Now it's guitars, Cadillacs; hill-billy music

So, the executive committee (it's actually called the "Executive Board") of the International Olympic Committee (aka IOC) met this week, doing prep work for the meeting of the whole IOC at the beginning of October. At the meeting, the Board considered alterations to the sports for the 2012 Olympics, as well as reviewed 7 possible sports to fill 2 slots for the 2016 Games.

Now, on the former--the changes to the 2012 "programme" as it's called (and not spelled "program", instead in what I presume is British English)--the Board:

• swapped out some events in canoe/kayak and modern pentathlon;
• denied expansions to swimming, wrestling and cycling (because the Summer Olympics are almost too big for a host to manage, so the IOC is trying to make sure the size stays manageable);
• held a bait out to tennis (if you make sure those really, really cool/popular people--i.e. the top ranked players on the professional circuit--come to the party, then you can add mix-doubles--never mind if said cool people don't actually care about said party and that their mere presence might diminish said party); and...
• approved the addition of women's events to boxing. Yes, boxing. (This is part of the IOC's ongoing efforts to have equal numbers of men and women at the Olympics.)
  

And as if watching women box seems strange to you, be prepared: the same group has recommended that rugby-7s and golf be added for the 2016 Games (and yes, women's rugby as well as men's). Golf seems to be being added so that a cool kid (Tiger Woods) can get an Olympic medal (with the hope being that subsequently some of Tiger's coolness will rub off on the Olympics). As for the 7s, I'm not quite sure as to why it was selected over the likes of baseball, karate, roller sports, softball, and squash. My guess is that:

• baseball and softball were doomed by the fact that they are considered 2 separate sports and they are each one gender (as proposed), so with the addition of golf (we really have to let Tiger get a medal), the Board didn't feel ok adding one (which would've most likely been softball--women's numbers are still lower--rather than the seemingly more popular baseball) and not the other (nor deal with the storm that that one-side addition might have caused). That both have already been in the Games and have been taken out can't have helped either.
• karate--though no doubt different--appears too similar to the included taekwondo (and if the Olympics have come to symbolize peace, should there really be more fighting sports involved?).
• roller sports also appear to be victims of a similarity to another sport: the winter's ice skating (and roller has just as many variants as those on ice--both artistic and speed oriented, although the speed races where what were proposed for addition, including a marathon....). Seeking out a diversified field of sports gets hard when one opts for variants-on-a-theme.
• squash appears to be a victim of a lack of development (it is the newest recognized sport of the seven, as well).

7s brings another team event in (those are better, no?--the American audience has difficulty understanding individual sports and works much better with team events? If one even assumes that the IOC really case that disproportionately about the USA audience...).

In any case, golf and rugby are what have been recommended. One wonders (and I somewhat hope) that a mutiny of sorts will occur in Copenhagen in early October, and one of the other sports will move from the 5 to the 2 and bump one of the 2 to into the 5. Alas, my hoping may be all for not: I've seen indications that the general IOC membership will only get to vote to accept the Board's 2 recommended choices, and not even get to the other 5 that are to be left behind....

My general recommendation to the IOC: re-find your identity and don't do it by seeking out new sports. You had one. I know you used to have one, because that's what I strove for. You probably still have it. Realized that it has value--if you don't, it makes it really difficult for anyone else to? I don't think the way to find your identity is to invite the cool kids to the party, rather it is to be secure enough who you are that you are cool, as are values you present/represents. Go forward from there. It is a harder, higher, road to take, perhaps; but isn't it supposed to be about the non-easy path? About being swifter, higher and faster....


Yeah my guitars Cadillacs, hill-billy music
Is the only thing that keeps me hanging on