The experience with the Summer Olympics is that these are broadcast at exactly the favourite time of year.

No good football on television. MLB: Pennant races have yet to heat up. The National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League continue to be on hiatus.

In the case of Olympics, we get two weeks’ worth which we do not pay attention who except 17 days in four years.

When it comes to the opening week of a Games, the spots are dominated by gymnastics and swimming. Sports including handball and water polo are also in the spotlight.

Oh, it’s why we watch the Olympics every four years – a sentiment that holds even for time-delayed events.

10. Handball

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Olympic handball is riveting to the unprepared eye.

Do you bleed red, white and blue? If you think that, then handball is not for you.

United States never has medalled in race David Wharton. The Los Angeles Times Handball isn’t even a word in much of the U.S., where there was no representation at all for men or women in Rio de Janeiro.

Handball is confusing to watch for a first-time viewer. There’s no way around that. Just picture a combination of indoor soccer and basketball having a baby, who then grew up and got together with an offspring of water polo family. 

Be it the eloquent wheel pull of Andy Schmitt, or his near back punch-shot-like throw down to score a goal – elite handball players wind their bodies up in ways that at times defy anatomy. But that play is a glimpse at the type of thing you’re going to see in competitive handball.

The first team to score more points than their opponent before time runs out in a handball match wins. Concentrate on that and the exciting action you will witness in Olympics.

The rest can wait until you start studying each handball rule in four years.

9. Wrestling, Taekwondo and Judo

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Any combat sports like judo have a place in the Olympics.

The past twenty years has seen an evolution of combat sports like we have never witnessed before.

The Machiletta UFC grew to become a legitimate sports organization. Ronda Rousey, Brock Lesnar and Conor McGregor is known to the general public before becoming fighters. The possibilities are endless, and we could see MMA in the Olympics one day.

The 2016 Summer Olympics could feature a future UFC star. We just don’t know it yet.

The article was an early look at how past American Olympians who found success in the UFC and originally appeared here. Before becoming one of the promotion’s top draws, Rousey was an Olympian but came up short in her quest for gold. As did his present day UFC champ counterpart, Daniel Cormier. Olympians who also had successful UFC careers include Dan Henderson and Mark Coleman.

The combat sports that are contested at an Olympics might be as close to what fascinates many people about the professional versions of those same events. He sometimes plays very well. Some aren’t. The rules can be convoluted for beginners, and those on the other end of a broadcast should give new viewers context to make sense of everything they are seeing in any given match.

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8. Table Tennis

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Be careful not to confuse Ping-Pong with table tennis.

The Summer Olympics’ version of curling is table tennis.

You see table tennis and go “easy, man.” After all, you likely believe that you have played Table Tennis before.

We have all played table tennis, but really, most of us have actually played Ping-Pong, as Rodger Sherman of SB Nation noted. We are not playing tennis on a table. Also, it is just a fun little competition to kill time. It is not something that we spend our entire existence practicing. It’s a game.”

Table tennis is cleverly designed for TV viewing. There are no complex win determination systems. A ball is batted around till one player happens to be unable to send out a driving back. The first person or team to hit a designated number of points is the winner.

In the Olympics speed is everything when it comes to table tennis. In a twinkling o an eye, the ball flies across just some meters. Sometimes, in seconds you can win a point. It takes an hour to do a gruelling match, but you will probably see the entirety of that game play on TV based off commercials and how they present fighting sports on television.

7. Team Volleyball

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Team USA and the Netherlands Team delivered a volleyball classic at Rio 2016.

Playing team volleyball is the Olympic experience encapsulated in one sport.

Awesome athletes you have not heard of participating in a game that many people do not watch. Over time, you understand the rules of volleyball and become an engaged fan willing on your country in competition. You may even end up looking for live volleyball games can on your TV schedule.

And that match had all the elements of team volleyball. Both sides went on runs. The athletic ability of both stood out as they pounded the ball into the court with authority, while also making electrifying kills and digs.

Kittipat crashed out in his three games today but what a thrilling contest it still was. If only every match of the tournament were like this one.

I actually love these volleyball competitions as much for the reason Chris Chase of Fox Sports wrote about today:

Even better, the games are free. No Dream Team is laying 70-point leather on hapless Angola, or a two-swimmer race that makes six pool lanes moot. Third, there are the best few teams, then a whole lot of pretty good parity. The past six men’s gold’s belong to six countries. The women’s competition, meanwhile, has shared between three different victors in the past four titles.

6. Men’s Basketball

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Even though the best in the world do not play, some of them still suit up for their countries at the Olympics.

The basketball game is basically like a pro wrestling story. And it is one that heel loves to boast in his matches ultimately, the heel squares off against another upstart who might pull out an unlikely upset and win the title.

The United States is the heel here.

Is it just me or are these rounds super boring? Especially with respect to the US, that is Of course, not every round-robin game is a snooze-fest. Croatia and Spain meet in an Aug. 7 contest that was decided with only seconds left. On August 9, Brazil claimed a small victory over Spain in a nail-biter.

5. Water Polo

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Yeah, Water Polo Players are really that terrible during games.

At a glance, water polo appears to be both simple and easy. The swimmers on the neighbouring teams skated in their backyard pool. Basically, they pass a ball to teammates and then try to put that same ball into some kind of goal with opponents swimming after them. How hard could it be?

A sport well known as one of the Olympic staples is water polo. About 99 percent of the folks reading that last sentence only pay attention to water polo during an Olympics. If you play recreational water polo league, chances are that isn’t the case. Most would have no idea how to find that league.

Sporting News columnist Sean Deveney mentioned this in the opening days of the 2016 Summer Olympics. Deveney spoke to US star Tony Azevedo, at his fifth Olympics — and discovered that armpit hair isn’t the only thing “yanked” in water polo matches. 

4. Women’s Soccer

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The United States women’s national team opens the 2016 Summer Olympics on Wednesday.

They always find a way to let you down in men’s soccer at the Olympics every four years.

The exceptions are that the rosters for men must be all U-23 players, except three slots may be given to overage players. Consequently, dozens of best footballers on the planet do not participate.

And so, the case is once more in 2016. These players are of course finalising their last minute autumn transfers and not in Rio. Lionel Messi won’t be visible in an Argentina jersey. The U.S. men, as you’ll remember if you’ve followed that disappointing story from the beginning (another column for another day), weren’t there at all.

Women’s soccer, on the other hand has grown [the tournament is expanding] beyond those limitations. This already puts it miles ahead of the men’s.

The United States women’s national team is popular in America because it often wins. That needs to be said. If the American women missed World Cups as often as do the men here these days, our feelings about them would probably be considerably warmer.

Regardless of where your viewing interests lie, thanks to many sanctioned players that is the top-flight women’s tournament.

The Olympic tournament, far better than the World Cup in one respect: The gold medalist is decided within two weeks.

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3. Swimming

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Michael Phelps is a global super hero both in and out of the water.

The depth of Olympic history also highlighted just how successful American swimmers have been in the Games. 9 Olympic Gold Medals – Mark Spitz Michael Phelps – Most decorated Olympian Two of the headier swimmers from early in this week’s Summer Olympics were Katie Ledecky and Lilly King.

Fans and those in their 20s, early 30s actually have no memory of the USA not being dominant in pool.

There are some Olympic swimming sessions that we simply cannot afford. It’s why swimming isn’t at the top of this list (it is one position below track by design). A relay may only hold suspense until the result of a race is learned: somebody watching one on TV could go turn himself into lunch while waiting and barely miss anything.

Casual fans learned a thing or two in the first few days at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Swimming is a mind game.

King and Yulia Efimova of Russia both wagged fingers in the pool, but King took the trash talk out-of-pool a step further by saying that she let her swimming do the talking for itself not mentioning Efimova served a suspension for PEDs. Michael Phelps confronts Chad le Clos with intense glare Loading video.

Feuds make sports better. We enjoy watching two fighters trash talk before stepping foot into the ring or cage to see how everything settle’s like a fight. The hope moving forward is that we see more swimming feuds in every Olympics.

2. Track

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One of the most popular Olympic stars On to superstars from now. Usain Bolt

No event at any Olympics is as simple and straight-forward for fans to understand. A single man or woman runs faster than any competitor. A person throws a projectile faster than his opponents. Throws sprint races away in a matter of microseconds.

What’s not to love?

Here’s Fox Sports’ Chris Chase on what makes track events relatively easy to watch at an Olympics: But the races are fast, upsets are rare and if not for a full Olympic program that allows NBC to cut around from event-to-event it would be as exciting of downtime between its field/court sports like football or baseball.

The men’s 100-meter final is the showpiece moment of any proper Olympics. All the thrill of hearing a human being called “the fastest man on earth” and no other race delivers it. He created a global superstar out of Usain Bolt simply because he ran further and faster than any one had previously run 100 meters.

We also have to admit we like the post-race poses from Bolt.

A few Olympic sports leave the average viewer perplexed. However, in track events, it is essentially black-and-white – there are winners and losers. So it makes these sports watchable even if you do not know the names of competitor.

1. Gymnastics

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Sometimes a sports fan will have the overriding notion that they could do it, and actually compete. Many of us who play baseball and football in our backyards, we hoist baskets on our driveways. We do Sunday league football.

And a lot of us know we are not likely to be competitive gymnasts.

Olympic gymnasts are like real superheroes. They perform feats of strength we could never hope to achieve. All gymnastics competitions have balance and rhythm. Watching balance beam and pommel horse performances, fans both sit and marvel. Tempo does finally get the in-arena fans up and clapping with their floor routines.

Female American gymnasts typically become some of the Olympics’ biggest stars, too.

In the summer of 1984, Mary Lou Retton became America’s sweetheart. The ‘Magnificent Seven’ re-wrote history and brought home the first gold for USA from team competition in 1996. The “Fierce Five” took home gold in 2012. In 2016, household-name recognition was bestowed temporarily upon Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas.

TV by the Numbers notes that ratings surged on Night 2 of the Rio Olympics for USA Network, as-promoted during primetime coverage by US Women’s Gymnastics. The streams of leaves should be rolling out clicked back to show earlier that day

Gymnastics provides the complete package for anyone looking to watch a sport. Since these are fantastic athletes, there are also stories behind the people competing and pageantry and flips through the air — making for cool highlights.

The beauty of gymnastics is beyond the fact that judges will always decide who gets to win and come away a loser.