KEY POINTS:
Every now and then, a new sport is proposed for the Olympics.
Golf, absent from the Games since 1904, is a perennial fancy as one the International Olympic Committee wouldn't mind having back on their roster.
Lord knows why. It's not as if the players give a hoot. It would just be another week on the circuit without the hefty pile of moolah on offer. Where's the fun in that?
Ballroom dancing was mooted not too long ago. The proposer was surely taking the Michael with that.
But stifle those chuckles; live pigeon shooting, pistol duelling and tug-of-war are past Olympic sports.
Belgian Leon de Lunden wiped out 21 birds at the Paris Games in 1900 to win gold; in Stockholm 12 years later pistol duelling competitors took aim at dummies dressed in frock coats with the target placed on the throat; while teams of tuggers battled for gold at five successive Games until 1920.
More conventional sports like croquet, lacrosse and polo have had a turn. BMX is the latest to get IOC approval _ two-thirds majority support is required to get on the schedule _ starting next month in Beijing. Baseball and softball will deliver their final pitches in China, as three years ago they were voted off the programme for London in 2012.
Five sports were nominated as possible replacements _ remembering, as the IOC have said, the card is full at 28 sports, and to introduce another, something must make way.
That quintet comprised karate, golf, roller-skating, rugby sevens and squash. Karate and squash emerged from IOC voting to go to a final ballot, but neither got the numbers for 2012.
Presumably if karate got on, either judo or taekwondo would go; ditto badminton or tennis would step aside. Three martial arts, or racquet sports, would seem one too many.
How you view the Olympic programme is a matter for personal preference. An under-23 soccer tournament for men does not belong.
How does that square with having the world's elite gathering for a fortnight's top calibre sport? It doesn't. It's a nonsense, except that it happens to be one of the biggest drawcards of the Games.
Tennis seems an odd fit too, with a feeling that the hurt at being eliminated in the second round, packing your bags and heading for another million-dollar tournament cannot compare with the pain of missing, say, the 1500m, or 100m freestyle finals.
Boxing's best pugilists don't do the Olympics, putting it on a par with soon-to-depart baseball and men's soccer. Boxing is not open to the pros.
And if shooting is not your thing, you might wonder at five different pistol disciplines among 15 classes on the programme.
Still, diversity is the name of the Olympics. Tango, anyone?
