Darts must be excluded on the grounds that players do not have to be fit. All other sports have a fitness element, with the possible exception of shooting (and I'm willing to be corrected there).
Thanks Dan. And when you think about it, given China's population, it stands to reason that it will dominate any individual sport that the population is interested in.
I was under the impression that a sport had to be played on every continent for it to be considered to be played at an Olympics, I want Golf to be a part and am glad it is. I have a confused view on darts, yes it does not require any levels of fitness at all, quite the opposite really, but it requires immense concentration and skill, shooting/archery the same. Having seen the success our golds are bringing and what it is doing to increase participation in the younger generation makes me annoyed at myself for not taking sport seriously as a kid and really focussing on it, yes you need a certain amount of talent to succeed but it is mostly about how much hard work you are willing to do to be the best. Will definitely be encouraging my kids (if ever the day comes ) to get involved in all types of sport.
When you have roughly 1 billion active players (no exaggeration, nearly everybody in China has played table tennis at some point, it is ubiquitous), one or two of them are bound to be half decent... China dominating table tennis recently is not the same as total British dominance of snooker since time immemorial.
We can, I just wish the IOC would be more daring in their choices. I'd love to see sports like Kabaddi get in, as well as squash. However, i'd also like to see a bit of tidying up done and a few sports culled.
It would be cool to be really good at something like that. I figure it's probably too late for me but I'll make sure to force my kids into it, some day.
I'll get one of them for long distance running, steal a Jamaican for short distances (maybe 4, get me a little relay team going), steal some little English babies for the sailing/rowing/cycling events, then get a whoooooole bunch of Chinese babies to fill up the rest. Then I'll get status as my own country (sure this is pretty easy) and win every single Gold. Bam!
