Popular sports left out of the Olympics

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Reporter - Briana Conner
Photographer - Eric Allmann

PADUCAH — It seems like there are a lot of events in the Olympics but some would say not enough. In 2008, there were 28 sports in The Summer Olympics but this year, baseball and softball got the boot. They will be be replaced next time with golf and rugby sevens but some local athletes say other events need to be considered.

Gene Glastetter has been training his dog Versace since she was 10 weeks old. Now, at the age of 4, she's a top level competitor in dog agility.

"It's really an obstacle course that the dogs have to accomplish. They run about 160 to 170 yards in an agility trial. There are 20 obstacles in that, jumps, tunnels, contact obstacles and so forth," said Glastetter.

It looks a lot like what horses do in the summer games but when it comes to competing on the Olympic stage, Versace gets left out.

Glastetter said, "It's the fastest growing dog sport in the country and if they're going to use horses as an equestrian sport, why not have dogs added as a sport?"

There are no divisions for dogs in the Olympics right now but archers have been competing in the games since the early 1900s.

But as technology moves the sport forward, one of the most popular bows has missed the mark with the International Olympic Committee.

Archer Jacob Ginn uses a compound bow. The only Olympic division for archers uses a recurve bow. It is a basic bow and Ginn said it's harder to use.

"A bunch of people, in my opinion, could pick up a compound and if they took time, could be good with it. But recurve, it takes a special person. It's a special bow."

Ginn and Versace both compete in their sports throughout the United States and dog agility even has an international governing committee. But when it comes to the Olympics, all they can play is the waiting game.