Genre: Forum

Sports that shouldn't be in the Olympics? I'd not lose any sleep if all the equestrian events got lost. One of the things the Olympics is supposed to do is inspire kids to engage in sports at grass roots level because maybe if you practice enough one day you might be up there competing for your country. The expense of the equestrian events makes them completely inaccessible to the vast majority of kids. It's not really in keeping with the meritocratic spirit of the games that you can get a gold medal for being the best at something barely anyone can afford to do. It's like having an event for deadlifting gold bars where you can only participate if you bring your own gold bars. I'd not lose any sleep if all the equestrian events got lost. One of the things the Olympics is supposed to do is inspire kids to engage in sports at grass roots level because maybe if you practice enough one day you might be up there competing for your country. The expense of the equestrian events makes them completely inaccessible to the vast majority of kids. It's not really in keeping with the meritocratic spirit of the games that you can get a gold medal for being the best at something barely anyone can afford to do. It's like having an event for deadlifting gold bars where you can only participate if you bring your own gold bars. I see your point, but even so, quite ordinary people do own, ride and show horses. A lad who worked in my department at my last job had two horses which his wife rode and showed - they lived on a small housing estate and were certainly not well-off. The horses were of course stabled elsewhere. He also kept a few fancy breed sheep which his little boys showed at the agricultural fairs, again the sheep lived in a farmer's field. Admittedly, rich people can easily buy horses and all the tack and clothes, whereas those who have less money have to make sacrifices to do it- but that's life, really. I know the lad mentioned above did extra work as a builder's labourer for his dad to help finance the horses, because riding was so important to his wife. So sometimes people who aren't rich at all can actually afford it, if they make it a priority. I hate swimming. It's a sport of doping and you can't actually see anything. On the upside, people love seeing fit (though mostly ugly, the bronze medalist british woman is awfully ugly) people in bathing suits. And they can fixate on meaningless records. Athletics are not much better. Both have a place in the olympics though. As an adopted Aussie I'd like to believe that our poor medal haul at the last Olympics was partly due to dirty foreign cheats but where is the evidence? perhaps we need baseline blood passports like they are talking about for cycling.