Why isn't pool in the olympics?

If anything I think we will see the olympics getting smaller. There is already too many fringe sports on the menu.
Maybe a new alternate world cup type event could emerge? X games seems to be pretty successful event.
Maybe dart, pool, snooker could get togehter and form something similar?
 
Kim Bye said:
If anything I think we will see the olympics getting smaller. There is already too many fringe sports on the menu.
Maybe a new alternate world cup type event could emerge? X games seems to be pretty successful event.
Maybe dart, pool, snooker could get togehter and form something similar?
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Well, that is basically what the World Games are, sports that are a step away from being in the Summer Olympics, all trying to get a date to the prom.

Though golf sure leap frogged everyone to get into the 2016 program at the Olympics. Shows you what having tight and united organizations can do. Of course, golf also has a proven track record of television success and its long standing traditions of sportsmanship and contributing to charity certainly didn't hurt. The "Olympic Ideal" and all of that...

One thing pool has really developed that reminds me of golf is the international interest in it. I think it has to be appealing to the IOC that pool would bring in some countries that up to know have not had much of an Olympic presence.
 
Here's something I found interesting whilst watching a Curling match in the Winter Olympics.

They have no official / referee! The teams question and make their own calls on fouls. They have adopted a 'Gentleman's Game' approach. AND it works; otherwise the Olympic board would kick them into touch... :thumbup:

COMEDY; Can you imagine what would happen on international TV if Pool was in the Olympics and players called (or not called) their own fouls! :rotflmao::bash::rotflmao1:
 
At this time, Pool is in NO POSITION to even decide which discipline of the game it would enter as an Olympic event.

So what would it be:
8Ball, 9Ball, 10Ball, 15 Rotation, 14:1, One Pocket, Bonus Ball..?
Would a magic rack be used or rack your own.

The day Pool is an Olympic sport is the day I win the 100M lottery and give the Olympic board half my end...
...Am off to buy a ticket right now! :thumbup:
 
nineballsafety8 said:
but "table tennis" is...

come on... ping pong
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It's easy to say that when you've only seen top level pool/billiards, and never seen professional or competitive table tennis, or what it takes to get there.

If you've seen both sides, you know pool isn't in the olympics because it's not an athletic sport. It's very technical. Table tennis is a very athletic and physically demanding sport, even more technical than pool/billiards, and it's just as if not more difficult than pool/billiards. It's also much more of a chess match with your opponent because there are many more variables and tactics. Professional table tennis players score as high on the o2 max as professional soccer players. You're used to seeing what most people see from countries where it isn't popular. But just like pool, anybody can play and there are lots of levels, which is why both are great! But at the top level of billiards, you do NOT have to be an athlete, while at the top level of table tennis, you absolutely have to be in top physical shape or you cannot measure. It takes your whole body to play table tennis at an even decent level, and the practice and preparation for competitive table tennis is extremely intense. :smile:
 
I love when people say "why isn't my boring sport in the olympics" and then compare it to another boring sport that also shouldn't be in the olympics. Just saying, you're not making a solid case.
 
Let's compare it to some boring sports that are in the Olympics:

Synchronized swimming, curling, archery, target shooting.

Pool much more exciting! :thumbup:





slide13 said:
On one level I agree, but on another level archery and target shooting sports are Olympic events which seem to be on the same level of required athleticism as billiards.
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itsfroze said:
Let's compare it to some boring sports that are in the Olympics:

Synchronized swimming, curling, archery, target shooting.

Pool much more exciting! :thumbup:
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All of these sports draw a bigger crowd then pool, there was a curling event in Vegas this year like the mc it was North America vs the world there were about 5000 spectators in house and was broadcast on tv.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
sts2009 said:
It's easy to say that when you've only seen top level pool/billiards, and never seen professional or competitive table tennis, or what it takes to get there.

If you've seen both sides, you know pool isn't in the olympics because it's not an athletic sport. It's very technical. Table tennis is a very athletic and physically demanding sport, even more technical than pool/billiards, and it's just as if not more difficult than pool/billiards. It's also much more of a chess match with your opponent because there are many more variables and tactics. Professional table tennis players score as high on the o2 max as professional soccer players. You're used to seeing what most people see from countries where it isn't popular. But just like pool, anybody can play and there are lots of levels, which is why both are great! But at the top level of billiards, you do NOT have to be an athlete, while at the top level of table tennis, you absolutely have to be in top physical shape or you cannot measure. It takes your whole body to play table tennis at an even decent level, and the practice and preparation for competitive table tennis is extremely intense. :smile:
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Agreed. When I attended the 2012 London Olympics, I was lucky enough to go to the table tennis medal rounds. Watching the play was breathtaking and the instincts, reflexes and athleticism of the gold medalist (I think he was called Zhang Zike) required was obvious.
 
sts2009 said:
It's easy to say that when you've only seen top level pool/billiards, and never seen professional or competitive table tennis, or what it takes to get there.

If you've seen both sides, you know pool isn't in the olympics because it's not an athletic sport...
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I appreciate what you're saying but it is largely irrelevant. Lack of athleticism is not the reason pool isn't in the Olympics. Billiard Sports are recognized sports by the IOC - it is an eligible sport. The fact it is not in is due to a variety of other factors. That's not to say that if pool was being considered to replace the decathlon then comparative physical requirements wouldn't be a consideration, but we're not there yet, or even close to there.
 
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naji said:
Also the luck factor at pro level is big, Olympic do not like games with luck, no matter how hard a pro trains he could be beat by SVB or Eften or beat them
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Honestly, luck at the Olympic level wouldn't be nearly so big as it is on your average league night. True though, luck is a factor but it can be in many other sports as well. Frankly, I'm bothered more by the subjectivity of judged sports, as well as the many past political scoring travesties that involved sports like figure skating.
 
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Bella Don't Cry said:
At this time, Pool is in NO POSITION to even decide which discipline of the game it would enter as an Olympic event.

So what would it be:
8Ball, 9Ball, 10Ball, 15 Rotation, 14:1, One Pocket, Bonus Ball..?
Would a magic rack be used or rack your own.

The day Pool is an Olympic sport is the day I win the 100M lottery and give the Olympic board half my end...
...Am off to buy a ticket right now! :thumbup:
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I think you need to look at the current format of cue sports in the World Games. That would be the model for Olympic Games participation. It has already been worked out.
 
If every player learns how to do a double backflip when they approach the table and a front flip with a twist, it has a chance!
Also, am I the only one that doesn't understand why you have to be able to ski backwards now ?
 
Bowling made it in 1988...as a demonstration sport. I think you'd see 3 Cushion Billiards long before pool or snooker (and snooker long before pool).
 
Maybe Hanyu's Olympic gold in figure skating will make the Olympic powerbrokers think about HanYu, Women's World 9-ball Champion.
 
I like pool as much as most here but you have to be delusional about it's worldwide status to think it should be an Olympic event. As many have pointed out, there are several more obscure sports already in but they all have either tradition, popularity or excitement on their side......pool has none of those things. Again....I love pool....but to make the leap to thinking it belongs in the Olympic Summer Games is not possible.

Things that will be in the Olympics before pool:
Rodeo clowning (pairs, team and individual......mens and womens divisions)
Greased pig catching
World of Warcraft
Uphill Skiing
Potato Sack race
Hot dog eating
 
Bob Jewett said:
I think you need to look at the current format of cue sports in the World Games. That would be the model for Olympic Games participation. It has already been worked out.
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I think to make it consistent with other sports in the Olympic, i see shoot out some selected difficult shots in lieu of any game might be in order, just like in ice skating moves, triple jumps..flips, diving flips and triple flips. This IMO might takes the luck out completely and makes it short sessions with defined time frame (good for TV). I think pool games when filmed require a lot of editing to take out the stalling time, breaks, lots of safeties, bad misses, like what ESPN do to their podcast that we see, of which it cost a lot of money to produce.
Just a thought.
 
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