Skip to content

Ranking the Olympic Sports

The Olympic games are up and running in full force right now. There’s 46 sports jam packed into a 16 day span in a single location. It’s a sports fan’s dream. But, with so much going on in such a short span of time it can be hard to decide which sports to watch. Here’s my ranking of each sports in terms of worthwhile watching.

Top 10 – the best of the best.

These are the sports that make up the olympic games. Put them in another competition and you probably won’t pay any attention. However, these are the key sports that you likely think of first when talking about the Olympics.

  1. Athletics

Athletics, Track and Field – doesn’t matter what you want to call it this is the quintessential Olympic sport. Going back to the early days of Jim Thorpe and Jesse Owens the top athletes from any Olympic games come from this sport

2. Swimming

All the speed you can handle, just in the pool. This sport is unique because it gives the most opportunities to medal compared to any other sport. It’s how Michael Phelps came to be the most decorated Olympian of all time.

3. Water Polo

The first team sport on my list. It may seem a little strange that this is so high on my list, but there’s just something about Water Polo that reminds me about the Olympics. Plus, it’s hard to hate a sport that you actively try to drown you opponent.

4. Handball

A sport that gets no attention in the United States. It doesn’t make sense either, because it fits in great with other sports that Americans love – a little like basketball, a little like soccer, add in throwing like in football or baseball and an American athlete would fit in perfectly to this sport. But maybe it’s the under-appreciation that makes me rank it so high, either way this is an exciting sport with chaos, athleticism, and high scoring. All the aspects of a great spectator sport.

5. Archery

There’s something about the Olympic sports that the average Joe at home thinking they could compete. Curling is that sport in the winter, Archery is that sport for the summer. It’s a fun game of suspense, the timer on to finish the shot creates so much drama it’s hard not to watch. This isn’t a sport about the action, it’s about the anticipation. The contrast between the American redneck archers and the sophisticated looking archers from other countries is pretty entertaining as well.

6. Beach Volleyball

Sure it hasn’t been around as long as the indoor and larger team version but there’s something about the sun and the sand that makes you think summer, and summer Olympics. The beauty of the beach game is the time investment. The lower scoring games, the best of 3 games, and open space on the ground make the games shorter which is key to enjoy as much of the games as possible.

7. Wrestling

Wrestling nearly saw its doom a few years back, narrowly avoiding being cut from the Olympic program. It’s hard to believe because this is one of the few events that can positively be traced all the way back to the ancient games. That lineage is the main reason wrestling cracks the top ten.

8. Rowing

There’s a beauty to the simplicity of racing – if you broke down each game into categories this would likely be the largest. Rowing is a key and obvious racing staple, use man-power to move your craft through the course faster than the rest and you win. It’s simple and it’s elegant. I couldn’t tell you much about the ins and outs of the sport, but it’s great to watch every 4 years.

9. Volleyball

A key component to what makes a sport be in the top ten is that it has to be enjoyable whether it’s men or it’s women. Volleyball is one of those sports that’s fun to watch either way. The power and athleticism may change, but the excitement and suspense are the same either way. Every play can be a highlight in volleyball and that’s why it’s a great one. Plus, you can’t run out the clock like in some of the other team sports, you have to win it.

10. Fencing

Organized sword fighting. I shouldn’t have to sell it much more than that. Plus the safety gear making the competitors almost anonymous is pretty cool too. Clearly I know very little about fencing, but it’s fast and it’s exciting.

The Second Tier – the next 10

There’s an argument to be made for several of these sports to be ranked in the top ten. However, I think there’s more flaws in these ones that knocked them down just a little, still these are iconic Olympic sports.

11. Weightlifting

Athletic endeavors are a demonstration of feats of strength. Weightlifting just makes it literal. It may not be the fanciest sport, it may not be the most exciting. There’s something about Weightlifting, the struggle on the athlete’s faces, the shear brute force that make it a must see. The Olympics wouldn’t seem the same if there wasn’t a Weightlifting competition.

12. Artistic Gymnastics

I’m sure this one ranks much higher for most rankings. But I’m not a huge fan of judged events. Sports should have a clear winner and a clear loser. Having the entire sport ranked in a relatively subjective way moves it down the list for me. Plus, I might be jaded by the excessive coverage that NBC gives to all the gymnastics events compared to some other sports.

13. Basketball

Another event I’m sure gets a higher ranking in most lists, but it’s kind of boring. Sure the USA Men’s basketball team are the rockstars of the Olympics. But that’s part of the reason I rank it lower. The Americans are expected to win every year, and when they don’t it becomes even less watchable. There’s too many blowouts and it seems like the group stage lasts forever. But, unlike the most popular sport in the world, the Olympics are still the highest level of international competition, so here it lies in the second tier.

14. Track Cycling

Track Cycling is another sport I don’t know much about. But from what I can tell it’s a strange way to complicate a race. For some reason though, that makes it even more fun. You’ll see blatant strategy and then a mad dash to the finish. The combination makes this sport a must watch. If I understood it more I might rank it higher, but as it stands right now it’s a second tier sport, but a great one nonetheless.

15. Diving

The second best of purely judged events. I likely rank it this high because it’s pretty iconic within the Olympic games. It’s a sport I can miss, but the games don’t feel the same if I don’t at least see one diving competition. Cool flips and spins without a splash, basically what you dreamed about doing in the pool as a kid.

16. Triathlon

Three races in one, but be weak in any of the stages and you lose. Sure it would be cool if they added in an iron man length Triathlon, but as it stands it’s still a fun race to watch. A long suspenseful test of endurance it’s great entertainment with a little different flavor for any kind of spectator.

17. Equestrian

The Olympics has a restriction not allowing motors for competition. Horses aren’t far off, so it’s confusing if you want to count the horse or the rider as the athlete but it’s a nice combination of man and beast. Dressage is goofy and knocks this event down a bit on the chart. But the remaining Equestrian events are fantastic to watch even if you have no idea what’s going on.

18. Canoe/Kayak Slalom

The advantage of using a canoe or a kayak is their mobility. The slalom makes use of that mobility – flat water is a pure drag race but the skill and technique that goes into the slalom make it the better of the canoe/kayak events.

19. Baseball/Softball

The fact that Baseball and Softball keep getting added and dropped from the Olympic program shows that there’s a little too much of a European bias within the IOC. It’s a fantastic game, and the fact that MLB players are left out of the games make the field balanced more than anything else. The Olympic version of these sports are fast and exciting compared to what we’re used to watching. Unfortunately this year is the last time they’ll be around for the foreseeable future.

20. Canoe/Kayak Flat Water

The drag racing version of canoe/kayak sport. A straight race going as fast as you can to cover a distance. It’s not quite as methodical as the rowing events, partially because these crafts aren’t as efficient. But that’s part of the point, and the joy in watching the flat water events.

The Third Tier

This is the section where you can miss watching some of the classic events. It also has some of the better recently added events that haven’t been around long enough to be iconic events. These are still great sports to watch, but if you miss them it won’t ruin your Olympic watching experience.

21. Hockey

Ice hockey is hockey. Field hockey is boring in comparison. But still this game seems like it needs to be in the Olympic program. I wouldn’t waste too much time watching anything other than the gold medal game in this sport. But it still has its appeal.

22. BMX Racing

Snowcross and Skicross were added to the Winter games a while back and it’s added a lot to those version of the Olympics. BMX Racing is the summer version of those sports. It’s fast, it’s hectic, and fun to watch. It borders on the new action sport wave of Olympic sport additions, but still holds the true racing heart that comes with traditional events. It’s an exciting watch for sure. Give it a few more games and this event might move into the second tier. But for now it lies here.

23. Mountain Bike

Mountain biking is fun and exciting. However, it’s a little tougher to watch. The competition isn’t as long as some of the other racing events so it ranks a bit lower. Given the right coverage though I would probably rank Mountain Biking a bit higher. But based on what I’ve seen from it in the past it gets ranked a bit lower.

24. Rugby

It’s only 7s. Rugby Union cant fit a tournament into a two week span, and that’s the true version of the sport. Rugby League could maybe fit in, but again that would be hard. 7s is really the only version that fits into the Olympic program. But the game isn’t as good as the other two versions so it gets ranked a bit lower. Like BMX Racing though give this a bit more time and Rugby might move up into the second tier.

25. Road Cycling

Cycling is typically done as a series of races, the best overall racer wins the event. Olympic Cycling, like Rugby, needed to be condensed to fit into the two week span. That takes away the appeal of Road Cycling in the Olympics. As a result it has to be rated as the lowest of the cycling racing events.

26. 3×3 Basketball

This one is new. Maybe it can become like Beach Volleyball and be as good as the traditional game. After watching a few games already it’s not quite there. Like a lot of the other newer events though, give it time and it might move up the rankings. It’s a sport that won’t have the best athletes in it, they play on the main teams. If some of the players can do dual disciplines the game would be a lot more fun to watch.

27. Sailing

Sailing needs to be in the Olympics. It’s just hard to watch as a spectator. There’s not much more to it than that.

28. Modern Pentathlon

The ideal events of a soldier… at least back when the modern Olympics were founded. Equestrian show jumping, fencing, swimming, and pistol shooting in the midst of a cross country run. Really now it’s just a strange combination to find out who is the jack of all trades for Olympic athletes. It sounds like it should be a very exciting event, but because you have more elite competitors in each of those events it drops down quite a bit. I haven’t seen much of this event even though it’s been in the Olympics for more than 100 years. Maybe if it had better coverage I’d rank it higher.

29. Boxing

The heyday of boxing is long gone. When boxing was at its best though this would be a springboard into a successful professional career. Greats like Muhammad Ali and George Frasier were gold medalists. The drop in boxing popularity is partially why it’s lower in the rankings. If these rankings were done even in the 80s it would surely rank higher.

30. Judo

More and more martial arts are added to the Olympics. Judo though was first in as a result it ranks higher than some of the others. Plus, it’s pretty fun to watch competitors try to toss and flip their opponent.

Tier Four

Tier four is a mix of new games that haven’t quite taken off yet and classic events that are missing that key excitement aspect.

31. Sport Climbing

Part problem solving, part athleticism. Sport climbing is tons of fun to watch. The way these athletes scamper up a wall is nothing short of impressive. It’s a fast paced event that still hasn’t taken a hold in the Olympics, and unfortunately it’s hard to see it move up much more either.

32. Badminton

The nature of badminton is what keeps it down this far. The fact that the birdie can go incredibly fast off the racket makes it exciting. But then it dies quickly too, I’m sure it’s a different beast in person and the speed is impossible to follow. However, most the events you watch are on tv and it looks much easier than it is.

33. Shooting

Choose your event, some are fun and exciting like skeet shooting. Some are painfully dull to watch like air rifle shooting. The contrast makes it this far down the list. But still, this is one of those minimally athletic events that needs to remain in the Olympics.

34. Marathon Swimming

The marathon is something that was created specifically for the Olympics and it’s taken off in many different ways. But that was a running event. This is for swimming. The methodical pace of endurance races is fun to watch. It doesn’t take a ton of focus but you can’t take your eyes away either otherwise you might miss a key breakaway. I’m not sure how well that works in the swimming events. This is a relatively new Olympic event, so give it some more time and it might become nearly as iconic as the running marathon.

35. Surfing

It’s one of the new and exciting sports added to the Olympics. I think most people who are in favor of this addition either haven’t watched surfing, or are surfers themselves. Surfing though, is pretty boring to watch on TV and not much better to watch in person either. It’s one of the new X-games additions the Olympics loves to add in an attempt to grow their audience, though I’m not sure it’s helped much.

36. Taekwondo

Another combat sport that’s been added in recent years. In the early days it was just wrestling and boxing for combat sports but since then they’ve added several martial arts disciplines, including taekwondo. I don’t have much of a reason why it ranks here, but it just feels right.

37. Skateboarding

The only reason I can see that skateboarding was added to the Olympics is because they want Shawn White to win a double gold. It’s probably too late for that, but they’re still trying to draw in the X-games crowd with this addition.

38. BMX Freestyle

See above, sure it’s a different vehicle for the tricks but it’s the same idea as skateboarding – go around the course and do cool tricks. Have the judges give you scores and controversy my ensue. That’s the only appeal I can see why they added a freestyle event for BMX.

39. Karate

See Taekwondo above. I don’t know enough to know the difference so it’s basically the same logic.

Final Group – the ones you can miss

These events are great on their own, they really don’t need the Olympics. Or they just aren’t that exciting when you watch them. Either way they have flaws and don’t add much to the Olympics in my opinion.

40. Golf

This one is a bit controversial, but when you look at it closely it’s pretty obvious why it stays here. The star quality is down compared to what you get with other majors. Sure golf is an international game, but the American presence is so strong that there’s a long list of stars that didn’t make the team. Add in the fact that there’s only one program – the stroke play tournament – and it’s just on par with another summer tournament. There were so many opportunities to do something closer to a Ryder Cup or a match play tournament that would have made golf in the Olympics a lot more fun.

41. Table Tennis

Table tennis is a parlor game and doesn’t really belong in the Olympics – that’s my opinion and I’m sticking with it. Sure these players are impressively fast and their skill is crazy good. But that doesn’t justify it being watched or an Olympic event.

42. Tennis

Very similar to golf, the star power is diminished compared to other tournaments. And it doesn’t really have the history to stand out like the legacy of the 4 majors either. Though I was paying attention to this to see if Djokovic could have won the golden slam – after that was done so was my interest.

43. Football

The women’s tournament is good. The men’s is terrible. There’s no appeal to me for an under 23 tournament when you’re still using professionals. The World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world so really it doesn’t need to be in the Olympics.

44. Trampoline

On paper trampoline should be much higher. Yet, whenever I watch it I’m completely disappointed. Plus it’s a judged event and those tend to rank lower on my list because of their subjectivity.

45. Artistic Swimming

Synchronized swimming – it’s much more impressive of an athletic event than it looks. But it’s still basically just swim dancing and we don’t have ballroom dancing in the Olympics so this should go too.

46. Rhythmic Gymnastics

Rhythmic Gymnastics, the butt of all summer Olympics jokes. The props – ribbons, balls, and whatever else they use just make it look like a combination of a circus and a dance. Either way, it’s not for me.