Jun 08 2008
What’s an Olympic Sport?
With the popularity of “Dancing With the Stars,” ballroom dancing is once again trying to be a part of the Olympics. It’s not really ballroom dancing though–it’s DanceSport. See? It’s a sport! The Wall Street Journal has a nice article on its struggle to get recognized and see Olympic glory.
MSN Encarta discusses what makes an Olympic sport, but since there are always new ones coming down the pike, I thought I’d list what sports are trying to make the Olympic cut:
2008: No new sports , but there are additions: BMX cycling, marathon swimming, team table tennis (replacing doubles), women’s 3000M steeplechase, and in fencing women’s team foil and team sabre will replace men’s team foil and women’s team epee.
2010: Skicross will be included. It’s a newer discipline of freestyle skiing.
2012: Baseball and softball are out; squash and karate were nominees for inclusion, but they didn’t receive the majority of votes needed to be included.
