), golf, karate, life saving, roller-skating, surfing, wakeboarding, wushu. All 100% serious.
Some of these seem screwy to me: life saving? (Hit the link if you don't believe it!) This category apparently includes competitions in "50 meter Saving a Mannequin" and "100 Meter Saving a Mannequin with Fins and Rescue Tube." I never imagined that Baywatch stars Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff were portraying the lives of future Olympic athletes.
But when you consider that ping pong is currently an Olympic sport, and previous Olympic events include tug-of-war and croquet, some of these ridiculous ideas seem less silly.
Given the empty stands in Athens, I wouldn't be surprised if the IOC begins to consider any of the crowd-pleasing possibilities.
Frankly, I would fly anywhere in the world to witness a finals competition in Dance Dance Revolution or break-dancing.
In fact, my life would be complete if I could watch an Olympic athlete finish his routine, point to another country, and yell, "You Got Served!!!"
I would suggest watersports as a potential Olympic event, but NBC's human interest stories about the men "going for the gold in golden showers" would piss me off.
So what does it take to qualify as an Olympic event? As I understand it, the International Olympic Committee must recognize it as a sport, and it must have an international governing body that sets rules and administers competitions. The activity must also be "widely practiced by men in at least 75 countries and on four continents, and by women in at least 40 countries and on three continents."
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
J, more prime hilarity! But seriously, inclusion in the Olympics might actually diminish air guitar, which in its purest form IS A WAY OF LIFE
2 - Marika
I second that!
Although I must say that you are not unfortunately the first to suggest air guitar as a Olympics sport -the organiser of the Dutch air guitar competition has actually sent an official letter to the International Olympic Committee asking "would it be possible for our sport to become part of the Olympic movement". AND he received an answer from the committee, too...They didn't really comment to the suggestion, just thanked him for the interest : ). These letters and more about air guitar can be read at the book "De lucht tussen mijn vingers" (only in Dutch, I'm afraid) -some info also at Dutch air guitar site: http://www.air-guitar.nl/boek.html.
3 - Ania
I probably would have felt the same way, up until a year ago when I actually took up Ballroom/Latin American Dance.
I have been an athlete since the age of five (I'm 18 now) and I was about to get into the Paralympics at the age of twelve (yes, the PARAlympics). The first time I started dancing felt really bad and I knew that there had to be something that I could do to make this easier and smoother. I was right, I had the wrong techniques and I also wasn't very in tune with the music.
That part took a lot of training, sweat and tears because you have to develop strong muscles all over you body and fine tune your listening skills.
To me sport is not about wearing uniforms or beating the other guy. It's about what you can do to push yourself to the limit physically and enjoying yourself while doing so.
In swimming the only thing you really have to do is some kind of arm motion such as the freestyle/backstroke/breast/butterfly and just speed up you movements. You just have to develope more muscle strength to do so while in DANCING you have train all parts of your body for several different things and it takes a lot of practice and determination.
Thats my opinion, Im really interested in what others have to say about this so you can email me