Snooker 2020 Bid Fails

[Ken4155]

The bid for snooker to be considered for inclusion in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games has failed....................along with Chess and Bridge. Now, whilst i fully understand the snooker bid (ok, some may not consider it a sport), chess and bridge cannot qualify as sports in anyone's wildest imagination. What next, bids for knitting and facebook trolling?

[Graham-W]

I suppose "Dwarf Throwing" was chucked out long ago. It combines strength and accuracy like hammer, discus and javelin.

[melv16]

If lemon sucking was a sport, they'd be a few on here that would be medal contenders.

[Graham-W]

There could be a "Pub Games Triathlon". Darts, dominoes and pool.

[Ken4155]

Apparently, in order to boost attendance and attract greater sponsorship, hosts are given the chance to bring in one or more sports popular in their country. Baseball and Softball are favourites to return to the Games in Tokyo, with Bowling (10 pin and 9 pin) a strong possibility as it attracted almost 1,000,000 signatures of support.

[sandyRoe]

Apart from the Americans and the Cubans who else could field a decent baseball side?

[Ken4155]

melv, i'm very tempted to award you a gold medal - or best answer - for that gem:-)

[Ken4155]

sandyRoe; it's not the winning, it's the taking part. Just ask the horses i backed at Royal Ascot last week.

[joggerjayne]

How can Archery be an Olympic event, but not Darts?

Archery involves high tech equipment, which can improve the competitors chances of hitting the target.

Darts is more purely skilful. It is just man, dart, and target.

Like Archery, but without the helpful equipment.

[Buenchico]

From the Olympic Programme Commission, 2002:

"In 1995, the IOC recognised the international bodies of the ‘games’ of bridge (WBF) and chess (FIDE) as IOC-recognised organisations. Following this, an increasing number of NOCs began officially affiliating the national federations of these bodies, and the IOC therefore reviewed the status of the International Federations within the Olympic Movement. The status of the two Federations changed in 1999, when the IOC acknowledged that bridge and chess should be considered as sports, and therefore the status of the respective IFs changed from recognised organisations to Recognised Federations.

However, in reviewing the requests of these sports for entry to the Olympic Programme in January 2002, the Programme Commission believed that the IOC should clarify the position of mind sports in relation to the Olympic Programme, and expressed the opinion that they should not be eligible for admission.

In this regard, while making reference extensively to ‘sports’, the Olympic Charter does not provide a definition of a sport. Therefore, the Olympic Programme Commission could present a broad definition of ‘mind sports’ to allow the position of the Commission and the IOC Executive Board to be applied in current and future cases.

While there is no global definition of what constitutes a sport, and what the difference between a sport and a game is, the most commonly accepted element of a sport is physical exertion in the conduct of competition. In this regard, ‘mind sports’ could be considered as sports where the physical elements are not necessarily performed by the player in the conduct of the competition."

Source:
http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Reports/EN/en_report_527.pdf

[andy-hughes]

JJ - I think the term -exertion' has to be part of a sport and not a game, so in that case, archery is a sport and darts is a game.

[joggerjayne]

The fact that the competitors are frequently fat can't be a relevant argument.

Weight lifters quite often look like Humpty Dumpty.

[Old_Geezer]

I expect it is more exercise/effort to pull back a bow that down a pint, er... I mean sling a dart. One has to draw the line somewhere. Granted it is open to opinion where the line should be drawn.

[Old_Geezer]

"In this regard, ‘mind sports’ could be considered as sports where the physical elements are not necessarily performed by the player in the conduct of the competition."

Or indeed outside of the competition, or any any time anywhere. So... could not be considered a sport then ? "Mind Sport" indeed ! Ha !

[melv16]

They'd be a few medal contenders on here for tutting at bad grammar & misplaced apostrophes :-)

[ichkeria]

"Like Archery, but without the helpful equipment. "

Have you ever tried firing an arrow from a bow??
I'd suggest the term "helpful equipment" is a loose one :-)

Anyway I am delighted that snooker has failed to become an Olympic sport if only for the reason that it does not surely need the Olympics - tho that didn't stop golf and tennis getting in.
Karate should surely get a chance though

[Ken4155]

The eight shortlisted are; baseball/softball, bowling, karate, roller sports, sport climbing (?), squash, surfing and wushu.

[Ken4155]

Could be worse, Jordyboy9, could be Willie 'Mr Maximum But Never On TV' Thorne.