Powerlifting also needs to be featured at the Olympics. If Powerlifting makes it to the Olympics, the competition will use International Powerlifting Federation rules.
There isn't a valid reason bowling is excluded. The fact is that there many questionable sports in the Olympics and you can get a lucky break in ANY sport!
you could say this about a lot of different sports. you need reasons for it to be included and frankly, i don't see why bowling has any more reason than pool or darts for example
By the definition golf shouldn’t be in: Luck does play some part, weather from one day to the next plays a large factor, and golf courses can favor one type of golfer over another.
Anyone can get lucky on a bowling lane. Now go try and do any kind of Breakdancing move. I have no clue what a breakdancing move even looks like but I know that breakdancer could Chuck a ball down a lane whereas the bowler is most likely a fat, lazy, uncoordinated slob of a human.
Problem with Bowling, especially the 10 Pin variation, is that its popularity is shrinking. Its popularity has dropped so much that not even the PBA events are aired on television anymore.
@@HalifaxHercules i wouldn’t say THAT. i would say the more pro side of bowling is shrinking in popularity but the recreational side is still really big lol.
I somehow feel it would be one of the most viewed events... Everyone has at least bowled once in their life. And the international competitive nature of it, would be compelling for people who bowl, and funny for people that don't understand.
OK, people don't understand ins and outs of bowling such as oil. How much did the average person know about curling until they started watching it in the Olympics and the announcers were describing the rules, using the lingo and explaining the ins and outs?
i think curling is only there, because it's a winter sport and there are much less sports competing for a place in the winter olympics than in the summer olympics.
Curling is TWENTY times more popular than bowling in many countries, especially in Asia. The US is NOT the world. And the "announcers" you mention are announcers handling the US coverage, so they have to "describe" the rules because few people here understand the sport. They do NOT have to explain the rules in the Asian country networks.
I'm not sure I agree with the notion that there isn't a level playing field. While I 100% agree with the point that a bowler's individual style, mechanics, and equipment play a role in his / her ability to find success on a particular pattern, this is precisely where a player's skill becomes more important. Part of the skill of professional bowlers is understanding the pattern, the equipment, his / her strengths and weaknesses and then making the right adjustments in their game to find success. That is what sets them apart from us mere mortals chucking balls in league. I'm actually bowling in a league this summer that rotates through the PBA animal patterns and it has solidified my respect for the professionals and the skills they bring to the game.
if it was so easy wouldn't everyone be a professional! People can be great on house patterns but throw a pattern out there and watch the same 200averages bowl low 150s most likely. also just cause you have the best equipment doesn't mean you can bowl good still. doesn't make sense
There are multiple RUclips channels that would say you're wrong. They're catering to the younger crowd, and being successful at it. One of the most notable is Good Good. Just look at the number of subscribers that they have, and they also have their own apparel line that is featured in golf stores.
Imo the sport of bowling's greatest failure is in its marketing (or lack thereof). Everyone has gone bowling and had a great time, which is something that most Olympic sports cannot celebrate themselves, yet for a variety of reasons, we fail to attract people to the sport - not near enough casuals opt to play more regularly and eventually take it up as a discipline. If we want bowling to grow, we must learn to negotiate with private centres that only care about money, and cooperate to grow their loyal customer base (helping their business and the sport). More can also be done by associations to show off how damn good their best are. If you don't think this sounds appealing, both of Jason Belmonte's videos with Dude Perfect are two of the channel's best performing videos.
I also find over the years (as a competetive bowler) that average bowlers have been priced out of most bowling alleys due to extremely bogus practices such as no longer allowing you to pay per game and instead opting to allow you to pay for an hour at a 3x markup compared to the amount of games I couldve played and payed for in that hour being ~$9-12 now being $30+... Now this is only for some of the bowling centers in my area but these were my favorite places to go and its becoming even too expensive for me :/
people casually participating in a sports doesn't really help when it comes to becoming olympic, being a spectator sport does. few people ever did boxing, but it draws lots of viewers (at least the big fights).
Filipino players dominating bowling is the real reason why it is not in olympics, Same with Billiard in 1991 olympic made teams to put billiards in olympic, Filipinos dominating the sports thats why it is not put in Olympics
You joke of course, but this is literally the reason Softball got kicked out. The American women lost 1 match (the final gold medal match at Softballs final Olympics, to the Japanese team). I don't mean 1 match that Olympics. I mean 1 match in history. And most of the wins were by the "mercy rule"
probably because there's a big luck factor, and nobody's bribed the IOC. I don't think that scoring is a big issue, because look at the scoring for gymnastics.
@@timstradley5819 pederson’s stone 8, boog’s brooklyns, ciminelli’s 7-10, etc. luck is absolutely a huge factor in winning or loosing. Two players can both hit the pocket every shot, make good adjustments, and one can still blow the other out of the water.
Mmmm. The scoring system is universal though. I mean, it is no more complicated than tennis. As for understanding of mechanics and the pattern, SPECTO. I mean, we already have all the stats and a picture right on the screen that shows previous and current shots with rev rates, speeds, break points, and the pattern. You can not be a bowler and still see the skill required to put the ball where it needs to be. I think the one thing that is more difficult on a committee to decide on is the wide-wide range of balls and equipment used now days. There would most certainly have to be an "allowed" arsenal and hardness rating to make it fair. Like a 1 Urethane, 1 Solid, and 1 Pearl or Hybrid allowed maximum. These balls would also have to be non-branded but maybe made by a selected single manufacturer for consistency and fairness. SPECTO wasn't an option back when the bid was being made.... Balls back then were also VERY generalized compared to now. I absolutely think with the modern tech we have..it should be in the Olympics.
There is a new and more fair scoring system called WORLD SCORING. Too often a player gets more strikes and loses anyway because the strikes were not in a row on their score board.
@@Zurround Being able to string strikes in a row is part of the skill. It means you are staying ahead of the transition and not waiting for a flat 10 / ring 10 reaction to tell you to adjust. World Scoring is fine since it makes the game a hair faster but it is unnecessary.
The Olympics are garbage now. Your point #3 is spot on. The IOC only cares about money and viewership. Screw the Olympics; bowling should focus on fixing the pro Tour instead.
Maybe they can start the bowling equivalent of a trialthalon. Bowl a CandlePin game, then a duckpin game, then a tenpin game. Tests the versatility of the bowlers. Highest combined score wins.
You are definitely on to something here. I think the variety will keep the average non bowler tuned in to the tv to watch bowling. I actually like this idea. This is probably the best idea of any kind if seen all year long
It probably will never be in, because the corporate owners of bowling cater to ball-throwers, not bowlers. The main criteria is how much food and drink they order, bowling skill is becoming irrelevant.
Sorry, not buying the narrator's "reasons" for bowling not being in the Olympics. As to not appealing to the youth . . . I started bowling at age 8 while in the Cub Scouts . . . close to 70 years ago. And I doubt if there is a bowling center (of the few that are still open) that don't have at least one junior league. And, let's face it . . . more people bowl around the world than participate in synchronized swimming (or whatever they are calling it now).
Bowling was a sport featured in the 2019 Island Games. Albeit at the expense of football because that year’s games were being held in Gibraltar (which has like only one Football Stadium). Leaving a separate Football Tournament to be organised in Ynys Mon/Anglesey)
Hey the right lane! I have another video idea for you! I thought that it would be cool if you did a video of ranking all of the PBA telecasts for the 2024 season! Of course you do t have to do this, but I ( and hopefully others) would think it would be a fun video to watch! Edit: out of all of the telecasts for the PBA this year, the TOC was my favorite telecast
The Olympic sports where luck is very limited as a factor are sports with highly-standardized venues and defined predominantly by raw athletic power with few elements of luck or other variables to factor in (i.e., the shorter/more powerful events in track and field and swimming), although the men's shot put this year was affected by rain that might have cost one or two athletes medals that they might have won had it not started raining halfway through that event's finals. Also, there are a lot of sports that are effectively dependent on the Olympics (for example, the winter sliding sports of bobsled, luge, and skeleton would likely cease to exist without those sports being included in the Olympics, and a lot of summer Olympic sports like rowing, canoe/kayak, weightlifting, judo, badminton, and table tennis get most or virtually all of their media exposure via the Olympics), and tenpin bowling isn't one of them. Oil on a bowling lane is analogous to pebbling on curling ice; plenty of Olympic sports have luck elements to them (golf being one of them), plenty of Olympic sports have complex scoring systems (gymnastics, figure skating, tennis, etc.), and bowling doesn't have the judging factor that gymnastics and figure skating, for example, have. Beach volleyball probably gets cut from the Olympic program as soon as NBC no longer holds the U.S. Olympic broadcast rights, because that's the one sport NBC actually cares about covering during the Summer Olympics, and I'll end my rant there.
Luck? Okay I have been bowling since I was a kid, it's been over 30 years, i carry a 231 average, i have two 300s in the bag... I can count the number of "lucky or unlucky" breaks I have had on one hand. Blaming your mistakes on luck is just poor, Lane conditions breaking down sure, equipment malfunction rare but it happens, moisture on the approach that's a real problem. Your form breaking down, yep. The ball sticking causing issues because you have not compensated for environmental factions like heat and humidity that happens. How the lane has been oiled working against your preferred line. None of these are luck, they are simply things that happen. Bowling is not luck based, nor is it an unfair sport. I can walk down stairs right now and pull one of a half dozen balls out one of my two bag, drop in a ball that is drilled differently with a different block and finish. And i will be ready for any lane condition. I typically use 3 balls, then have 3 balls in for bad lane conditions, be it oil blocks, or lanes tgat degrade quickly
There is some luck insofar as a league rando might win a single game against a pro where the league guy miracles up a 258 or 279 and the pro leaves a trio of corner pins. But long format events make the "might win one game out of 20 or 30" factor irrelevant.
I like to think another reason is the required specialised venue. Look at the Paris Olympics running right now: The fencing venue is a general museum which Taekwondo will do their competitions in once the fencers are done. Judo hands over their venue to wrestling. Volleyball, handball, and table-tennis are held in general sports arenas. Bowling requires a special venue that will be useful to no other sport. That would put an additional difficulty on the organisers.
So your thinking there are no bowling alley's in Paris? Or any of the cities where the Olympics have been held. Don't need to create a new venue, just use one that's already up to PBA's standards. Cycling is only used for one sport. Can you tell me what other sport uses the BobSleigh track as an example? So your suggestion that it's not useful to another sport doesn't make sense.
@@Trblmkr07 The ice canal used for bobsleigh hosts luge and skeleton events as well. They have singles, doubles, teams, bobsleigh 2s and 4s. AFAIR at the last edition, the ice canal was in use almost every single day throughout the whole Games. As for the cycling track: Granted, that's specific to the sport. But again, they host loads of events there. As for 10 Pin bowling, there are only so many events possible. And yes, I claim that there is no bowling alley in Paris (or even anywhere in Europe) that actually features a considerable number of seats for spectators. Why? Because in Europe bowling is primarily a recreational thing. Yes, there are competitions, but they practically happen in a completely hidden fashion. My point isn't that there aren't already other sport-specific venues; my point is that bowling would add ANOTHER one.
To be competitive takes a lot of practice and exercise I watch a lot of professional bowling and I haven't watched the Olympics in years and probably never will
I know the kids love their equestrian events! Fencing is a biggie too... high schoolers can't stop talking about it. And don't even start on sailing or squash... a 16 year old will chew your ear off if you do. Seriously though, this is about MONEY and bribes.
@@henryt9281 Since when? Since the Olympics introduced it as a sport just recently? Breakdancing has been around for DECADES, and nobody has recognized it as an actual "sport." Just a type of dance-style, and yes you can have breakdancing contests/tournaments, but still not a sport.
For bowling to be successful it needs to be more accessible to everyone. The understanding of the sport, the techniques involved, the cost, accessibility to bowling alleys and other factors can be hindrance. Bowling is fun but also challenging and competitive making these factors interesting to the youth. If you watch the PBA, PWBA and Youth bowling no one bowls exactly the same with some unusual styles.
Bowling does not need the Olympics. There are plenty of "sports" in the games that do not have an TV contract with a major network and bowling does. MLB and NFL are just fine without the Olympics.
Bowling needs all the help it can get..... I'm a bowler and bowl traditional one handed, but without Belmonte and the two handed style he made popular with 15 majors and the popularity with young kids, it would be really struggling.
@@robvoyles Every generation will have a generational talent to pull the game through. Dick Weber, Earl Anthony, Mark Roth, Marshall Holman, Pete Weber, Belmo, and now EJ and Simo?
Reality check pal. The PBA and PWBA are PAYING the networks for their TV coverage, just like corn hole, hot dog eating, pickle ball and other two bit sports. The ratings are low and the sport is almost entirely a regional (midwest sport), so there is no desire for a network to show tournaments and risk their own money.
It is one of the oldest sports in history dating back possible 5200BC with primitive equipment found in Egyptian culture. Tug a war was a sport from 1900-1920. It is just dumb it has never made it.
Bowling in the olympics games I agree with your analysis. I think that the general public takes bowling as a game and does not see the sporting side. In addition, we must change the mentality of amateur players. When they do not succeed they do not question themselves it is always the fault of the host. Then the USBC rules should prevail over all federations. That there is a major event organized elsewhere than in the USA, Nordic countries, Japan, Korea... Each federation should create a pro/semi pro circuit which would attract sponsors thanks to the television that had been interested in such a circuit. Attracting young people requires investment and skill in clubs. To my knowledge, this is more than rare. Amateur federations must invest to send high-level national players on the PBA circuit. Upon return, these players would go around the regions to give what they received. It would be a top down split. Not systematically favour the high level and build bridges between levels. I see some novice players coming into the club but nobody gives any sound and correct advice or no advice at all. Reform the spirit of clubs that will change the spirit of federations. Let us convert operators into the organization of sporting events and facilitate their approval, so that it is no longer a fee. If the center is of quality the players will return. The USBC and PBA must also invest globally. On its terms there may be a chance that bowling will appear at the Olympic Games. Frédéric Benoit 🎳
It ultimately boils down to the money. I was GM of a small center back in the 80's and 90's when bowling was trying to make that big push. Got to know some people who were involved in the process back then, and they were telling us some if the nonsense in pushback they were getting where other sports shouldn't qualify for the same reasons, still did because of sponsorship money (and a few greased palms). The thing about the Winter sports is that ice or snow generally has to be involved in some way, so bowling was never going to make the Winter Olympics. At the end of the day, the 50's and 60's would have been our best shot because that was the sport's hey day. Then we have the issue of the disparity between the soft league conditions that gave rise to inflated scoring in the 90's and Aughts, and the challenging conditions of pro and semi-pro events affecting the talent pool. Then the Women's tour folded. Unless there's some serious X Games like revival, bowling simply does not have the monetary draw to make it.
if they allowed Curling........then scraping dog crap off a sidewalk as slow as possible should be a sport, how many kids/ young people in general watch Curling.....can you count to about 3, maybe.
Bowling should definitely be in the Olympics. Not sure how they would break down the event, unless they do it by continents instead of countries. Picking the best 4 man squad to represent their continents. IDK, just a thought but, i would love to see bowling in the Olympics. The bowling committee needs to stop making so many useless changes to their current rules though, takes away the fun from the sport.
In my opinion, I don't think the scoring system is a problem. Understanding and explaining it during the course of a sport is the job of announcers. I think the two main issues are the youth angle and the lack of people throwing money at the IOC to get bowling into the Olympics. Frankly, I have my doubts that the Olympics is even as popular as it used to be. Cities are not as eager to host them due to the huge financial loss and useless facilities left behind. Over time it could be that the Olympics will just have a variety of sanctioned events at different locations around the world just to keep the idea going so as to minimize the financial hit to host cities while at the same time trying to spread any remaining enthusiasm for it. This is pure speculation on my part.
A complicated scoring system is absolutely no excuse, given the scoring systems in use in gymnastics and in figure skating. It isn't even that complicated; you can create an Excel spreadsheet that gets it done in about half an hour, with a little know-how.
I think a separate ''variant'' of bowling would have to be developed: one with standardized lanes, standardized oil patterns, standardized bowling balls, etc. It would basically have to be a different sport. The same way all of the shooting events at the olympics use different calibers to what most Americans are used to shooting in their competitions.
One issue is that there is no visible strategy. To the audience, every roll is the same as the last one. Contrast that with curling. I've never played curling, but the strategy is fairly easy for me to understand which gives the announcers something to say. Depending on where the stones are, the strategy changes. American football also has the advantage that the situation is constantly changing.
Hopefully, bowling will never end up in the Olympics. 1.) The IOC is, in my view, a very corrupt organization... and in the US, I consider the USBC to be just as screwed up. 2.) When you change a sport, to fit the Olympic mold... you're just destroying the sport. Take a look at Taekwondo... What the Olympics call "Taekwondo" and what I know as Taekwondo as a 7th degree black belt in Taekwondo... are two entirely different animals. If anything, Olympic Taekwondo is a slap in the face to practitioners of the art of Taekwondo. Would it be any different for bowlers? To take a great sport like bowling, and adulterate it to fit the Olympic mold, and then expect lifetime bowlers not to feel rightfully slighted? Come on... Bowling's best path forward, is to be itself... and to stand on its own, without the IOC having anything to do with it.
We don't need it in the Olympics the Olympics is the ones that are missing out we're not messing up because it's not in the Olympics that's that's their problem not us
One of the biggest problems 10 Pin Bowling faces on a road to getting Olympic status is that its losing popularity worldwide, mostly due to television networks cutting back on Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) tour events broadcast. Furthermore, Bowling alleys around the world are closing for good as its popularity is waning. If you take a look at Candlepin (New England) Bowling as an example, its lost a considerable amount of profile ever since the "Candlepin Bowling with Don Gills" show got cancelled in 1996 not thanks to WHDH and WCVB. Poor Marketing also lead to its demise as most of the spectators for television tapings are seniors. Its due to a fact that they show was taped on Tuesday Mornings and aired on Saturdays. Ever since that show got cancelled, number of active amateur and professional Candlepin Bowlers dropped considerably, resulting in one Candlepin Bowling alley after another in New England, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia closing its doors for good. Bowling alleys that survived are forced to charge very high prices just to get a few strings of Bowling in.
In the Winter Olympics, Curling is played. Guaranteed more young bowlers than curlers. Curling is similar to bowling. No reason bowling can’t be in the Winter Olympics either. It’s done more in the winter
I’m not on Olympic status yet, but I believe it should be included, bcuz many of those Olympic sports, we’ve never heard of or even watch. Bowling is too popular not to be included!
It really should be in the Olympics I have felt this in my teens and I am 48 now. Yet as I do a tournament this last weekend with horse fence jumping in the Olympics why? With the horse doing all the work. Bowling needs to be in the Olympics. I may actually watch the events. winter has curling so yes bowling should be there.
The idea that “luck” is a factor over skill in them deciding on bowling to be an Olympic sport is a ridiculous statement. The best bowlers in the world are still the ones competing on tv and the luck factor of getting a strike every once in a while on a bad shot is apart of the game.
The “level playing field” argument is BS. Tennis and golf are Olympic sports but no way create a level playing field. The golf course layout will cater to the strengths and mask the weaknesses of certain golfers and expose the weaknesses and not play to the strengths of other golfers. Same with tennis. When you have different surfaces for the courts: clay, grass, hard, artificial grass, carpet, etc, all tennis players play better on some surfaces than others. If the courts were grass, the players that excel on grass courts will succeed. If they play on clay courts, some players excel on clay, while other top world players may not find the same success. Level playing field is BS And about “appealing to the youth.” I’m sorry, but equestrian isn’t appealing to anyone except the very very small few that enjoy it. It’s never even broadcasted. “Bowling has an invisible playing surface that no one can see or understand.” Use the colored oil, have a very professional and knowledgeable current pro on commentary to explain what is happening. Have segments visually showing us the cores and explaining simply how it affects ball motion. Explain to us how bowling ball surfaces allows the ball to hook. Also, on a side note, the fact that baseball and softball are not Olympic sports is also a travesty.
The one huge factor not mentioned here is that bowling is on a downward trend. Every week, a bowling facility is shutting down. The younger generations aren't interested in taking up a sport that costs $$ per game, requires costly equipment, lousy hours for open play (bowling establishments favor leagues over open play,) and the playing conditions and environment aren't that appealing. As I was listening to this video, I kept thinking well what about curling? I have to say that curling is lucky that the sport is played on ice. If it wasn't, it would not have any chance to make the Summer Olympics. The only way for bowling to make any Olympics is for the bowlers to be playing in the snow or on ice. In fact, in many areas bowling facilities are shut down for the summer/fall.
Was that the scoring system where a strike counted as 30 flat without counting the next shot? That was a very dumb way to try and rope people into the sport. It's like if you removed Eagle and better/Double Bogey and worse from Golf and let Tiger Woods hitting a Hole in One be a spitting distance away from Ohio Amateur Golfer #85 who has a lucky 3 Birdie back 9. Sure they're both playing good and in fact it's very hard for even the best pros to shoot Even Par on top level courses, mirroring 10 strikes in a row being a "300" still being difficult, but that's not how you repackage a sport.
Yeah I finding the "not entertaining enough for the youth" to be a cop out. How many youth watch cycling, badminton, rowing. I'm betting far more are interested in bowling then these 3 sports combined. Over 1 Million people in the USA are bowling today (probably more now). And then there is this.. The USBC Team USA program recently returned from Australia where our athletes competed in the 2022 International Bowling Federation World Cup. Kyle Troup, Kris Prather, Jakob Butturff and AJ Johnson came back with the men’s team gold medal. Bryanna Coté captured the singles gold medal for Team USA. In all for 2022, Team USA collected 12 gold, eight silver and six bronze medals in five events. We’re extremely proud of our Team USA athletes and coaches for representing our country in a such a quality way.
"in the USA" - there's your problem. good luck with trying to find any televised events in europe. i'm from germany and i've never seen bowling on TV, not on sports channels and not even a few highlights on a sports-show. if it was ever televised nobody really noticed and there was no marketing. it's considered a leisure activity more than a sport. cycling is big in most countries here and rowing has a lot of tradition, badminton - i have no idea how it got there tbh, but i think it was big in the 80s or so and they used the momentum
To me golf and bowling are in the same category. The commentator said there is not a level playing field for bowling so that was 1 of the reasons that bowling does not make the cut to be included in the Olympics. Golf has this same problem of the playing field. Some golfers can hit the ball a million yards and another can't. Some golfers can chip and putt lights out others can't. How is this a level playing field? No sport will ever have a "Level Playing Field", as some will train harder, get better equipment and so on and so on. Bowling should be an Olympic sport, just look at how many countries compete in the various tournaments like the Pan Am games, Asian Pacific games and on and on in all parts of the world.
It's bs how they removed rollerblading from the Xgames in the mid 00s after being in it since inauguration. The fact bowling and rollerblading aren't Olympic sports is ridiculous.
Certainly it's ridiculous that rollerblading isn't part of the Olympics, given the IOC's supposed emphasis on attracting youth AND the fact that BMX freestyle and skateboard park are in the Games. You have two of the big three youth stunt sports-where's the third?
Some of what you said makes perfect sense...but golf does not appear to youth, has a lot of equipment has confusing rules and there is a lot of luck involved. Break dancing is not even a sport, it's dancing. Sure many people suspect it's about money. But also consider this would be one of the few sports that women would participate in while fully clothed. Maybe the IOC wants to avoid that.
to me as a bowler from malaysia i think the main reason why bowling is not in the Olympic its bcs it’s possible to cheat like change the oil pattern mid tournament and unless we can change that bowling will most probably not be in the olympic
Bowling should be in the Olympics. Why wouldn’t it be?? Just use PBA/USBC rules as a basis. All they would need is a house but most big cities in a country have a house. Olympic committee can pick their own oil patterns and pick what balls are allowed. What if you’re allowed to use urethan under 78? That would be perfect. Keep the ball simple. Ball brands are also minimal and the Olympic committee has rules on the uniforms. Keep the jersey simple with only the country on the jersey and minimal branding for uniform supplier. There a lot more that can be controlled. I think bowling can totally be a thing in the Olympics
Here is a list of all of the current sports being played in the 2024 Olympics : Aquatics (Swimming, Marathon Swimming, Diving, Water Polo, Artistic Swimming) Archery Athletics Badminton Basketball Basketball 3x3 Beach Volleyball Boxing Breaking (Breakdancing) Canoe Slalom Canoe Sprint Cycling BMX Freestyle Cycling BMX Racing Cycling Mountain Bike Cycling Road Cycling Track Diving Equestrian Fencing Football (Soccer) Golf Gymnastics (Artistic, Rhythmic, Trampoline) Handball Hockey Judo Modern Pentathlon Rowing Rugby Sevens Sailing Shooting Skateboarding Sport Climbing Surfing Table Tennis Taekwondo Tennis Triathlon Volleyball Water Polo Weightlifting Wrestling
@@84-Po-209 How fast do you need to run to succeed in bowling? How high to you need to jump? How fast do you need to accelerate? How fast do you need to react? How quick do you need to change directions? How agile do you need to be? Oh wait, you don't? You can be an obese blob and still play? That's why people you talk to say what they said.
There's literally baseball players who say baseball isn't a sport because they don't need to be athletic, so this same logic can be applied to bowling too. I think it just depends on how you define a sport (like e-sports for instance).
@@henryt9281 1. It’s a target sport (like many others), so you still gotta be accurate to do well. And in actual bowling tournaments, you gotta keep that accuracy for sometimes more than 10 games. That’s only for qualifying into the second round. And then you would probably also have to do another 10 games. Most likely having to average above 220 for all of it just to compete. 2. Old ass sport lol. Bowling has a shit ton of lore. Dating back to Egyptian times (meaning it has more lore than like 92% of other sports so that’s pretty cool) 3. Environment changes. What I mean by this is that the oil on the lane changes itself (the oil can actually evaporate itself because of all the bowling balls moving it). Meaning that each lane could be WAY different than one another. It’s something that kind of differentiates itself from other sports. Basketball for example, is mostly the same throughout each game. Even if stuff gets on the ground, they have cleaners to sweep it up so players don’t slip. Or the hoop doesn’t move around or change size as you go on. In bowling, you don’t really have that until your 10 game shift is over. You could throw one shot and get a strike on one lane, but if throw the same shot on another, oof, you got a split. And even when they re oil the lanes, most of the time they don’t play the same so you have to re adapt all over again. And don’t forget also that you still more than likely have to average 220+ to even qualify into the second round. Some tournaments make you do that for 30 games even of just trying to repeat your shot and trying to strike and spare every pin that gets set up. 4. More friendly to people of they want to go pro. I agree with you that bowling is not the most athletic (even I joke about that sometimes). But that means that more people can get into it and worry more about the accuracy and skill part of the game instead of having to worry about being fit. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be fit (being fit can help you unlock more abilities on the lanes; like playing different lines to strike and having more stamina), but it makes it so more people can get into it even if they don’t have the best physical abilities.
@@henryt9281 Bowling isn’t athletic. That is true. But you still need a WHOLE other skill to even compete with the pros. Some famous athletes out there too (CP3, Mookie Betts, Terrell Owens) have competed in various tournaments and when interviewed, all saying that it is a very tough sport that is very difficult to master and compete with others. Also, like golf, bowling can be a sport where you can play until you’re at the end of your days. Some players that are over 50 have won, even with the new field of players, they still managed to come out on top (like Pete Weber and Norm Duke). If you disagree with me, that’s fine. Don’t really care tbh lol. Just want to share with you why I think bowling is a sport (and also why it’s very tough one). May peace be with you 🙏🙏.
The only viable Olympic format for bowling would be a single-ball tournament with a low-volume, low-ratio oil pattern and a restriction to a ball that is essentially a slightly more performant urethane house ball (say 2.6 RG with a differential of about .02). Unfortunately, the main bowling sponsorship is from the equipment manufacturers themselves, who really don't want to see a proliferation of single-ball tournaments. Until bowling gets sponsorship from outside its own community, this is going to be a pickle. Another problem would be that the stepladder is an atrocious way to decide a champion and only used because of its TV-friendliness. An Olympic tournament would need to be a lengthy qualifying round of 24 games or something combined with a bracket involving multi-game matches. Maybe you could use single-game eliminators if you used World Scoring, but a lot of people oppose World Scoring. But traditional scoring IS massively tilted by luck and thus to counteract this, eliminators would need to be either best of 3-5 or aggregates of 3 games. This would be an exceedingly difficult format to televise.
The footage in the first third of the video is from the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, that one time when bowling was a demonstration sport, so I think that much of it can be excused at least.
@@ThreePointOneFou the rest of it was at least as old, showing PBA and, from the old WPBA tour. When a video is discussing a current topic it looks pretty bad to be showing footage from nearly 40 years ago.
Agree with your points and no, it will NEVER be an Olympic sport. At least in the US, participation has been dropping for 40 YEARS here, including with young people, the important demographic you mentioned. Why is this going to suddenly change in the next "10 years"? On the discussion of fairness, there is not only the variabilities that can affect bowlers differently, but you have the issue of Right Handers versus Left Handers and NOW one handers versus two handers. The playing field can NEVER be leveled.
I am boycotting the Olympics as well as another reader below if break dancing can be an Olympic sport bowling should be so since they don't want to I will not sponsor an organization that hates poor people because golf is a rich man's sport and it is not an Olympic sport i'm sorry to say but it is an Olympic sport there's nothing I can do about that you said it'll say they were boycott
Besides its relevance for becoming an Olympic sport: Luck is indeed a relevant unfavorable factor in Bowling, especially over the course of just a few matches, or - as in TV finals - just one single match. Sure, over the more games you average your score, the less relevant luck becomes. The more games you play, the more your average score is reflected by your actual skill, since it´s unlikely to being lucky all the time. But that´s not what determines the winner in a typical championship match - it´s just that single match. I guess, we all know those situations, where one guy get´s the trip-four to fall, while the other guy struggles with a ringing 10. There are simply too many possibilities to get a strike with a poorly executed shot (trip four, brooklyn strike), while not getting one with a perfectly executed shot (ringing 10, solid 8). This is inherent to the sport of Bowling, thus, not fixable.
I think the biggest impediment is since it has a maximum score possible, and that many people have hit the maximum score, that it's not really worth considering. There's nothing really to make a world record for, unless you play it with some kind of unlimited frames style where you just keep bowling until you don't get a strike so the world record can be most-consecutive-strikes or something. Maybe there could be a trick-shot bowling competition, or a 7-10 only competition, or a doubles-strike-streak, etc. This, coming from someone who bowls twice a week and watches PBA stepladders/etc all the time =)
Archery has a maximum possible score (a theoretical one in the ranking round, and a quite obtainable one in match play). No one has suggested removing archery from the Olympics.
People show up for golf tournaments. Hardly anyone shows up for bowling tournaments. It's mostly seen as something to do with friends or family. The skill level is capped and a lot of the pros can bowl a perfect game.
From 1967 to June of 2023, there have been a total of 35 televised perfect games in PBA Tour events. You're more likely to see a no-hitter in baseball than a 300 game.
That's stupid. If exposure is a metric for a sport to be in the Olympics, then football and basketball would be the first to be removed. Golf shouldn't be in the olympics solely from the fact you can't have a massive audience be present during the entirety of the event.
I could care less if bowling is in the Olympics or not if they don't want it in the Olympics good for them if they do then they do good for them are the Olympics say no doesn't mean anything we're still going to get bold in every Sunday we're still going to get the PBA tour so it doesn't mean anything
they took a risk with breaking and look at the backlash i promise bowling would not be hated by the community as it is a legitimate sport unlike breaking
With how many people constantly complain about the evolution of the game, its very hard to convince kids these days to participate when the adult they look up to hate their style of play. If the old guys would stop whining about two handed bowlers and equipment being made, maybe kids will see it as a sport they want to partake in. This is why my several kids I coach dont see it as a long term thing. We asked 120 kids at one of the state events to take a survey about their long term goals of bowling and over 70% of them dont see themselves being in the sport after high school. Reason was mostly no interest professionally and some put that the constant stress of the game just doesnt appeal to them. No money in the sport also hurts the appeal of the game. If we can somehow figure a way to make the sport more balanced for everyone i think it would help its chances, but I agree that the oil patterns, lane surfaces, and equipment constantly changing doesnt help bowling get in. Its the only sport I know of that things are constantly changing, whether its surface or equipment. Olympic committee prob wants consistency vs changes so they can regulate the games. That I feel is the biggest driver.
Personally I like bowling and the skill required supports being an Olympic level requirement, the only problem I could see is there are some obese non athletic looking professional bowlers , and all other Olympic events have incredible looking athletes
I think that bowling, in its current form, won't make the Olympics. Trying to get the layman to understand all the technical sides of the game like you see in a broadcast (hook potential of the balls, rev rate, break point, etc) gets people lost. When I bring my balls into work on league nights, or when I'm heading out of town after a Friday for a tournament (I hate leaving them out in my car with the temps), my employees have asked me things like "Why so many balls? Isn't a ball just a ball?" Trying to explain to a layman the difference between symmetrical and asymmetrical, cover stock, drill layout, surface finish, and I might as well be talking to them about microbiology. For it to work in the Olympics, there has to be a way to, and I hate to use this term, but dumb it down and simplify it, so that the average person will be able to follow along and understand not just the game, but the equipment.
You wouldn’t need to build a stadium or venue for bowling anyplace in the world. Bowling is internationally recognized and any house could qualify as the location to use for the olympic competition. Really. How difficult can it be?
Can't agree about the appeal to youth criteria. How does high jump appeal to youth? Pole vault? Steeplechase? Synchronized swimming? Peope go blowing from all over the world. There are leagues for it with well-established, enforceable rules (weighing balls, electronic foul lines, etc.). I don't see the problem.
With more lanes closing, it's not going to happen. We lost TWO centers in the past month... It's too expensive to run a center, property taxes, square footage required and such....
If break dancing and trampoline can make it, I think bowling has a place too.
@@gunz300 not to mention another sport where men and women would be able to complete equally.
Powerlifting also needs to be featured at the Olympics.
If Powerlifting makes it to the Olympics, the competition will use International Powerlifting Federation rules.
well, break dancing and trampoline obviously have more appeal to a younger audience
Break dancing isn't even a sport . . . it's an activity.
@@1761Charlie tbh most people would probably say the same about bowling (at least outside the US)
There isn't a valid reason bowling is excluded. The fact is that there many questionable sports in the Olympics and you can get a lucky break in ANY sport!
yep.
you could say this about a lot of different sports. you need reasons for it to be included and frankly, i don't see why bowling has any more reason than pool or darts for example
By the definition golf shouldn’t be in: Luck does play some part, weather from one day to the next plays a large factor, and golf courses can favor one type of golfer over another.
@@2themoon863 golf is in, because there is so much money in the sport
This year no bowling, but we have breakdancing. Now, if that isn't a frigging travesty of justice, I don't know what is...
Neither should be in the olympics lol
Anyone can get lucky on a bowling lane.
Now go try and do any kind of
Breakdancing move.
I have no clue what a breakdancing move even looks like but I know that breakdancer could Chuck a ball down a lane whereas the bowler is most likely a fat, lazy, uncoordinated slob of a human.
@@Samuel-xs2yv I can live with neither, but not with reality 💀
Problem with Bowling, especially the 10 Pin variation, is that its popularity is shrinking.
Its popularity has dropped so much that not even the PBA events are aired on television anymore.
@@HalifaxHercules i wouldn’t say THAT. i would say the more pro side of bowling is shrinking in popularity but the recreational side is still really big lol.
I somehow feel it would be one of the most viewed events... Everyone has at least bowled once in their life. And the international competitive nature of it, would be compelling for people who bowl, and funny for people that don't understand.
yeah and now the top bowlers are throwing with a huge curve covering all 35 boards, i would also argue that it is quite entertaining as well!
OK, people don't understand ins and outs of bowling such as oil. How much did the average person know about curling until they started watching it in the Olympics and the announcers were describing the rules, using the lingo and explaining the ins and outs?
This.
i think curling is only there, because it's a winter sport and there are much less sports competing for a place in the winter olympics than in the summer olympics.
Curling is TWENTY times more popular than bowling in many countries, especially in Asia. The US is NOT the world. And the "announcers" you mention are announcers handling the US coverage, so they have to "describe" the rules because few people here understand the sport. They do NOT have to explain the rules in the Asian country networks.
I'm not sure I agree with the notion that there isn't a level playing field. While I 100% agree with the point that a bowler's individual style, mechanics, and equipment play a role in his / her ability to find success on a particular pattern, this is precisely where a player's skill becomes more important. Part of the skill of professional bowlers is understanding the pattern, the equipment, his / her strengths and weaknesses and then making the right adjustments in their game to find success. That is what sets them apart from us mere mortals chucking balls in league. I'm actually bowling in a league this summer that rotates through the PBA animal patterns and it has solidified my respect for the professionals and the skills they bring to the game.
Yeah their Consistency is amazing 💯 of this game is 90% mental
if it was so easy wouldn't everyone be a professional! People can be great on house patterns but throw a pattern out there and watch the same 200averages bowl low 150s most likely. also just cause you have the best equipment doesn't mean you can bowl good still. doesn't make sense
To me, it's all about money. Golf is in the Olympics again, and if ever there was a sport that did NOT appeal to youth, golf is it.
I feel like that’s actually far from the truth more people are playing golf now than ever… a lot more money in golf than bowling.
Young people love golf. Y friends won’t leave me alone about getting a set of clubs and going with them. It’s so common it’s outright annoying
You couldn’t be more wrong golf is incredibly popular everyone in my school seems to have played a round
There are multiple RUclips channels that would say you're wrong. They're catering to the younger crowd, and being successful at it. One of the most notable is Good Good. Just look at the number of subscribers that they have, and they also have their own apparel line that is featured in golf stores.
Golf is actually getting more popular, especially with the youth.
Bowling should be in the WINTER olympics. That's bowling's real season.
Imo the sport of bowling's greatest failure is in its marketing (or lack thereof). Everyone has gone bowling and had a great time, which is something that most Olympic sports cannot celebrate themselves, yet for a variety of reasons, we fail to attract people to the sport - not near enough casuals opt to play more regularly and eventually take it up as a discipline.
If we want bowling to grow, we must learn to negotiate with private centres that only care about money, and cooperate to grow their loyal customer base (helping their business and the sport).
More can also be done by associations to show off how damn good their best are. If you don't think this sounds appealing, both of Jason Belmonte's videos with Dude Perfect are two of the channel's best performing videos.
I also find over the years (as a competetive bowler) that average bowlers have been priced out of most bowling alleys due to extremely bogus practices such as no longer allowing you to pay per game and instead opting to allow you to pay for an hour at a 3x markup compared to the amount of games I couldve played and payed for in that hour being ~$9-12 now being $30+... Now this is only for some of the bowling centers in my area but these were my favorite places to go and its becoming even too expensive for me :/
people casually participating in a sports doesn't really help when it comes to becoming olympic, being a spectator sport does. few people ever did boxing, but it draws lots of viewers (at least the big fights).
Filipino players dominating bowling is the real reason why it is not in olympics, Same with Billiard in 1991 olympic made teams to put billiards in olympic, Filipinos dominating the sports thats why it is not put in Olympics
You joke of course, but this is literally the reason Softball got kicked out. The American women lost 1 match (the final gold medal match at Softballs final Olympics, to the Japanese team). I don't mean 1 match that Olympics. I mean 1 match in history. And most of the wins were by the "mercy rule"
probably because there's a big luck factor, and nobody's bribed the IOC. I don't think that scoring is a big issue, because look at the scoring for gymnastics.
If luck is such a factor, how do the same 3-4 bowlers crush it at tournaments every year?
@@bomboy7 obviously it’s not the only factor.
I mean you can get lucky in bowling but it’s not a “big” factor
@@timstradley5819 pederson’s stone 8, boog’s brooklyns, ciminelli’s 7-10, etc. luck is absolutely a huge factor in winning or loosing. Two players can both hit the pocket every shot, make good adjustments, and one can still blow the other out of the water.
@@mutated__donkey5840stone 8 isn't technically luck, it's a fractional miss. There's really no "luck" in bowling at all, it's actually just physics
Mmmm. The scoring system is universal though. I mean, it is no more complicated than tennis. As for understanding of mechanics and the pattern, SPECTO. I mean, we already have all the stats and a picture right on the screen that shows previous and current shots with rev rates, speeds, break points, and the pattern. You can not be a bowler and still see the skill required to put the ball where it needs to be. I think the one thing that is more difficult on a committee to decide on is the wide-wide range of balls and equipment used now days. There would most certainly have to be an "allowed" arsenal and hardness rating to make it fair. Like a 1 Urethane, 1 Solid, and 1 Pearl or Hybrid allowed maximum. These balls would also have to be non-branded but maybe made by a selected single manufacturer for consistency and fairness. SPECTO wasn't an option back when the bid was being made.... Balls back then were also VERY generalized compared to now. I absolutely think with the modern tech we have..it should be in the Olympics.
There is a new and more fair scoring system called WORLD SCORING. Too often a player gets more strikes and loses anyway because the strikes were not in a row on their score board.
@@Zurround Being able to string strikes in a row is part of the skill. It means you are staying ahead of the transition and not waiting for a flat 10 / ring 10 reaction to tell you to adjust. World Scoring is fine since it makes the game a hair faster but it is unnecessary.
Well with string pins becoming more mainstream, I think its going to be a longshot at best.
The Olympics are garbage now. Your point #3 is spot on. The IOC only cares about money and viewership. Screw the Olympics; bowling should focus on fixing the pro Tour instead.
Maybe they can start the bowling equivalent of a trialthalon. Bowl a CandlePin game, then a duckpin game, then a tenpin game. Tests the versatility of the bowlers. Highest combined score wins.
You are definitely on to something here. I think the variety will keep the average non bowler tuned in to the tv to watch bowling. I actually like this idea. This is probably the best idea of any kind if seen all year long
Beyond pissed that the one f’ing shot I had to be an Olympian will most likely never happen
It probably will never be in, because the corporate owners of bowling cater to ball-throwers, not bowlers. The main criteria is how much food and drink they order, bowling skill is becoming irrelevant.
Bowling isn't in the olympics, but curling is... Can we split the difference and maybe get shuffleboard in there? Or perhaps, croquet?😊
Sorry, not buying the narrator's "reasons" for bowling not being in the Olympics. As to not appealing to the youth . . . I started bowling at age 8 while in the Cub Scouts . . . close to 70 years ago. And I doubt if there is a bowling center (of the few that are still open) that don't have at least one junior league. And, let's face it . . . more people bowl around the world than participate in synchronized swimming (or whatever they are calling it now).
That's Arianne Cerdeña. Olympic exhibition gold medalist.
I'm boycotting Olympics forever. When break dancing is IN and bowling isn't, I'm just done.
It doesn't matter if bowling is in or not, no way break dancing is a sport. What's next? Yoga!
@@jenniferboone-sz1lo Boycotting? You’re not watching? Hard not to!
Don't forget trampoline
For me it's the demonic opening ceremony. How dare they mock God and Christianity.
Break dancing is out now according to the IOC
Bowling was a sport featured in the 2019 Island Games. Albeit at the expense of football because that year’s games were being held in Gibraltar (which has like only one Football Stadium). Leaving a separate Football Tournament to be organised in Ynys Mon/Anglesey)
Hey the right lane! I have another video idea for you! I thought that it would be cool if you did a video of ranking all of the PBA telecasts for the 2024 season! Of course you do t have to do this, but I ( and hopefully others) would think it would be a fun video to watch!
Edit: out of all of the telecasts for the PBA this year, the TOC was my favorite telecast
The Olympic sports where luck is very limited as a factor are sports with highly-standardized venues and defined predominantly by raw athletic power with few elements of luck or other variables to factor in (i.e., the shorter/more powerful events in track and field and swimming), although the men's shot put this year was affected by rain that might have cost one or two athletes medals that they might have won had it not started raining halfway through that event's finals. Also, there are a lot of sports that are effectively dependent on the Olympics (for example, the winter sliding sports of bobsled, luge, and skeleton would likely cease to exist without those sports being included in the Olympics, and a lot of summer Olympic sports like rowing, canoe/kayak, weightlifting, judo, badminton, and table tennis get most or virtually all of their media exposure via the Olympics), and tenpin bowling isn't one of them. Oil on a bowling lane is analogous to pebbling on curling ice; plenty of Olympic sports have luck elements to them (golf being one of them), plenty of Olympic sports have complex scoring systems (gymnastics, figure skating, tennis, etc.), and bowling doesn't have the judging factor that gymnastics and figure skating, for example, have. Beach volleyball probably gets cut from the Olympic program as soon as NBC no longer holds the U.S. Olympic broadcast rights, because that's the one sport NBC actually cares about covering during the Summer Olympics, and I'll end my rant there.
Bowling _has_ been part of _Special_ Olympics and is not going anywhere for the foreseeable future,
saying this as a Special Olympic bowler myself
This is an excellent point.
If curling is in the Olympics, bowling should be
WINTER olympics! much fewer sports that compete for a spot
@NR-fd9wv bowling is mostly a winter sport/hobby though
@@Tino-u5h winter sports are sports that are played on ice or snow
Just imagine Pete Weber and Mika Koivuniemi battling it out for gold. The trash talk might not be TV-appropriate.
Luck?
Okay I have been bowling since I was a kid, it's been over 30 years, i carry a 231 average, i have two 300s in the bag... I can count the number of "lucky or unlucky" breaks I have had on one hand.
Blaming your mistakes on luck is just poor,
Lane conditions breaking down sure, equipment malfunction rare but it happens, moisture on the approach that's a real problem. Your form breaking down, yep. The ball sticking causing issues because you have not compensated for environmental factions like heat and humidity that happens. How the lane has been oiled working against your preferred line. None of these are luck, they are simply things that happen.
Bowling is not luck based, nor is it an unfair sport.
I can walk down stairs right now and pull one of a half dozen balls out one of my two bag, drop in a ball that is drilled differently with a different block and finish. And i will be ready for any lane condition. I typically use 3 balls, then have 3 balls in for bad lane conditions, be it oil blocks, or lanes tgat degrade quickly
There is some luck insofar as a league rando might win a single game against a pro where the league guy miracles up a 258 or 279 and the pro leaves a trio of corner pins. But long format events make the "might win one game out of 20 or 30" factor irrelevant.
I like to think another reason is the required specialised venue. Look at the Paris Olympics running right now: The fencing venue is a general museum which Taekwondo will do their competitions in once the fencers are done. Judo hands over their venue to wrestling. Volleyball, handball, and table-tennis are held in general sports arenas. Bowling requires a special venue that will be useful to no other sport. That would put an additional difficulty on the organisers.
So your thinking there are no bowling alley's in Paris? Or any of the cities where the Olympics have been held. Don't need to create a new venue, just use one that's already up to PBA's standards. Cycling is only used for one sport. Can you tell me what other sport uses the BobSleigh track as an example? So your suggestion that it's not useful to another sport doesn't make sense.
@@Trblmkr07 The ice canal used for bobsleigh hosts luge and skeleton events as well. They have singles, doubles, teams, bobsleigh 2s and 4s. AFAIR at the last edition, the ice canal was in use almost every single day throughout the whole Games.
As for the cycling track: Granted, that's specific to the sport. But again, they host loads of events there.
As for 10 Pin bowling, there are only so many events possible. And yes, I claim that there is no bowling alley in Paris (or even anywhere in Europe) that actually features a considerable number of seats for spectators. Why? Because in Europe bowling is primarily a recreational thing. Yes, there are competitions, but they practically happen in a completely hidden fashion.
My point isn't that there aren't already other sport-specific venues; my point is that bowling would add ANOTHER one.
To be competitive takes a lot of practice and exercise I watch a lot of professional bowling and I haven't watched the Olympics in years and probably never will
I know the kids love their equestrian events! Fencing is a biggie too... high schoolers can't stop talking about it. And don't even start on sailing or squash... a 16 year old will chew your ear off if you do. Seriously though, this is about MONEY and bribes.
If judges can't fudge points off a person, they don't want that sport.
It would be a stretch to call this a "sport".
@@henryt9281 Yet something like Curling is?
@@henryt9281 Breakdancing isn't a sport, yet it's in the Olympics this year 🙄
@@marktorres3852 Breakdancing most definitely is a sport, bro.
@@henryt9281 Since when? Since the Olympics introduced it as a sport just recently? Breakdancing has been around for DECADES, and nobody has recognized it as an actual "sport." Just a type of dance-style, and yes you can have breakdancing contests/tournaments, but still not a sport.
For bowling to be successful it needs to be more accessible to everyone. The understanding of the sport, the techniques involved, the cost, accessibility to bowling alleys and other factors can be hindrance. Bowling is fun but also challenging and competitive making these factors interesting to the youth. If you watch the PBA, PWBA and Youth bowling no one bowls exactly the same with some unusual styles.
Bowling does not need the Olympics. There are plenty of "sports" in the games that do not have an TV contract with a major network and bowling does. MLB and NFL are just fine without the Olympics.
Bowling needs all the help it can get..... I'm a bowler and bowl traditional one handed, but without Belmonte and the two handed style he made popular with 15 majors and the popularity with young kids, it would be really struggling.
@@robvoyles Every generation will have a generational talent to pull the game through. Dick Weber, Earl Anthony, Mark Roth, Marshall Holman, Pete Weber, Belmo, and now EJ and Simo?
Reality check pal. The PBA and PWBA are PAYING the networks for their TV coverage, just like corn hole, hot dog eating, pickle ball and other two bit sports. The ratings are low and the sport is almost entirely a regional (midwest sport), so there is no desire for a network to show tournaments and risk their own money.
It is one of the oldest sports in history dating back possible 5200BC with primitive equipment found in Egyptian culture. Tug a war was a sport from 1900-1920. It is just dumb it has never made it.
It dates back to when humans only had 3 fingers..
@@bmac6679 🤣🤣🤣
Bowling in the olympics games
I agree with your analysis.
I think that the general public takes bowling as a game and does not see the sporting side.
In addition, we must change the mentality of amateur players. When they do not succeed they do not question themselves it is always the fault of the host.
Then the USBC rules should prevail over all federations.
That there is a major event organized elsewhere than in the USA, Nordic countries, Japan, Korea...
Each federation should create a pro/semi pro circuit which would attract sponsors thanks to the television that had been interested in such a circuit.
Attracting young people requires investment and skill in clubs. To my knowledge, this is more than rare.
Amateur federations must invest to send high-level national players on the PBA circuit.
Upon return, these players would go around the regions to give what they received.
It would be a top down split.
Not systematically favour the high level and build bridges between levels.
I see some novice players coming into the club but nobody gives any sound and correct advice or no advice at all.
Reform the spirit of clubs that will change the spirit of federations. Let us convert operators into the organization of sporting events and facilitate their approval, so that it is no longer a fee.
If the center is of quality the players will return.
The USBC and PBA must also invest globally.
On its terms there may be a chance that bowling will appear at the Olympic Games.
Frédéric Benoit 🎳
It ultimately boils down to the money. I was GM of a small center back in the 80's and 90's when bowling was trying to make that big push. Got to know some people who were involved in the process back then, and they were telling us some if the nonsense in pushback they were getting where other sports shouldn't qualify for the same reasons, still did because of sponsorship money (and a few greased palms).
The thing about the Winter sports is that ice or snow generally has to be involved in some way, so bowling was never going to make the Winter Olympics.
At the end of the day, the 50's and 60's would have been our best shot because that was the sport's hey day. Then we have the issue of the disparity between the soft league conditions that gave rise to inflated scoring in the 90's and Aughts, and the challenging conditions of pro and semi-pro events affecting the talent pool. Then the Women's tour folded. Unless there's some serious X Games like revival, bowling simply does not have the monetary draw to make it.
It's all about the bribes. Bowlero or whoever would have to make the decision to make a $1M come off their books and into the IOC pockets.
if they allowed Curling........then scraping dog crap off a sidewalk as slow as possible should be a sport, how many kids/ young people in general watch Curling.....can you count to about 3, maybe.
Bowling should definitely be in the Olympics. Not sure how they would break down the event, unless they do it by continents instead of countries. Picking the best 4 man squad to represent their continents. IDK, just a thought but, i would love to see bowling in the Olympics. The bowling committee needs to stop making so many useless changes to their current rules though, takes away the fun from the sport.
In my opinion, I don't think the scoring system is a problem. Understanding and explaining it during the course of a sport is the job of announcers. I think the two main issues are the youth angle and the lack of people throwing money at the IOC to get bowling into the Olympics. Frankly, I have my doubts that the Olympics is even as popular as it used to be. Cities are not as eager to host them due to the huge financial loss and useless facilities left behind. Over time it could be that the Olympics will just have a variety of sanctioned events at different locations around the world just to keep the idea going so as to minimize the financial hit to host cities while at the same time trying to spread any remaining enthusiasm for it. This is pure speculation on my part.
A complicated scoring system is absolutely no excuse, given the scoring systems in use in gymnastics and in figure skating. It isn't even that complicated; you can create an Excel spreadsheet that gets it done in about half an hour, with a little know-how.
What is so damn complicated about scoring??? I am pretty sure that most people can add...
I think a separate ''variant'' of bowling would have to be developed: one with standardized lanes, standardized oil patterns, standardized bowling balls, etc. It would basically have to be a different sport. The same way all of the shooting events at the olympics use different calibers to what most Americans are used to shooting in their competitions.
One issue is that there is no visible strategy. To the audience, every roll is the same as the last one. Contrast that with curling. I've never played curling, but the strategy is fairly easy for me to understand which gives the announcers something to say. Depending on where the stones are, the strategy changes. American football also has the advantage that the situation is constantly changing.
Specto and projecting the lane oil onto the surface makes it obvious
how old is this footage at the beginning of the video...the delayed sweep drop was removed in 1988
Hopefully, bowling will never end up in the Olympics.
1.) The IOC is, in my view, a very corrupt organization... and in the US, I consider the USBC to be just as screwed up.
2.) When you change a sport, to fit the Olympic mold... you're just destroying the sport.
Take a look at Taekwondo...
What the Olympics call "Taekwondo" and what I know as Taekwondo as a 7th degree black belt in Taekwondo... are two entirely different animals. If anything, Olympic Taekwondo is a slap in the face to practitioners of the art of Taekwondo.
Would it be any different for bowlers? To take a great sport like bowling, and adulterate it to fit the Olympic mold, and then expect lifetime bowlers not to feel rightfully slighted?
Come on...
Bowling's best path forward, is to be itself... and to stand on its own, without the IOC having anything to do with it.
We don't need it in the Olympics the Olympics is the ones that are missing out we're not messing up because it's not in the Olympics that's that's their problem not us
One of the biggest problems 10 Pin Bowling faces on a road to getting Olympic status is that its losing popularity worldwide, mostly due to television networks cutting back on Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) tour events broadcast.
Furthermore, Bowling alleys around the world are closing for good as its popularity is waning.
If you take a look at Candlepin (New England) Bowling as an example, its lost a considerable amount of profile ever since the "Candlepin Bowling with Don Gills" show got cancelled in 1996 not thanks to WHDH and WCVB.
Poor Marketing also lead to its demise as most of the spectators for television tapings are seniors. Its due to a fact that they show was taped on Tuesday Mornings and aired on Saturdays.
Ever since that show got cancelled, number of active amateur and professional Candlepin Bowlers dropped considerably, resulting in one Candlepin Bowling alley after another in New England, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia closing its doors for good.
Bowling alleys that survived are forced to charge very high prices just to get a few strings of Bowling in.
In the Winter Olympics, Curling is played. Guaranteed more young bowlers than curlers. Curling is similar to bowling. No reason bowling can’t be in the Winter Olympics either. It’s done more in the winter
I’m not on Olympic status yet, but I believe it should be included, bcuz many of those Olympic sports, we’ve never heard of or even watch. Bowling is too popular not to be included!
It really should be in the Olympics I have felt this in my teens and I am 48 now. Yet as I do a tournament this last weekend with horse fence jumping in the Olympics why? With the horse doing all the work. Bowling needs to be in the Olympics. I may actually watch the events. winter has curling so yes bowling should be there.
with all the additions of niche and sometimes strange sports especially this year, i think bowling should definitely have a place
The idea that “luck” is a factor over skill in them deciding on bowling to be an Olympic sport is a ridiculous statement. The best bowlers in the world are still the ones competing on tv and the luck factor of getting a strike every once in a while on a bad shot is apart of the game.
The “level playing field” argument is BS. Tennis and golf are Olympic sports but no way create a level playing field. The golf course layout will cater to the strengths and mask the weaknesses of certain golfers and expose the weaknesses and not play to the strengths of other golfers.
Same with tennis. When you have different surfaces for the courts: clay, grass, hard, artificial grass, carpet, etc, all tennis players play better on some surfaces than others. If the courts were grass, the players that excel on grass courts will succeed. If they play on clay courts, some players excel on clay, while other top world players may not find the same success. Level playing field is BS
And about “appealing to the youth.” I’m sorry, but equestrian isn’t appealing to anyone except the very very small few that enjoy it. It’s never even broadcasted.
“Bowling has an invisible playing surface that no one can see or understand.” Use the colored oil, have a very professional and knowledgeable current pro on commentary to explain what is happening. Have segments visually showing us the cores and explaining simply how it affects ball motion. Explain to us how bowling ball surfaces allows the ball to hook.
Also, on a side note, the fact that baseball and softball are not Olympic sports is also a travesty.
The one huge factor not mentioned here is that bowling is on a downward trend. Every week, a bowling facility is shutting down. The younger generations aren't interested in taking up a sport that costs $$ per game, requires costly equipment, lousy hours for open play (bowling establishments favor leagues over open play,) and the playing conditions and environment aren't that appealing. As I was listening to this video, I kept thinking well what about curling? I have to say that curling is lucky that the sport is played on ice. If it wasn't, it would not have any chance to make the Summer Olympics. The only way for bowling to make any Olympics is for the bowlers to be playing in the snow or on ice. In fact, in many areas bowling facilities are shut down for the summer/fall.
Was that the scoring system where a strike counted as 30 flat without counting the next shot? That was a very dumb way to try and rope people into the sport.
It's like if you removed Eagle and better/Double Bogey and worse from Golf and let Tiger Woods hitting a Hole in One be a spitting distance away from Ohio Amateur Golfer #85 who has a lucky 3 Birdie back 9. Sure they're both playing good and in fact it's very hard for even the best pros to shoot Even Par on top level courses, mirroring 10 strikes in a row being a "300" still being difficult, but that's not how you repackage a sport.
If Jason belmonte can't get in the Olympics it's never going to happen
Our first gold medal in the Olympics.
Yeah I finding the "not entertaining enough for the youth" to be a cop out. How many youth watch cycling, badminton, rowing. I'm betting far more are interested in bowling then these 3 sports combined. Over 1 Million people in the USA are bowling today (probably more now). And then there is this.. The USBC Team USA program recently returned from Australia where our athletes competed in the 2022 International Bowling Federation World Cup. Kyle Troup, Kris Prather, Jakob Butturff and AJ Johnson came back with the men’s team gold medal. Bryanna Coté captured the singles gold medal for Team USA.
In all for 2022, Team USA collected 12 gold, eight silver and six bronze medals in five events. We’re extremely proud of our Team USA athletes and coaches for representing our country in a such a quality way.
"in the USA" - there's your problem. good luck with trying to find any televised events in europe. i'm from germany and i've never seen bowling on TV, not on sports channels and not even a few highlights on a sports-show. if it was ever televised nobody really noticed and there was no marketing. it's considered a leisure activity more than a sport. cycling is big in most countries here and rowing has a lot of tradition, badminton - i have no idea how it got there tbh, but i think it was big in the 80s or so and they used the momentum
For me I love bowling got my own ball and my own bag and I hope that bowling does get added to the Olympic Games
Personally, I think bowling should try to make a bid for the winter Olympics rather than the summer Olympics. That would just be more fitting…
To me golf and bowling are in the same category. The commentator said there is not a level playing field for bowling so that was 1 of the reasons that bowling does not make the cut to be included in the Olympics. Golf has this same problem of the playing field. Some golfers can hit the ball a million yards and another can't. Some golfers can chip and putt lights out others can't. How is this a level playing field? No sport will ever have a "Level Playing Field", as some will train harder, get better equipment and so on and so on. Bowling should be an Olympic sport, just look at how many countries compete in the various tournaments like the Pan Am games, Asian Pacific games and on and on in all parts of the world.
It's bs how they removed rollerblading from the Xgames in the mid 00s after being in it since inauguration. The fact bowling and rollerblading aren't Olympic sports is ridiculous.
Certainly it's ridiculous that rollerblading isn't part of the Olympics, given the IOC's supposed emphasis on attracting youth AND the fact that BMX freestyle and skateboard park are in the Games. You have two of the big three youth stunt sports-where's the third?
I don’t want bowling in the Olympics. They would just f it up like they do with so many other sports.
Some of what you said makes perfect sense...but golf does not appear to youth, has a lot of equipment has confusing rules and there is a lot of luck involved. Break dancing is not even a sport, it's dancing. Sure many people suspect it's about money. But also consider this would be one of the few sports that women would participate in while fully clothed. Maybe the IOC wants to avoid that.
to me as a bowler from malaysia i think the main reason why bowling is not in the Olympic its bcs it’s possible to cheat like change the oil pattern mid tournament and unless we can change that bowling will most probably not be in the olympic
Bowling should be in the Olympics. Why wouldn’t it be?? Just use PBA/USBC rules as a basis. All they would need is a house but most big cities in a country have a house. Olympic committee can pick their own oil patterns and pick what balls are allowed. What if you’re allowed to use urethan under 78? That would be perfect. Keep the ball simple. Ball brands are also minimal and the Olympic committee has rules on the uniforms. Keep the jersey simple with only the country on the jersey and minimal branding for uniform supplier. There a lot more that can be controlled.
I think bowling can totally be a thing in the Olympics
The ball logos are irrelevant. Look at beach volleyball images. You can see MIKASA written on the ball. That's the mfg.
Here is a list of all of the current sports being played in the 2024 Olympics :
Aquatics (Swimming, Marathon Swimming, Diving, Water Polo, Artistic Swimming)
Archery
Athletics
Badminton
Basketball
Basketball 3x3
Beach Volleyball
Boxing
Breaking (Breakdancing)
Canoe Slalom
Canoe Sprint
Cycling BMX Freestyle
Cycling BMX Racing
Cycling Mountain Bike
Cycling Road
Cycling Track
Diving
Equestrian
Fencing
Football (Soccer)
Golf
Gymnastics (Artistic, Rhythmic, Trampoline)
Handball
Hockey
Judo
Modern Pentathlon
Rowing
Rugby Sevens
Sailing
Shooting
Skateboarding
Sport Climbing
Surfing
Table Tennis
Taekwondo
Tennis
Triathlon
Volleyball
Water Polo
Weightlifting
Wrestling
I have been bowling since I was 6years old and everybody I talk to says bowling is not a sport
they're wrong lol
@@84-Po-209 How fast do you need to run to succeed in bowling? How high to you need to jump? How fast do you need to accelerate? How fast do you need to react? How quick do you need to change directions? How agile do you need to be? Oh wait, you don't? You can be an obese blob and still play? That's why people you talk to say what they said.
There's literally baseball players who say baseball isn't a sport because they don't need to be athletic, so this same logic can be applied to bowling too. I think it just depends on how you define a sport (like e-sports for instance).
@@henryt9281 1. It’s a target sport (like many others), so you still gotta be accurate to do well. And in actual bowling tournaments, you gotta keep that accuracy for sometimes more than 10 games. That’s only for qualifying into the second round. And then you would probably also have to do another 10 games. Most likely having to average above 220 for all of it just to compete.
2. Old ass sport lol. Bowling has a shit ton of lore. Dating back to Egyptian times (meaning it has more lore than like 92% of other sports so that’s pretty cool)
3. Environment changes. What I mean by this is that the oil on the lane changes itself (the oil can actually evaporate itself because of all the bowling balls moving it). Meaning that each lane could be WAY different than one another. It’s something that kind of differentiates itself from other sports. Basketball for example, is mostly the same throughout each game. Even if stuff gets on the ground, they have cleaners to sweep it up so players don’t slip. Or the hoop doesn’t move around or change size as you go on. In bowling, you don’t really have that until your 10 game shift is over. You could throw one shot and get a strike on one lane, but if throw the same shot on another, oof, you got a split. And even when they re oil the lanes, most of the time they don’t play the same so you have to re adapt all over again. And don’t forget also that you still more than likely have to average 220+ to even qualify into the second round. Some tournaments make you do that for 30 games even of just trying to repeat your shot and trying to strike and spare every pin that gets set up.
4. More friendly to people of they want to go pro. I agree with you that bowling is not the most athletic (even I joke about that sometimes). But that means that more people can get into it and worry more about the accuracy and skill part of the game instead of having to worry about being fit. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be fit (being fit can help you unlock more abilities on the lanes; like playing different lines to strike and having more stamina), but it makes it so more people can get into it even if they don’t have the best physical abilities.
@@henryt9281 Bowling isn’t athletic. That is true. But you still need a WHOLE other skill to even compete with the pros. Some famous athletes out there too (CP3, Mookie Betts, Terrell Owens) have competed in various tournaments and when interviewed, all saying that it is a very tough sport that is very difficult to master and compete with others. Also, like golf, bowling can be a sport where you can play until you’re at the end of your days. Some players that are over 50 have won, even with the new field of players, they still managed to come out on top (like Pete Weber and Norm Duke). If you disagree with me, that’s fine. Don’t really care tbh lol. Just want to share with you why I think bowling is a sport (and also why it’s very tough one). May peace be with you 🙏🙏.
The only viable Olympic format for bowling would be a single-ball tournament with a low-volume, low-ratio oil pattern and a restriction to a ball that is essentially a slightly more performant urethane house ball (say 2.6 RG with a differential of about .02). Unfortunately, the main bowling sponsorship is from the equipment manufacturers themselves, who really don't want to see a proliferation of single-ball tournaments.
Until bowling gets sponsorship from outside its own community, this is going to be a pickle.
Another problem would be that the stepladder is an atrocious way to decide a champion and only used because of its TV-friendliness. An Olympic tournament would need to be a lengthy qualifying round of 24 games or something combined with a bracket involving multi-game matches. Maybe you could use single-game eliminators if you used World Scoring, but a lot of people oppose World Scoring. But traditional scoring IS massively tilted by luck and thus to counteract this, eliminators would need to be either best of 3-5 or aggregates of 3 games. This would be an exceedingly difficult format to televise.
Holy mackerel, could you include any more ancient bowling footage here! This is stuff from the 80's! Totally different game today!
The footage in the first third of the video is from the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, that one time when bowling was a demonstration sport, so I think that much of it can be excused at least.
@@ThreePointOneFou the rest of it was at least as old, showing PBA and, from the old WPBA tour. When a video is discussing a current topic it looks pretty bad to be showing footage from nearly 40 years ago.
Agree with your points and no, it will NEVER be an Olympic sport. At least in the US, participation has been dropping for 40 YEARS here, including with young people, the important demographic you mentioned. Why is this going to suddenly change in the next "10 years"? On the discussion of fairness, there is not only the variabilities that can affect bowlers differently, but you have the issue of Right Handers versus Left Handers and NOW one handers versus two handers. The playing field can NEVER be leveled.
I didn’t really care until things like rock climbing and break dancing got in.
I am boycotting the Olympics as well as another reader below if break dancing can be an Olympic sport bowling should be so since they don't want to I will not sponsor an organization that hates poor people because golf is a rich man's sport and it is not an Olympic sport i'm sorry to say but it is an Olympic sport there's nothing I can do about that you said it'll say they were boycott
I was just going to mention that I thought I heard that break dancing was going to be in this Olympics. No way that is a sport.
Besides its relevance for becoming an Olympic sport: Luck is indeed a relevant unfavorable factor in Bowling, especially over the course of just a few matches, or - as in TV finals - just one single match. Sure, over the more games you average your score, the less relevant luck becomes. The more games you play, the more your average score is reflected by your actual skill, since it´s unlikely to being lucky all the time. But that´s not what determines the winner in a typical championship match - it´s just that single match. I guess, we all know those situations, where one guy get´s the trip-four to fall, while the other guy struggles with a ringing 10. There are simply too many possibilities to get a strike with a poorly executed shot (trip four, brooklyn strike), while not getting one with a perfectly executed shot (ringing 10, solid 8). This is inherent to the sport of Bowling, thus, not fixable.
I think the biggest impediment is since it has a maximum score possible, and that many people have hit the maximum score, that it's not really worth considering. There's nothing really to make a world record for, unless you play it with some kind of unlimited frames style where you just keep bowling until you don't get a strike so the world record can be most-consecutive-strikes or something. Maybe there could be a trick-shot bowling competition, or a 7-10 only competition, or a doubles-strike-streak, etc. This, coming from someone who bowls twice a week and watches PBA stepladders/etc all the time =)
Archery has a maximum possible score (a theoretical one in the ranking round, and a quite obtainable one in match play). No one has suggested removing archery from the Olympics.
Obviously IOC doesn’t go to a bowling alleys , there are millions of young people playing this sport…
People show up for golf tournaments. Hardly anyone shows up for bowling tournaments. It's mostly seen as something to do with friends or family. The skill level is capped and a lot of the pros can bowl a perfect game.
From 1967 to June of 2023, there have been a total of 35 televised perfect games in PBA Tour events. You're more likely to see a no-hitter in baseball than a 300 game.
Tennis and golf shouldn’t be in the Olympics, the exposure is already huge.
That's stupid. If exposure is a metric for a sport to be in the Olympics, then football and basketball would be the first to be removed.
Golf shouldn't be in the olympics solely from the fact you can't have a massive audience be present during the entirety of the event.
I’m pretty sure bowling has higher popularity and more appeal to the youth than golf, so I don’t see why golf is an olympic sport but bowling is not.
I could care less if bowling is in the Olympics or not if they don't want it in the Olympics good for them if they do then they do good for them are the Olympics say no doesn't mean anything we're still going to get bold in every Sunday we're still going to get the PBA tour so it doesn't mean anything
they took a risk with breaking and look at the backlash i promise bowling would not be hated by the community as it is a legitimate sport unlike breaking
I agree with the main three reasons and that bowling has cut a big enough check for the IOC to allow them in. Lol
ice skating is so subjective . bowling marks is straightforward
With how many people constantly complain about the evolution of the game, its very hard to convince kids these days to participate when the adult they look up to hate their style of play. If the old guys would stop whining about two handed bowlers and equipment being made, maybe kids will see it as a sport they want to partake in. This is why my several kids I coach dont see it as a long term thing. We asked 120 kids at one of the state events to take a survey about their long term goals of bowling and over 70% of them dont see themselves being in the sport after high school. Reason was mostly no interest professionally and some put that the constant stress of the game just doesnt appeal to them. No money in the sport also hurts the appeal of the game.
If we can somehow figure a way to make the sport more balanced for everyone i think it would help its chances, but I agree that the oil patterns, lane surfaces, and equipment constantly changing doesnt help bowling get in. Its the only sport I know of that things are constantly changing, whether its surface or equipment. Olympic committee prob wants consistency vs changes so they can regulate the games. That I feel is the biggest driver.
Only sport where an amateur has a fighting chance of beating a pro on any given day
Personally I like bowling and the skill required supports being an Olympic level requirement, the only problem I could see is there are some obese non athletic looking professional bowlers , and all other Olympic events have incredible looking athletes
Bowlers are not athletes. Olympics fans want to watch sports.
The weightlifters are all fat-looking. Hugely strong but they have a lot of body fat cause it helps in that sport.
I think that bowling, in its current form, won't make the Olympics. Trying to get the layman to understand all the technical sides of the game like you see in a broadcast (hook potential of the balls, rev rate, break point, etc) gets people lost. When I bring my balls into work on league nights, or when I'm heading out of town after a Friday for a tournament (I hate leaving them out in my car with the temps), my employees have asked me things like "Why so many balls? Isn't a ball just a ball?" Trying to explain to a layman the difference between symmetrical and asymmetrical, cover stock, drill layout, surface finish, and I might as well be talking to them about microbiology. For it to work in the Olympics, there has to be a way to, and I hate to use this term, but dumb it down and simplify it, so that the average person will be able to follow along and understand not just the game, but the equipment.
There is no way I consider it an Olympic Sport, ever.
Is sports not open to ALL ages?
Why then is there an age discriminatory criterion in the IOC?
There is Luck in EVERY sport at times.
You wouldn’t need to build a stadium or venue for bowling anyplace in the world. Bowling is internationally recognized and any house could qualify as the location to use for the olympic competition. Really. How difficult can it be?
Does Curling have a youth following World Wide ❓❓
0:19 Brunswick GS10 sighting
I don’t watch the olympics but if bowling was in it I’d certainly change that!
Ya know what kids love these days? Equestrian! And Biathlon!
Bowling can be great for younger people to get involved with so why not add it to the Olympics
i wonder why billiards isn't in olympics. 9 ball and 8 ball would be amazing
It’s a sport these are athletes, yes it COULD be in there but isn’t
Can't agree about the appeal to youth criteria. How does high jump appeal to youth? Pole vault? Steeplechase? Synchronized swimming?
Peope go blowing from all over the world. There are leagues for it with well-established, enforceable rules (weighing balls, electronic foul lines, etc.). I don't see the problem.
With more lanes closing, it's not going to happen. We lost TWO centers in the past month... It's too expensive to run a center, property taxes, square footage required and such....
Imagine telling someone you’re an Olympian and then following it up with, “bowler”… 🤣🤣🤣
What we be worse is im a Curler.......
or follow it up with "break dancer" or "structured rock climber".