The Olympics Games are too big. There's too many countries competing across too many sports. It's too expensive to run. The timeframe between the games is too long. The event is grounded upon thinking put in place over 100 years ago.
There needs to be some new ideas around what constitutes a modern Olympics.
What makes sense in a world where these giant events aren't feasible anymore for health and financial reasons? Another pandemic could happen. We can't have cities going broke after running the games.
How can we keep the public interested in the sports and follow the stories of the athletes involved? There's literally no Australian athletes right now with the same profile as Thorpe or Freeman. Why is this?
This is what I propose:
I would like to see an Olympics run every year with just two sports athletics and swimming
Now this is an impossible idea to actually implement. Think about the controversy this would cause. The other sports would be very cross.
When you think of an Olympics what sports come to mind? It's usually these two. They are the sports whose pinnacle is truely the Olympics. There is nothing bigger than the competition that comes around every four years.
This is brutal on the athletes. If you make a mistake in your discipline you'll be waiting another 4 years for a chance at gold. This sucks.
Having a games every year gives athletes ~365 days for redemption if they don't perform to their full potential. It's also better for them commercially as they get their name in the media more often. They're more likely to be recognisable household names.
I picture a fully stripped back games. One that more resembles a world championship rather than what is currently the Olympics. It's cheaper for the cities to run; they really only need 2 sporting venues and you could keep the athletes in hotels rather than a whole village.
With the extra time and resources you could add some more interesting events to both competition schedules. In the athletics you could have more road races: maybe a 3k and half marathon? In the swimming you have the 800 freestyle and maybe some more open water distances.
Come to think of it you might as well throw in the triathlon as well! Maybe even an aquathlon if we get real fancy. You could get really creative.
I think for fairness in terms of television viewership you rotate between each timezone. You would share between Asia, Europe and North America.