2012 Olympics -- Suggestions for Improvement?

Here is the list of events for the 2012 Olympic Games in London (July 25 - August 12). I think there are too many events, and many are not interesting to me. What do you think of the line-up, and what suggestions do you have to make the Summer Olympics better?

Archery
Athletics* (a.k.a., Track and Field - See Below)
Badminton
Basketball
Beach Volleyball
Boxing
Canoe Slalom
Canoe Sprint
Cycling - BMX
Cycling - Mountain Bike
Cycling - Road
Cycling - Track
Diving
Equestrian
Fencing
Football
Gymnastics - Artistic
Gymnastics - Rhythmic
Handball
Hockey
Judo
Modern Pentathlon
Rowing
Sailing
Shooting
Swimming
Synchronised Swimming
Table Tennis
Taekwondo
Tennis
Trampoline
Triathlon
Volleyball
Water Polo
Weightlifting
Wrestling

Track and Field Events
Men's 100m
Men's 200m
Men's 400m
Men's 800m
Men's 110m Hurdles
Men's 1500m
Men's 3000m Steeplechase
Men's 400m Hurdles
Men's 5000m
Men's Shot Put
Men's Discus Throw
Men's Javelin Throw
Men's Hammer Throw
Men's Long Jump
Men's Triple Jump
Men's High Jump
Men's Pole Vault
Men's 20km Race Walk
Men's 50km Race Walk
Men's Marathon
Men's 10,000m
Men's 4 x 100m Relay
Men's 4 x 400m Relay
Men's Decathlon

Women's 100m
Women's 200m
Women's 400m
Women's 800m
Women's 100m Hurdles
Women's 1500m
Women's 3000m Steeplechase
Women's 400m Hurdles
Women's 5000m
Women's Shot Put
Women's Discus Throw
Women's Javelin Throw
Women's Hammer Throw
Women's Long Jump
Women's Triple Jump
Women's High Jump
Women's Pole Vault
Women's 20km Race Walk
Women's Marathon
Women's 10,000m
Women's 4 x 100m Relay
Women's 4 x 400m Relay
Women's Heptathlon

There are many things to not like, but what would make it better? Many folks didn't care for London's official logo and came up with their own suggestions:

As a guy who is ever glad that my town lost out on the 2016 games, the best idea for the Olympics would be to get rid of them.

Forget what year Denver turned them down, but it was a great ides !

Also note that "hockey" is field hockey, and "football" is soccer.

The changes I would make:

1. Get rid of modern pentathlon - it is an anachronism, especially with the new combined run-and-shoot-and-run-some-more event.

2. Have only two equestrian events - jumping, and a two-day event (dressage and jumping). There is no need for a separate dressage event, and the cross-country part of the 3-day event invariably does more harm than good, both to the riders and the horses.

The one change I would not make: replacing any of the "combat sports" (boxing, wrestling, tae kwon do, judo) with karate/kung fu. Karate was one of the "finalists" to be added in 2016, but was voted down. I wouldn't mind karate/kung fu, as long as it wasn't run the way it was run in the tournaments in either version of The Karate Kid - but I would be very surprised if that's not what most people who want karate added would demand. (I had similar "worries" about when they were considering adding roller skating; although it turns out only speed skating would have been added at first, I thought for sure that people would be expecting everybody to be using inline skates, and the only events would be freestyle and inline roller hockey.)

Quote: Gabes22

As a guy who is ever glad that my town lost out on the 2016 games, the best idea for the Olympics would be to get rid of them.

I think a world sports competition is a great thing. It builds cross-cultural relationships. However, I think the list of summer events is too long, and not very interesting. The marathon for example is long, and boring to the point of being unwatchable. However, I don't think it is ever going to go away. Equestrian events are also unwatchable, and in my opinion, more about the animal than the rider. If they don't get rid of it, maybe they could add rifle shooting or archery while riding, or make the riders randomly draw for horses.

Quote: ThatDonGuy

The one change I would not make: replacing any of the "combat sports" (boxing, wrestling, tae kwon do, judo) with karate/kung fu.

I agree. However, I think wrestling could be better if they added a "team" event. It could be run "Battle Royale" style with two man teams from all the countries on each of the six populated continents facing off in six early rounds (the European elimination match would be epic), losers would be eliminated when they get thrown over the top rope of the ring and touch the floor of the arena. The six winning teams from the preliminary rounds would then compete in an untimed finale. The winner would be the country with the last man or team standing in the ring.

We need to go back to lethal combat sports, not this sissy stuff !

Quote: Ayecarumba

I think a world sports competition is a great thing. It builds cross-cultural relationships.

Ditto.

The problem is, like Christmas, it's become to commercialized.

Quote: Ayecarumba

I think a world sports competition is a great thing. It builds cross-cultural relationships. However, I think the list of summer events is too long, and not very interesting. The marathon for example is long, and boring to the point of being unwatchable. However, I don't think it is ever going to go away. Equestrian events are also unwatchable, and in my opinion, more about the animal than the rider. If they don't get rid of it, maybe they could add rifle shooting or archery while riding, or make the riders randomly draw for horses.

You are describing the problem with the modern olympics... not that it's boring and too many events, but that you expect to be entertained by all the events and want to watch them.

The Olympics should be about the competition between athletes, with the viewer secondary...

Quote: thecesspit

The Olympics should be about the competition between athletes, with the viewer secondary...

Another change I would make: get rid of all restrictions based on nationalities. I think the main reason they still exist is, nobody has another way of determining restrictions on teams in team sports.

Of course, once you do, most team sports - especially soccer and basketball - would end up with Team Nike, Team Adidas, Team Reebok, maybe Team Under Armour, and so on. On top of that, with a lot of countries having mainly nationalized industries, you would probably still have a number of "national" teams.

I like my solution to the Olympics: I ignore them.

If they had competitive craps.... :P

Quote: Nareed

If they had competitive craps.... :P

They did. It was called "High Rollers"

Quote: Ayecarumba

They did. It was called "High Rollers"

Not at the Olympics.

They don't have crosswor puzzle comeptitions, nor stair climbing, nor any of the other sports popular at the WoV community. maybe we should lobby the IOC. Every major city has several newspapers, a tall building and at least one restaurant with gigantic portions :P