Which Events and Sports Should be Included in the Winter Olympics?

[Deen]

Ice fishing. They should have to all run from the line with their augers and the combination of time it takes and the size of the fish they catch should determine the score.

 

[TheBeastCoast]

Ice fishing. They should have to all run from the line with their augers and the combination of time it takes and the size of the fish they catch should determine the score.

Bonus points for the one that drinks the most beer in the shack while they wait?

 

[LiveeviL]

Bandy should be in if it was not so that so few countries actually have a league. It will be an affair between Sweden, Russia and Finland. Perhaps Canada could build a core of teams made up of hockey players who fancy a career shift (i.e. failed at hockey but still want to do sport on ice and not in a beer leauge) .

 

[Habsfunk]

Definitely ski mountaineering. As someone who does a lot of backcountry skiing in the winter and who knows a couple of former World Cup competitors, I can vouch for how demanding the sport is. It's basically XC skiing uphill, the going down as fast as possible. It requires amazing fitness and skiing ability.

I like the idea of dog sled racing. If horses can be in the summer Olympics, why not have dogs in the winter Olympics?

I also like the idea of ice climbing. And ski big air should be added because far more people compete in that than aerials, which is in the Olympics but is nowhere near as exciting.

The rest of the suggestions (other than adding women's events where there aren't already) seem like exercises in adding medal opportunities but not adding new sports.

 

[varsaku]

Bandy should be in if it was not so that so few countries actually have a league. It will be an affair between Sweden, Russia and Finland. Perhaps Canada could build a core of teams made up of hockey players who fancy a career shift (i.e. failed at hockey but still want to do sport on ice and not in a beer leauge) .

I am surprised that that was not in the Sochi Olympics considering that Russia is really into it.

 

[BMOK33]

The greatest mystery of all is why cricket is not in the summer games

 

[Cloned]

The greatest mystery of all is why cricket is not in the summer games

Takes too long to play out a tournament.

 

[varsaku]

Takes too long to play out a tournament.

A 20 overs match should be manageable. They don’t even need to build a full stadium for it. Some bleachers around the field would suffice.

 

[Cloned]

A 20 overs match should be manageable. They don’t even need to build a full stadium for it. Some bleachers around the field would suffice.

It'd take cricket on every single day of the Olympics for 12 hours of each day. Not sure the saturation would be welcome and not sure it'd draw enough additional interest/revenue for the IOC to consider taking that logistical nightmare on.

There are other issues as well.

 

[Eisen]

The greatest mystery of all is why cricket is not in the summer games

Do you get know rules? Very hard to find spectators outside of a few countries. Even casuals.

 

[varsaku]

It'd take cricket on every single day of the Olympics for 12 hours of each day. Not sure the saturation would be welcome and not sure it'd draw enough additional interest/revenue for the IOC to consider taking that logistical nightmare on.

There are other issues as well.

A 20 over match would take about 3 hours and could be formatted like hockey to accommodate within the Olympic schedule. This would help draw big interest from countries like India and Pakistan that really don’t have a strong Olympic following due to the lack of players competing. Building a cricket field would be much cheaper than building a hockey rink. They could use it to get bigger TV deals out of those countries.

Do you get know rules? Very hard to find spectators outside of a few countries. Even casuals.

I bet most people don’t know the rules to hockey but still tune in. That applies to most sports at the Olympics.

 

[Cloned]

A 20 over match would take about 3 hours and could be formatted like hockey to accommodate within the Olympic schedule. This would help draw big interest from countries like India and Pakistan that really don’t have a strong Olympic following due to the lack of players competing. Building a cricket field would be much cheaper than building a hockey rink. They could use it to get bigger TV deals out of those countries.




I bet most people don’t know the rules to hockey but still tune in. That applies to most sports at the Olympics.

This article explains it better than I can:

Five Reasons Why Cricket Shouldn't Be an Olympic Sport

 

[varsaku]

This article explains it better than I can:

Five Reasons Why Cricket Shouldn't Be an Olympic Sport

I am going to have to disagree with that article. If cricket was going to be in the Olympics, you will have only 8 team tournament to fit both men’s and women’s matches in. If you go with 8 teams, there shouldn’t be too many issues, plus this will automatically separate itself from their 20Twenty tournament. West Indies will be out of luck and only Great Britain will have to get their issues resolved.

 

[LeHab]

We should have a combat winter sport. Too bad there is nothing competitive out there. Hockey style fighting would not fly. Maybe some sort of snowball fighting.

Summer games have: Wrestling, Boxing, Judo, Karate, Taekwondo heck even Fencing.

 

[LiveeviL]

We should have a combat winter sport. Too bad there is nothing competitive out there. Hockey style fighting would not fly. Maybe some sort of snowball fighting.

Summer games have: Wrestling, Boxing, Judo, Karate, Taekwondo heck even Fencing.

Combine Ski-orienteering and Bihatlon and the athletes could snipe at each other (not serious ofc, but ok: with paintball guns then). It would be like a capture the flag game with a range of flags.

 

[Bjorn Le]

Red Bull Crashed Ice (Downhill Ice Cross) would be perfect for the Winter Olympics. Its fast, dangerous, highly competitive, and draws a good sized crowd when events are held. The only concern I would have is if the IOC would recognize a governing body because of Red Bull's heavy involvement with the sport.

A form of 3 on 3 ice hockey would be welcomed as well.

Given that they added 3 on 3 basketball to the Summer Olympics, it would be cool to add 3 on 3 hockey to the Winter.

 

[Cloned]

I am going to have to disagree with that article. If cricket was going to be in the Olympics, you will have only 8 team tournament to fit both men’s and women’s matches in. If you go with 8 teams, there shouldn’t be too many issues, plus this will automatically separate itself from their 20Twenty tournament. West Indies will be out of luck and only Great Britain will have to get their issues resolved.

That's the other issue.

Is women's cricket actually a thing? They barely play any games as is. The IOC is going to balk at adding a sport that is only played on the men's side.

 

[Name Nameless]

If you want more medals, it is possible to expand some sports like swimming has expanded in the summer-games. When skiing got a new style- skating with skis- they realized it would be two styles, classical, and skating. But they have basically divided the events, so you don't have one 10 km skating, and one 10 km classical. You get just one of them. It could easily be twice as many events if they wanted it. Relays? One with four classical legs, one with four skating-legs. And so on.

Of new sport, bandy would be the obvious choice, as has been mentioned here.

 

[Channelcat]

They could cut the events in half.....at least. Way too much trash.

 

[Name Nameless]

They could cut the events in half.....at least. Way too much trash.

For the summer olympics, I so agree. Way to much. The winter games are more like it.

 

[mjlee]

Winter pentathlon. It was even a demonstration sport. And there you have the fencing and then pistol shooting.

Winter Pentathlon at the Winter Olympics

Oh and definitely skijoring

 

[SUX2BU]

Darts