The Olympics need more farm sports

Is there a place for sheepdog trials in the Olympics?

Or could speed and strength sports, such as piking square bales of hay, feature for the next Olympiad in Los Angeles in 2028?

You may laugh, but these activities surely merit consideration given that gold, silver and bronze medals are being dished out for ‘sports’ such as beach volleyball and skateboarding.

The former is a good old pastime – something you’d do for a half an hour between showers on a typical summer’s day – but it hardly makes the grade as top-level sport.

In contrast, the mind boggles at the number of farming activities that could be cleverly packaged to fit the great sporting canvas that is the Olympics.

For example, hand-scraping cattle yards immediately comes to mind.

Can you visualise the scene, bronzed athletes in wellies facing into a yard full of sh*te? Marty Morrissey on commentary with his microphone at the ready. My God, they’d come from Antarctica to watch it.

But if all this conjecture on agri-sports is a bit too much, then maybe the Irish Olympic Council might consider building a month’s farm work into the elite athletes’ training regime for LA.

Like, surely a few days covering silage pits could do wonders for O’Donovan and McCarthy before they row off for the States.

And if you wanted to really test their mental fortitude and endurance you could put them picking stones. That would give them a real taste of hardship and pain.

They’d be glad to see a row boat and water after a few days of that stuff.