Should Kendo be an Olympic sport?

Question

I know this discussion has come up a couple times.

Answer 1

Technically all Martial Arts should be an Olympic sport.

Answer 2

I think MMA should be an olympic sport. No country so far can claim that their version of martial arts dominate the entire world.

And no, I don't think UFC has all the answers to MMA yet. There are probably many other forms of less well-known arts that had yet to hit the big circuit yet.

Answer 3

Olympic sports have one very important thing.

Audience interest.

Without it, no-one would watch the event and then the sport will get poor ratings, be boring and it will get the axe.

This is also the case for why the competition format of some events get changed.

Archery was being considered for axing because it was seen to be quite boring, and being dominated by the US and Korean archers and they changed the format of the matchplay to less number of arrows to make the pressure higher, where you get exciting 1 point difference between winning and losing.  This kind of material draws audiences.

For Kendo to ever be considered, you would have to have to change how scoring is done.  Unlike Judo or TKD, where points are obvious, the subjective determination by the shimpan of what is proper zanshin, kiai, fumikomi and cut means there would be heavy criticism of how scoring is achieved.  Until this is changed, there is no chance of it being an Olympic sport.

Audience is always there as Kendo is practiced in many countries and has the potential to draw very large crowds.

Answer 4

No, they already have fencing. It's like adding Muay Thai when they already have TKD.

Answer 5

I don't think that it will happen, TKD is up on the chopping block for the 2012 games and if respective members of the IOC keep their word on how they will vote, TKD will be out of the Olympics, Karate and Judo are trying to get back on the 2012 games but that seems highly unlikely.  The biggest issue with MA is that most counties complain that there is usually domination by a country or two with a sport making it unfair for other countries to compete.  That is why baseball and softball are out of the 2012 games because a lot of countries complained about the US dominating so much.

Edit for Buddy J: IMO I don't think MMA will make it to the national stage, you are correct that that no country has dominance in it but also it is illegal in some countries and even in some US states to have MMA competitions, schools or training.  Their for not every country would have a chance to compete in that event.

Answer 6

Sure why not. They have BMX and Beach volleyball and it is a more international sport than those. I wonder if kendoka would want it though.