[Closed] Sunday TV Question - ‘Easiest’ Olympic Event

Curling ..

4 man bob crewman, 4 sec sprint/push

coxswain (though the dieting may be tough along with losing a couple limbs to get to the required weight)

All the sports need some sort of technique or skill to be the best at. However quite a lot also need amazing fitness.

Apart from curling, happy to be proved wrong but you don’t appear to need fitness so it’s just practice.

I think he's alluding to the fact that some sports take a lifetime of immersion and every kids does it at school so the talent is well recognised; whereas others are so niche that the talent pool is quite small and there are stories of people being scouted, out through a training programme and ending up with gold in four years.

Lizzie Yarnold went from never having even been on a Skeleton sled (whatever you call them) to Olympic Gold medalist in just 4 years, which compared to other sports where people who excel seem to have been doing them and competing for pretty much all their lives, seems a bit short to me. She was an athlete before she took up Skeleton, so did't just jump up out of an armchair one day and started hurling herself down an ice track, but still, if you can progress form total novice to best in the world Olympic champion in just 4 years, suggests there probably isn't much technical content to the sport needing to be mastered and is more about basic courage and brute force.

The clay pigeon shooting thingy - whatever it's called. I seem to remember one of the women done quite well at it and got into team GB for the 2012 games. She went from never having done it before to the olympics in a short period of time.

Edit: or maybe not, can't find any evidence of what I am talking about.

Surely the easiest has to be running.

Surely the easiest has to be running.

How many / how much steroids can I take?

Track cycling, you only need to turn one way

Just to enter and be allowed to compete? Follow Elizabeth Swaney's example.

Most sports are set up to not allow that - was thinking about the shooting sports, maybe something like 25m rapid-fire pistol (which you can't legally practice in this country). However the reason the UK never has any competitors is because no-one gets enough points in all the qualification events for the UK to even be given an Olympic place - even in 2012.

100m , run in a straight line .

Second for curling. If you’ve ever cleaned a floor and / or played crown green bowls in the cold you’re quids in.

including qualifying rounds and actual final race the 100m takes maybe 30 seconds , curling takes bloody  hrs .

once you filter out the VO2 Max / W/Kg limited sports* you're into mainly technical disciplines.

You say you can assume all the time, equipment and training is available to you, in which case possibly Archery. But ti will take a LOT of time to get the technique right. And you'll never beat the Koreans anyway 🙂

There's always sports that are under-played in your home nation but that are major sports in others, like Handball. Gives you better odds of making the cut, but you probably still need to be able to pull your own socks on in the morning.

Equestrian is a possibility as there's not huge amounts of peak physical demands, but a good deal of experience and training still required, but you can be a contender and not be physically Olympian.

(* i.e. ones for which if you dont have the physiology in the first place, pack your gym bag and go home)

huge amounts of peak physical demands

You do need a good core. 3 day eventing will need very good base fitness. (Based on the requirements for international endurance training that my sister did for about 8 years).

Beach volleyball , I mean do people even take it seriously ?

Unless its something that needs huge amounts of strength like rowing or stamina etc like running then you could get up to speed with something like archery or clay shooting in four years.  But and this is a big but - you need the money to be able to stop working and dedicate 100% of your time to your sport.  You'll also need deep pockets to buy kit (or a sponsor but to get that you have to be good in the first place).

The top clay shooters are doing 1000 clays a day and that'll cost £800 just for your cartridges!!

You do need a good core. 3 day eventing will need very good base fitness. (Based on the requirements for international endurance training that my sister did for about 8 years).

Indeed, as I said, not "Peak" physical demands - i.e. in the red exertion, sustained, high heart rates etc. The same goes for luge, massive core strength that many can develop with time, but after the sprint, you're not going to be pushing peak VO2 limits while in freefall

‘What would be the easiest Olympic event to enter?’

That depends!  Assuming you are British and not eligible to compete for any other country then it almost certainly isn't curling.  Even if you assume you could represent another country and can find the required team mate(s) with sufficient skill and dedication there are a finite number of qualifying spots at the olympics.  e.g. in Mixed doubles, Britain didn't qualify despite generally being recognised as one of the world's leading curling nations.  Macho cyclist types also seem to have assumed that it is "easy" because it doesn't involve getting out of breath.  I'm surprised nobody suggested sailing - its just sitting down!

I'd suggest its probably easier to reach qualifying level in one of the less technical sports that are more about pure strength/fitness because "all" you need to do is train like an idiot for several years.  You'd want to pick an event that your country doesn't have an established field in so you are competing against the qualification level rather than being the one chosen to represent your country.  If you find the right opening like Elizabeth Swaney, Eddie the Eagle etc then you stand a chance of qualifying - of course that doesn't mean you have any hope of getting on the podium and since funding in the UK is tied to that the real world 'ease of entry' is very different from the armchair pontification.

The same goes for luge, massive core strength that many can develop with time, but after the sprint, you’re not going to be pushing peak VO2 limits while in freefall

From my viewing of it, I'd do as much time on sphincter control as I would on core strength, that lycra won't hold back much when you realise you're doing 80mph down a tube of ice on a child's toy

I’d suggest its probably easier to reach qualifying level in one of the less technical sports that are more about pure strength/fitness because “all” you need to do is train like an idiot for several years.

But for most people training cant overcome their own physiological limits on performance to be the best.

Romero could cross sports as a physically exceptional athlete (and arguably doing two sports with limited technical skills needed)

Didn't SportGB (or whichever quango has the money) do a national recruitment drive for such sports with testing centres dotted around the nation and identifying those physically likely to be able to generate the W/kg etc needed to be a contender?

I'd actually add my vote for curling. Sure it takes skill and practice but three siblings having been in the british teams (with their father an ex-pro) suggests as much to do with opportunity and effort as innate ability. Still doesn't mean anyone could just turn up and take part though.

(No I don't really believe that a family of sheep farmers just happens to be innately talented at sliding rocks along ice. See also: Polar sisters in chess.)

The alternative is to buy your way into one of the small teams, like some rubbish skier notoriously did recently. Had to fake events to reach the qualifying standard or something like that.

Man 3, 4 man bob. You "just" need to be able to do a flat out sprint for 4 seconds and then hold on. Now, are you fast enough? Probably not, but it's certainly at the easier end of the spectrum.

We were talking about the luge yesterday. Apparently only a tiny amount of folk do it in the world, and around 20 of them are in the UK as its ridiculously well funded. So given the double Olympic medalist mastered in in 4 Years, I'd say that.

Allternatively do the para Olympics count? If so, and you have unlimited access to equipment, I reckon a few on here could buy a sharp saw, cut off a few fingers, and compete in the track cycling.

BMX racing, it's just messing about on a kids bike like we all did when we were younger right?

I’d actually add my vote for curling. Sure it takes skill and practice but three siblings having been in the british teams (with their father an ex-pro) suggests as much to do with opportunity and effort as innate ability.

Or genetics

Change nationality? Vanessa-Mae (the well known violinist) had an interesting route to the 2014 Olympics helped by Thailand not having a vast pool of skiers to draw from and the money to stage the necessary qualifying events.

What about horse dancing (can’t remember the real name - dressage)? Just have to find a horse that likes to throw shapes and convince it to let you tag along for the ride,

To me, 'hard' means how much of your life you have to dedicate to it to meet the qualifying time.

Change nationality? Vanessa-Mae (the well known violinist) had an interesting route to the 2014 Olympics helped by Thailand not having a vast pool of skiers to draw from and the money to stage the necessary qualifying events.

This. Cool Runnings etc. I reckon sailing would be a doddle if you could pick the right country. Mali, perhaps.