This is a total shot in the dark, but is it because cheerleading has more of a stigma attached to it? Also, is cheerleading international? I've always thought of it as an American thing, but I don't really know that much about it.
You know what should be a sport? Ballet. It takes just as much athletic training and skill as gymnastics.
But I guess at some point you have to draw a line between art and sport. Rhythmic gymnastics is somewhere in the middle for me and could go either way, I guess.
I don't understand why golf isn't an Olympic sport.
Why aren't baseball and softball not in the Olympics anymore?
The IOC voted them out starting in 2012 for a multitude of reasons, among them that the sports were only popular among the Americans and Asians, the IOC wanted to bring new sports in so they voted these two out to make room, they were upset at the US dominance in softball, they were pissed that MLB players weren't coming to the Olympics, and they were upset at the steroid use by baseball players.
This is a total shot in the dark, but is it because cheerleading has more of a stigma attached to it? Also, is cheerleading international? I've always thought of it as an American thing, but I don't really know that much about it.
You know what should be a sport? Ballet. It takes just as much athletic training and skill as gymnastics.
As a former gymnast, I can tell you most emphatically that no, it does not. This is a complete apples to oranges comparison.
And yes - I took ballet for several years. Many gymnasts do to complement gymnastics training.
Did you train in ballet at a pre-professional level? I did (I even majored in dance in college) and from my experience, it takes just as much athletic training and skill.
Now, my experience with gymnastics was limited and was just for fun on top of my dance training, but I can see that both disciplines involve extreme flexibility, strength, endurance and skill.
Have you ever seen what a male ballet dancer is capable of doing?
Did you train in ballet at a pre-professional level? I did (I even majored in dance in college) and from my experience, it takes just as much athletic training and skill.
Now, my experience with gymnastics was limited and was just for fun
Yes. Both involve extreme flexibility and skill. I'm not arguing that at all. But you can't tell me that your gymnastics experience was limited and for fun and tell me the two are equal.
I took ballet for 7 years. I didn't train at the pre-professional level because I was a gymnast, not a dancer. Two vastly different paths.
I will argue all day long that ballet does NOT take as much athletic skill as gymnastics. Yes, it takes skill. Yes, it's hard. But I don't consider it a sport, and of the two, I think gymnastics is the much harder and challenging one that takes more skill. I'm sorry, but they are not equal and can't/shouldn't be considered as such.
I guess I figure that if figure skating is an Olympic sport (which is essentially just dancing on ice), you would think the most athletic form of dance off of the ice would be a sport also.
But I will agree that gymnastics and ballet are very different. You can always tell the gymnasts that have good ballet technique (which is rare and mostly in the Russians), because they make things look graceful. Most gymnasts don't look very natural when they try to do ballet-like movements, which I guess proves the two use very different types of skills. Most gymnasts can't do what ballerinas can do well and most ballerinas can't do what most gymnasts do very well. But the life-span of the average gymnast and professional ballerina is similar, because both beat up your body so much, which is proof to me that both require an extreme level of athleticism if you're doing it right.
"This prick is asking for someone here to bring him to task Somebody give me some dirt on this vacuous mass so we can at last unmask him I'll pull the trigger on it, someone load the gun and cock it While we were all watching, he got Washington in his pocket."
Rhythmic gymnastics, FTR, pisses me off to no end. I still have no idea why the fuck it is considered a sport, much less an Olympic sport. I can twirl around with a ribbon in my living room. Where's my medal?
ETA: Yet the IOC got rid of softball. I would have rather they ditched rhythmic gymnastics.
I guess I am in the minority but one of the things I love about the Olympics are all these random sports that you never see otherwise (besides, it is Olympics GAMES, right? an athletic competition, not necessarily a sports competition).
I would guess that rhythmic gymnastics is quite popular around the world, just not in the USA. I think PP argued that softball and baseball are not that popular globally. The IOC should be looking into what is more globally interesting and not just pandering to USA, IMO.
I would guess that rhythmic gymnastics is quite popular around the world, just not in the USA. I think PP argued that softball and baseball are not that popular globally. The IOC should be looking into what is more globally interesting and not just pandering to USA, IMO.
I would guess that rhythmic gymnastics is quite popular around the world, just not in the USA. I think PP argued that softball and baseball are not that popular globally. The IOC should be looking into what is more globally interesting and not just pandering to USA, IMO.
I would guess that rhythmic gymnastics is quite popular around the world, just not in the USA. I think PP argued that softball and baseball are not that popular globally. The IOC should be looking into what is more globally interesting and not just pandering to USA, IMO.
Some of you guys seem really worked up about this
I was the PP that brought up the softball/baseball global issue, and that was not my personal argument. Please re-read what I wrote. It was one reason of many that the IOC gave for eliminating the two sports. which is actually a very complex issue that I'm more than happy to expand on for you if you'd like.
As for pandering to the US, baseball and softball are most popular in the US, Canada and Asia. Cuba has won the most baseball medals. Japan won the last softball medal. So the argument that those sports pander to the US only is really bunk.