Olympics - The Pinnacle?

Frank Spencer

Something I've been thinking about since the Olympics is how many of the sports that are included would be considered the pinnacle of the particular sport. In how many of these sports would winning the gold medal be that particular sports highest achievement?

Now I'm not going to pretend to have a wide enough knowledge of each sport to categorise them all correctly but there are some that are fairly obvious.

The likes of athletics, boxing and gymnastics at the Olympics would be in my opinion obviously be the pinnacle of the sport. Whereas football, tennis and road cycling would definitely not be. There are a lot in the middle that I think would probably be and some that are probably not.

I'm going to give what my guess is on all the sports that featured in the 2012 Olympics and we'll take it from there.


Diving Probably
Swimming Probably
Synchronized swimming Probably
Water polo Probably
Archery Probably
Athletics Definitely
Badminton Probably
Basketball Definitely not
Boxing Definitely
Canoeing Probably
BMX Probably
Mountain biking Probably
Road Cycling Definitely not
Track Cycling Probably
Equestrian Definitely not
Fencing Probably
Field hockey Probably not
Football Definitely not
Gymnastics Definitely
Handball Probably not
Judo Probably
Modern pentathlon Probably
Rowing Probably
Sailing Probably not
Shooting Probably not
Table tennis Probably
Taekwondo Probably
Tennis Definitely not
Triathlon Probably
Volleyball Probably
Beach volleyball Probably
Weightlifting Definitely
Wrestling Probably


As you can see there are many I'm not sure about so I'd love to hear other people opinions.

Beasty

I would consider them all a definitely except for:

Basketball
Cycling (Road)
Football
Tennis

TBH I don't know much about some of the "minor" sports such as handball, synchronised swimming, water polo etc., but would have thought an Olympic Gold would be the ultimate - it must surely dwarf all other competitions in these sports

Track Cycling is an odd one - it's definitely what the top riders are aiming for, but because the events are so limited many riders have to "make do" with World Championships

I'm not sure why you think definitely not for Equestrian and Field Hockey. What event(s) do you think are ahead of the Olympics?

Unfortunately we'll be adding Golf to the "definitely not" list for Rio

Beasty

Just to add that looking at the women's events, my own view is that only the tennis falls into the "definitely not" category. Arguably the Women's World Cup in soccer approaches the Olympic event and it may be touch and go in that sport. IMO, neither Tennis nor Soccer should be part of the Olympics because they are not considered the most important event (and there are plenty of alternative sports that would fall into this category that could take their place)

Pisco Sour

For basketball you could swing it that the Olympics are the pinnacle of international competition.

For road cycling, the Olympics are the pinnacle of one day racing, though that could be debated.

Beasty

Pisco Sour wrote: »

For basketball you could swing it that the Olympics are the pinnacle of international competition.

I would have gone along with that until the USA started sending their "dream teams" along - those guys still seem to value an NBA title way ahead of Olympic gold

Pisco Sour wrote: »

For road cycling, the Olympics are the pinnacle of one day racing, though that could be debated.

I think a lot of cycling fans would be up for a debate on that - I think most pro road cyclists would prefer to be able to wear the World Champions jersey for a year than win a gold at the Olympics. That may change, as the pros have only been competing since 1996 and I think London 2012 may make a few more realise the sheer scale of the Olympics

As I've already said though, I think it's different for the women's events

Frank Spencer

On reflection definitely not for equestrian was wrong. I thought that there were other events that eclipsed it. Also with hockey I felt that maybe the World Cup would be seen as bigger. As I said my ignorance of these sports will be shown up here and it's good to get others perspectives on it.