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Random Olympics

  (+16)(+16)
(+16)
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Run the Olympics exactly as they are currently run with one addition: When competitors arrive at the Olympics, randomly assign them to a sporting event rather than letting them compete in their 'chosen' event.
hippo, Aug 08 2016

Random Winter Olympics Random-Selected_20M...20Winter_20Olympics
Oh - yeah, that's pretty much wat I was thinking. [Frankx, Aug 16 2021]

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       This would be very good, because it would place a premium on all-round fitness and adaptability rather than overspecialization.   

       It might also work against doping. For some events, the thing you really don't want is too much muscle mass.
8th of 7, Aug 08 2016
  

       Another version of this would be, if there are sixty different sports at the Olympics, to randomly group these into twenty different triathlon events and then randomly assign competitors to these.
hippo, Aug 08 2016
  

       That could make some interesting matchups. 'Crap, I got 'Weightlifting / Gymnastics / Basketball...'
RayfordSteele, Aug 08 2016
  

       ...and your 'preferred' sport is cycling. Exactly.
hippo, Aug 08 2016
  

       Milk or plain ?
8th of 7, Aug 08 2016
  

       I think the best thing about this is that the "randomisation" process is icebox plums level ripe for FIFA style corruption, even if the sportspeople themselves are each of them clean as a whistle.
calum, Aug 08 2016
  

       But how clean is a whistle ? By the end of some soccer matches, the referee's whistle is more than likely to be very well-loaded with oral secretions ....
8th of 7, Aug 08 2016
  

       When do the contestants get notified of the sport they are to compete in? At the starting gun would add to the fun.
pocmloc, Aug 08 2016
  

       I had to google icebox plums. It was a surprisingly good trip. Thanks calum!
bungston, Aug 08 2016
  

       so sweet
calum, Aug 09 2016
  

       and so cold
Frankx, Aug 16 2021
  

       ...and brilliant for the original idea. [+]   

       Perhaps random representatives selected from each country - not sportsmen at all - chosen to compete in a random event.   

       That would truly test the average sporting ability of a nation, hopefully spawning funding for public exercise and health...
Frankx, Aug 16 2021
  

       The drawbacks of this may have been demonstrated by a British pub crawler who once beat the entire Moldovan national football team at tennis.
4and20, Aug 16 2021
  

       Random does not work as an athlete may be randomly assigned to their actual sport in which case they mercilessly trounce everyone else, so an enterants sport must be excluded from the radndom draw. Bunned for the idea of seeing a shot putter on the uneven bars.
nuclear hobo, Aug 19 2021
  

       //an athlete may be randomly assigned to their actual sport in which case they mercilessly trounce everyone else//   

       Why would that be a bad thing? Are people not supposed to win at the Olympics?
Voice, Aug 19 2021
  
      
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