Some Ideas for Future Olympic Events
The Paris summer Olympics are in full swing. In addition to the regular Olympic events like the 100M dash, swimming, basketball and soccer, there are some new events you may not have heard of.
Making their debut
this year are surfing, sport climbing, and breaking. And by breaking (the official
International Olympic Committee name) I mean break dancing. Yes, dance battles
are now an Olympic sport.
Several sources
say the IOC wanted to add events that were more appealing to a younger
audience. It turns out breakdancing isn’t very popular amongst geriatrics.
I’ll leave the
whole, “is this a sport?” argument to someone else. For some riveting reading,
check out the Olympic charter’s rules on what constitutes a sport. Spoiler
alert: not chess. All purely “mind sports” are disqualified.
Disregarding the
structures and stricture of the IOC, I decided to take a look at events and
sports in our house to see which ones I think should be considered for future
Olympic events.
The
Dashandcrashathon. This is an event where you unleash five kids on a
combination of wheeled apparatus and then a sixth kid in Crocs footwear who has
to dodge, dip, and dive while making his way from one side of a playing area to
the other. For instance, the 12-year-old is on a bike, the 11-year-old is wearing
skates, the 9 and 8-year-olds are on scooters, and the 3-year-old is on a
plasma car while the 6-year-old cuts in and out of the area they are riding in.
I don’t think they
intended for this to be a game, but it clearly has the potential to be the next
great event at the Olympics. I mean, rugby is an event,
and the chaotic on field mess that goes on in that sport is definitely less
intelligible than in dashandcrashathon.
Here’s another
activity up for consideration: the sport of being the first to rush and get the
item your brother was asked to get. It only counts if you aren’t the one who
was asked (apparently). So, if I ask the 6-year-old to get a paper towel but
before he can get out of his seat the 9-year-old springs up from the table and
gets it, in the sport of name hurdles, the 9-year-old won.
It’s not a “mind
sport” but there are definitely some mind games going on.
There are often several events at the summer
Olympics that revolve around athletes throwing an item as far as they can. Shot
put, discus, and javelin throwing all come to mind. The event my kids
participate in and should be considered is a future Olympic event is
competitive voice tossing. Also known as: screaming. I’ll be two sometimes
three blocks away and hear a distinct enough shout to identify the 3-year-old.
That’s some serious range.