Can This Be Right?

[joggerjayne]

Netball is not an Olympic event simply because ...

... the Americans are not very good at it ... ???????

http://www.theroar.co...ored-by-the-olympics/

[emmie]

seems strange perhaps, then again there are many sports that perhaps shouldn't have a place in the Olympics, beach volleyball for one, and football is another, and tennis, not my idea of The Olympics at all.

[joggerjayne]

Yes ... !

How can beach volleyball be in the Olympics, and netball not?

In most Olympic sports, they have technology to measure exact times and distances. In beach volleyball, they have ropes to mark the pitch, and they move around when the players tread on them.

[Slapshot]

...it's more likely that the right palms at the IOC haven't been greased properly by the Netball associations. Look at cycling, the track program was descimated before Beijing to include the Keirin, popular as it is it's not one of traditional track events and "allegedly" the UCI paid the IOC 5million to get it included....

The Keirin is one of the biggest gambling events in the far east, trillions of yen are bet every year in the Japanese Keirin series the best riders as well paid as footballers and fitted with the UCIs promotions company aims to expand the sport globally.....yeah right!! It was a pay off from the Keirin authorities in the far east to the UCI to force it's inclusion....The Olympics is no longer about sport, it's about money and the corruption is rife throughout every part of it.....I'm off to the South Atlantic in June for a spell, I'm quite pleased that I don't have to be at home watching the obsequious Coe or the rest of the Olympic Glitterati filling their pockets. The closer we get to the Olympics the more cynical I get about it all, I'm fed up that the sports we love have become little more than a gravy train for a select few and unfortunately it's the sportsmen and women who suffer most

[ojread2]

And how can football be an Olympic sport?

[Slapshot]

Because it's been paid for by FIFA....

[DTCwordfan]

While I can understand your cynicism, slapshot, you are being unfair and slandering the name of FIFA.

I quote from the Olympic site:

"Football was introduced as a medal sport at the 1908 Olympic Games. Great Britain won the gold medal, then successfully defended their title four years later in Stockholm. The sport has featured at every Olympic Games since, with the exception of Los Angeles 1932."

I look forward to reading yur future thread about your legal case, either here or in the Daily Mail.

JJ - If I recall, there have to be a minimum of 30 nations to qualify - your association mentions 28, perhaps that is one of the reasons. Get your kit on and get Monaco and Kazakhstan to join......Latvia and Estonia just for good measure.

[Slapshot]

Okay, fair enough...mind you suppose it makes a change from FIFA creating their own slander. ;0)

[Gromit]

Your link answers your own question. Netball is played in a few ex-Commonwealth countries. It is not played worldwide by many countries.

[murraymints]

was centre half or asst shoot at school..also captain....would like to see it included..it is NOT as girly as you think...

[rowanwitch]

I would happily see it added in the place of beach volleyball ...

[starone]

It's libel, not slander. Slander is spoken, libel is written.

Yours faithfully,

Nit-picker.

[Gromit]

Correction: I meant ex-Colonial countries not ex-Commonwealth countries.

[joggerjayne]

No, murray ... it's not girlie. If a netball player gets dumped on a hard court, she sets up, plays on, and worries about it after the quarter.

If a footballer gets dumped on the grass, he rolls around like he's been shot.

triggy ... while I obviously don't agree with you, your "anti" posts do make me smile. =0)

[murraymints]

JJ.. could AB land qualify ?..I'll look out my shoes and skirt !!!..I know Sqad will watch !!!lol

[argorstran]

Netball is only played in a handful of English speaking countries . Womens Basketball is played globally , that's why it's the one which is in the olympics .
DT - the countries which you mentioned (except Monaco) all have womens basketball teams .
I agree that beach volleyball should not be in the olympics , nor should BMX and mountain-biking . We already have real volleyball and real cycling in the olympic programme .

[joggerjayne]

BMX should, because we have a medal prospect.

That Shinaze Reed (not sure of spelling) was in dead cert silver place last time, until she went for gold near the finishing line and ... fell off.

At least we'd be in with a shout of a netball medal ... unless we came 4th behind New Zealand, Jamaica and Australia ... =0(

[joggerjayne]

murray ...

I'm sure we could get a team together.

=0)

[Kiki-frog]

Ooooh, I'd love to play! I used to play Wing Attack and loved it. Trouble is my back and legs are now far too knackered in reality. But I can still shout and make a lot of noise as a supporter.

[jno]

it's shocking that cricket is no longer an Olympic sport.

Great Britain beat France in 1900 to take gold. Actually, there were only two teams (and "Great Britain" was really "Devon and Somerset") so they didn't award gold, just silver and bronze, plus models of the Eiffel Tower, but they were transmuted into gold and silver retrospectively.