About the Summer Olympics and How I See the Various Sports

The Summer Olympics will be beginning in Paris, France on July 26, lasting into the first couple of weeks in August.  I've watched some of the American qualifying trials in various sports, and have found that they can be divided in three different ways.  First of all, there are the sports that are objectively scored...races of all sorts like swimming, running and walking get specific finishing times that rank the contestants.  Others like jumping and throwing get minutely-measured distances to their credit.  Then there are the events that, like America's Got Talent, require a panel of judges to deliver the scores subjectively...gymnastics, diving, and synchronized swimming belong to this group.  Since many of the first type have special limiting rules requiring judges at them (walking and special swim-stroke races), we see a mixture of the two types there.  The second way they are divided is into individual and team events.  Sports like soccer, water polo, field hockey, basketball and baseball all are heavily dependent on that subjective judging element yet ultimately come down to which side has the most goals or runs.  The third way the Olympic events are divided is a bit more subtle, but in my opinion just as important.  Some events have a widespread following and participation aspect to them: soccer, basketball, running, and jumping are in this group.  Others, like gymnastics, swimming, race-walking, water polo, and golf...to mention just a few...are either not very popular among the masses, are relatively exclusive to more privileged elements of society, or require fashioned settings not available in many places.  To get that gold medal can have different meanings based on whether the winner was raised in a "privileged" sport without much competition, or maybe the sport is so unknown and unpracticed that this limited the degree of competition as well.  But my big problem in all this is that first division, between subjectively and objectively-scored sports.  In the trials I tended to avoid sports like diving and gymnastics for this very reason.  I'll probably follow whatever happens to be on TV at the time when the Games begin, but my clear preference will be for the sports that (1) are objectively scored, (2) are individual in nature, and (3) have been popular with widespread availability.  And oh, by the way, I'm no flag-waver...I'm eschewing nationalism although if the US wins, that's cool, too..