Four new sports will be added to the 2024 Paris Olympics, but fans of the games say the committee should remove “unattractive” events.
Men’s soccer, the iconic steeplechase, the 100-meter dash and running were among the least popular sports criticized by thousands of Olympic fans online.
A post asking people to name the sport they thought most deserved to be eliminated went viral.
Race walking topped the list of least popular disciplines, with people criticising it as “really hilarious”, “deeply silly” and riddled with rule violations.
Olympic walking, which has an average speed of 15.2 kilometres per hour, differs from running in that athletes must always keep one foot on the ground.
It was one of the first sports to be added to the modern games in 1908 and has remained in force ever since, despite popular calls for it to be removed as an event.
“I find race walking to be pretty dumb, and everyone seems to cheat without repercussions,” one man said.
“This whole sport is like when you tell a kid ‘don’t run!’ around a pool,” added another.
“They are just ordinary runners,” criticised a third.
Olympic fans believe race walking is the number one sport that should be eliminated from the games
A competitor in the obstacle course at the Paris Olympics
Obstacle course was the next least popular activity on the list.
In this test, competitors must overcome 28 fixed barriers of different heights and seven separate waterfalls.
One man thought that modern steeplechase should be replaced by its original version, which took place in a natural landscape of rivers, streams and hedgerows.
“There’s no point in jumping into a little puddle and saying ‘oh, it represents a river’, then jumping into a fucking river,” he said.
Men’s soccer was a surprisingly popular event that people also wanted removed from the games, with many complaining that top players were unfairly unable to compete in the Olympic sport due to FIFA’s strict rules.
Hundreds of people also criticised dressage, branding any activity involving horses an inappropriate Olympic sport due to potential animal cruelty, as seen in the Charlotte Dujardin horse-whipping incident that rocked the UK dressage team.
“Everything to do with equestrianism. There are multiple scandals involving horse welfare, one in the UK before these Olympics and another in modern pentathlon at the last Olympics that I know of,” one woman said.
“Dressing is an elitist and silly activity, not a sport, which I imagine hides more animal cruelty than has been discovered,” another agreed.
Others criticised boxing for the controversy surrounding its scoring system, which people say relies too much on the “mood” of the judges.
One man said watching golf was “boring as dishwater” and another thought surfing had no place in the Olympics because there was too much natural variation in the waves.
While some people thought that more obscure sports, such as trampolining, should be abandoned, others argued that it was these that made the games so entertaining to watch.
“Keep them all in mind, what I love most about the Olympics are the weird, specialized sports that I would never otherwise see,” one man said.
“Add more weird sports. Add artistic kayak cross or whatever,” he added.
“This! Also, sports are very good for people, regardless of their level. Another great goal of the Olympics is to show sports that can inspire people,” another agreed.
A sports fan has stirred up Reddit by suggesting that it was the most popular event and that the Olympics should remove it.
“The 100 meters. Just to annoy everyone,” he said.
