The Olympic Games have a long, rich history with a wide variety of sports since the first ever edition in 1896. Altogether, 42 different sports have featured over the 33 Games, including the current Olympiad in Paris. However, despite the will to involve as many sports as possible, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is not always able to involve every single activity. This could come down to a couple of reasons.
Perhaps the host city is not equipped to hold a particular event. Perhaps there is a sport that is not widely funded, and therefore cannot put forward enough athletes. Or quite simply, a sport simply must give way to allow a new discipline to be showcased to the world. With the Olympic Games in Paris underway, many interested parties, especially fans of baseball might be wondering where it is on the schedule. Surely there has not been a typo or a huge oversight.
Baseball benched for one Olympiad
Alas no, there is no error. There was never a plan to involve baseball at the XXXIII Olympiad in Paris. Baseball has featured regularly over the last three decades after making its first appearance in 1992 at the Games in Barcelona. It featured in four further editions before being shelved for twelve years after the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Baseball fans around the world will be wondering why the sport suddenly disappeared off the roster, especially since it commands such huge popularity across the world, from the U.S, to Japan, South Korea, and Cuba.
It does not come down to a lack of interest, funding, or popularity. Baseball is in fact a victim of its success. It might sound silly to some, but baseball was struck off the list of Olympic disciplines for 2024 because there is a lack of the world’s best players available. “The world’s best” being the operative word in that sentence.
The explanation given by the IOC relates to the fact that most of the major baseball leagues around the world are currently in the middle of their seasons. Users of the popular sportsbook Cloudbet will testify to that, with games coming thick and fast in those leagues. Major League Baseball in America, Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan, and the Korean Baseball Organization in Korea are all currently coordinating domestic action on the home front, starving the Olympics of any of the world’s best baseball players.
Why do we need the world’s best players?
The simple answer to this question is quality. Such is the demand nowadays for high class sporting action, mainly because of the hugely significant switch in 1986 to allow professional athletes to compete at the Olympics, the best players in the world are expected to showcase their talents on the global stage. This venture into an elevated commercial status has been driven largely by the increased amounts of money being pumped into sports. Television money in particular means that domestic competition cannot be neglected, even if it is prioritized over an Olympic Games.
Up until 1986, only amateurs were allowed to compete at the Olympics, but by allowing professional athletes to compete, the IOC set themselves on a collision course with certain sports and their governing bodies. Although the absence of baseball has provided an opportunity for breaking, or breakdancing, to make its debut at the Games, it will be given a home run at the next Olympiad in Los Angeles in 2028. For LA, it is quite fitting that baseball shall return in the city since the first audition for baseball to be inducted to the Olympic Games took place in 1984, in Los Angeles.
