While we brace ourselves for NBC’s excessive coverage of the venerable sport of beach volleyball at the 2016 Olympics, we want to second the snobbish sentiments of Paul Lewis, who wrote the following wisecracks during the 2008 Olympics: “The cynic in me says that beach volleyball is simply there for the TV and for grown men to slobber over the sight of scantily clad women throwing themselves about in the sand. I mean, why don’t they just go the whole kahuna and make the beach volleyballers play naked–because that’s what this is about, really. I’m assuming no one watches the blokes. Women generally have more sense. *** What next? Beach cricket? Speed sandcastle building? Beach tennis?”

Clarification (8/8/16): As starchildluke notes in the comments section below, a game like beach tennis might actually be of interest to many people. We agree. So, after further reflection, we would like to restate our position: we do not object in principle to beach volleyball as an Olympic sport (or to the inclusion of other new sports into the Olympic pantheon), what we object to is NBC’s obsessive fixation with beach volleyball. Our post should thus be retitled “Why does NBC devote so much air time to beach volleyball?” 

image credit: picturescafe.com (image 3898)