What's the easiest sport to get to the Olympics in? 😂

[Goodtrouble2]

I mean as in less competion eg Gymnastics, swimming, athletics would have huge levels of competition all the way up due to the vast numbers of kids involved.. Is there any niche sport that's unpopular either due to logistics or cost that might pave a way?
Also just to add not taking away from any of the athletes in the less popular sports, it takes a huge degree of skill, talent & work to get to the Olympics

I’d go with the race walking. I’m pretty heavily involved in athletics through DC and none of the kids want to do race walking because they think it looks daft. I’m trying to pull a team for our club together for next weekend and can’t get any of the kids to have a go at the walk. So I’d pick that one!

From memory, there was someone who was inspired to take up Archery after watching it in London in 2012, who then competed for team GB in Rio in 2016. Seems like a pretty rapid ascent!

Yes probably something that involves target practice rather than being very fast as you could probably practice a lot with that and improve whereas if you are not a fast runner or good at gymnastics you will never get near the olympics, also you would have to exert yourself a lot

That shooting have you seen the headgear kids would love that. Unless you are a Turk who clearly walked in off the street won silver and left 😂

The race walking looks ridiculous I can't watch it.

You’d still need to be pretty athletic to race walk, they go so fast and cover long distances. Shooting or archery need excellent eye hand coordination. I think it would be one of the horse events. You’d need bucket loads of money though.

I seem to remember the bloke who plays Sporticus had a bet with his mate that he could get into the Olympics and managed it doing aerobic gymnastics, so presumably it’s not that hard.

Maybe something niche - my daughter played waterpolo and had a National under 14 trial because so few people play it. It is freaking BRUTAL though

If you're British, probably a niche team sport - volleyball, water polo, even basketball. More spots to make up a squad plus little competition. Is baseball softball still in the Olympics?

Great suggestions! I love the water sports like the rowing canoeing but again river access & money is a must. Rowing & canoeing seem to be very popular sports so again I would say difficult to get go the Olympics!

Maybe modern pentathlon? Such an odd combination of sports, plus you have to be quite posh to have access to them from a young age. I can't imagine there are great swathes of youngsters eyeing it up.

I'd say mothern penthatlon costs a fortune!

Women's boxing if you're a man.

😂

It really must. You need a horse, a rifle, fencing gear and probably a lake to practise your swimming!

Then all the travel involved too!!

As British teams very rarely qualify for the Olympics then water polo not a good bet!

@GrandHighPoohbah the events actually provide the horses so no, the athlete doesn't need their own, hence why it is always a car crash at the events as they are only allowed to ride the horse 10 minutes before hand and jump about 4 warm up fences before going in and jumping round 1.20m which takes a huge amount of bravery but often results in some horrific riding
Although I agree, they probably would have had their own once upon a time as the route into modern pentathlon for many is tetrathlon which is run by pony club and you need your own horse for that.

OMG, they ride round on a random horse?!

The modern pentathlon was removed this year I believe due to the shit show in the show jumping last time, it was awful!

My DS is a good swimmer and slightly above average runner. Pentathlon GB tried to recruit him and possibly would have got somewhere apart from all the camps he went on were pretty exclusively attended by private school kids who couldn't understand that he wasn't in a Pony Club and that they had never heard of his "requires improvement" state school. He just didn't feel like he fitted in.

It's still included at Paris, but the riding is being removed at the 2028 Olympics.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/modern-pentathlon/articles/cyj3jyl0v3no

As a rider, I'd disagree about the horse events. Yes you'd need money, but you also need talent, you don't just sit there (I wouldn't stand a chance in hell, even with the best horse in the country!) You also need a huge amount of bravery, especially for the jumping events but even for dressage on a large, fit horse. Not many runners or swimmers risk life-threatening injuries when performing their sport - uncommon but it does happen.

Also, men and women compete together, but men are greatly overrepresented in top competitions compared to the number of male equestrians overall. It's not clear why this is, but suggestions include money and sponsorship, bravery over fences (and many female riders say their bravery drops massively when they have children), strength when controlling a big horse, lack of periods/pregnancy...

@owladventure ahh apologies, knew I'd read something about it being removed

How about wrestling?

I literally never heard of tetathrlan, interesting it's only open to pony club kids