Then-IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch emphasized that point by quoting the founder of the modern Games when triathlon was approved as an Olympic sport in 1994. "We need a sport that combines swimming, cycling and running, which are all so popular," Coubertin had said nearly a century earlier, "a modern, dynamic sport to celebrate the Olympic spirit of fair play, endurance, force, ability and passion."

His statement touches on attributes of most every sport that now is, once was or someday hopes to be part of the Olympic program. But on a global scale, with so many sports wanting to be part of an extravaganza already too big for most cities to handle, the struggle to gain acceptance usually results in questions being raised about the worthiness of competitors' claims.

Some purists feel all team sports should be ruled out.

For those who believe a true sport involves only actions that can be measured or timed, or leave just one person standing in the end, there is little room for competitions subjectively decided by judges.

But as Sara McMann, a U.S. athlete in wrestling - whose place in the Olympics is beyond question because of its history as one of the five original sports of the ancient Games - observed: "Almost every sport has a referee who determines if something is a point or not."

Wrestling included.

And, she added, "Gymnastics involves judgments, but everyone would agree it's athletic," a legitimate sport. What's not, then? "It can't be somebody making up a game and nobody else playing it. It has to be a physical activity, a skill you can refine and is openly competitive."

A few sports are easy to knock - such as badminton - because you can play them in your back yard. That would make them games rather than sports. But apply Coubertin's or McMann's definitions to a U.S. Olympic Committee description of badminton, and its place in the Games seems more than justifiable:

"Elite badminton athletes compete in a lightning-fast sport which demands constant, highly concentrated action: running, jumping, twisting, stretching, running backwards, throwing and striking. Besides explosiveness, quick reflexes and exceptional hand-eye coordination, elite competitors must also possess superb aerobic endurance. In a typical match they cover nearly every inch of the court and can travel several miles in the process."

The Summer Olympic sports whose merits are most vulnerable to criticism are synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics. Sport or dance?

No doubt, the dance element looms large, lending credence to any argument that it is more of an art form than a sport.

But compare this training regime for synchronized swimming to that of a track star and the separation of the two realms is blurred.

"The U.S. Team swims nearly eight hours daily, six days a week, and spends an additional two hours daily cross training, lifting weights or land-drilling," according to the Synchro Swimming USA brochure.

IOC officials have criteria to determine what sports are eligible for the Games. They must be run by a formal international federation, adhere to international doping policies, have a history of world championships and have participation in a sizable number of countries around the globe.

That last clause causes problems for baseball, which Americans unquestionably consider a sport, but which could lose its place in the Games because so few countries play it. Same with golf, which would love to get in but has not, mainly because the Olympics are already too big.

But the Olympic agenda is not static. And that keeps up the hopes of advocates of nearly two dozen candidates in waiting, everything from water skiing and bowling to mountaineering, chess and bridge.

It also keeps current participants on their toes to make sure they maintain their spots and don't suffer the fate of tug of war, dropped after the 1920 Antwerp Games, or two pretty popular sports these days - rugby and lacrosse.

mikeg@sltrib.com