Olympics?

[mharky]

You know nothing about cycling

[ba-ba]

true, I just enjoy watching it.

[EddieH]

Ba-Ba wrote
"A one-day race for championships often strikes me as a bit odd as, due the certain amount of luck, sometimes the best rider doesn't always win - a breakaway manages to stay away as there aren't really any teams to pull it back (like in tours), or it ends in a bunch sprint. Either way, the best rider doesn't nec. win the medal."

I suppose that the best orienteer always wins every World orineteering championship gold It's all about being the best on the day.

If every sporting event was always won by the same best competitor, why would we bother with sport, and certainly with spectating?

Although perhaps Usain proves me wrong here

[madmike]

plus golf is totally t*******h IMHO

Kitch,
I was going to violently disagree with your opinion here; however, after a dismal and frustrating morning, I now find myself in complete agreement with you

PS: anyone want to buy a set of clubs

[Adventure Racer]

rugby 7s at the 2002 comenwealth games was great fun to watch, and if footy is in the olympics, so should rugby.

Though in reality footy shouldn't be in for a variety of reasons - not only is it not the premier tournament, you don't even get the best players from a particular country taking part.

Mens cycle road race is the most prestigious one day race, and there are a variety of other sports (sailing, kayak slalom, short track speed skating) when the best doesn't necessarily win.

[ba-ba]

[quote="Adventure Racer"] you don't even get the best players from a particular country taking part.[quote]
but it is the most prestigious tournament for U23s (with 3 people of any age)!

...mainly because there's no other tournament that opperates like that...

[geomorph]

you don't even get the best players from a particular country taking part.

but it is the most prestigious tournament for U23s (with 3 people of any age)!

...mainly because there's no other tournament that opperates like that...

its such an arbitrary criterion..... probably based on commercial interests at risk in using the older players rather than altrusitic 'let the youngsters have a chance at glory' (I seem to remember Pele (among others) was a World cup winner before he was out of his teens)
why not have 5-a-side instead.
That would put on a par with rugby 7's.... one of the great sport formats to come out of Scotland

[Adventure Racer]

Boat design is also incredibly political, with a drive for overpowered overcanvassed skiffs which crash and burn but make good tv. The well built, well established boats like Tornado Catamarans or Flying Dutchmen classes have suffered as a result and are now struggling. Olympic boats are light and fast and fall apart after a limited life.

I'm really not sure where you're coming from with that. Sure there's the 49er which is an overcanvassed skiff (the medal race in that did make for the best TV footage!), but is anything else? Tornado is still an Olympic class, as is the venerable Star. Come to that, does a Laser (by far the most popular Olympic class) really fall apart after a limited life?

On other sports, surely the most unneccessary duplication of events is in rowing, where there are multiple events with the participants in each event doing pretty much the same thing as in the other events (hence swapping people in and out of boats shortly before major championships).

[campervan]

My general point is that inclusion in the Olympics fundamentally changes the sport. I'll simplify my argument- tv audiences and advertisers have attention spans akin to the average goldfish. If Orienteering was an Olympic sport, chances are that hit would be dominated by sprint races. Is that really what we want to do with the sport?
Cheers.

[RJ]

I think the fundamental difference is that orienteering should not become.....

an 'entertainment' spectator sport, like so many others, football, rugby .....

but rather an 'at times' spectator sport that can enthuse those watching to want to have a go, like sprint and urban.

The Olympics is very much for the couch potato..... and we don't want any of those cluttering up our forests!

[campervan]

Ok, I'll drink to that

[mharky]

Olympics Olymschmics, it's all about the Nordics

[Gross]

gerai, gerai, gerai labai gerai