Keep all the oddball sports, I say

The Olympics are a television event. Meaning, there is always backing and filling over which sports should or should be on screen. This time baseball got cut. That doesn't end the debate. With London the next stop speculation already floats over darts and snooker popping up as exhibition sports.

 Because this column is solely concerned with sports as entertainment, and the quality of that entertainment, it comes down on the side of 'the more the merrier'.

 I'd guess entertainment was a big part of the Ancient Greeks' games. Yes, serious events were in the stadium, the military-based 'faster, higher, further'; running races, throwing things, and wrestling.

 These attracted big crowds. In turn those drew entertainers, tumblers, acrobats, jugglers, and people running stalls. A much older commerce was doubtless conducted nearby but out of sight.

 Gradually, the tumblers, acrobats, jugglers, and various other sports got respectable and eased themselves inside the stadium. Those still excluded complain bitterly over this. The complaints are so articulate, well argued, and persuasive there is a case for complaining about exclusion being made an Olympic event, complete with podium, medals, and the playing of a winner's national anthem.

 The aristocrats who painted an ethos on the games that probably didn't exist in Greek times would be twirling in their grave at the sparkling costumes, the heavy makeup, and routines of the gymnasts who use the magician's props of wands, ribbons, balls etc, their music and routines taking them towards being a one-person Las Vegas chorus line.

 I say, keep them, and all the other oddball sports. If they are fun to watch, then they are fun to watch.

 This has television, the people's entertainment, doing much to keep the Olympics from the choking grasp of the grave minded and keeping it close to the original mix of serious, skilled, and ever so slightly disreputable.