What if I posed the question, “What do golf, screwballs and strip clubs have in common?”
Your response would probably be, “Tiger Woods!” And while that would be correct, the real answer I’m going for is the 2016 Summer Olympics, which will be held in Brazil, and where golf will be played, baseball will not and pigs may very well fly.
The likelihood of that last phenomenon occurring increased about 10,000-fold in recent weeks when news broke that proponents and practitioners of pole dancing (yes, pole dancing) were petitioning to have the activity added to the playbill for the 2016 Games.
The conflagration of all this news has compelled me to take a break from watching curling and ice dancing to address the issue of Olympic sport selection.
The International Olympic Committee recently welcomed golf and rugby back into the Olympic fold after long absences, additions that come at the expense of softball and baseball. The elimination of baseball is a particularly egregious one, as baseball is one of the world’s most popular team sports. In the last three Summer games, there have been three different gold-medal winners, so parity is not an issue like it is in softball or women’s hockey, which should be seriously reconsidered as Olympic sports until the playing field is leveled.
With the collegiate baseball season starting up right in the middle of the Winter Games, it’s difficult to fathom how the IOC saw the need to prevent amateur stars such as UCLA pitchers Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer from competing at the highest stage of international competition. I have no complaints about golf or rugby being included, but not at the expense of baseball. If the number of events is an issue, move basketball to the Winter Olympics where it belongs.
Speaking of where things belong, what happens in Vegas should not happen in Rio de Janeiro, Athens or anywhere within 500 miles of the always-dignified Bob Costas. Pole dancing may have its merits both athletically and aesthetically, but so does playing Nintendo Wii. One circulating concern is that if pole dancing were added, it could lure gymnastics away from the more, um, wholesome apparatuses. Huh? Nastia Liukin forgoing the vault for the pole? That’s like LeBron James giving up basketball for beer pong.
Not that this petition for pole dancing has all that much traction, but the very fact that proponents think they have a chance of getting it admitted illustrates the fact that the Olympic sport selection process is more of a joke than gymnastics judging.
We’re all counting on the IOC to figure things out on this front. A guy like Cole should be able to show off his multi-million dollar arm for Team USA on the Olympic stage, and pole dancing should be relegated to the red-light district, not the gold-medal podium. Thankfully, the sports selection process is a perpetual one that is never set in stone, so the IOC has a chance to make better decisions down the road. Good for them, because their credibility has been stripped enough.
If you also think cynical journalism should be an Olympic sport, e-mail Eshoff at reshoff@media.ucla.edu.