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FOR AND AGAINST
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Were all Olympic sports created equal? Irish Times sports writers put the case for and against events that can stick in the purist's craw.
Sydney
 Why Sydney? Because it is Sydney. Darling Harbour, with its 160-acre spread of museums, eateries and shops which comfortably accommodates some 15 million visitors a year. And the sun always shines on them.
GO
Tennis
 We don't wish to keep harping back to Ireland's first gold medal, but John Pius Boland's
gold in the men's singles appears to put tennis into a proper Olympic context. That is,
it was one of the few sports which featured in the first modern Olympics in 1896.
GO
Taekwondo
"Tae" means "to kick or smash with the foot"; "Kwon" means "to destroy with the fist" and "do" means "the art or way of". And so we have Taekwondo, an Olympic sport. You might wonder why the art of destroying with foot and fist is appearing as a medal sport.
GO
Beach Volleyball
Where does all this cynicism come from? You ask athletes to play their sport, to do their training. You put
the stars of the sport in bikinis and ask them to frolic in the sand because the cameras
love it, and everyone is up in arms.
GO
Weightlifting
The world needs weightlifting. When you are 4ft 10in, broader than the QE2 and given to wearing tight-fitting lycra 19th Century swimsuit type things, there are only so many sports open to you. Weightlifting is, like so many great sports, an essentially insane concept.
GO
Walking
They say you can hear a walker before you see one. Spluttering and huffing wind, ramrod stiff backs, head rolling and elbows jerking, walkers are a breed apart. Apart from what? Everything. If you go too fast you are running and if you go too slow you are strolling.
GO
Synchronised Swimming
Be honest. When they come up like a missile from the depths of the swimming pool, smiles pasted to their faces, your first urge is to pull the trigger like at the duck shoot at the fairground. Bang. Off they go again, sideways this time. Underwater theatre for women. GO
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FIVE RING CIRCUS
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Everything you never wanted to know about the Sydney Games, and more
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GALLERY
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An online gallery of the XXVIIth Olympiad
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OLYMPIC EVOLUTION
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Chart the growth of Olympic sport as it moves into the 21st Century
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