The Olympics’ Proposed New Events

The Olympics’ Proposed New Events by Joe Brackets:

I haven’t seen the complete list of new events that have been proposed for the Rio Olympics.  But from the list I have seen, I’ve definitely been able to form an opinion.  I think some of the proposed new events would be wonderful additions to the Olympic program, some are good ideas that simply wouldn’t be feasible, and the rest range from stupid to unnecessary.  There are also a few events that haven’t been proposed, but I wouldn’t mind seeing added to the Olympics anyway.  Call that my wish list.  (It goes without saying that my wish list includes the entire sport of wrestling.)

FINA, the governing body for swimming and the other aquatic sports, was one of the most aggressive federations when it came to proposing new events.  They want to add eight events to the swimming program: the 50 meter backstroke, 50 meter butterfly and 50 meter breaststroke for men and women, as well as the men’s 800 and women’s 1500.  I’ve got no problem with any of these events.  They’ve all been a part of the World Championships for a while, and adding them to the program wouldn’t require any additional athletes or days to the program.  (They currently have four finals a night over eight nights of competition, so it wouldn’t be hard to add a final a night.)  Most importantly, swimming is one of the most popular sports in the Summer Olympics, both in terms of attendance and TV ratings.  It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if they find a way to add more swimming.

They’ve also suggested increasing the women’s water polo field from eight teams to 12.  Again, no issues here.  The men’s water polo tournament already includes 12 teams.  Although, I’m not sure the world is competitive enough for an additional four teams.  I’m also not sure the IOC would be too eager to add 60 athletes in a team sport that doesn’t create any additional medal opportunities.  Likewise, they want more teams in synchronized swimming, as well as more individuals in diving and open water swimming.  Whatever.  That’s fine.

Beach volleyball is another wildly popular Summer Olympic sport.  With the iconic Copacabana Beach serving as the venue, it promises to be one of the marquee sports in Rio.  They want to capitalize on their popularity by increasing the field from 24 teams to 32.  While this seems incredibly easy to do, I’m not sure it works logistically.  With 24 teams, that means they play 12 matches a day.  They can’t play 16 matches in one day on the same court, so they’d probably need a second beach volleyball stadium if they increased the field.  That’s why I’m not sure it’s a great idea.  I have an alternate solution: 48 women’s teams, 0 men’s teams.  I bet very few people would object to that.

Cycling wants to add some sort of mountain biking event with four riders that I think is probably similar to snowboard cross from the Winter Olympics, as well as BMX freestyle, neither of which I really quite understand.  I can see one or both of these events being added because the IOC is always going after a younger demographic, but the Olympics doesn’t need either one.  Nor do they need 3-on-3 basketball.  The regular version is an Olympic staple.  I’m not sure the 3-on-3 version would go over as well as they think it would.

That’s on the list because it had a successful tryout at the 2010 Youth Olympics.  So are mixed-team events in sports like archery and triathlon.  Gender equity is an important issue within the IOC, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see those added if they can find a format that works.  The mixed relay in biathlon, with two men and two women per country, will make its Olympic debut in Sochi.  A mixed team event in archery could be set up the same way, and I think it would make for a great addition.

In equestrian, they eventually want to add a fourth discipline (endurance), but first they’re going to settle with reallocating their current allotment of athletes.  They want to move 10 riders from the eventing competition to the dressage competition so that they can keep their numbers consistent across the three disciplines.  They’ve had four-member national teams in jumping (which is the most popular equestrian event) for a while and want the other two events to have that same number.  Makes perfect sense to me.

There are two federations that I’m surprised didn’t make any new event proposals, though: the FIG (gymnastics) and the IAAF (track & field).  While it may seem like there aren’t any events left to add in either one of those sports, I disagree.  And those events top my wish list.

I’d love to see cross country added to the Olympic track & field program.  Anyone who’s ever run it knows that cross country is nothing like running laps on a track, and with the stadium track program full (there are 24 events for men and 23 for women), cross country’s the only track & field event that would be logical to add.  It’s not unprecedented.  Cross country was in the Olympics way back when, and the great Paavo Nurmi won four of his nine career Olympic gold medals in cross country.

Besides, track & field is the biggest and most popular sport in the Olympics, and World Cross Country Championships are one of the IAAF’s biggest events.  It’s an easy way to add four medal events (individual and team, men and women) without drastically increasing the number of athletes.  Scheduling would also be easy.  You could have it on the Monday and Tuesday or Tuesday and Wednesday of the first week, before the main track & field program begins on that middle weekend.  They also wouldn’t need to build a venue.  Cross country could be held on the same course used for the mountain biking races.

As for gymnastics, I’m not talking about artistic gymnastics.  It’s rhythmic gymnastics where I’d like to see some added events.  They currently only award two gold medals in rhythmic gymnastics: individual all-around and team.  In artistic gymnastics, they award gold medals in each individual apparatus, as well as the all-around and team.  Why not in rhythmic?  Individual apparatus finals would be four additional gold medals up for grabs without having to increase the number of athletes competing at all.  And you would add one day, maybe two, to the competition.  You could set it up just like artistic where the first day is strictly qualifying, then finals for the all-around, apparati and team.

Rio, of course, marks the return of golf and rugby to the Olympics.  I have no doubt that some or all of the events on the list that went to the IOC yesterday will join them.  But some have more of a place in the Olympics than others.