This is slightly unrealistic, but if you were to be one of those generally 'sporty' people who is good at anything and were motivated purely by the desire for an olympic medal, which sport would give you the easiest path to success?

by way of an example, the marathon would be an absolute pig because there is no way around it, you would have to pound the pavement for years and be up against some seriously gifted, hard working people. Whereas, the archery for example would appear to be easier, if you had a god given talent for it, you could just buy the kit and turn up!!!

What do you think would be the easiest way into a medal?

Wiff-waff

The easier they are, the harder they are to medal in. Take swimming, it's the hardest sport to get a medal in but with training we can all get withing a few seconds of the winning times.

It's either the jumping into water or picking things up.

I find that very, very hard to believe. Source?

I agree with your first sentence, though.

The Rebecca adlignton segment on the Olympics NBC coverage, they have it on constant repeat.

Personally I always struggled with the three-legged race and the egg and spoon.

However, I excelled in the balance-beanbag-on-head race and had sporadic success with the wellington boot throwing.

I haven't really taken part in athletics since I left primary school though.

This is crazy...

I competed at National level throughout my youth on the back of training 20hrs per week in the pool and 4 hours in the gym. At 18 I was swimming 23.5 for 50m freestyle & 51.3 for 100m freestyle. Both of those times are 2 & 4 seconds off the top guys.

A "Few Seconds" is massive in sport where the top 3 are generally split by tenths/hundreths of a second.

I guess you want to do something that is:

1. Relatively inaccessible and niche. Fewer people who do it, the better. Archery would be good.
2. Something that is expensive. Sort of an extension of the first point - if it is expensive then not many people will do it. Equestrianism might be good - the horses are a real money pit.
3. Something that does not need physical strength/endurance. Rowing probably fits the first couple but falls at this hurdle - having rowed at a high level, I am in awe of the Nat Squad. I do have respect for coxes - at their best they are master tacticians, psychologists, coaches, steersmen (try steering a 60ft long boat that's 20ft wide with a rudder the size of a matchbox). Shooting might be an example.
4. A sport that nobody cares about in your own country. I think there was a campaign to find handball players in the UK because there were so few around. They were recruiting likely candidates. This will get you into the Olympics but not get you a medal.

However, I don't think anyone gets to be an Olympian without doing a lot of training. The Olympic double trap guys are going through a couple of thousand cartridges a day. The cox will sit in the boat for four hours a day, 6 days a week for many years before making it into the Games.

10m air rifle didn't look too taxing