OT-IOC Adds 5 New Olympic Sports For 2020 Including Surfing and Baseball

[AshSaturday]

Great news for Olympics fans in that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) today announced the addition of 5 news sports for Tokyo in 2020:

1) Baseball/Softball
2) Surfing
3) Skateboarding
4) Karate
5)Sports Climbing

Real excited to see surfing-a sport I don't get to watch often. Baseball maybe not so much as I doubt MLB will shut down for 2 weeks.

 

[cicero grimes]

How about Pokemon Go as a sport?

 

[JeepGuy999]

No LAX? Disappointing to say the least.

What is "Sports Climbing" is the Olympics going to start looking like American Ninja Warrior now? What's next Olympic cross fit? What crap "sports!"

 

[mdk01]

Where do they surf in Japan?

And I'll second the disappointment with respect to lacrosse. The World Lax tourney get teams from roughly 35 countries. That's enough to justify it as an Olympic sport.

 

[PSU_Nut]

Where do they surf in Japan?

And I'll second the disappointment with respect to lacrosse. The World Lax tourney get teams from roughly 35 countries. That's enough to justify it as an Olympic sport.

Did you know the IFIA has 64 nations with members? They have a 8 team championship. Do you expect American Football to be in the Olympics?

 

[knightfan7]

Where do they surf in Japan?

And I'll second the disappointment with respect to lacrosse. The World Lax tourney get teams from roughly 35 countries. That's enough to justify it as an Olympic sport.

Is it? That's roughly 17% of all countries in the Summer Games.

By comparison the IBAF (baseball) has 117 members and the sport has had trouble staying on as a Olympic competition.

 

[Caliknight]

Where do they surf in Japan?

And I'll second the disappointment with respect to lacrosse. The World Lax tourney get teams from roughly 35 countries. That's enough to justify it as an Olympic sport.

There is excellent surf in Japan. At the right time of the year. Surfing can be amazing or boring as hell to watch. It all depends on the waves. It's a real crapshoot to have it in the Olympics.

I believe lacrosse will be a trial sport at the next summer games, with full entry expected in the following. That may be one cycle ahead, but it is expected to be an Olympic sport sometime in the near future, Olympic timeline speaking.

When that happens, RU's own former lax coach, Tom Hayes, will have been the person largely credited with making that happen.

 

[mdk01]

Did you know the IFIA has 64 nations with members? They have a 8 team championship. Do you expect American Football to be in the Olympics?

There are at least 6 national teams that have a chance to medal in lacrosse. And there's even a chance for the US or Canada to be upset with a 3rd team winning the silver. With football it's US gold, Canada silver (after a 49 point loss) and a bunch of teams that would lose to the US by, literally, 100 points and Canada by 50. So what you wrote is a pretty bogus comparison.

 

[AshSaturday]

No LAX? Disappointing to say the least.

What is "Sports Climbing" is the Olympics going to start looking like American Ninja Warrior now? What's next Olympic cross fit? What crap "sports!"

American Ninja warrior, LOL (if they have one or two of those "Ninjababes" I'm all in.)

 

[mdk01]

There is excellent surf in Japan. At the right time of the year. Surfing can be amazing or boring as hell to watch. It all depends on the waves. It's a real crapshoot to have it in the Olympics.

I believe lacrosse will be a trial sport at the next summer games, with full entry expected in the following. That may be one cycle ahead, but it is expected to be an Olympic sport sometime in the near future, Olympic timeline speaking.

When that happens, RU's own former lax coach, Tom Hayes, will have been the person largely credited with making that happen.

And it actually was a sport in the 1904 & 1908 games, and an exhibition sport in 1928, 1932 & 1948.

 

[RUfromSoCal?]

sh&t... I was counting on jousting!!!!

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...international-olympic-committee-petition-2020

 

[AshSaturday]

I can see it now-The Scarlet Knight enters Tokyo Olympic Stadium for the Gold to a crowd whipped into a frenzy by DJ Yoshi! However controversy soon prevails after the Rutgers cannon misfires, injuring 20 and throwing both participants off horseback.

 

[RUfinal4]

for Baseball they need to decide the rules / format. Will it be open to all pro players? Will it be a 25 and under team? A mix of the above options?

It can be done like hockey where MLB takes off 8 to 10 days for the 2nd week of the Olympics. Teams like USA, Canada, Japan, Cuba, DR should get a bye to the main round (based on if they are the top 6 in the world rankings).

Week 1 will be qualifying (top 6 teams auto qualify for week 2- USA, Canada, Japan, Cuba, DR, 6th team (Venezuela, Chinese Taipei, S Korea, Mexico). rest of the teams battle out for the final 2 spots. (take teams 7 through 16 in the rankings and split into 2 groups of 5. They play 4 games against the group with the top team in each group qualifying for week 2)

Week 2 - 8 teams remain in 2 groups of 4
Sunday through Tues - group games 1-3 (top team in each group qualify for semis)
Wed the 2nd and 3rd place teams play each other with winner to Semis
Thurs - Semis (2 of 3)
Fri - Semis (possible double header)
Sat / Sun - Finals (2 of 3)

 

[bitnez]

Did they reinstate wrestling? If not it's a joke

 

[jmc11201]

I'm old fashioned. I like my olympic sports to be feats of strength and speed. Leave the other stuff to the X Games.

 

[RUSK97]

Where do they surf in Japan?

It is an island nation after all...

 

[Abro1975]

 

[zappaa]

Japan is baseball obsessed, so this is not surprising.

 

[AshSaturday]

• Zappaa, R the Japan leagues "in season" during their proposed Olympics? Also, dumb question but assumimg a 2-week basebsall layoff (ahemmm) under any circumstance if we want the Gold, would it be any wiser to send the World Seriies winner vs an "All Star" team?

 

[knightfan7]

• Zappaa, R the Japan leagues "in season" during their proposed Olympics? Also, dumb question but assumimg a 2-week basebsall layoff (ahemmm) under any circumstance if we want the Gold, would it be any wiser to send the World Seriies winner vs an "All Star" team?

The problem is a World Series Champ may have 12 Americans, 5 Dominicans, 2 Canadians, a Cuban defector, and the rest from other countries

 

[AshSaturday]

The problem is a World Series Champ may have 12 Americans, 5 Dominicans, 2 Canadians, a Cuban defector, and the rest from other countries

Unlike others who react quickly-GOOD THINKING. Like Hockey to an extent these guys could be on several different squads.

 

[RUfinal4]

based on my suggestion above you would probably need 6 to 7 starting pitchers per team since you can potentially play 6 games over the final 4 days since I suggest 2 out of 3s

The USA team can potentially have a staff of:
Kershaw, DeGrom, Syndegaard, Bumgarner, Strasberg, Arrieta, Hendricks, Sanchezm, and others with closers including Miller, Britton, Melancon, Robertson. Throw in a couple of long reliever / set up men and the staff should be strong.

In the field the Americans may not be as good as the Dominicans but should be solid. Maybe RU's own Frazier will rebound and be part of the team.

 

[AshSaturday]

based on my suggestion above you would probably need 6 to 7 starting pitchers per team since you can potentially play 6 games over the final 4 days since I suggest 2 out of 3s

The USA team can potentially have a staff of:
Kershaw, DeGrom, Syndegaard, Bumgarner, Strasberg, Arrieta, Hendricks, Sanchezm, and others with closers including Miller, Britton, Melancon, Robertson. Throw in a couple of long reliever / set up men and the staff should be strong.

In the field the Americans may not be as good as the Dominicans but should be solid. Maybe RU's own Frazier will rebound and be part of the team.

Does honestly anyone think MLB (not the AAA teams) will take 2 weeks off? Those players get hurt and their owners stand to lose big bucks.

 

[robcac26]

for Baseball they need to decide the rules / format. Will it be open to all pro players? Will it be a 25 and under team? A mix of the above options?

It can be done like hockey where MLB takes off 8 to 10 days for the 2nd week of the Olympics.

Unfortunately, hockey will probably not feature NHL players next time. It's great for the fans and players, but doesn't make sense for the owners to take a two week break in their season and then start back up again, aside from the fact that their players could get injured. It would probably make even less sense in baseball since a two week break would mean something like 12 games that wouldn't be taking place.

The NHL players went to Nagano in 1998 because they wanted their players in the Olympics for 2002 when it was in Salt Lake City. Then they went to Torino in 2006 because they wanted their players in the Olympics for 2010 when it was in Vancouver. Then they went to Sochi in 2014 because the Russian star players threatened to leave the NHL and go back home to play in the KHL if the NHL wouldn't let them play in the Olympics in their home country. The next Winter Olympics are in Pyeongchang and then Beijing, at which the negatives of allowing NHL players to go outweigh the positives.

The fact that the NHL is bringing back its awful bastardization of an international hockey tournament known as the World Cup this year shows that they are trying to replace the Olympics as hockey's top international tournament with something that won't interfere with their schedule. There are World Championships every year, but many people don't care about it in North America because even though every other country is done with professional hockey for the season, the NHL is still going on, so many of the world's best players are unable to play. The World Cup is lame because there is no qualification procedure, the NHL just picked the six countries they wanted, and then to bring it up to eight teams, they are putting in a team of players from the rest of the world, and a team of North American players that are 23 or younger. I hope those two artificial teams end up playing each other in the final to show what a farce this thing is. What national anthem would they play if the rest of the world team wins?

 

[cicero grimes]

They should add swimming and boating in polluted, bacteria and feces infested waters. Oh wait they already did. Winners must survive 48 hours after the event to receive their medals.