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Are there any sports that you think should be dropped from the Winter Olympics for whatever reason?

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bobsleigh as i just cant see what that is about. You just liedown on your sleigh and go down the tunnel, i cant see where the skill lies. It seems the only difference is how much you want to risk your life and that determines the speed you will let the sleigh run. But im not an expert so its just my opinion.

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Curling, for one. I also think there are too many skiing events.

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Any sports where the final decision is made in a subjective way. That includes about half of the sports we see in the winter Olympics though...

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Curling, for one

It's not even a sport. It's a joke.

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Better just drop the whole idea, it's only for the rich countries.

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Yup! Curling has got to go. Although it is funny to watch the person with the broom go crazy every once in a while.

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Agree on curling. Also think men's figure skating, with half the guys wearing feathers and doing like 3 minutes of spins and dancing, has become an exhibition and not a sport. The Olympics is not supposed to be Disney on Ice.

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Ice dancing?

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herefornow-- I don't quite understand. 3 minutes of spins and dancing ON ICE is pretty difficult. I mean, doesn't the Olympics kind of lend itself to different kinds of showmanship? Whether that be how fast you can run or how good you are at manuvering on ice skates, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. And I rather like their outfits, but then I might just be biased about that in particular, haha. Would you say the same thing about the women's event then? Why just the men?

...I agree about curling, haha.

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Going to be in the minority here, but I actually have enjoyed some of the curling with the tactics and accuracy involved.

On the other hand, I would be quite happy if some of the other events disappeared. For example, I don't see the point of the snowboard half pipe event (maybe I am getting old). I suppose if all of the competitors were equally proficient, it might be more of a spectacle. However, at the current Olympics about have of the entrants spent more time on their bxtts than on their feet. On a more general note, I will the coverage of sports available on Japanese TV was a little more diverse. There are only so many replays you can watch before you switch off.

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Curling absolutely has to go. some disciplines of the same sport. like who cares whether it's 15k race or 10k race? its same people compete in it.

I'd also ban government involvement all together. Leave to the people and the sponsors, just like Olympics should be.

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kokorocloud -- thanks, you reinforced my opinion. When you use terms like "showmanship" and "outfits" to describe a man's sport, it does not belong in the Olympics.

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again in the minority it seems but curling involves a lot of practice to get to the skills displayed at the olympic level. if snooker of golf pass for sports then curling does so for sure. i can see the reasoning behind criticizing subjectively judged sports such as figure skating or half pipe but there's simply no other way is it. bob sleigh would be a nice candidate to drop, too risky, competitive element fails to reach most of the audience, preparations, maintenance, equipment all way to expensive...

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If curling is a winter olympic sport......lets play marbles at the summer olympics. Curling has got to go.

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Yep, I agree- Curling is shown the door. I'd like to see basetball take it's place.

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Lets just take the Summer Olympic program outdoors and make them do it in the snow and on the ice..that would be true athleticism !The entire winter stuff is for girls and generally speaking women dont like watching sports..

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Interesting question. A lot of the events at the Winter Olympics (at Summer as well) have to involve 'artistic flourish' which may well be enhanced by a physical skill, but is it the same as competing in a race, lifting weights etc.

It's got me thinking!

But I like the curling, archaic as it is. How many of us throw hammers, toss shotputs and hurl javelins and discuses? These are about prowess, but also about accuracy as well.

No...can't be bothered saying that we should eliminate any of them, but the 'ski then shoot the ski' Biathalon is an 'interesting' combination.

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Any sport in which the athletes risk their lives, unless they are strictly tested beforehand to ensure they have the proper skill to undertake the sport. E.g., allowing unqualified teams to bobsled is kind of funny and interesting, but in reality the Olympics should be about the best competing in a safe and competent manner.

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Any sport where you can get away with being overweight and unable to touch your toes does not belong in the Olympics. I suppose this includes curling. I'm on the fence with snowboarding; it's fun to watch and brings in the ratings (which is presumably why it's in the Olympics) but it does not strike me as a sport that takes years and years to perfect or that requires supreme physical conditioning. Sports that do are the ones that belong in the Olympics and those atheletes have my utmost respect.

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Curling, bobsled, luge, and figure skating. If they allow figure skating in the Winter Olympics, then why not allow ballet in the Summer Oympics?

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curling involves a lot of practice to get to the skills displayed at the Olympic level

If I remember, the Japanese curling team (which won a medal at Turino?) was defeated by a junior high school team who had taken up the sport about six weeks earlier.

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curling - that's not a sport

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Curling is great. It does take a lot of skill to do it. Have you even watched a match in its entirety? The USA v Japan game was really exciting. If we have to select one sport to drop, I'd say the biathlon. Skiing and shooting? Though I have to admit I enjoy watching it.

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Yup. Not a fan of curling. More of a game really. (sorry grandpa) But it is quite similar to 'sports' such as shot put, javelin and now golf in the summer Olympics.

I love the figure skating. Here is a sport which requires technique, strength, flexibility and creativity. Probably harder than anything else in the winter Olympics.

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<i>When you use terms like "showmanship" and "outfits" to describe a man's sport, it does not belong in the Olympics.</i>

I find this be kind of an ignorant statement, but okay. You still didn't answer my question about the women's division then. Should we do away with women's figure skating too, or is it okay for them to be flashy because they're women?

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Probably harder than anything else in the winter Olympics.

probably not harder than flying down an icy hill at 95mph while trying to remain in one piece...probably not harder than being on your back on a tiny sled going 85mph while trying not to fly off the track and into the Northwest Territories ...just sayin'

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I challenge anybody who regards snowboarding as an easy sport should to try it and be proficient at it in one season's time. It is very physically demanding and the athletes who are competing this year are impossibly good at it.

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I would say the Nordic thing - never heard of it until Japan kept replaying their Olympic glory of 92 after the snowboarding chick failed the medal. They must have dig it from the vault.

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What's wrong with curling?? That's a good sport, probably more exciting than many of the sliding division sports (luge, bobsled, etc.)....

I could see Ice Dance on the way out. Figure skating wthout jumps just isn't that exciting...

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beach > snow

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If curling's not an olympic-worthy event then neither's archery. Personally I don't see any need to remove any of the events (note: not sports). Diversity is good. Maybe they could add some more events though. My choice - snowball fights. Like dodgeball, but with snowballs...in knee-deep snow. That would rock.

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I support curling, half pipe, figure skating. Look at it practically, how may I use the skills required by the sport. The big airs! Rotations, oh yeah, I can use them trying to evade the minister of Education. Curling? Best wife potential and make a great kiwi husband. Cleanest floors in the nation. Shall I continue? Naw, just get the gun and... wait, maybe eliminate the guns from a world sporting event. I don't want my children becoming urban snipers in the off season.

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Curling as a competitive activity pre-dates all other winter sports by centuries. Formal rules were set and competitions held yonks ago.

If more people curled instead of y'oll duding themselves then we'd have much less angst in the world.

Curl it baby.

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What Sarcasm said. Ban all exhibition sports -- i.e., the subjective sports. Curling -- well, at least it's objective.

What's that expression about golf -- "A good walk ruined." Curling is the golf of winter sports.

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"If they allow figure skating in the Winter Olympics, then why not allow ballet in the Summer Olympics?"

Good one.

"curling - that's not a sport"

What disqualifies curling from being a sport?

I wouldn't drop any sports currently being held, but I'd add "snowshoe wife carrying." The Finns would probably be the ones to beat.

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Curling is awesome. Maybe some people don't have the brains to appreciate the strategy involved. I say keep all the sports.

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Any game except curling. Curling is awesome - cute girls using transparent and colorful stone for checking their make-up & sweeping floor in a stylish manner !!!

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to add some adventure and risk to figure skating, have it done on a partially frozen lake...dump ice dancing completely...add snowmobile racing

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What disqualifies curling from being a sport?

No running or simular strenuous effort.

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Curling is awesome. Maybe some people don't have the brains to appreciate the strategy involved. I say keep all the sports.

I like watching it, but then I like watching billiards, and that's not a sport -- although both have plenty of strategy.

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i don't know which event. But if there is a event where only 3 countries always medal, it should be dropped. EXample. Women's Soft Ball.

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I think the winter olympics are pretty well balanced on the whole

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Women's Ice Hockey! Only 2 countries can play. Canada and the US have always and will always meet in the final. But then again, the Olympics' main purpose is so 'white' rich countries can pat themselves on the back.

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Curling is one of my favorite sports! Should be KEPT on the list.

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I watched tandem luging last night.........dude. One-man luge makes sense to me but two hairy men lying on top of each other wiggling a small luge doesn't feel good. Chop it!

Props to curling. It rocks.

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You watched Tandem luging?? I couldnt bear too. The misses and I had a good laugh though.

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any sport that uses a 200 yen broom as part of the competition should be dropped immediately.

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kavikahi You watched Tandem luging?? I couldnt bear too. The misses and I had a good laugh though.>

Yeah, it became a contest as to who could keep from giggling first. I watched it with my wifey, too. Maybe watching two men writhing on a sled together will help keep couples together.

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I'd say drop everything that is not a sport people do (like bobsled or ski jumping). Don't really see the point of skeleton or luge, when the time difference between the 1st and last is 0.025 sec. Women hockey. All the team to goes against Canada and US, lose with scores like 15-0. Even the goalie can get an hat-trick. Boring.

I like curling. I played 2 or 3 times. It's tougher than it looks, specially when you're not good... or not sober.

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Well, we shouldn't be worried. Given the weather situation, soon Winter Games will be no more. At least outdoor sports.

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curling = boring

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(Male) Figure skating... dancing is for girls. period.

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the sports that japan gets medals in should be dropped. they win bronze in skating and then we all have to suffer through this over exposure and coverage. like the day after the medal was won, all nhk put on was a full replay of he skating competition for mens and pairs??? while there were actual competitions in other sports going on at the same time. reruns, instead of live events??? we're in totally different time zones, couldnt you at least wait until it was night time in van and mid aftrenoon in japan to play reruns? f'n ridiculous

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hellhound -- exactly what I said yesterday. Even Pleshenko, the silver medal winner, said it has become just dancing. And, sharpie, could not agree more. I expect the actual Olympic coverage here to be blatantly Japan-focused, but the NHK news at 7:00 last night had like 12 minutes devoted to this guy -- for a bronze medal. I turned in to see the news, not this guy's life story (they had footage from when he was 5 on up), and quotes from lots of smiling J-folks saying how inspired they got by him. And they only gave like 30 seconds each to the two guys who beat him. Come on.

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It is sad that whole continents are excluded from winter olympics. Are there African participants or athletes from warm countries like India, Thailand, Vietnam, etc? Winter games should inculde sports people from these countries could participate in without need for expensive facilities like ice skating rinks.

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LoveUSA, it's the WINTER olympics. Because some countries don't have WINTER should we have snow baseball or snow sprinting??

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LoveUSA -

India did it's first winter olympics in '64. They're competing in xc, luge, and alpine this year. From Africa this year we have Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Morocco, South Africa, and Tonga. Other nations not normally associated with winter sports include Lebanon, Brazil, Columbia, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Oh, and Jamaica, of course.

Thailand isn't competing this year, although they did in '02 and '06. Also sitting out this year (but having competed in the past) are Costa Rica, Venezuela, Madagascar, and Kenya.

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I question sports which require minimal physical exertion. Curling is an obvious candidate for removal.

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Keep skiing,hockey and dump the rest including: speed skating(remember that Aussie?), snowboarding (spoilt brats) and in particular figure skating which is to this winter joke what synchronised swimming is to that summer laugh....What's the skill in blooming ski jumping for heaven sake?? Don't get me started on curling or the bleeding luge.

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Women's Ice Hockey (Title IX on 'Roids) and Two-person luge (what, even, is the point of two people on those things?)....

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Hokkaidoguy - Tonga is not in Africa. Perhaps you mean Togo?

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Blue Tiger -

No, I meant Tonga, but I was pre-occupied with Togo after reading the last whaling thread. My bad.

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Losing curling. Saw it yesterday, and just didn't see where the physical aspect of "the sport" came into it--pretty much like aiming and hoping. Stupid.

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"I question sports which require minimal physical exertion"

That would eliminate archery and skeet shooting I guess.

"Stupid"

You say that because you don't understand it.

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Curling is boring and in fact is not a sport for me. Also I think to attract more countries, they should put indoor games such as Basket ball since those sports are mostly played during the winter season no?

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That would eliminate archery and skeet shooting I guess

Correct; not sports. Not athletic = not sport.

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Any sport where a person can smoke and drink a beer during the act of playing probably doesn't belong in the Olympics. Yes, that's curling.

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Any sport where a person can smoke and drink a beer during the act of playing probably doesn't belong in the Olympics. Yes, that's curling.

lostrune2, I second that. Billiards, darts & bowling aren't in the Olympics. Why should curling be there?

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If we're going to get rid of sports that require little physical effort, then that would eliminate the sliding sports. They take skill and guts, but very little effort (about the same as driving too fast down from the local ski hill on switchback roads in a snowstorm). Perhaps if they had to drag their bobsleds or luges to the top of the hill as part of the timing, it might qualify as something athletic.

In the summer Olympics that would do in archery, shooting, sailing, and the horse events (unless they start giving the medal to the horse and oats to the rider).

Whether we find a sport boring or not shouldn't really be a factor (Can't get to sleep? Here, try some ski jumping). Another consideration is whether a sport is played widely in places that actually have winter.

Which brings me to curling. I agree that it's not the most exciting or athletic sport (although it requires as much fitness as the sports I've mentioned above), but it is widely played in Europe, Canada, and the US, i.e., countries where it snows and freezes in winter.

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Curling needs to be out of the Olympics. There is absolutely no athletic ability required to play this game. If curling is considered an athletic "sport" then so should horseshoes and shuffleboard be in the summer olympics.

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