The Olympic Games Have Jumped The Shark

Turkeytop · Unread post by **Turkeytop** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 7:15 pm

Break Dancing will be a competitive sport in the 2024 Olympics

Break dancing gets Olympic status to debut at Paris Games in 2024

GENEVA -- Breakdancing became an official Olympic sport on Monday.

The International Olympic Committee's pursuit of urban events to lure a younger audience saw street dance battles officially added to the medal events program at the 2024 Paris Games.

Also confirmed for Paris by the IOC executive board were skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing.

Those three sports will make their Olympic debuts at the Tokyo Games which were postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic by one year to open on July 23, 2021.

Alongside the additions, the IOC made subtractions: The slate of 329 medal events in Paris is 10 fewer than in Tokyo, including four lost from weightlifting, and the athlete quota in 2024 of 10,500 is around 600 less than next year.

Two sports with troubled governing bodies -- boxing and weightlifting -- saw the biggest cuts to the number of athletes they can have in Paris.

Weightlifting should have 120 athletes in Paris, which is less than half of its total at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. The sport could be dropped entirely due to its historic doping problems and IOC concerns over the pace and depth of reform at the International Weightlifting Federation.

The IOC stressed its future priorities for Paris, and beyond to the 2028 Los Angeles Games, by claiming it will hit a long-term target of equal participation by men and women athletes, and more urbanized events.

With Paris organizers needing time to prepare their project, the IOC kept to its pre-pandemic schedule to confirm the 2024 sports lineup this month even before some are tested in Tokyo.

Breakdancing will be called breaking at the Olympics, as it was in the 1970s by hip-hop pioneers in the United States.

It was proposed by Paris organizers almost two years ago after positive trials at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires. Breaking passed further stages of approval in 2019 from separate decisions by the IOC board and full membership.

In Paris, breaking has been given a prestige downtown venue, joining sport climbing and 3-on-3 basketball at Place de le Concorde.

Surfing will be held more than 15,000 kilometers (9,000 miles) away in the Pacific Ocean off the beaches of Tahiti, as the IOC already agreed in March.

Among the 28 established Summer Games sports, a total of 41 additional events were proposed to Monday's meeting.

All increases were rejected, including ocean rowing and parkour, and changes were allowed only at the expense of existing events being dropped. Two extreme canoe slalom events will replace canoe sprint events, and the men's 50-kilometer race walk will be replaced by a mixed gender team event.

The IOC said "limiting the overall number of events is a key element in curbing the growth of the Olympic program as well as additional costs."

In other IOC business, Bach confirmed the more than 11,000 competitors at the Tokyo Olympics should not stay in the official athlete village for the entire games, to help limit the risk of COVID-19 infections.

Teams will be advised of a policy that athletes should arrive at their accommodation no more than five days before the start of their competition and have left two days after it ends.

Boxing is on the Tokyo program despite its governing body, known as AIBA, being derecognized by the IOC last year.

A seven-candidate presidential election is being held this weekend and Bach said AIBA was "well aware" of the Olympic body's concerns about some of the contenders, which he did not identify.

The IOC was skeptical last year about an offer to clear AIBA's $16 million debts, if the sport's Olympic status was retained, by Russian boxing official Umar Kremlev who is now a candidate.

The AIBA election is scheduled as a Court of Arbitration for Sport panel of judges is preparing a verdict in a landmark case in the Russian doping saga that could see widespread punishments imposed on the nation's sports.

Asked if Russian election campaigns were appropriate in Olympic circles at this time, Bach said: "It is up to everybody to make his or her own judgment about any such candidatures."

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/i ... games-2024

Bryce · Unread post by **Bryce** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 9:19 pm

What's next? Twerking?

In case a retiree from London, ONT doesn't know what twerking is...

Rate This · Unread post by **Rate This** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 10:02 pm

Bryce wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 9:19 pm What's next? Twerking?

In case a retiree from London, ONT doesn't know what twerking is...

Hey now... that’s one of the greatest spectator sports we have.

bmw · Unread post by **bmw** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 10:04 pm

Should I be ashamed to admit that I find curling mildly entertaining?

format this · Unread post by **format this** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 10:27 pm

bmw wrote:Should I be ashamed to admit that I find curling mildly entertaining?

I work with someone who is one of the hot shots in the local curling association, so I’ve enjoyed watching it as well... and I’m going to check out this breaking stuff... with kudos to Linkin Park, I wonder if at least the music could be cool flashback stuff from the era. That would be cool in itself.

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MotorCityRadioFreak · Tue Dec 08, 2020 12:06 am

I watch curling and would watch break dancing as well. It's a viral meme goldmine.

Bryce · Unread post by **Bryce** » Tue Dec 08, 2020 8:16 am

I enjoy golf on television. I enjoy curling even more. Hey now? Is golf an Olympic sport? I honestly don't know. Guess I can do a Duck Duck Go and find out.

MotorCityRadioFreak · Tue Dec 08, 2020 8:19 am

Bryce wrote: ↑Tue Dec 08, 2020 8:16 am I enjoy golf on television. I enjoy curling even more. Hey now? Is golf an Olympic sport? I honestly don't know. Guess I can do a Duck Duck Go and find out.

Well, we agree on something after all.

sfpcc · Unread post by **sfpcc** » Tue Dec 08, 2020 9:21 am

Golf is now an Olympic sport I Believe.

Bryce · Unread post by **Bryce** » Tue Dec 08, 2020 10:09 am

sfpcc wrote: ↑Tue Dec 08, 2020 9:21 am Golf is now an Olympic sport I Believe.

Indeed. I looked it up and found out golf had returned in 2016 after a VERY long hiatus. IIRC since 1904.

Deleted User 14896 · Tue Dec 08, 2020 10:23 am

bmw wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 10:04 pm Should I be ashamed to admit that I find curling mildly entertaining?

I'm a big fan of curling. Even got a "Curling For Dummies" book as a gift a few years ago. (Yes, there really is a Curling For Dummies book). I will watch it as much as I can on CBC. There's a curling arena up around Ferndale I think. Always say I'm going to go up there someday.

Turkeytop · Unread post by **Turkeytop** » Tue Dec 08, 2020 11:37 am

Maybe they should consider adding shuffleboard as an Olympic event.

sfpcc · Unread post by **sfpcc** » Tue Dec 08, 2020 12:44 pm

You know that thing on Monty Python where they slapped each other with Fish? Maybe that can be in the Olympics someday.

Turkeytop · Unread post by **Turkeytop** » Tue Dec 08, 2020 1:11 pm

And why not Championship Poker?

paul8539 · Unread post by **paul8539** » Mon Dec 21, 2020 11:37 pm

How about having Simon Says as an olympic sport. For the Chinese, have it as Chairman Mao says. For the Russians, 'Do what I say or it will be Siberia for you'.

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