kuha wrote:Exactly. If you want to have some clue as to what the Olympic future will hold, think like an NBC executive.
Actually, the swimming rules were changed in the early 1980s limiting each event to only 2 swimmers per nation, because the USA and the GDR women were so dominant that they were sweeping many of the events. Had nothing to do with NBC (then ABC televised) as they would prefer 3 Americans.
Note that no such rule exists for table tennis or badminton although the Chinese dominate those sports.
kuha wrote:Exactly. If you want to have some clue as to what the Olympic future will hold, think like an NBC executive.
Actually, the swimming rules were changed in the early 1980s limiting each event to only 2 swimmers per nation, because the USA and the GDR women were so dominant that they were sweeping many of the events. Had nothing to do with NBC (then ABC televised) as they would prefer 3 Americans.
Note that no such rule exists for table tennis or badminton although the Chinese dominate those sports.
And I'd suggest that the "early 1980s" were an eon ago in terms of current Olympic politics and economics. The question on the table is: what is driving the decisions being made now?
Powell wrote:Be honest... how many of you lamenting wrestling's fate actually watched any wrestling during the last OG?
I also watched no synchronized diving nor rhythmic gymastics, but think those are silly sports that should get the ax.
I think especially we, as aficionados of a "niche sport", should be very careful about calling sports we don't understand "silly", lest someone call hammer throwing silly.
Let 'em call it silly to Yuriy Sedykh's face!
OK, it's a bit of an odd event, but it makes more sense than ribbon-twirling/hoop tossing and catching, and has some history behind it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammer_throw
I'd disagree that T&F is a niche sport. One of the largest sports participant-wise in the world, with running, jumping, and throwing the most basic/natural/uncontrived of athletic skills. (OK, so the triple jump and pole vault are a bit contrived.)
noone wrote:I personally think the best way to make the Olympics a bit smaller is to reduce the number of similar events: In swimming, it is not unusual to see the same athlete win the 50m, 100m and 200m free, the various relays, and sometimes the butterfly which seems to call for a similar skill set.
I agree that there are too many similar events in some sports (and that includes T&F as well IMO). But cutting a few swimming events would not reduce the number of athletes a whole lot, since as you observed, a lot of swimmers compete in several events, so they would still be there if some of those were cut.
I don't see why people want events cut at the Olympics. If anything I would love to see a few more sports and couple more T&F events. The nice thing about the Olympics is you can watch what you want or discover a new Sport, if only for two weeks. Sure some Sports are based on judgement, but the skills involved are amazing and deserve to be displayed. People also ignore the fact judges are involved in all sports and even in T&F, Football/Soccer, Basketball, Rugby etc judges calls have been Just as influential in deciding the result in a great many matches or games.
noone wrote:I personally think the best way to make the Olympics a bit smaller is to reduce the number of similar events: In swimming, it is not unusual to see the same athlete win the 50m, 100m and 200m free, the various relays, and sometimes the butterfly which seems to call for a similar skill set.
I agree that there are too many similar events in some sports (and that includes T&F as well IMO). But cutting a few swimming events would not reduce the number of athletes a whole lot, since as you observed, a lot of swimmers compete in several events, so they would still be there if some of those were cut.
Now that NBC has found that some USA dude or gal winning a gazillion medals is the path to NBC viewership glory, I think it is pretty unlikely Swimming will lose any events.
Also the sponsor like it too, I would bet.
Last edited by Conor Dary on Tue Feb 19, 2013 8:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
kuha wrote:Exactly. If you want to have some clue as to what the Olympic future will hold, think like an NBC executive.
Actually, the swimming rules were changed in the early 1980s limiting each event to only 2 swimmers per nation, because the USA and the GDR women were so dominant that they were sweeping many of the events. Had nothing to do with NBC (then ABC televised) as they would prefer 3 Americans.
Note that no such rule exists for table tennis or badminton although the Chinese dominate those sports.
And I'd suggest that the "early 1980s" were an eon ago in terms of current Olympic politics and economics. The question on the table is: what is driving the decisions being made now?
Yes, the early 1980's is almost quaint to the goings on now with the IOC.
