Pole Dancing as an Olympic Sport

[Agent Richard07]

The world champion in her sport, Sato is as athletic, dedicated and competitive as the Olympians representing their nations. And she thinks it's high time her discipline, too, got some real recognition.

Still, pole dancing? In the Olympics?

Absolutely, say thousands of pole dancers and the rapidly growing number of international and national federations transforming what was once the exclusive property of strip clubs and cheap bars into a respectable — and highly athletic — event.

Article

What do you think of Pole Dancing as an Olympic sport? It never occured to me that it could be, given the nature of the activity, but I saw this clip on The View and was pretty impressed by what I saw.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0e4d6AEf9w[/yt]

 

[Dukhat]

What do you think of Pole Dancing as an Olympic sport?

I think it has about as much a chance of being an olympic sport as a hotdog-eating or beer-drinking competition would have.

 

[HAL.9000]

I have trouble with Curling being an Olympic sport. Although you can argue pole dancing is somewhat equivalent to gymnastics, but given it's strip club origins I'd say no.

What next...an Olympic gold medal for billiards?

 

[Deckerd]

Curling is just bowling on ice. If you get rid of curling you have to get rid of bowling too. Not that I care one way or the other.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Bowling is an Olympic discipline?

Anyway, my biggest problem with curling is, that so few nations are competitive in it, but whatever, that's true of some other sports too.
And re: pole dancing, besides the obvious absurdity, I would be very hesitant to introduce another sport to the Olympics where the winner is determined not by clear, objective criteria, but by judges' decision.

eta: and also I would not introduce a sport where only one gender competes, and do you really want to see a man doing that?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Well, there's a better argument for this than for bodybuilding, but I doubt it'll happen beyond an exhibition.

 

[Deckerd]

There's plenty of sexism in the Olympics already. The rules on what women have to wear for beach volleyball is jaw-dropping in this day and age, especially since the men are well covered up.

 

[Roger Wilco]

True, but most of that was grandfathered in. In Vancouver there was a big argument for example about ski jumping not being a women's discipline too (which is probably going to change next time) And those clothing rules, stupid as they are, probably come from the sports organisations of the individual disciplines, not the Olympics.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Curling is just bowling on ice. If you get rid of curling you have to get rid of bowling too. Not that I care one way or the other.

Actually it's much more similar to pétanque on ice. Though the point is moot, since neither bowling nor pétanque are Olympic disciplines. Really, curling was added to the Winter Olympics so that it's a little more than ice hockey and ski.

Now if the International Olympics Committee were listening to me, we would have Olympic games every year: winter games for ice and snow-related disciplines, summer games for outdoor competition, spring games for indoor competitions and autumn games for the paralympics competitions.

 

[Deckerd]

I didn't realise bowling wasn't in the Olympics. Well there you go then. Curling should go along with all the other sports which only have a few countries who are good at it. That should save a few shekels.

 

[clint g]

Id rather see them bring baseball back but oh well.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

What's next? Olympic stripping? Lapdances?

 

[HAL.9000]

What's next? Olympic stripping? Lapdances?

Can you imagine the TV coverage? It would be a riot.

People would be debating which country had the hottest sluts.

I cant see the gold medal winner being on a box of Wheaties though.

 

[JM1776]

No doubt pole-smoking will soon follow.

 

[Darth Duck]

Curling is awesome.

No doubt pole-smoking will soon follow.

I read that as "pot-smoking" and was wondering where I could sign up.

 

[Dorian Thompson]

Sure it should be a sport. Right after giving blow jobs becomes a sport.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

It's possible, but there would have to be a formalization of the rules and techniques. I don't think there is any Olympic sport which is based on pure aesthetic improvisation. Even things like floor routine in gymnastics or pairs skating has standard moves everyone has to do. You can't just have people go out and improv a dance routine.

 

[Jetfire]

Yes!

The lady in the video was very impressive.

 

[Yoda]

Why not let it in? As soon as I saw coverage of 'race-walking' the Olympics were completely over for me as a serious event.

 

[HAL.9000]

Why not let it in? As soon as I saw coverage of 'race-walking' the Olympics were completely over for me as a serious event.

Yeah. That's right up there with "pancake flipping."