Why so no one will watch?

Of the sports that people wath swimming, gymnastic, track and field, basketball, tennis virtually all of the participants are pros. Beach volleyball is a pro sport as well.

Look at boxing and soccer, virtually no one shows up or watches

Why isnt Golf an olympic sport?
Or baseball?
Or Rugby?
Bowling?
Cricket?
Polo?
Lacrosse?

Golf is in in 2016.

Just what we want to see Pro's playing for a gold medal. Yawn.

:tro:

i haven't watched any. :o

I have a hard time understanding why anyone would want to watch a competition knowing that the participants are vastly inferior to others that could be competing in that sport. It wouldnt be more interesting to watch Tiger and Rory and Luke Donald and Ernie Els and other guys playing for their countries than a bunch of amatuers that no one has ever heard of?

I guess some people like all the flowery prose and nonsense that the olympic telecasts feed you. They are fixing badmiton matches. The damn ping pong players are professionals. Some amateur boxing matches have been fixed. Virtually every female gymnastic participant appears to be a borderline victim of child abuse.

At least the pros there are playing for free

Your point was well made. I just remember the good old days of a USA vs USSR basketball game where I lived and died with every possession

Oh my God, for real?

Isn't that kind of the point?

No. I want to see the amatures who don't get paid, who don't get recognition, who do it strictly for the reasons that they do and who get to do it at - what is for them - the absolute highest level.

It makes me sick to see the professionals here.

... and for the record I don't give a **** about the network drivel that they're trying to spoonfeed and I doubt anyone here does. I'm pretty sure were all beyond that nonsense here.

Well at least one thing hasnt changed, Int'l refs are still horrid

The point of what? The olympic ideal is a bunch of bullshit. It is big business, period. NBC tells them what to do, money talks. Have any idea how much tickets to the top events go for?

Are you not aware that outside of the fringe sports they are mostly professionals right? You think those little girls who are on the gymnastic team are going to turn down the millions in endorsements coming to them? You know their parents who have pushed them since they were 5 wont.

I dont get the complaint about professionals in sports where professionals play. Do you not think if there was professional fencing that the pro fencing players wouldnt be here? No one gives a damn about fencing or kayaking or most of those other events except for 2 weeks 4 times a year and then alot of times only if there is an American to root for. There is plenty of these things shown as they are using 4 or 5 channels and the internet. If you want to follow the non pros there is ample opportunity. But if you think that the majority of viewers wish to see Mongolia versus East Timor non-pros in basketball rather than US versus Spain or Argentina or want to see the golf version of Eddie the Eagle for more than a few holes you are mistaken.

Yeah, give me the pros. If I want to see the Eddie the Eagle of golf, all I gotta do is keep teeing it up with the Tampa Show Parlay team.:D

I can't respond to this without sounding melodramatic and affected so I will simply say that i think it's a shame that an event with traditions that date back so far is being so, well..... changed.

It has been changing for a long time. The olympics are probably the original sporting event that featured widespead abuse of performance enhancing drugs (See virtually all Soviet Bloc athletes from 60's till fall of Berlin Wall), was one of the first to have an active doping scandal while in session (Ben Johnson), has had terrorist murders, boycotts, questions of gender problems, corrupt judging, bribery scandals, match fixing, overt racism and a lengthy list of questionable practices with sorid details too long to list. Other than that and those mega rich NBA guys it is a pure display of sport.

I think you are allowed 2 or 3 overage players in men's soccer. I agree the fun of the olympics is watching the quirky sports, that is why I don't want to see golf or tennis. We already have 4 majors in each every year. That is enough of the same 4 players in tennis winning over and over.

Any sport that includes a score for artistic anything belongs in a theater or on a stage; not in the Olympics

Mexico beating Brazil 2-0 in the 75th minute of the gold medal soccer match. A victory for Mexico would be huge for them, no matter who is in the line-up for both sides.

Should be a hectic finish as Brazil will surely pull out all the stops.

:tro::tro::tro:
i watched NO basketball men or women and i wouldn't watch soccer if they played in my back yard.

if they started allowing checking, i might start watching soccer...but that won't happen.