Pickle Ball, Table Tennis, Badminton, Bowling, Darts, Frisbee are all fun "games". Beach Volleyball probably falls into that category as well. Fun stuff, not Olympic worthy, imo.
Before I moved to a condo a couple of years ago, I lived for 28 years in a house with a pool in the back yard. I used to swim laps in that pool, as do millions of others in their own pools or at neighborhood pools/swim centers. Does the fact that swimming is a recreational activity for millions of people make swimming events not legitimate Olympic events?
What SHOULD be the criterion/criteria for an activity to be included as an Olympic sport? My own personal overriding criterion is that it should test some aspect or aspects of human physical capability. But LOTS of activities, taken to a rigorous extreme, do that. Table tennis is one example - played at the highest level, it tests quickness and hand/eye coordination to an extreme. So how should an Olympic committee decide what activities to include and what ones to exclude? They have tough decisions to make - and a lot of them, ironically, SEEM to be made precisely on what you all are scorning as a criterion for inclusion - the fact that a particular activity becomes popular in everyday culture as a recreational activity, especially internationally.
My older granddaughter competed for several years, at a nationally competitive level, in the sport of Acrobatic gymnastics, the one where teams of players compete in routines that combine dance, tumbling, and the gravity-defying builds that you may have seen on AGT. That sport tests strength, balance, endurance, and body awareness to an extreme. To me, this sport, rather than rhythmic gymnastics, the one where competitors dance and wave ribbons, sticks, whatever, should be in the Olympics - but I'm not the one making the decision.
