What is the most *fun* Olympic sport to watch?

boxing, i missed most of it ive never seen the olympics but im sure the discus thoriwng or whatver? the athletics portion would be fun to watch..

womens diving HAH..

the freestyle swimming, america won by like a fingernail craziness

i like shooting so for me love it!!

tae kwon doe im betting will be my favorite!, judo it thought id like, its retarded.

Good old track and field for me. I never get tired of it.

I am also enjoying all of the volleyball right now, and lamenting the lack of coverage of tennis and soccer. Did we really have to watch three hours of a marathon yesterday? Was there not a tennis or soccer match going on somewhere in Beijing?

I'm with FreeDuck on this one; track and field is the ultimate olympic events.

LOVED watching the swimming this time around. Michael "the phlying phish" Phelps was amazing, not to mention Dara Torres, WOOT! Former swimmer myself, so I just get into it, remembering what it was like. Like a lot of other stuff too though, bit of an Olympics nut.

I always get stuck watching the gymnastics routines; they are fun.

Watched a lot of swimming so far.

I caught the last hour of the women's marathon which I enjoyed (but I think that's mostly because I'm training for the Chicago marathon, otherwise I might have tuned out).

Depending on the context different sports can be fun to watch or dull. The mens individual artistic gymnastics final round was gripping. The Opals coming back from 16 down to beat Russia was a hoot. Watching the kookaburras in the early rounds of the hockey was amazing for the speed and audacity of the shooting. The relays in swimming are great because of the team element. I don't mind the skeet shooting at all.

That cycling event where they try to go the slowest until the end lap is hilarious. Even the weightlifting has it moments - that world champ whose hand kept slipping off, and the chinese girl who smashed the world record, for example. Pole vault sucks me in too sometimes.

I can't bring myself to watch synchronised swimming though.

I never get to see enough weightlifting. I like the men's sprints. The 100m was amazing this year. I get the feeling that Usain Bolt will set some records that are going to stand for a lifetime.

That's the reason I like to watch track and field; it's a real competition between the best the world has to offer in human ability. It's amazing to watch the human species do those amazing running, jumping, and "throwing." It's just man against the elements.

I enjoy the diving, gynmastics, and even synchronized swimming and thrill at the sheer beauty and amazing athletic ability that goes into it, but the sometimes seeming subjectiveness of scoring bugs me. I can never shake the feeling that personal biases of the judges can affect the scores and that takes some of the pleasure out of it for me.

Soccer, basketball, volleyball, etc. are all great to watch and are far less subjective and the winners are usually unquestioned, but you still have fallible judges/referees making the close calls.

Swimming races are another matter. You either touch the wall before the other guy/gal or you don't and there are cameras to eliminate any guesswork. Same with rowing events--the first to the finish wins with cameras there to determine that if necessary. Same with track and field. You either clear the high bar or you don't. You either cross the finish line first or you don't. And again there are cameras positioned to remove any doubt. No subjectivity involved. No bias possible. The winner is truly the fastest or the one who throws or hurls or jumps the farthest or highest or whatever. For me that is the most satisfying and I guess what I most enjoy watching.

Excellent point foxy, anything that removes human fallibilty from the equation makes for a 'purer' sport.

When I went to the 1996 summer games in Atlanta, I went to a womens team handball game, and I was hooked.
While I could never play that game, even though there is also a mens division, it is such a fast moving game to play.

For those of you not familiar with it, its played on what looks like a miniature soccer field, about twice the size of an NBA court.
The ball is between a softball and a basketball in size, and the ball is thrown instead of kicked.
Its fun to watch, and takes some real skill to play.

But I also prefer to watch any of the games that pit man against man (or woman against woman) without the subjective decisions of judges.
Games that are decided by speed, and games that have a definite win or lose.
I am not a fan of any game that is decided by a third persons opinion of how well a competitor did.

I enjoyed the Equestrian performances.

I'm sick of diving...

I'll have to go with Wilso and CI on this. Weightlifting would be number 1 with me, followed by track and field.

I'd like to take this opportunity to grouse about NBC's gymnastics commentators.

Who are these a-holes?

I understand that most American viewers are interested in the performance of, well, the Americans. But the trio appointed to color gymnastics was so preoccupied with the U.S. team that, even when their often subpar routines were finished, and some Chinese fetus in a leotard was totally kicking ass, the commentators would slip in an aside about how Alicia Sacramone ought to hang herself with an extension cord in the bathroom of her Oplympic Village dorm for stepping out of bounds on the floor exercise. What I'm saying is, I would have preferred they comment on the nuances of the performance presently being broadcasted, rather than take jabs at those already finished.

To boot, the dude with the higher register voice just loves to harp on deductions. Let's say someone's toe goes over the line: "THAT IS A HUGE DEDUCTION. HUGE. TO THINK SHE TRAVELED ALL THE WAY FROM THE CONGO, WHERE HER FAMILY WAS RECENTLY SLAUGHTERED BY MACHETE-WIELDING BANDITS, ONLY TO STEP OUT OF BOUNDS AND FLUSH THE GOLD DOWN THE TOILET. HUGE." Then, once he's finished, the dork-bot with the barritone voice will rub more salt into the wound.

Anyway. I'm glad that's behind me now. I'm looking forward to the diving.

Wow, everyone seems to like different stuff. I guess that's what it's all about

Yeh, I find it a bit annoying when the commentators focus on the Americans and how much we've won.

I just want to see the best athletes in the world do their best stuff. Which country they are from is secondary to me.

I like ping pong.

I love ping pong. I used to be a tournament level player in the NorthEast US. But the game has changed a lot since I played. Even the scoring rules have changed. Back when I did it, it was 21 points per game, and 5 points per serve. Now I think they play to 11, and switch serve every 2 points.

Me too.

I notice other countries do that to some extent, but the emphasis was sooooo dominant on US television (I've no tv now to verify that, but guessing it hasn't changed.)