Drop badminton. I loved the game until Gunalan and his mob at whatever the IBF / BWF is called this week decided to upgrade the game in favour of TV ratings. Destroyed the game I grew up with. And shoot the whole bunch at BWF - well, maybe that won't be necessary: they will surely commit mass harakiri once the game is removed from the Olympics. I can only hope…
I thought the London 2012 MS badminton final was the highest viewed event in Olympic history?? How could you drop that?
Really. Where is the evidence for that statement? And does this follow from the disgrace into which badminton has fallen during these Olympics? That is great TV, I admit. However, how is it helpful to badminton's future? Unless you actually want more scandal to follow top level badminton, so that it becomes even more of a spectator sport.
Badminton is and will continue to be both olympic sport and great spectator sport. Only you seem to be focusing on "the scandal" here. We saw great finals in both MS and WS.
This is for 2020, 2016 is already set. Squash has made a bid again to be included so could be a threat to either table tennis or badminton ... more likely table tennis I would think. The decisions won't be made until the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, September 2013 ... "The IOC will consider adding new sports to the Summer Olympics at this IOC Session. The sports being considered are baseball/softball, karate, roller sports, sport climbing, squash, wakeboarding, wushu and surfing. There will be a maximum of 28 sports at the 2020 Summer Olympics." The total number of sports will remain the same as in 2016 (28) so if new sports will be included, existing once will have to make place.
http://www.london2012.com/news/articles/round-badminton-tournament-serves-treat.html It said 20% of the worlds population watched it. I ain't ever seen figures that big before, maybe wrong. No idea if the scandal boosted ratings. Think it was probably more the whole of China and the whole of Malaysia watching to see if their man won than scandal.
20% of the worlds population may have watched but that doesn't make it the most watched event ever seeing as we don't know what the statistic is for other sports. All this means is that a lot of people watched the event, which is a positive thing if badminton is to stay alive in the 2020 running Summer Olympics. That being said, I think the outcome and diversity of the medals won by countries at Rio 2016 will have have some weight as to whether badminton will stay. Even though Russia got the bronze in WD (fairly surprising, but good for badminton), it was a tainted bronze because they were knocked previously in the draw.
Yes it does. The most watched event in history that is verifiable is about 1 billion for Bejing opening ceremony, so if the 20% were to be true then it would be waayyy higher. (I personally don't think viewing figures could be that high, almost impossible imo).
Probably more alike to when they used to claim the SuperBowl is watched by a billion people, when they actually mean it was broadcast to a (potential) billion. Actual viewing numbers worldwide are maybe 200 million, with US viewing numbers last year a new record at 111.3 million. Not unlike the announcer always claims at the Dutch Open, when he is telling the finals audience millions of viewers in Asia are watching right now but when you come on this board it is actually broadcast nowhere at all, except at best Astro sports in Malaysia [and the betting sites I suppose]. From a 2007 article "Super bull: Super Bowl myths debunked" : Myth No. 6: How many couch potatoes? A global TV audience of 1 billion people typically tunes in to watch the game. Fact or fiction: Each year, this one gets tossed around in the media as if that stat was as black and white as the referee’s shirt. That may be due to NFL statements about potential global viewers. NFL.com says Super Bowl XLI will be televised in 232 countries and “available to an estimated worldwide audience of 750 million to 1 billion people.” But the NFL doesn’t know how many people outside the United States actually watch the game, nor has the league ever “provided the media a figure of total worldwide viewership,” said Brian McCarthy, an NFL spokesman. “We do know U.S. viewership because Nielsen tells us,” McCarthy added. Nielsen cannot pinpoint how many people watch the game beyond American borders because “we are only able to track national numbers,” said Brandi Preston, a spokeswoman for Nielsen Media Research. The closest anyone has come to gauging global Super Bowl ratings is a tracking system devised by the New York-based media research firm Initiative, which collects data from 54 of the major TV markets from around the world. According to Initiative’s most recent measurement, Super Bowl XL posted an average audience of 98 million, with 151 million tuning in at some point. If you’re number-crunching, that’s 849 million short of a billion. One 2006 sporting event did come close to the 1 billion mark: The World Cup final between Italy and France drew an average audience of 260 million, and 603 million people saw at least part of the game. Answer: Fiction http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16877331/ns/business-us_business/t/super-bull/#.UNRjROlVDJ0
Drop Trampolining please!!! Most of the trampolining athletics are failed or 2nd tier gymnasts. Come on IOC!
I don't think that is an option. Seems to me it is merely counted as a discipline of the sport of gymnastics. If it were to go the rest of gymnastics would have to go with it, although you could still drop it as a means to cut the number of athlete spots taken up. In the past it did have a federation of their own, perhaps it wasn't even Olympic at the time. Just checked and they joined the international gymnastics federation in 1999 before it became Olympic in 2000. "As part of the agreement to merge FIT with FIG, individual trampolining was accepted into the Summer Olympic Games for 2000 as an additional gymnastic sport." I mean it would therefore only be logical to start an International Racquet Sports Federation with disciplines tennis, badminton, squash, table tennis, rackethlon and perhaps speedminton at some point [right now they are taking up 3 of the 26/28 sports; whereas "aquatics" takes up one spot but encompasses swimming, diving, waterpolo and synch. swimming -.^]. Likewise, sailing, rowing and canoeing each take up spot but rowing and canoeing at least you imagine could potentially merge. Of course whether these mergers would negatively impact the total number of athletes for these sports idk ... If Tokyo get's the 2020 Games, I think baseball would have a decent shot of getting back on the list but I believe that hinges on MLB releasing the best players and likewise basketball might be in danger I recall reading (USA thinking of only sending college players from now on). Eventhough it is off-season, most names are taking their rest or they are too expensive too insure. Believe team GB blew their entire budget on getting Luol Deng insured. If he were that patriotic a millionaire like himself could have paid for that you would imagine as well ...
Is that so? But ... of course even behind the Luol Deng there is more to the story (I do indeed recall him playing in some qualifiers for GB against Netherlands here in the past for example): http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/...ngs-insurance-bill-however-painful-it-may-be/
I would drop beach volleyball. The truely competitive version of volleyball is already there. I don't think a typical leisure sport should occupy another slot.
I see what you are saying. Trampoline, Artistic Gymnastic, and Rhythmic Gymnastic are considered the one sport under Gymnastic. Maybe they should combine badminton, tennis, table tennis, and squash as part of one "racket sport".
See above: both are disciplines of Volleyball, not separate Olympic sports (and as such bvb doesn't take up another slot unlike that without doubt seen as the ultimate leisure sport: badminton ). And beach volleyball is more demanding than the so called "truly competitive" version. Not that I am advocating beach soccer for example to also get on the program or replace this junior football called Olympic football. Have that reserved for futsal ...
