A seemingly common topic around the Olympics is which sports actually qualify as sports. Since this is the summer Olympics, I won’t go into the numerous winter events that are not sports.
I have MANY opinions about if something qualifies or not, but with a few exceptions, will accept that people train for years, sometimes decades, to compete on the world stage in the “sport” of their choice. A couple of the exceptions, in my humble opinion, are:
Table Tennis: AKA, ping pong. Yes — ping pong is an Olympic sport. According to the schedule (the extent of my research on the topic), Germany and China are the major competitors in this sport. I can’t explain Germany’s inclusion, but I figure China is there because they are the home team and just have to play.
Trampoline: Yes — that thing you fell off of in your back yard when you were a kid is an Olympic “sport”. I wonder if, as part of the sport, competitors can counter jump on the trampoline to try and make you stop bouncing? This would at least make it more interesting. Otherwise, leave the jumping and flipping to the gymnasts — which is a sport (not that I can explain why, but it is).
Which events do you object to being called ‘Sports’?
