[cardcrimson]

Break Dancing has been added as an official sport for the 2024 Games in Paris.

Skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing added as well.

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id...games-2024

Is there any truth to the rumor that Muir, after eliminating wrestling and volleyball, is adding a men's break dancing team?

New men's team?
Highly unlikely
For schools struggling with Title IX compliance a women's breaking team seems inevitable, and would have more TV appeal than the bowling teams.  

Seriously though, I think blaming this on the AD and finances ignores the other issue that Varsity Blues uncovered, the potential for vastly easier admissions.

It was, and still is, rather easy for families with exceptional wealth to get their kids to dabble in expensive sports (fencing, rowing, sailing, golf, etc.) as that is a much easier way to get into highly selective schools than any academic path.  Varsity Blues fabricated sports accomplishments and tossed in bribes, but the underlying problem of lenient admission decisions for athletes at selective schools remains.

I know Stanford has some of the best athletes in those expensive sports, but it is rather clear now that they often compete against schools that have rosters stuffed with quite a number of kids without a lot of ability from big donor families.

For a school only accepting 4% of its applicants that type of the sports-exclusively-for-the-elite backdoor becomes a problem, especially if 12+% of its total slots are dedicated to athletics. 

The financials made it easier to make this call in 2020, but I think the university was eager to reduce the number of athletes, especially in expensive sports primarily enjoyed by wealthy families.

Um, I was joking about the men's dance team.

That said, my daughter dabbled in fencing for a very short time. Several years ago, we went to the Dickens Faire at the Cow Palace, where they had a fencing booth offering a quick lesson for $10 or something. She enjoyed it and the instructor told us she was pretty good for a first timer. The next year we tried it again, and had the same instructor, who actually remembered her. Again, she had fun so we looked for a local fencing gym. The only one in the East Bay was in downtown Oakland, and was hardly an "upscale" establishment. The kids were extremely diverse, economically, socially, racially, etc. and completely different from the stereotype associated with the sport. Exceptional wealth of the parents. No. Not by any stretch. Ended up giving it up in favor of water polo, another sport becoming much more diverse than the stereotypes suggest.

[cardcrimson]

Break Dancing has been added as an official sport for the 2024 Games in Paris.

Skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing added as well.

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id...games-2024

Is there any truth to the rumor that Muir, after eliminating wrestling and volleyball, is adding a men's break dancing team?

New men's team?
Highly unlikely
For schools struggling with Title IX compliance a women's breaking team seems inevitable, and would have more TV appeal than the bowling teams.  

Seriously though, I think blaming this on the AD and finances ignores the other issue that Varsity Blues uncovered, the potential for vastly easier admissions.

It was, and still is, rather easy for families with exceptional wealth to get their kids to dabble in expensive sports (fencing, rowing, sailing, golf, etc.) as that is a much easier way to get into highly selective schools than any academic path.  Varsity Blues fabricated sports accomplishments and tossed in bribes, but the underlying problem of lenient admission decisions for athletes at selective schools remains.

I know Stanford has some of the best athletes in those expensive sports, but it is rather clear now that they often compete against schools that have rosters stuffed with quite a number of kids without a lot of ability from big donor families.

For a school only accepting 4% of its applicants that type of the sports-exclusively-for-the-elite backdoor becomes a problem, especially if 12+% of its total slots are dedicated to athletics. 

The financials made it easier to make this call in 2020, but I think the university was eager to reduce the number of athletes, especially in expensive sports primarily enjoyed by wealthy families.

Um, I was joking about the men's dance team.

That said, my daughter dabbled in fencing for a very short time. Several years ago, we went to the Dickens Faire at the Cow Palace, where they had a fencing booth offering a quick lesson for $10 or something. She enjoyed it and the instructor told us she was pretty good for a first timer. The next year we tried it again, and had the same instructor, who actually remembered her. Again, she had fun so we looked for a local fencing gym. The only one in the East Bay was in downtown Oakland, and was hardly an "upscale" establishment. The kids were extremely diverse, economically, socially, racially, etc. and completely different from the stereotype associated with the sport. Exceptional wealth of the parents. No. Not by any stretch. Ended up giving it up in favor of water polo, another sport becoming much more diverse than the stereotypes suggest.