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Synchronized swimming - that at least has a matter of uncertainty to it.

Of the two, definitely synchronized swimming. I'm no fan of aesthetic sports, and every four years I look for people with whom to argue the following:

Gymnastics, diving, figure skating, synchronized swimming, and the rest are not actually sports.

They are beautiful and generally athletic, but so is ballet. In fact, if ice dancing is an Olympic sport, then why don't we have Olympic ballet? After all, isn't Baryshnikov's style as a ballet dancer generally described as athletic? It's hard for me to make any distinction, other than history and tradition, between figure skating and ballet.

Gymnastics is formally known as "artistic gymnastics" (as opposed to rhythmic gymnastics, another non-sport). If artistry makes a "sport," then why not Olympic piano?

My view is that if an athletic endeavor can't be measured, whether for time or distance or points, then get rid of it and put it back in the concert hall where it belongs!

Smart supporters of aesthetic sports will ask why basketball or boxing are sports, given the role of judging. The answer of course is that while subjective means are used to determine whether X fouled Y, or whether X's shot was on a downward trajectory when blocked by Y, the fact remains that the issue at hand isn't aesthetic. Did he elbow him in the side or not? Was the ball coming down or not? B-ball refs don't decide whether X looked good while dunking. They just tally up the points from the basket.

In contrast, I remember a figure-skating commentator pointing out that a skater had lost points because her costume wasn't stylish or pretty enough! For a sport, that should be irrelevant to the outcome.

Women are generally the ones arguing with me about this, but presumably young people will join them in time. Many of the new sports, at the X Games, for example, are asthetic in nature.

Now, what does all this imply about NASCAR? Well, that's an argument for another day.

The presidential candidate is an athlete. His running mate is a performer.

Doug said:
The presidential candidate is an athlete

Are you kidding? I look at some of Obama videos from high school playing basketball. He is the only brother that I have ever seen, who pulls or tucks his knees to his chest when shooting a jump shot! No wonder no college made a offer for his athlete services

Well, I'd have to say the Obama VP drama, simply because the press doesn't breathlessly cover synchronized swimming. It can be avoided.

And it should be. I know it's wrong, but I've been praying for a drowning since the sport made the Olympics. And now softball and baseball are being eliminated--rather sadly in the case of the former (there's plenty else for baseball players).

I've long argued Andrew's point, and I would even extend it: Olympic boxing isn't a sport. It's a kind of dance wherein one is aesthetically judged as to whether one has extended one's hand in a certain way relative to one's opponent. Although the move itself is arguably non-aesthetic, the utterly arbitrary relation between the quasi-athletic movement and the judgment thereof makes it, IMO, a non-sport. It is also incredibly tedious.

As for the X Games, a laughable parody of sport, I find it more irritating than synchronizing swimming and Obamadrama combined.

You could give the job of scoring Olympic boxing matches to the gymnastic judges and not get worse results.