Players, coaches criticize IOC for dropping softball for 2024

Jack o helen: well they better take hockey of the list because Japan women team was rob of a goal which a office judge it was hit inside the 5 meter. It was easy out side the 5 meters by 2 meters

Personally, I feel that anything where the outcome is solely relied on judges (e.g. figure skating, skateboarding, surfing, synchronized events), should not be included as an Olympic sport. The outcome is always going to be subjective and controversy will always loom, no matter what. At least with sports like basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, etc, the physical element, strategy, and will are the main factors in determining the outcome.

Remove the equestrian, golf, shooting

Branch out another Olympics created for games that don't include athletism.

. Basically, any sport where the professionals make over $1M/yr through any related means, including endorsement contracts.

So what you want is Oympics, but with not the best athletes.

That's not going to sell a lot of TV ads and tickets.

Drop all "professional" sports from the Olympics - we get enough of those rich people - more than we can stand. Keep the sports that people do for love of the sport, not love of money.

In fact, we should have both fast-pitch AND slow-pitch softball.

Dump - baseball, soccer (11 on 11), basketball (5 on 5), tennis, boxing?, golf and ice hockey. Basically, any sport where the professionals make over $1M/yr through any related means, including endorsement contracts.

3-on-3 field hockey.

Bring on kickball! My metro area has a huge adult kickball league. Fun for everyone and safer than softball (I lost 2 teeth playing non-competitive softball).

Globally, softball is a minority sport. Few mourned it’s absence from London and Rio, areas where softball isn’t played, so it’s natural that Paris would drop it too.

oh please, apart from Japan and the US nobody else really plays baseball

Off the top of my head you are forgetting Korea, Taiwan, Canada, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Venezuala, Panama, Puerto Rico

Never drop a sport that attach with the word 'ball'.

Good idea to get rid of softball. Also should reduce number of swimming and gymnastic medals and add sports with wide global popularity such as squash and caber toss

since the Europeans don't care about these sports.

Fixed your post.

most of the athletes are not really professional like other athletes!

I don't watch Olympics to see the same professionals we see all the year doing the same things.

Amateurs & small countries participants are something refreshing with the Olympics.

blvtzpkToday  11:08 pm JST

Just keep the Marathon. That’ll cut down construction costs. Finish in a pub car park.

Ideally just after opening time so as to be able to stay and relax for a while. Perfect; a decent pint and a Ploughman's.

JOC too never cared about Softball, they only included in the Tokyo Olympics because they had to in order to add Baseball to the program.

It's only fitting that Paris would drop Baseball/Softball along with Karate, since the French don't care about these sports.

Not sure if Baseball/Softball can make a return(but definitely not Karate) in 2028 LA Olympics, because American Football will eat up most of 600 extra athletes slot available for discretionary addition.

Just keep the Marathon. That’ll cut down construction costs. Finish in a pub car park.

If you don’t do it, Sky will.

When the Olympiad going to Australia softball will come back, stay alive until there!!

Totally incorrect. Cricket has far more players around the world than baseball.

And their players don't even get a third of what baseball players make.

It is the world's number 2 team sport. 

Then why is it not in the Olympics as baseball is?

How's the international Baseball world cup doing? Is there one? It's basically a game played in the USA. to a serious level. Even Japan can only manage to rustle up 12 professional baseball teams.

Not just the US, it's still the number one sport in Japan, South Korea, Cuba, Puerto Rico overwhelmingly, more advertisement dollars, sponsorships, apparel, memorabilia, trading cards.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are one of the most famous sports teams in the world. It is therefore unsurprising that the baseball team, based at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, generated revenue of 185 million U.S. dollars in 2020, though this was a decrease over the previous year due to the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Hot on the Yankees' tail were the Chicago Cubs, who raked in revenue of 163 million U.S. dollars in the same year. 

-Statista

https://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2019/12/21/mlb-sees-record-107-billion-in-revenues-for-2019/?sh=379c0f9b5d78

https://www.rulesofsport.com/faq/what-is-the-highest-paid-sport-in-the-world.html

Personally, I never liked Baseball or Softball and definitely NOT Cricket, I have No horse in this race, I think they all suck, but to undermine the allure and pull of baseball should never be underestimated in gross dollars.

What sport is breaking? Break dancing? Please tell me that isn't correct

Yes, breakdancing isn't correct. It's called breaking. Hopefully you've learned something.

Perhaps we should just go back to the original Olympic events. I look forward to the race in full bronze armour!

Every Olympics they add and delete peripheral sports. Never heard of softball (thought it was a disease) before this Olympics.

The original and the early modern Olympics had an arts Olympics integral to it. So let’s have chainsaw log carving!

On the cricket question, I have always questioned why if you are going to have team sports, so internationally popular and widely played sport was not included? I came to the tentative conclusion that the majority of the IOC are European and the big money sponsorship is from the USA, neither of which play or know anything about cricket.

Let's look at the numbers. Most of the Olympic sports encourage "participation". Team sports are are usually tournaments with 12 or more teams. So...

Softball (6 teams), Baseball (6 teams), 3x3 Basketball (8 teams)

Surfing (8 individuals)

If you can't find 12 good teams or 32 good individuals, then the sport shouldn't be in the Olympics.

Too many sports is why it costs 30 Billion.

Shrink it down in order of the expensive ones, sailing first probably, and do more universal things like tug o'war that do not need super expensive fancy stadia.

Alfie Noakes: do you know how they train horses the prances sideways in the dressage events, They use batteries in the horses date. Yes it sounds very cruel but apparently it is allowed. But they get rid of softball.

Why can't they just include every sport possible. If a country can produce a team, include it in the Olymipcs.

These Equality games are far from it. I just learnt from a friend in China that China are telling their people and claiming that they are on top of the Metal count with 13 gold. 8 silver and 11 bronze. I said that is wrong the metal count for China is 11 gold, 5 silver and 8 bronze. So I did some research and realise what my friend was trying to get across in a some what coded massage. Is China is claiming both Taiwan and Hong Kong metal count as their own. Before you pull this Moderator I will claim that China are cheaters and I just gave you the evidence to prove my assertion of China,s cheating ways.

I don't really care provided they keep horsey horsey trot trot and the one where burly people chuck a huge ball bearing.

$30b well spent there.

Oh for god's sake. Look, nobody gives a damn about baseball or football in the Olympics, let alone softball. US doesn't care about baseball and GB doesn't care about football.

In addition to wrestling, we've got judo, taekwondo and now karate. Are we going to get kung-fu too?

The IOC only cares about one thing: money. Oh, and maybe making Japanese people sick.

If someone could convince them that softball can make them rich, they'd reverse their decision in an instant.

@spitfire Baseball is a lot more popular then cricket and cricket is a terrible sport.

oh please, apart from Japan and the US nobody else really plays baseball. far more countries play cricket with a combined population almost 1.7billion. Just because theres more money in baseball doesnt make it a more popular sport worldwide

I hope they do the same for skateboarding. It was not that great and most of the athletes are not really professional like other athletes!

I guess you never heard of the amateur ethos of the Olympic games.

What sport is breaking? Break dancing? Please tell me that isn't correct

@spitfire Baseball is a lot more popular then cricket and cricket is a terrible sport.

Totally incorrect. Cricket has far more players around the world than baseball. It is the world's number 2 team sport.

How's the international Baseball world cup doing? Is there one? It's basically a game played in the USA. to a serious level. Even Japan can only manage to rustle up 12 professional baseball teams. One for every ten million people. Lol.

I would like to see events that rely on judges for the scoring to be eliminated. So goodbye gymnastics. Combat sports like karate and boxing should go until a knockout or submission. Too many judges make it too easy to bribe or otherwise futz up the results.

Maybe sports that have pro leagues, primadonna athletes and the like need to go too. I thought the Olympics was for amateurs to shine. No need to win the World Series or Stanley Cup and then go on to the Olympics.

Bring in the caber toss! Or dwarf toss...

It’s a worldwide sport. It’s played really well in multiple continents and areas of the world,”

Softball is a joke sport. Netball has more of a case to be in the games than softball

How about tree climbing most in the poor countries do it from when they were small, the present olympics is for the richer nation and not representative of the greater majority of nations. Another good one is wood chopping with an ax.

Time to re-instate town-planning as an Olympic event.

And painting….

How about dropping the whole Olympics. It is just a money-grubbing business and has nothing to do with the human spirit for Fukushima, well, that went away quickly anyway.

Caught some glimpses of skateboarding, and kids down at the beach had it way over these people. And surfing? All the surfers at the beach I hang with were laughing at it, and this is where Amuro Bronze comes from...Shonan-KugenumaKaigan. She will be embarrassed coming down for a while for sure. Our waves were much better today.

"Have to make room for breakdancing."

Brakedancing? HA! HA!

Surely olympic tiddlywinks is the next 'sport' under IOC consideration...?

tiddlywinks

/ˈtɪdlɪˌwɪŋk/

Learn to pronounce

noun

plural noun: tiddlywinks

1.

a game in which small plastic counters are flicked into a central receptacle by being pressed on the edge with a larger counter.

@spitfire Baseball is a lot more popular then cricket and cricket is a terrible sport.

Close to one-third of the world would probably disagree with you!

Cricket will there in T20 form by 2032 at the latest.

@Sindhoor,

Really.

I wonder why it has existed for so many years then.

@Numan,

I had great expectations for skateboarding but it looked so amateur.

I am sure they could have designed something better for its debut like those old Tony Hawke DC who commercials rather than a flight of steps and hand rail that we can see wherever we go.

Have to make room for breakdancing.

@spitfire Baseball is a lot more popular then cricket and cricket is a terrible sport.

I hope they do the same for skateboarding. It was not that great and most of the athletes are not really professional like other athletes!

Drop basketball, volleyball and all other large team sports too. It shouldn't be possible for an athlete who strikes out and turns in the worst performance of their lives to still win gold just because they're part of a winning team. It cheapens the value of a medal.

Not really a well known sport.

It is only played in a handful of countries especially at a higher level.

If they are going to have it and its brother baseball surely they must have cricket as well which is played by far more people due to India's population.

Keep softball. I just saw something I’ve never seen before, synchronized diving. Can we just get rid of everything with the word “synchronized” in it?