SORRY, KORFBALL: The eight sports making the cut for consideration for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics are baseball/softball, squash, karate, surfing, roller sports, sport climbing, wushu, and squash.
"The sports that applied but failed to make the cut were: air sports, American football, bowls, bridge, chess, dance sport, floorball, flying disc, korfball, netball, orienteering, polo, racquetball, sumo, tug of war, underwater sports, waterski and wakeboard."
Damn. I wanted Olympic tug-of-war, but only if it were contested by athletes who had medaled in other disciplines earlier in the competition. As for underwater sports, only if it looks like this.
Well, surfing isn't a sport for the purposes of scoring so that's out. Wushu and karate are similarly problematic, though less so. Roller sports? C'mon. So we're left with baseball/softball, which never should have been dropped, squash and sports climbing (which I assume is a speed sport).
ReplyDeleteAs for tug of war, I wanted it as well but only if there was a big muddy ditch in the middle.
Any sport for which the Olympics wouldn't be the world championship shouldn't be in the Olympics. That's why baseball doesn't belong -- the best pros aren't there -- and nor should tennis, golf, or (arguably) soccer, though at least with soccer the age requirement makes it a different competition.
ReplyDeleteBut soccer is the only one of those that has what you'd call a world championship.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to see korfball and a lot of those other sports, come visit us in Birmingham, AL, in 2021, when we host the World Games:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theworldgames.org/news/news-of-the-world-games/1417-birmingham-usa-to-be-host-city-of-the-world-games-2021
There's even going to be a tug-of-war competition. For medals. Really.
Disappointed that korfball isn't a variation on Calvinball. (But then again, couldn't any sport be described as a variation on Calvinball?)
ReplyDeleteTo me, each sport's four majors are sufficient.
ReplyDeleteWhen I make my first billion dollars, I'll be reinvigorating the antient & honourable sport of Plunge for Distance.
ReplyDeleteYes.
ReplyDeleteOkay, but what about softball? I know there's a national softball team here, so I assume there's a world championship, but the fact that I'm not sure suggests it's certainly not an event on part with the World Series or the Olympics. I'm on the board of directors for our local minor girls softball association and I've been watching our numbers go down. This is great news for my daughter's sport.
ReplyDeleteOh, absolutely, softball belongs there. Just not baseball.
ReplyDelete