Honestly, should Swimming have events cut?

more medleys?

there shouldnt be any butterfly events at all - its a joke event. Its like having running backwards in the athletics!

yes to your initial qu. though.

My opinion is ,despite them being some of the most difficult ,in terms of training etc,they are boring.
Nothing happens out of the blue.
You cannot go from last to first in a short space of time.
Athletics for example its still up for grabs in a lot of races on the last lap.If you can quicken that is.

If you can win 8 golds there are clearly too many events

we can keep each discipline of swimming but cut back on the lengths, 100m and 200m tend to be contended by the same people for each stroke.

Never understood the justification for different strokes.  The object should be to cover the  distance in the fastest time, regardless of stroke..

Freestyle is the quickest and breaststroke the most economical but I can't understand why anyone would ever choose to do butterfly.

The long distance events are as boring as f uck ie 1500m and 10km, btw apparently in 1896 there was a 100m event for sailors, a kid you not.

I can believe it, look at what the modern Olympic creator Baron de Coubertin got his Olympic gold in.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_competitions_at_the_1912_Summer_Olympics

A gold in literature wtf???

the problem with swimming is the number of strokes

I mean in athletics you don't have the 800m running backwards do you?

If it's racing it should just be the fastest swimmer and that means freestyle only

get rid of all the stupid strokes and medleys

Definitely too many events, if one bloke can win 20+ medals at 3 Olympics then there are too many.

how many swimming events are there in total? there is definitely too many. They need to cut down on the different distances they have. If you take swimming out of the equation the USA would be way down the medal table at the moment, maybe this is why there are so many events in swimming? they would cry like babies if they cut down on the number of swimming events

Olympic Swimming events

    Men
    Men's 50 m Freestyle
    Men's 100 m Freestyle
    Men's 200 m Freestyle
    Men's 400 m Freestyle
    Men's 1500 m Freestyle
    Men's 100 m Butterfly
    Men's 200 m Butterfly
    Men's 100 m Breaststroke
    Men's 200 m Breaststroke
    Men's 100 m Backstroke
    Men's 200 m Backstroke
    Men's 200 m Individual Medley
    Men's 400 m Individual Medley
    Men's 10 km Marathon
    Men's 4 x 100 m Freestyle Relay
    Men's 4 x 200 m Freestyle Relay
    Men's 4 x 100 m Medley Relay

    Women
    Women's 50 m Freestyle
    Women's 100 m Freestyle
    Women's 200 m Freestyle
    Women's 400 m Freestyle
    Women's 800 m Freestyle
    Women's 100 m Butterfly
    Women's 200 m Butterfly
    Women's 100 m Breaststroke
    Women's 200 m Breaststroke
    Women's 100 m Backstroke
    Women's 200 m Backstroke
    Women's 200 m Individual Medley
    Women's 400 m Individual Medley
    Women's 10 km Marathon
    Women's 4x100 m Freestyle Relay
    Women's 4x200 m Freestyle Relay
    Women's 4x100 m Medley Relay

That makes 34 i think, so getting a huge gold haul entirely possible

far too many, I also think the distances for the non-freestyle events are too similar in distance, maybe 100m and 400m would be better? otherwise it's just too easy to double up

I think they should drop 1 freestyle distance, 1 medley and 1 relay. That would cut 6 events out

No need for either butterfly event and if you have a 4 x 100m freestyle relay, you don't need a 4 x 200m too.

NO

they should steak out the middle of the pool and get them to do laps instead of swimming up and down all the time

credit to linekar for saying to an astonished thorpe that you can't compare phelps achievements in the pool to athletics.

50m Free should go, stupid race.  Not greatly exciting and should have to turn at least once.

The butterfly is an incredibly difficult stroke - maybe it's the equivalent of the hurdles in running or the steeplechase.

The butterfly is an incredibly difficult stroke - maybe it's the equivalent of the hurdles in running or the steeplechase.

We should introduce darts to the olympics and create lots of events so that we can catch US and China.

501, 1001, 1501, 2001, 2501 - best of 3, best of 5, best of 9.
Round the board (singles)
Round the board (doubles)
Round the board (trebles)

The likes of Taylor, Wade and Lewis would clean up.

how many athletics events are there? excluding marathons I count 41

4 throwing x2 =8
4 jumping x2 =8
7 running x2 =14
2 hurdles x2 =4
2 relays x2 =4
1 multi-event x2 =2
1 men's steeplechase =1

the Olympics is all about Athletics, the other sports are great but how can swimming have nearly as many events? I've absolutely no doubt that if the USA weren't so good at swimming they would have cut some events

Leave it alone.
Really enjoyed the Swimming.
Does no harm that i can see.

Moan moan moan!!!

There is no doubt that there are more medals to be won than in almost any of the other sports and any sport in which an individual can compete in 10 different events in a week is surely devaluing it's medals relative to say the Triathlon where there is just one event that involves years of training and 2 hours of effort. You could also argue that 100 and 200 metre sprinting on the track allows a Usain Bolt to win 2 medals for essentially the same event but most of us accept that. I was an athlete but only reached international standard as a veteran so I suppose that I always think of track races as the ultimate achievement and the size of the stadium built for it suggests that I am not alone.

Thanks for the details Barney. The more I look at it, the more ridiculous it gets. It should essentially be about freestyle. Butterfly and Medleys should completely go. Good point about the distances for Breastroke and Backstroke. 100 and 400 much more logical.

The very fact that Phelps can win so many medals is proof in itself that the events are hugely similar. I would imagine he does very similar training for 100/200 freestyle/butterfly, so that is 4 events for basically one training schedule.
If you are top class in 2 strokes it isn't then that much of a stretch to incorporate both medley events (why are there 2 of these?). Also no need for two freestyle relays.
It isn't just swimming though to be fair, gymnastics gives multiple medal opportunities for being good at the same disciplines, as does cycling.

I have enjoyed the swimming for sure. I do think however that to refer to Michael Phelps as "THE GREATEST OLYMPIAN EVER" is crazy. His medal tally , though enormous, compares nought  to the likes of Sir Steve Redgrave. FIVE OLYMPIC GAMES! There are many more also who have better claim to the title, not that it should be given to any one individual. Great names like Jesse Owens, Paavo Nurmi, Abebe Bikele, Carl Lewis etc etc. One thing I feel sure of though,, the London Olympics have been absolutely wonderful. If only the national pride we have felt during this time could filter down to the dregs that pull our nation down. Somehow I think Jeremy Kyle will STILL have waiting lists a mile long for his daily disgust!

kyle needs long lists to recover his gambling losses

hello jeremy !!!

Aug 5, 2012 -- 10:14PM, duffy wrote:

credit to linekar for saying to an astonished thorpe that you can't compare phelps achievements in the pool to athletics.

Cos you can't. Nor can you compare it to rowing nor particularly sailing. Ben Ainslie has five golds and a silver, in six consecutive Olympics. He has to do, what 10 races to win each medal. He doesn't have time to do finn class, laser class, star class at the same Olympics. He can only do one event.

I'm not sure there are too many swimming medals, but you can't compare Olympians across different disciplines.

Does it really matter if a sport has a lot of events??
Does anyone suffer? not that i can see.
its all part of the Olympic games.
see no reason for anyone to be moaning about it,far more important things to moan about than the amount of events at a sporting event,that appears every 4 years!!

A for the greatest olympian tag given to Phelps,well thats just a title cos of his amount of medals,but we can all decide for ourselves if thats how it should be judged.i personally would agree that no individual should be given that,been far too many over the years that may qualify for that accolade and all for differing reasons.

As for phelps,i would describe him as the greatest swimmer myself,not the greatest olympian.