Sports that deserve more recognition at the Olympics

Sep 14, 2022

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 2028 times

The Olympics have evolved a lot over the years. The Games have gone from being a purely Greek test of sporting aptitude to something that encompasses the entire world. However, there are still a number of sports out there that don’t get the recognition that they deserve, and in some cases are ignored completely. Discover which sports we feel are unfairly overlooked and should be a bigger part of the Olympic Games as a whole.

Baseball
Look, baseball probably isn’t that popular around the world. We understand that, but that doesn’t mean it should be completely ignored. In fact, when you compare baseball to a lot of the other sports that are featured at the Olympics, it’s much more popular – not just on US soil, but on a global level. It isn’t just so the US could bag more medals, either. While favorite MLB picks would possibly include some of the stronger players, there are more than enough athletes out there who can hit a ball and catch a ball to make it quite an even competition.

In fact, it could help to bring baseball to a wider audience and even potentially lead to a truly worldwide World Series at some point in the future. Baseball used to be played at the Olympics, so there is no reason why it can’t make the step back to being part of the Games again.

BMX
BMX is featured at the Olympic Games already. It currently has freestyle and racing events available. This is undoubtedly a good thing, as it’s a relatively new addition, having first been featured at the 2020 Olympics. What brings things down a little is how BMX is seen by the wider Olympic committee.

It’s not seen as much of a serious sport when compared to other events. The fact that it only gets two events for each section is also a little bit of a downside. With the British team dominating at the last event, it shows that this is a sport that has the potential to be a mainstream hit. It deserves to get a lot more coverage and even see a few more events available during the Games.

One small positive is that having been featured at the Games, BMX has seen a little more exposure recently. This will obviously help it to become even more popular over time and potentially grow into what it deserves at the Olympics. It’s perhaps seen as a lesser sport by the Olympic committee and this is hugely disrespectful to one of the most difficult and most beautiful sports in the world.

Skateboarding
Skateboarding is pretty much in the same boat as BMXing. Although skateboarding saw a little bit more exposure in the late 90s and early 2000s due to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games, it’s still not a mainstream sport that gets the respect it deserves at the Olympics. Just like BMXing, it takes a huge amount of skill to skateboard at a high level.

It is still seen as a lesser sport when compared to other events. It’s a discourteous way of looking at something that takes a tremendous amount of skill and involves a lot of risk. Skateboarding and BMXing are two of the most difficult sports in the world and should be given a lot more recognition at the Olympics.

Cricket
It’s a huge surprise that cricket isn’t included at the Olympics. While it’s not that big on the US market, it goes without saying that cricket is one of the most popular sports in the world. Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean all have huge cricket followings, which shows that it would be both a popular and well-represented game at the Olympics. It is very likely that the US would miss out on a medal if cricket was included at the Games, but this isn’t a reason not to feature it.

For starters, cricket being at the Olympics could lead to it becoming more popular with US players. This would ensure that it was able to grow at a faster rate within the US, and in the future, the country could potentially compete at the Olympics, or even in the other big cricket events that take place across the globe.

It’s a really popular sport and the fact that it’s not featured at the Olympics is a definite downside to the Games. It certainly deserves more recognition, even if just one of the faster-paced and shorter versions of the game is made available to play.