Favorite Olympic Event/Sport

[Plasmodium 2,309]

I'm trying to get a lay of the land. I am not a generally a spectator of any sports other than wrestling and mma.  The Olympics and sometimes the World Cup are an exception.  The Olympic event I most enjoy is the Men's 100m.  What about you folks?

[dmm53 624]

The Decathlon has to rank right up there.   Some of the best athletes in the world; yes, better than most all wrestlers.  They need speed, strength, endurance,. flexibility, and a great diversity of skills.

[IronChef 1,135]

Track is fun to watch. Handball is pretty good and fast-paced with tons of scoring. The cycling road race has a lot of drama and the finish is always close. The skill of the field hockey players is amazing, but it’s not for everyone. Water polo is extremely physical. Beach volleyball is much quicker to watch than the indoor version. Swimming is good on tv with the time on the screen and the moving world record line. I imagine it’s worse in person where even the athletes have to look at the board to know who won.

[Lurker 2,049]

Greco

/thread

[BuckyBadger 82]

Aside from wrestling I try to watch as much as I can. In particular Track and Field, Swimming, Weight Lifting and Gymnastics.

[HawkY 112]

I would never consider myself a general "sports fan" and I find that a weird  place. to be. There are sports that I can't stand (basektball, cricket....) , ones that I'm indifferent too and don't think about. Even if my local area is winning  something  if I don't like  it I'm not watching  or pretending to care, though I may partake in the non sports activities that come along with it. 

So for the olympics besides wrestling I'm in it for the gymnastics. I don't follow gymnastics but I always aesthetically enjoyed watching it. Its interesting to see what the cutting edge of human agility is.  Besides that I have a very casual interest in weightlifting. I'm not going to say that I'd sit their for 3 hours and watch people lift weights (I absolutely wouldn't) but I'll google the medalists at least once. 

For eccentricity's sake I'd like to catch an equestrian event if its on tv. Just for novelties sake and turn it off if its boring.

Everything else, don't care about it. Running swimming bore me to tears. I'll especially pass on the popular pro sports that exist year round outside the olympics. 

*If fencing wasn't this weird laser tag thing and tried to replicate the historical form, I'd put it in my equestrian category.

[denger 363]

I'm always in awe of the gymnasts: what they do with their bodies and the precision of the elite. Similar to what IronChef mentioned, it's probably a better tv product than live event. That observation is solely informed by a couple gymnastics & wrestling duo-competitions I've seen at universities, where they have both competitions happening simultaneously. I was obviously there for the wrestling, and I enjoyed some of the gymnastics action between periods/bouts, but it was easy to miss the most elite gymnasts while they took turns on each apparatus. 

Diving is another one that makes good TV but is probably very slow in person.

Track and swimming get exceptional production priority aimed at US markets. We're competitive enough in Freestyle and Women's wrestling, but we all know that we lack the mass following to get that kind of prioritized production value. Then there's the unpredictability of our sport, where upsets are more common compared to world-record holding race times. A returning olympic champ can be eliminated after a single match, whereas a world-beating racer is very likely to appear in the finals. It must be easier to build hype around any elite racer than a wrestler. I'm thinking of JB and Adeline Gray getting upset in past Olympic and World competitions. Or, if someone like Gilman made the finals, none of us would be particularly shocked if he put together a great run, but how/why would broadcasters build hype in the days leading up to that when expectations are relatively low compared to our best and most capable racers. 

 

[bnwtwg 1,103]

Non-wrestling:

Rugby sevens: blistering pace, 7s compares very similarly to wrestling for required combination of mental fortitude, physicality, and cardio superiority thrown into a tourney format to boot.

10k: there is nothing like watching the Kenyans absolutely break people with fartleks from hell. Think Taylor breaking Yazdani. You know it’s coming and you can’t do anything to stop it.

5k: Cheptegei recently set the WR in a glorified time trial earlier this year but expect a strategic first 2k to start the race before the pretenders get hung out to dry. Short time to develop the race within a race before you have to dig deep into the well.

Marathon: the pinnacle of the Olympics imo, and Kipchoge the GOAT will dominate after not bringing home the gold for the first time as a marathoner a few months back. The truest test of the whole package.

[ShakaAloha 432]

1. MFS
2. Judo
3. Greco
4. USA Basketball
5. Everything else

[gowrestle 697]

Out of loyalty to the sport, I try to watch as much freestyle as I can. Unfortunately, because of the rules, at times I find it painful to watch. Track & field and swimming follows. If I am bored, and there are no Clint Eastwood movies on, I will watch gymnastics. Good thing is that because of cable, the viewer now has many choices. 

[BSUBroncoDynasty 19]

2 hours ago, gowrestle said:

Out of loyalty to the sport, I try to watch as much freestyle as I can. Unfortunately, because of the rules, at times I find it painful to watch. Track & field and swimming follows. If I am bored, and there are no Clint Eastwood movies on, I will watch gymnastics. Good thing is that because of cable, the viewer now has many choices. 

Really? I prefer these rules to any other men's FS has had in the past. The passivity rule is subjective and far from perfect, but it is better than a ball draw or some of the other funky rules that previously existed. I also like with this current format how you can't give away a round like you could with the previous set of rules. No more 1-0, 0-6, 1-0 matches.

[2td3nf 588]

100 yard dash is always awesome. I really enjoy watching gymnastics, swimming and track and field and several other sports. I find gymnastics jaw-dropping at times. Incredible what they do, men and women. 

Also like watching the men's basketball, especially since Coach K took over. 

[boconnell 1,632]

I'll watch almost any olympic sport.

Track is fun.  I love like the 3000 and 5000.  The final 2-3 laps of each have a real 'race' feel.  They are strategically running and fighting for physical positioning.  Then the last lap is a dead sprint from people who have run miles already.  I like these races way more than the sprints that have no strategy other than running fast.  The 100 is exciting because it determines the fastest man on earth, but aside from that it's just 10 seconds of running straight.  I saw the Steeplechase at the trials recently and that was awesome too.

Swimming is fun.  Especially the relays.  

All of the team sports are good.  Volleyball and water polo are fun to watch.

[IronChef 1,135]

I second the rugby sevens mention. Two seven minute halves and non-stop action. It's not too tough to follow, even if you don't understand the rules. Regular rugby can be impenetrable if you don't know what's going on, but sevens keeps things moving.

I think the least enjoyable sports are those where racers go one at a time and do pretty much the same thing.

Diving is good on TV since you get multiple replays from various angles so the untrained eye can actually see what sets the competitors apart.

[bnwtwg 1,103]

32 minutes ago, IronChef said:

I second the rugby sevens mention. Two seven minute halves and non-stop action. It's not too tough to follow, even if you don't understand the rules. Regular rugby can be impenetrable if you don't know what's going on, but sevens keeps things moving.

I think the least enjoyable sports are those where racers go one at a time and do pretty much the same thing.

Diving is good on TV since you get multiple replays from various angles so the untrained eye can actually see what sets the competitors apart.

Rugby sevens is a simple sport of beauty. You get 14 burners on a wide open pitch and all they think about is run hard, hit hard, run harder, don’t puke, catch a breather at halftime, run hard again, try not to die before the whistle. Bonus points when you’re watching on TV and your wife asks why the guys on the other team don’t just try running faster to catch Perry Baker and Carlin Isles

 

 

[Wrestleknownothing 1,657]

I always go back to my first love. Swimming.

In 2016 I may have been the only person in the world to find the raw feed of the 1500 heats. I turned them on and cleared the room.

[Plasmodium 2,309]

1 hour ago, bnwtwg said:

Rugby sevens is a simple sport of beauty. You get 14 burners on a wide open pitch and all they think about is run hard, hit hard, run harder, don’t puke, catch a breather at halftime, run hard again, try not to die before the whistle. Bonus points when you’re watching on TV and your wife asks why the guys on the other team don’t just try running faster to catch Perry Baker and Carlin Isles

 

 

Isles is a highlight film!

[rod_frufit 13]

13 hours ago, ShakaAloha said:

1. MFS
2. Judo
3. Greco
4. USA Basketball
5. Everything else

I played Judo for many years and love the sport, but watching at the Olympics, is like watching paint dry.  

[rod_frufit 13]

4 x 100 relay in Running and Swimming is tough to beat.

[gowrestle 697]

The best sporting event every year is the NCAA D1 Wrestling Tournament!  Folkstyle Rules!

[nom 1,209]

Thanks for the heads up on Rugby 7.  Didn’t know it was a thing, let alone in the Olympics.  Will be interested in watching it.

 

[matts1w 152]

Outside of wrestling, I love watching anything that I normally don't ever see on TV.  Once every four years we get to see something different, so I refuse to pay any attention to basketball, baseball, tennis, golf...  I also think all the X-Games sports are amazing, but should be left out of the Olympics.  Like everyone else, outside of wrestling, I really enjoy track and field, gymnastics,  and swimming.  

[nickp 23]

Swimming and diving are my favorite Olympic events to watch

[HawkY 112]

12 hours ago, bnwtwg said:

Rugby sevens is a simple sport of beauty. You get 14 burners on a wide open pitch and all they think about is run hard, hit hard, run harder, don’t puke, catch a breather at halftime, run hard again, try not to die before the whistle. Bonus points when you’re watching on TV and your wife asks why the guys on the other team don’t just try running faster to catch Perry Baker and Carlin Isles

 

 

How is this different from the all blacks? Rugby is year round outside of the olympics with its own events right?

[IronChef 1,135]

How is this different from the all blacks? Rugby is year round outside of the olympics with its own events right?

All-Blacks: 15 a side, 40 minute halves
Olympics: 7 a side, 7 minute halves