It sounds like some people want to ban competitions that rely on coordination rather than brute strength, and turn the Olympics into more of a Strongman competition, with feats of strength but not so many feats of coordination...
Could this be due to a bias of lifting weights instead of playing sports? No offense, I'm just curious.
As far as synchronized swimming goes... yeah, it's not very Grecco-Roman, but it does require a lot of strength and coordination. Just be glad it's only a woman's event, lol. If men did it, that would just be wrong, lol. But you have a point when you say it's judged more on artistic criteria than on something more tangible. Hopefully the judging isn't as bad as the boxing judging though.
I don't actually see a problem with diving or equestrian events. They both involve a lot of human training and skill, just like all the other events.
I mean sure, diving is a bit fake-- we're going to judge you on how small your splash is when you jump into a pool-- but boxing is fake too. Rather than judge you on kicking some guy's *ss, we're going to judge on certain made-up critieria that have little to do with winning a real fight. I think just about all sports have arbitrary criteria (meaning an arbitrary set of rules), but there's nothing wrong with that, is there?
The amateur vs. pro question is interesting. Why do some sports allow pro athletes and not others, and what is the result of it?
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