Which event do you like the least?

[5DOM]

I really don't like how in gymnastics, the judges decide the winner.

I was watching men's all around event last night, and was surprised to see some of the scores.

The winner, even when he didnt do anything spectacular and made a mistake (the commentator seemed to agree), received 16+, while others with same mistakes got 13-14.

I mean I love watching the gymnasts doing their thing, but at least don't include the judges from the contestants' countries. Yesterday's gold and silver medalists? Chinese and Japanese. Guess where two of the judges are from. Interesting to know is that the Japanse judge actually finished giving scores to the previously finished German (I think) after the Japanese player was done performing. (I'm not saying the match was fixed or anything, because those two performed really well and deserved their medals, but watching the judges decide the winner sucks and we cant really do anything about it).

For the same reason, I don't like synchronized swimming, diving, trampoline and rhythmic gymnastics.

[dacher]

Referee's or judges, they are all subject to bias or just bad calls. In gymnastics you have to compare the scoring on each event separately -- each event is scored differently by a different team of judges, with mistakes punished very differently depending on the apparatus and who the judges are, making mistakes on some apparatus much more punishing than equivalent looking mistakes on than others.

Pure artistic events like diving/gymnastics/rhythm gymnastics/figure skating/ice dancing/freestyle skiing are by nature extremely subjective. They try to judge difficulty, but by the nature of nebulous subjectivity, much of the built in score is on prior "reputation" which affect starting score and the mistake penalty. Ice dancing is the absolute worse in this regard. I think gymnastics has gone a long way to making scoring more reflect the perceived difficulty and mistakes of each performance in isolation than all other artistic events.

In terms of least affected by human judging mistakes and bias, there are the pure objective timed racing events. The pure scoring events, like golf, target shooting. Then there are non-contact sporting events like tennis, where the bulk of human judgement is called for ball inbound/outbound. Baseball -- balls and strike calls. Then there are the contact sports -- fencing, judo, basketball, boxing, basketball. Much more judging leeway to make 'bad' foul calls. And then the artistic events.

It's what it is. I just ask for an honest attempt to improve the process and correct mistakes without destroying the event. Enjoy it for what it is. To be human is to make mistakes.

That's what makes the olympics special. The huge variety of events to show off wide-range of human potential and national excellence.

[dacher]

Oh, as to the thread title. Events I like the least are sailing and equestrian. Just seem way too elitist to be olympic events.

Keep the sailing to America's cup. Equestrian seems much more the horse doing the work and horse training than human physical achievement.

[WEFFPIM]

I can't stand any event that relies on judges to decide a winner. The only judged event I'll probably watch is diving because I like most of the water events.

[Ming Kong!]

I've enjoy watching the gymnastics. I really don't care for the whole judging aspect of it. I know one's spectacular performance can be judged unfairly due to opinion, rigging events or other reasons, but I enjoy the event more than anything to watch these amazing athletes perform.

Swimming has been incredible this year. They are just blazing fast with all the new technology. There have been many tight races, and the USA/Phelps show has been incredible.

I haven't really cared much for the soccer and basketball events yet, perhaps in the semis. I'm Argentine, so it could get very good for me watching Argentina in the medal games.

I can't wait for track and field.

[Guy986]

Shooting or Archery has been the most boring to watch. I also find water polo to be absolutely ridiculous.

[dacher]

Shooting or Archery has been the most boring to watch. I also find water polo to be absolutely ridiculous.

I love archery. I find the sound of the bow twang and arrow thunking rather hypnotic and soothing.

And I like how you see the arrow stuck in the target, unlike shooting.

Maybe part of the attraction is I'm a recreational bowler ... and archery reminds me of bowling.

[Al n' Perk No Layups!]

I'm not a fan of the judges but Gymnastics and other judged sports are usually fun to watch. I don't like Tennis, doesn't belong in the Olympics. I don't like the Sailing either.

[GQStylin]

I think sailing is definitely the worst sport to watch. Its long, its tedious and you don't even know who's in the lead or winning most of the time.

[Mike Hunt]

If I had my way, I would eliminate the following sports from the games:

-Equestrian: This should only be part of the horse olympics... Within equestrian, the "sport" I hate most is dressage. It's a display of how well you whipped your horse before showing up to the olympics.

-Some Sailing: It's not so much that I dislike sailing or that I don't think it requires skill. In fact, one could make the argument that if sailing shouldn't be in the olympics, neither should rowing (both see you racing boats but in one you propel the boat with paddles where the other, it's by manipulating sails and rutters. I just think there are way too many classes. Pick one, maybe two types of boats and call it a day.

-Synchronised diving: Don't get me wrong, I think it's fun to watch but to me, anything that requires you to focus as much or more on doing the same thing as someone else rather than doing something well, shouldn't exist (I don't like seeing divers try easier dives so that they can match better).

-BMX racing: I just noticed they added this to the olympics this year. I'm going against it right now. There's already indoor cycling, street competitions, and mountainbiking, leave the BMX stuff to the x-games.

There are also sports I'd like to add/keep:

-Baseball/Softball: both are not going to be part of the 2012 olympics and I think it's a shame. In terms of baseball, people seem to believe it's because MLB doesn't want to lend players to the tournament. I don't see the problem with that. The olympics is about amateur sports anyway, who cares if you don't get multi-millionaires in (20 years ago, the olympics were fighting letting any pros compete)... As for softball, I think the issue is with the lack of countries playing the game. Well, the only way to get more countries playing is by adding incentive for them to do so and by exposing them to it more. That's exactly what the olympics can do.

- Golf: Whether you think it's a sport or not (I happen to think it is), it is one of the most universally played games in the world. Any country could win the medal any year. How many sports can claim that right now?

-Rugby

-Cricket

-Lacrosse

-I was just looking at sports they used to have at the olympics and saw "tug of war" there. I think that would be brilliant to bring back.

[DelaneyRudd]

The Marathon is boring to watch, but is obviously a real test of ability and a classic Olympic sport. I love watching the silly sports like table tennis or curling during the winter. I don't like the Men's Gymnastics floor routines. The floor exercises look fruitier than an orchard. The rings are freaking amazing. The ability to do that and the high bar and pommel horse looks super-human.

[Rasho Brezec]

^^Agree about gymnastics.
On a side note, I never understood how come karate is not an olympic discipline. It's quite popular around the world.

[Al n' Perk No Layups!]

^^Agree about gymnastics.
On a side note, I never understood how come karate is not an olympic discipline. It's quite popular around the world.

Sports aren't picked on popularity, otherwise rowing would be replaced with MMA, which would be sweet.

[Rocky5000]

The new gymnastics scoring system sucks. They tried to revamp it, but it's worse than before. For instance, anyone watching the women's all around last night, saw one girl fall flat on her ass on the vault. Her execution score was still an 8, giving him a 14. I think she finished 5th or 6th place. If you fall on your ass, your execution should be zero. Also Lukin had one perfect beam routine, where they somehow found a point's worth of deductions. For the chinese girl who finished third, they took off about the same amount, even though she stumbled getting on to the beam, and had several balance checks. Maybe there's some mysticism going on behind the scenes that I didn't see, but from an outsider's perspective the judging system sucks. I agree with whoever said that judges in general, don't make for good events. The fewer referees, umpires, officials, or judges in a sport, the more likely it is to be enjoyable.

[uweblab]

I like to watch bikinis on the beach, but beach volleyball is a joke...
Obviously the ratings are high, that's why NBC airs it prime time....

[uweblab]

Shooting or Archery has been the most boring to watch. I also find water polo to be absolutely ridiculous.

water polo ridiculous?
oh please......
SOFTBALL is a joke.....

[Al n' Perk No Layups!]

The new gymnastics scoring system sucks. They tried to revamp it, but it's worse than before. For instance, anyone watching the women's all around last night, saw one girl fall flat on her ass on the vault. Her execution score was still an 8, giving him a 14. I think she finished 5th or 6th place. If you fall on your ass, your execution should be zero. Also Lukin had one perfect beam routine, where they somehow found a point's worth of deductions. For the chinese girl who finished third, they took off about the same amount, even though she stumbled getting on to the beam, and had several balance checks. Maybe there's some mysticism going on behind the scenes that I didn't see, but from an outsider's perspective the judging system sucks. I agree with whoever said that judges in general, don't make for good events. The fewer referees, umpires, officials, or judges in a sport, the more likely it is to be enjoyable.

Nastia doing a near perfect vault and sticking the landing yet getting only a two tenths higher score than the girl who fell on her butt was gross. Shawn Johnson getting way two many deductions on the uneven bars after doing a great routine and sticking the landing was terrible, and she got too many deductions on the Beam as well. Semenova lost a medal because of a ridiculously low 14.775 on floor when she really didn't make any mistakes. I couldn't stand the judging last night.

[Da Schwab]

I'm with Mike on this one. I can't take Equestrian seriously. Unless the medals are made of oats and carrots, they shouldn't even be awarded.

[Al n' Perk No Layups!]

The worst event I have ever seen: "Race walking". Having this as an event is an embarrassment to the Olympics. The name itself is a contradiction, you can't race and walk at the same time. Who in the hell decided to make a freakin charity walk an olympic event. Why stop there? We don't we add extreme scrabble to the mix? Arm Wrestling? Ultimate Rock, Paper, Scissors? Long distance shouting? Speed **** (doping scandals will be replaced with laxative scandals)? All of those would make better Olympic events than "race walking."

I love how the analysts are trying to tell me how exciting it is with the constant comparsions to restrictor plate racing. Well in restrictor plate racing cars are going 200 miles per hour which is plenty fast enough, in "race walking" the "competitors" are moving at a blistering 3-4 mph! Sorry, not impressive. Even more sickening is that there are NINE medals available for THREE "race walking" events! The people "winning" this event shouldn't be given medals, they should be exiled to a small chunk of ice in the arctic. I can't believe the IOC is pulling Softball yet leaving this crap in.

I pissed that USA network put this filth on for over an hour last night.

[5DOM]

but they are the world's fastest walkers..

im surprised there isnt a race crawl