Are there any decent sports left?

[diggedy derek]

Inspired by recent threads on the problems with football and cricket, are there any sports left that you can still, with a clear conscience, get excited about?

Here's the problems with some of the major sports:

Brain injuries (American football, ice hockey, rugby)
Performance enhancing drugs (athletics, cycling, football, tennis, rugby)
Institutional failure, perhaps with corruption (cricket, football, boxing, darts)
Betting related corruption (cricket)
Global commerce (football)

Is there anything left still worth watching?

[DCI Harry Batt]

Are there any decent sports left?

Kabaddi

[diggedy derek]

Are there any decent sports left?

I almost put that in my opening post

[Various Artist]

Are there any decent sports left?

Bowls.

[Satchmo Distel]

Are there any decent sports left?

Maybe you have to go below elite level? I'd enjoy a day out at a non-league football game* or a low-level county cricket game.

Darts was fun before the "split". Women's football seems reasonably non-corrupt (very enjoyable last World Cup). Sports like volleyball and badminton may be OK (although I seem to recall a big badminton kerfuffle at the Olympics).

*although even here there have been match-fixing issues

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Are there any decent sports left?

Golf, if you can ignore the fact that all the players are millionaires and most of the events are sponsored by the banks and consultancy firms that are merrily ruining whole countries while their executives quaff champagne in the hospitality tents. But it remains one of the few sports where professionals don't cheat.

[johnr]

Are there any decent sports left?

I'm going to be getting very excited about national hunt racing in about 40 minutes. Over the last few years I've gone off cricket and rugby, and am going off football, but have been getting more into the gee-gees and their jockeys, and was really sad when McCoy called it a day, he seems to me the epitome of a great sportsman.

[Cesar Rodriguez]

Are there any decent sports left?

Womens football is still relatively untainted by greed, corruption and systemic cheating.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Are there any decent sports left?

Womens football is still relatively untainted by greed, corruption and systemic cheating.

Tell that to Doncaster Belles.

[Etienne]

Are there any decent sports left?

Korfball.

There have been some allegations that the IKF has got some sweetheart deal with distributors of equipment though.

[Cesar Rodriguez]

Are there any decent sports left?

Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote:

Womens football is still relatively untainted by greed, corruption and systemic cheating.

Tell that to Doncaster Belles.

What's the deal with that Rogin?

[Etienne]

Are there any decent sports left?

The FA basically forcibly relegated them because they wanted a big-city high profile team in their top division.

[Borracho]

Are there any decent sports left?

diggedy derek wrote: Inspired by recent threads on the problems with football and cricket, are there any sports left that you can still, with a clear conscience, get excited about?

Here's the problems with some of the major sports:

Brain injuries (American football, ice hockey, rugby)
Performance enhancing drugs (athletics, cycling, football, tennis, rugby)
Institutional failure, perhaps with corruption (cricket, football, boxing, darts)
Betting related corruption (cricket)
Global commerce (football)

Is there anything left still worth watching?

Gaelic football and hurling.

Mind you, looking at the physiques of some players I suppose we can't completely rule out the presence of performance enhancing drugs.

[Cesar Rodriguez]

Are there any decent sports left?

Etienne wrote: The FA basically forcibly relegated them because they wanted a big-city high profile team in their top division.

I didn't know that, by god I hate the FA.

[johnr]

Are there any decent sports left?

johnr wrote: I'm going to be getting very excited about national hunt racing in about 40 minutes.

It's fair to say that I'm not as excited about it now...

[Big Boobs and FIRE!]

Are there any decent sports left?

Rugby League.

It's akin to 1990s third division football.

[Janik]

Are there any decent sports left?

If that was owned by Rupert Murdoch lock stock and barrel.

Squash. No PEDS to speak of, high intensity competition, big rivalries at the top, ball no longer invisible to the viewer due to HD TV and developments in court colouring and lighting.

I would put Tennis as a major world sport that isn't in dd's opening lists. That is free of most of the categories. Um, maybe. PEDS, institutional failure and betting related corruption are all supposedly not involved. Global commerce openly is.

[Janik]

Are there any decent sports left?

satchmo76 wrote: although I seem to recall a big badminton kerfuffle at the Olympics

There was, but this wasn't the players fault. It was pure idiocy on the part of the organisers, who manage to create a competition structure where one shock result meant that to play to win the tournament your best bet was to play to lose a match. It really was an utter injustice that they ban they players for the administrators fuck up.

[evilC]

Are there any decent sports left?

Some non-F1 motorsports. Classics racing, in particular, where it's not about the winning - or even who is driving - so much as drooling over the cars themselves.

[Borracho]

Are there any decent sports left?

Janik wrote: PEDS . . . are supposedly not involved.

Yup . . .

[Janik]

Are there any decent sports left?

Moving on...

How about Ski Jumping. This is a pretty extraordinary watch. Ski flying indeed. I was watching the qualifying competition yesterday, and someone just missed the old world record then, coming down a metre short. So the conditions were obviously right for it.

That said Nordic skiing has a serious PEDs problem, at least on the cross country side. It wouldn't be an awful surprise to hear it has likewise on the jumping. Maybe it is just distance that causes the problem. And for the sports that have been suggested, they remain mostly free of drawbacks due to being minority interests.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Are there any decent sports left?

Just watched that on the BBC site, incredible. Winter sports generally seem to be relatively pure, maybe cos the rewards aren't on the same scale of bigger sports, and generally they are quite straightforward sports that, technology aside, don't offer much opportunity for gaining an unfair advantage.

Fair enough there have been drug controversies in skiing but they seem quite low level and technical in comparison to other, steroid fuelled, sports.

[Janik]

Are there any decent sports left?

Cross Country skiing is up there with Athletics, Swimming and Cycling in terms of being riddled with drugs. And has had enough scandals as a result. Alpine skiing less so, with the low level technical stuff like Alain Baxter and some boarder or other at a recent games. And I think you are underestimating the rewards on offer in Norway, Austria, Switzerland and the like. Herman Maier and similar peers are in the elite class of sporting rewards, multi-million dollars a year earners.

Having moved on from Calx picture post, I want to move briefly back again. If a major drugs scandal did emerge from Tennis (and I completely don't discount the possibility), those two wouldn't be my prime suspect. Or at least not for the reasons implied by Calx's images.
It strikes me to be the wrong drug. If it is happening, I'm pretty sure it will be EPO, blood dopping, etc. rather than steroids. The reason being that so few Tennis shots are hit at anything approaching full power, because players won't keep the ball in play if they do so. With players operating inside a self-imposed cut off, I'm struggling to see the advantage of increasing the maximum. Increasing speed, stamina and recovery times, on the other hand...

[Janik]

Are there any decent sports left?

Tiny sample this, but since dope tests started at the 1968 Olympics nearly twice as many Cross Country skiers have failed than Cyclists (12 to 7). There have only be 22 failures in total at Winter Games, Cross Country skiing and Biathalon account for more than half. The drugs they failed on are also indicative of a deep problem; steroids, EPO and 'possession of blood transfusion equipment' after a sting at the Salt Lake games.

[Ray de Galles]

Are there any decent sports left?

How about hockey (field, not ice) and netball? Are they tainted* in any way?

* though I have to say I watch a hell of a lot of "tainted" sports that still bring me a lot of joy.