In some ways, this is way overdue. But the IOC is publicly talking about removing some sports, saying the Olympics are getting too big.

Given that Greece is expected to pay $9 to $12 billion to host the games when all is said and done, this is a good idea. The Olympics are like the stock market of 1999 - a bubble that needs to be burst for the future health of the games.

This dovetails into the controversial debate about some sports people have been complaining about for years. These sports fall into four general categories:

• Subjective sports
• Professional sports
• Unpopular sports
• Sports where many athletes cheat

Subjective sports are all those sports that require a panel of judges (and a complicated mathematical algorithm) to determine the winner. Synchronized swimming comes to mind. But there are many other sports, such as diving and gymnastics that fall into this bucket. I am of two minds - some sports (such as synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics) are, to be blunt, more like entertaining diversions. I think synchronized swimming is like cheerleading in water - not necessary “Olympic”.

Sports such as baseball, soccer, basketball and tennis are too “professional” and also not in the spirit of the Olympics. The olympics should feature sports that, with few exceptions, don't have their own nationally-televised championships.

Now there are some sports that pass the last two criteria (not subjective and not professional) but still could be cut. Equestrian is one example. Even though some of the equestrian events are based on time and points, nobody is tuning into the Athens games wondering who will win equestrian. Same with yachting. It's a waste of time and money to hold the event.

Finally, there are a couple of controversial sports where, for whatever reason, a large number of athletes have been caught cheating over the past few years. These may be the perfect Olympic sports, except for the fact that half of the competitors are using some type of undetectable steroid. I am thinking of weightlifting. Maybe human beings cannot get any better in this sport. No weight-lifting records are left to be broken without medical help. Maybe.

Anyways, it sounds like cutting any sport is a difficult in the beaurocracy-ridden IOC. But I think they realize that this cannot continue. Every organization has to evaluate itself every once and a while and figure out what is working and what is not working. The Olympics are no different.

Here's a link to another good article on this topic.