Irish Olympic Events

maudgonner

Every Olympics new events get added to the games on a trial basis. In Tokyo, for example, there will be surfing, skateboarding, sport climbing, baseball etc. In Paris 2024 there will be breakdancing.

If Ireland got to add an event that we would have a strategic advantage in, what would it be? (Obvious answer is hurling, so let's take that for granted)

I'd hark back to the early years of the modern Olympics and introduce a non-sports event. Olympic Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. (If you don't know what Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is, it's a game where you pick a random actor and connect them to another actor via a film they have both been in. Continue this process until you connect them to Kevin Bacon in the fewest possible steps.)
At elite Olympic level you wouldn't involve actors of course, far too easy. Some poor random fella from Outer Mongolia would be trotted into the centre of the arena and the competitors would proceed to interrogate him until they find a way in which they are connected.

Mary from Drumshanbo would be the Usain Bolt of this event, streaking ahead of the opposition, machine gunning questions at the fella, language being no barrier to the Irish Mammy. Glorious in victory as she crosses the line finding that her neighbour's cousin's youngest once bought a fine sturdy yurt from his wife's grandfather's sister-in-law. All to a soundtrack of Whitney Houston's One Moment in Time.

We would be un-f**king-beatable.

Montage of Feck

We did have our own "olympics" the Tailteann Games.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailteann_Games_(Irish_Free_State)

maudgonner

I did vaguely know about the Tailteann Games alright.


I did not know that Johnny Weissmuller competed in the swimming event and that it was held in the pond in Dublin Zoo


Tarzan, in the Zoo...

L1011

Hurling might not make the cut as it would basically be Ireland vs. Scotland (if even). Its usually sports that people actually play outside the host country - yes, karate is Japanese but it has a significant participant base outside Japan.

The exhibition sports we had at the Special Olympics we hosted were kayaking, judo and pitch & piutt