Alternate Olympic Sports

[Hylleddin]

Well, the PoD is before the 1900s, But in a timeline I'm thinking of, the alt-Olympics have a Canadian sport that's basically a snowball fight using something like an ice cream scope crossed with a sling. I haven't thought of a name though. Cricket is also in. (The games come out of the 1844 US vs Canada Cricket Match)

For closer timelines, paintball is an excellent candidate, as are the various roller versions of winter skate sports.

 

[Custard Cream Monster]

Have at it. How many motorsport events would there be, too?

So far, two - a driver's event and a teams event. The format of the latter would be a bit of a political football. I'll post the first part later once I've got it cleaned up, but here's one teaser thing : one country will get its first ever Olympic medal in motor racing in the 1948 games - I have immense respect for anyone that would be able to guess which.

 

[TheCrow__]

I say Germany maybe Italy? maybe Monaco?

 

[Custard Cream Monster]

The first two already had many Olympic medals, no to Monaco. By this I mean the first Olympic medal in any discipline being won in motor racing. That does make it a little narrower.

 

[Matt Wiser]

I'd bring baseball and softball back. No thanks to the IOC, they got bumped off for both London and Rio.

 

[obamaslovechild]

Horseshoes
Washers
Cornhole (a drinking game that involves throwing a bean bag about 20 feet into a hole

 

[Custard Cream Monster]

My knowledge of pre-30s motor racing isn't that good, so I haven't got round to doing those games. I'm starting off with LA 1932.

Los Angeles 1932 (Grand Prix cars, Pacific Coast Highway)

The motor racing at the Los Angeles games was not the best organized event - the ten kilometre circuit was laid out course. There was no teams event, and only four European cars started the race due to the location. The ten car grid was filled with six local entrants from the US using Indianapolis-spec machinery that were not suited to the twists of the road course. This punched a large hole in the Grand Prix schedule, and participating teams were not pleased with the thought of having to go to Tokyo when it was mentioned for 1940 ...

Individuals

Gold : Tazio Nuvolari (Italy, Alfa Romeo)
Silver : Rene Dreyfus (France, Bugatti)
Bronze : William Grover-Williams (Great Britain, Bugatti)

Berlin 1936 (Grand Prix cars, AVUS)

Following discontent over William Grover-Williams' bronze medal in a French car from the Italians and Germans, drivers can only race in cars of their own nation.
Auto Union beat Mercedes at German Grand Prix, so are selected to represent Germany. Political infighting stops Rudolf Caracciola representing Germany as Mercedes refused to let him race for their German compatriots.

A team event is started, with each nation entering four cars, but only three nations were entered - Germany, Italy and France with four aging Bugattis privately entered by Raymond Sommer. The winners of the team event would be the nation, who got the lowest score when the positions were added up, with a non-finish counted as the number of starters.

Ferrari were more willing to allow Rene Dreyfus to race for Sommer's team, entered as Ecurie France, who came last in the teams event. Reports that Hitler laughed when Dreyfus' engine failed on the last lap of the teams race cannot be verified.

Individuals

Gold : Bernd Rosemeyer (Germany, Auto Union)
Silver : Hans Stuck (Germany, Auto Union)
Bronze : Tazio Nuvolari (Italy, Alfa Romeo run by Scuderia Ferrari)

Teams

Gold : Germany (Auto Union) - Bernd Rosemeyer, Hans Stuck, Rudolf Hasse, Ernst Von Delius.
Silver : Italy (Alfa Romeo run by Scuderia Ferrari) - Tazio Nuvolari, Antonio Brivio, Giuseppe Farina, Carlo Felice Trossi.
Bronze : France (Bugatti, run by Raymond Sommer) - Raymond Sommer, Rene Dreyfus, Jean-Pierre Wimille, Philippe Etancelin.

1940 and 1944 games not held due to the Second World War

The guessing for 1948 can continue, I've got that games ready and haven't posted it. I've done up to and including 1952, after that there will start to be a few butterflies that effect Formula One and motor racing as a whole. If there's enough interest I might bring it up to Beijing 2008.

 

[mowque]

Horseshoes
Washers
Cornhole (a drinking game that involves throwing a bean bag about 20 feet into a hole

I;ve played all three of those. Hardly Olympic material.

 

[merlin]

I'm amazed no one has mentioned Darts.

No great cardio-vascular activity, but you still need to be fit to be able to do it at the top level, it's not easy getting 180, once let alone again and again!

 

[Mike Stearns]

Cornhole (a drinking game that involves throwing a bean bag about 20 feet into a hole

HAHAHAHAH! Olympic drinking games. Nice.

 

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Mushing. Check out the link for the timeline.

 

[fortyseven]

Jousting and Auto-jousting

Skating/Polar Bear Swim

Ice Sailing

War Games

 

[modelcitizen]

women's rugby is hot.


it just is.


jai alai? (though I think someone mentioned "pelota" already.)



I was going to guess Albania for motorsports 1948, and I think I'm probably way off on that.

If the country is making its own car... I was wondering about that. Some countries just don't have an auto industry that can produce a winning vehicle. I wonder what the rule is for equipment-sourcing in other sports, for example, skiing, bicycling, biathlon rifllery, etc.

 

[TheCrow__]

The first two already had many Olympic medals, no to Monaco. By this I mean the first Olympic medal in any discipline being won in motor racing. That does make it a little narrower.

well I was just guessing don't know to much bout motorsports but looked up on wiki that where I came up with Monaco they won some championship that year

 

[Osakadave]

Ultramarathons, both distance and timed, would be an interesting inclusion. Distance events would include 50 km, 100 km, 200 km, 500 km, and 1000 km, while timed would include 6, 12, 24, and 48 hours, as well as the 6 day.

Also, various sorts of trail running, such as rogaining, fell running, and mountain marathoning, would be good inclusions.

Sports I want to see returned are the modern pentathalon, tug of war, baseball, and softball.

Sport lifesaving is recognized by the IOC...

I remember there was talk about trying to get wei qi/go as a demontration sport in Beijing

Chess is recognized by the IOC, and ought to be good to go.

Even better, I'd love to see chess boxing in the olympics.

I expect the IOC isn't going to letin competetive eating. Even less so for the beer mile.

Chess?
American Football perhaps?
Deep sea diving? (Is their a way to make that competitive?)
Dancing?

Chess and dancesport are recognised by the IOC.

For diving, there (note spelling ) are several competitive free diving events.

"Dancesport" has been knocking on the door pretty hard.

What are those?


Bowling-Curling for the warm months!

Free running or freerunning is a form of urban acrobatics in which participants, known as free runners, use the city and rural landscape to perform movements through its structures. It incorporates efficient movements from parkour, adds aesthetic vaults and other acrobatics, such as tricking and street stunts, creating an athletic and aesthetically pleasing way of moving. It is commonly practiced at gymnasiums and in urban areas that are cluttered with obstacles.

The term free running was coined during the filming of Jump London, as a way to present parkour to the English-speaking world. However, free running and parkour are separate, distinct concepts — a distinction which is often missed due to the aesthetic similarities. Parkour as a discipline emphasizes efficiency, whilst free running embodies complete freedom of movement — and includes many acrobatic maneuvers. Although the two are often physically similar, the mindsets of each are vastly different.[1] The founder Sébastien Foucan defines free running as a discipline to self development, following your own way.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_running

Dueling

It already is an olympic sport, as modern fencing is derived quite specifically from "classical" fencing.

Did you know that tug of war WAS an Olympic sport? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tug_of_war_at_the_Olympics

Heh, that was my first thought - we need that back in!

- Parkour (I don't know how you'd cover this, but it would be unique and a real test of endurance and intelligence)

The only problem is that it's supposed to be anti-competative.

http://archive.parkour.net/index.php?showtopic=9539

I want Tuk-tuk racing!

Could be fun.

Is there even competitive mountaineering?

Well, there's competative bouldering, so mountaineering could be feasable.

Dodgeball.

You know you want to.

Why, yes. Yes I do.

I'd bring baseball and softball back. No thanks to the IOC, they got bumped off for both London and Rio.

Indeed.

I'm amazed no one has mentioned Darts.

No great cardio-vascular activity, but you still need to be fit to be able to do it at the top level, it's not easy getting 180, once let alone again and again!

Another good choice.

 

[Sigma7]

Summer Games...

Bring 'em Back:

Baseball: Send the pros. If a Dutch team with nobody who's name you'd recognize could knock off the Dominicans(!) in the WBC, a team packed with MLB All Stars, that should say everything that needs to be said of baseball. This isn't like women's ice hockey, where you know going in who's playing for the gold before the first puck is dropped, especially if you send the pros.

Softball: Hey, if you stop playing it, who the hell will take an interest in it and help the game grow?

Besides, Japan won at Beijing, that would seem to indicate the rest of the world is getting better.


Totally serious:

Rugby: Use the more popular format whether that's Union or League rules.
Men's and women's.

Cricket: I find it somewhat fascinating for some reason; it's like baseball and golf got drunk and had a one night stand and cricket was born 9 months later. (Yeah, I know, cricket's older than baseball, it's just an analogy, okay?) Men's and women's.

Kickboxing: Instead of breaking it down into American and Japanese rules, better to draft a set of "International Rules" for Olympic competition that's a mixture of both. Men's and women's, same weight classes as judo.

Karate: Why it's not already is a mystery to me. Men's and women's, same weight classes as judo.

Roller Hockey: In-line skates. Men's and women's.

Lacrosse: Definitely. Men's and women's. Only question is: Is this all that popular outside of North America? It's huge in the U.S. and Canada, but what about the rest of the world? If it's got the global interest, I say there's no excuse to keep it out. Great sport.


Semi-seriously:

Skateboarding: If snowboarding's an Olympic event, why not? Practically the same damn events. Men's and women's, of course.

Street luge: Every bit as insane as regular luge, but if safety equipment's the same, why not? Men's and women's.


Would be cool to see but won't happen:

Motocross: Standard, Super-cross and Freestyle. Men's and women's.

Surfing: Love the idea, but if surfing went into the Olympics, it would eliminate way too many countries from contention to host the games; like landlocked countries and countries with crappy curl. Hell, even cities on the U.S. east coast would be out of it because of crappy curl.

Hurling: The Irish really should have exposed more people to this game. I played some mixed team hurling a few times and it's a blast.



Winter Games...

Ice Boating: Someone else suggested this, and I believe this would be an awesome addition to the winter games. International DN for starters as it's the most popular format globally and add the Skeeter classes later if the interest is there. Men's and women's.

Ski-boarding: I've do this one myself and it's pretty cool. Men's and women's.

Winter Triathlon: Add snowshoe cross-country racing to the biathlon. Meant to replace the biathlon.

First leg: 10k (men), 7.5k (women) cross country ski.

Second leg: 20 target, three position shooting match.

Final leg: 10k/7.5k snowshoe race to the finish line.

Best score (time + shooting score; +2 seconds per shot missed) wins.

THAT would be a winter enduro. Men's and women's.


That's all I could come up with for now.

 

[Osakadave]

Rugby: Use the more popular format whether that's Union or League rules.
Men's and women's.

7s is set for 2012, AFAIK.

Roller Hockey: In-line skates. Men's and women's.

Lacrosse: Definitely. Men's and women's. Only question is: Is this all that popular outside of North America? It's huge in the U.S. and Canada, but what about the rest of the world? If it's got the global interest, I say there's no excuse to keep it out. Great sport.

Roller hockey got demonstrated in 92, and lacross has been in several times.

Surfing: Love the idea, but if surfing went into the Olympics, it would eliminate way too many countries from contention to host the games; like landlocked countries and countries with crappy curl. Hell, even cities on the U.S. east coast would be out of it because of crappy curl.

The IOC recognises it as a sport. Maybe a wave pool?

Ski-boarding: I've do this one myself and it's pretty cool. Men's and women's.

Didn't know that one. Sounds cool.

Winter Triathlon: Add snowshoe cross-country racing to the biathlon. Meant to replace the biathlon.

First leg: 10k (men), 7.5k (women) cross country ski.

Second leg: 20 target, three position shooting match.

Final leg: 10k/7.5k snowshoe race to the finish line.

Best score (time + shooting score; +2 seconds per shot missed) wins.

THAT would be a winter enduro. Men's and women's.

Just bring back military patrol.

And that gives me an idea: winter triathalon - xcountry skiing, snowshoeing, and winter swimming.

 

[Custard Cream Monster]

7s is set for 2012, AFAIK.

It's set for 2016. Speaking of the motor racing thing, if I do updates I think it'll probably go in its own thread as it would deviate a lot from the thread, and would have huge butterflies on motorsport (three new teams I've thought of ...)

 

[Jotun]

I totally agree on Karate. Apart from the usual one-on-one fighting, I'd also like to see team kata (teams of three). One set kata and one free-form. Points for execution of kata and of course synchronicity.

 

[Osakadave]

It's set for 2016.

Close enough.