Rhythmic Gymnastics: This ridiculous prancing in an Olympic sport?

[Obamarama]

Anyone else watching this? It looks sort of interesting, but is this "floor show" stuff really worthy of being an Olympic sport?

[ugarte]

1. How would you feel if you trained your butt off for years

to win a 'real' Olympic event only to watch someone win the same medal for something like rhythmic gymnastics or sailing or archery or shooting a pistol or...?

The Olympic games should be for athletic accomplishments. Athletes. Period.

[rooboy]

3. I'll tell you what...

if you think these sports are such a joke, I will pay you half a million dollars if you can win a gold medal in archery at the next Olympics.

[Obamarama]

4. That's not the point....

Of course not just anyone can go out and prance gracefully on a stage and twirl ribbons in the air simultaneously. I just don't think it's worthy of being an Olympic "sport."

[rooboy]

8. It is the point.

if you want to win a medal in archery, for example, here's roughly what you need to commit to: five days a week training, 4-5 hours a day, shooting 200-300 arrows a day. PLUS additional personal training which would include strength and conditioning training.

And if you win, you get a medal. No million dollar endorsements or tv deals. Just because a sport LOOKS like it's a little dance around a stage, it's an insult to ignore what goes into making it look so easy.

The olympics is more than some sort of gladiator competition. With all due respect to the USA, no American network even bothered to offer live coverage of the Sydney 2000 games. The world basically feels America treats the Olympics with contempt, and slagging off on sports they don't relate to isn't helping.

[Obamarama]

9. Dude, I'm not talking about ARCHERY....

I'm talking about this so-called "Rhythmic Gymnastics." I think it's a stretch to have this included as an Olympic "sport." I love Cirque de Soliel, I just don't think it should be part of the Olympics.

[rooboy]

13. I was using an EXAMPLE, "dude"...

and it might surprise you to learn that rhythmic gymnasts work their butts off to do all that seemingly easy dancing stuff. The IOC doesn't just wake up one morning and go "hey, here's an idea for a sport"... these things are the result of YEARS of lobbying by an international association which has at least 20 competing nations.

Just because rhythmic gymnastics isn't followed or understood in America doesn't mean it's a shit sport. We feel the same way about Greco-Roman wrestling - we don't participate in it, nor do we see the skill or athleticism in THAT sport. Americans who do follow it would feel differently. But it's just pig ignorant to look at a sport and decide that you know how hard it is to do.

[democraticgator]

10. Your missing the point entirely

Just because something is hard doesn't make it a sport. I couldn't win the world championship of chess in four years either, but that doesn't make chess players great athletes. I think olympic medals should be reserved for great athletes.

[rooboy]

17. The Olympic games is not a Track Meet. n/t

[ugarte]

19. So what shouldn't be in the Olympics?

How about auto racing?

[arwalden]

22. Equestrian Events?

They are horses. Not humans. :-)

[ps1074]

5. I am with you on this one

except for the archery. It is a very ancient 'sport' and it should be there. In fact archery is very hard sport. Very hard to hit the target.

I am voting for these sports out of the Olympics - rhythmic gyms, weightlifting, softball, sailing, diving, synchronised swimming, taekwondo, judo and trampoline jumping.


I will also reduce the swimming styles and distances. Do you know there are currently 32 complect of medals given to both men and women in swimming? Ridiculous! They should be reduced to at most 12...

I will also want the greco-roman and free style in wrestling to be merged into one style.

Let us make a list with sports we want out and sports we want in and make a petition to IOC :)

[Maddy McCall]

11. I practiced at Quarters for a decade...got quite good at it...

but, sadly, it isn't an Olympic sport. ;-)

[joeybee12]

2. To each his own--my complaint is that NBC aired this INSTEAD of the

Women's Gold-Medal Winning Basketball Game. What the fuck were those programmers smoking?

[BiggJawn]

6. Maybe they wanted to show us the DIVERSITY of competion?

And I agree, go to the games in 4 years and win the gold in sailing or pistol, and I will be your slave for life.

Looks easy, isn't.

They should have put the women's BB in the line-up. I didn't see, but did they show the Nightmare Clowns "winning" their bronzes and then tossing them in the jockstrap hampers? I'd rather had seen the women. So I guess, in a convoluted way, that I agree with you.

[joeybee12]

7. Yup, show the men. And what gets me is the headlines FIRST talked

about the men's bronze, and a sidebar showing about the women's gold!

Fucking bias!

[BiggJawn]

15. Well, the NBA's bigger than the WNBA...

It sucks. I heard on the radio yesterday some sound bites, and they had a member of the woman's team saying that since the WNBA doesn't get good exposure that her team-mates and her LIVE for going to the Olympics.

The men's "dream team" were basically the bottom of the NBA barrel, because the USOC had go ass-kissing just to get the team they got, since the "power playahs" were "not interested" in going to Athens...That was in the same piece I heard.

But the network people think the Murkans want to see NBA "stars", not unknown women, no matter how much they kickmajor ass....Ratings. More eyeballs=more expensive rate card.

So what this is really boiling down to is not so much a dislike for things like ribbon gymnastics and sailing as much as it is about the "dream teams" and their exposure on TV.

I'm with you.The USOC should hang their heads in disgrace for fielding a "team" like that.

[joeybee12]

21. I guess even Alan Iverson went on a rant yesterday about lots of the

big players not wanting to go. Supposedly it's an honor to represent your country. Bunch of spoiled, over-paid brats. That's why I prefer college basketball over the pros.

[Red State Rebel]

12. I enjoy it..., I can only imagine how much practice and work it takes

[Selwynn]

14. What harm does it do you if it's a sport or not?

A lot of people here commented that they'd like to see you go to the Olympics in four years and get a gold in archery or sailing. I'd like to see you go and get a gold in rhythmic gymnastics. You do yourself a disservice by sounding like a dumb redneck with one working brain cell when you dismiss it as just "prancing around" and "twirling" etc. And I'm sure you're actually not.

What is a "sport" by a competition in something athletic? Rhythmic gymnastics is certainly that. Just because it doesn't include a basketball and hoop doesn't mean it isn't worthy. In fact, the sports I most enjoy in the Olympics are the things other than basketball, baseball, etc.

You can complain about all kinds of Olympic events if you want. If you don't think archery should be a sport, then neither should weight lifting - a bunch of just picking stuff up and then putting it down again. Nether should shot put - let's see how far I can throw this rock. Hell track and field - let's run around in circles and see who can do it the fastest.

All sports are excuses to compete in something that pits one expertly trained person in physical competition with other expertly trained people for fun and entertainment - saying that x thing is not a "real sport" is about the silliest thing to say.

As far as I'm concerned any time NBC covers something other than the standard American sports I'm grateful. I don't need the Olympics to watch a basketball game.

[Obamarama]

20. Let me clarify a few things....

First, I'm not dispariging (sp?) and completely dismissing Rhythmic Gymnastics. I was just QUESTIONING whether it should be an Olympic sport.

Next, I never said Rhythmic Gymnastics was easy, nor did I ever imply that any other Olympic sport was easy. So for those of you who are in a huff and would like to see me go to the Olympics and win a medal in a sport, you need to come up with a better retort than that.

My point is, rather, it looks more like entertainment than sport. Hence the Cirque de Soliel comment, and the "prancing" and "swirling" statements.

I'm sorry.. I just think something that looks like a lounge act at Harrah's in Vegas might not belong at the Olympics.

I also didn't say my opinion was neccesarily valid to anyone else but me, myself and I. Trust me, I'm not going to stary lobbying to have Rhythmic Gymnastics banned as an official Olympic sport.

I was stating an opinion and opening it up for dialogue in a forum known for it's more light-hearted topics. Had I thought people would be taking this so seriously I would have never posted it.

I am one of the more PC people you are likely to encounter, but if the PCishness has become so entrenched on DU that one can't post an honest opinion without ruffling everyone's feathers, fuck it - I'll refraing from posting and go back to reading only.

[onebigbadwulf]

16. It's still better than horse dancing.

Hell anything is better than horse dancing.

[AngryAmish]

18. As I said before, I am boycotting until barrell jumping is added.

[barb162]

23. I never saw this event before

and though the people were really talented, it was more like dancing/ballet, than sports I guess. More like something you'd see at Cirque d'Soleil or a troupe of acrobats that in the old days were called "double jointed." I am always amazed when people can take a leg and put it on their shoulders and that kind of stuff. But maybe this should be more like an acrobatic troupe. I also think the costumes were non sporty, which leads me more to think of it as entertainment versus true sport.