Just for fun, if you could be a summer Olympic athlete, what sport/event would you pick and why?
For me, probably sailing or archery. It would be nice to be on the water, or at least outdoors. I also think I’d prefer doing a solo sport where the judging is based on purely objective measurements.
How about you?
Gymnastics, those atheltes put in soo much work and time, most end their career at 24 or something so its definitely one of the hardest sports out there.
With the disclaimer that I’m terrible at all sports, including the one I’d pick… Equestrian: It would be cool to compete with an animal companion, there’s almost always another chance (many of the riders in the Olympics are in their 40s or 50s), and not too much of my body would be exposed to the cameras.
Swimming. Any stroke but I’d love to have the upper body strength to do butterfly or breast. If I could live in the water, that would be bliss.
@doschicos Mr R echoed archery.
Shooting. 
Because I can keep on competing until the cows come home.
Individual synchronized diving. 
@romanigypsyeyes I forgot to state another reason for picking sailing/archery is less risk of serious injury than some other sports. Like you mentioned about your mom on the other thread, something like diving would make me too nervous.
Ping pong.
But I’d really like to be a lifeguard. Brazil requires any pool of a certain size to have a lifeguard, so there are lifeguards with better-than-front-row-seats and no chance of needing to make a rescue of Michael Phelps or the divers. Easiest summer job ever?
I want to start Men’s Synchronized Swimming.
Fencing. Sabre.
@intparent You need a new avatar photo then: http://2982-presscdn-29-70.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/3-musketeers.jpg
Cycling time trial or mountain biking. 1500m running would be great too - can’t imagine running that fast though.
@doschicos, I have a picture of fencing piggies, but it doesn’t make a very good avatar (I tried it out earlier this week).
Well, certainly not women’s beach volleyball. Can they wear something that’s not a bikini or is it required?
ETA: Bikinis no longer required beginning in 2012.
@madison85 Egyptian beach volleyball players; one wearing a hijab and both in long sleeves and pants: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/olympics/2016/08/08/egyptian-beach-volleyball-player-hijab-doesnt-keep-me-from-sport/
Tennis - without hesitation. You can actually earn a great living when not going for gold.
@romanigypsyeyes Wow, we have something in common! I love swimming, that would be my sport in my dreams, preferably freestyle. I remember when Michael Phelps first swam in the Olympics, I was a young swimmer at the time and absolutely nuts about him.
H would be a swimmer.
I would be a gymnast. I can’t even walk on a balance beam…
Ah, I used to LOVE swimming, until I started getting hives from being in “cold” HI water–either the swimming pool or the ocean. It also made my oxygen saturation rates drop dangerously low, so I gave it up. The cardiologist tried to convince me it was “just a mast cell reaction,” and not a true allergy, but it was uncomfortable enough that I have a lot of things I prefer.
Hmmm, I’m not sure what I’d want to do. So much of it seems to push the limits of human endurance and that doesn’t appeal to me at the moment, though of course I admire folks who are willing and able to expend themselves in that manner.
Synchronized diving. Just the skip up on the diving board looks fun. I tried talking my daughter into it the other day and she decided we’d be the first Olympic belly floppers.
