should DH be in the olympics?

cat_with_no_tail

You could replace track cycling with Downhill, and replace dressage with trials.
Cav in the Road races, Peaty in the DH, and Megaskills in the Trials = Gold medals a plenty

cee

mrfmilo wrote:

cee

Some people prefer 4x than DH. But my opinion is that DH is more gripping and exciting for the majority of people. DH is faster, close crashes etc and each time the rider reaches the finish the 'suspense' of the miliseconds faster or slower.

And quite a few bikers or skaters that I know/talked to only comment on DH stuff not XC, 4X etc.

yip...

and that is my opinion too. trouble is bikers/skaters are already outside the very mainstream audience that the olympics gathers.

Alex

Most downhillers don't want to see downhill in the olympics.

TV coverage drives the olympics and shapes the venues. We've had TV in the sport before and it held it back during the 1990s. An olympic downhill would be a race down a wide open fireroad, and if it was at London, it'd be down a grassy slope in Essex.

The olympics devalues the world championships, brings in unwanted external influences and stunts growth to a formula.

The IOC has already ruled that downhill is too technology centred, that bike set-up plays too big a role.

We'd like to see Downhill MTB included in the X-games, but we'll leave the Olympics to the BMXers and the lycra louts.

cee

Cat With No Tail wrote:

You could replace track cycling with Downhill, and replace dressage with trials.
Cav in the Road races, Peaty in the DH, and Megaskills in the Trials = Gold medals a plenty

i'd have my money on ryan leech over dmac in competition observed trials any day.

John Stevenson

Alex++

Olympic inclusion would turn the last mob of mad buggers left in cycling into yet another bunch of tedious, uniformed pro-sport drones.

Alex

That, and they'd put more long haired MTB journos on national telly. I think there's been quite enough of that

TheNorthernTrain

cee wrote:

its usually 2 hours of guys coming down a hill in a very similar time and then only gets good for the last 15 or so.......

Is that not just the same as downhill skiing etc?

p.s. I dont have an opinion as to whether it should be or shouldnt be in the olympics. I watch the olympics and dont give 2 hoots whats in it, i watch it whatever, mainly cos im too bored to do anything else.

cee

north-sure wrote:

cee wrote:

its usually 2 hours of guys coming down a hill in a very similar time and then only gets good for the last 15 or so.......

Is that not just the same as downhill skiing etc?

p.s. I dont have an opinion as to whether it should be or shouldnt be in the olympics. I watch the olympics and dont give 2 hoots whats in it, i watch it whatever, mainly cos im too bored to do anything else.

hmmmmm... i have no response to that.

whats the difference in the popularity of downhill skiiing versus say superG with normally non-skiing fans?

P-Jay

I certainly think it should be. I would be a massive boost for us all too.

It's a fact that in this country if you want goverment money for your sport, it had better be in the Olypmics and you'd better win some medals!

The amount of money being thrown at swimming, track riding, rowing etc is unreal. They're not exactly mainstream sports in other parts of the world ether!

I sypathise with people comments about the TV coverage, but you've got to remember that the reason why, when you watch the worlds on Freecaster and it's 3 cameras at the top, Warner filling for 2 mins and 2 at the end is that they're dong the best they can, with the resources they've got. According to their site 115k peoople watched the worlds replay, I guess a lit more would have seen it live, but in total less than a million. In TV terms that's less than nothing. They could do more with more money, but the advertisers aren't throwning millions to pay for the boarder around the screen.

It's too late now, but if the BBC turned up at Fort Bill or the like in 2012 and threw the sort of stuff they can bring to bare to show millions and millions of people all over the world the coverage would be mindblowing! You've only got to look at the amount of people who'll sit for hours watching downhill skiiing who've never seen a piste in their lives.

Not to mention if a Brit caught a gold in it their would be full-time courses being built everywhere within months.

albo

Downhill in the Olympics would be a million times more exciting to watch than the Mountain Biking they have at the moment.

Why would anyone vote no?

I question your love of biking.....

Alex

Do you all hate downhill that much that you'd happily see it ruined by the olympics?

Joe_Pineapples

Nah, you can keep your Olympics as far as I'm concerned.
It's the most over hyped, over commercialised and overrated of sporting "spectacles", as far as I'm concerned. I'm quite happy with the little semi-underground niche that mountain bikes have carved out for themselves.
Now the X-Games however, that's a different story . . .

supersonic

I don't see why it would ruin it. It is a minority sport done by relatively few people - unless you want it to stay that way. A bit more coverage on a larger stage will inject more money into it and not necessarily detract from 'what it is'.

Joe_Pineapples

Well for a start there's no way the BBC would let Rob Warner anywhere near a microphone, so instead you'd have Mr Chumley-Warner from Eurosport telling us again that Sam Hill is, and I quote, "a rider well known for having a low centre of gravity".

That alone should stop this ridiculous idea in its tracks.

supersonic

Is those 5-10s, they are quite heavy ;-)

I am sure they would sort some ex pro DHers out to commentate or help do it.

Joe_Pineapples

No chance, you'd get some young spiky haired ponce to appeal to the "yoof", or maybe that Vikki Butler-Hoohaa to give the dads something to ponder, then Chris Boardman would pop up and try to sound like he knew what he was talking about.

supersonic

That is the thing isn't it - to some it is a sport, to others it is an image or lifestyle.

Joe_Pineapples

Yip, the eternal dilemma.

Where are my stabilisers?

Yes! It's more entertaining to watch than XC etc. Like, I find watching 100m way more entertaining than the 3000m. Also, I think it would get more people interested in MTB, as the image is a little more rock and roll than XC. It wont ruin anything - Snowboarding hasn't ruined Skiing in the winter olympics. Plus, we're pretty good at it 8)

Is this seriously English homework?? More interesting than the tosh I had to do!!

Alex

If you want to be entertained by Downhill, go and watch one of the five Britsh Downhill Championship (formerly NPS) events in 2010, buckets of regional races, the Regional, English/scottish/welsh and National championships, a tonne of scottish races and before that, I can think of four winter series off the top of my head. Not to mention the World Cup (assuming it goes ahead in 2010)

If you like watching downhill, that's how to support it.

covelove

I would vote yes based on the idea that more coverage would get more peolpe involved in the sport and inject money into new projects/ trial centres. also DH would make for much better viewing than XC which looked a bit lame out at Bejiing.

Good luck with the talk!

paul.skibum

bigbenj_08 wrote:

Yes. But they'll have to accept the heavy drinking, partying and general fecking about that isn't usually associated with Olympic sports

I read that the olympic village is a massive den of eniquity and debauchery once events finish the no longer competing athletes go on a bit of a bender and develop cross sport/race/border relations in a big way!

colintrav

The amount of sports in the games is getting beyond a joke ... when the Original format was based on track and field events ...



Which imo should have always been the case instead of rippin the right cunt out of it for financial gain

Bignige

supersonic wrote:

That is the thing isn't it - to some it is a sport, to others it is an image or lifestyle.

What's beach volleyball then??? And as for synchronized swimming.....O...M...G!!!!

supersonic

Eh?

Bignige

Sorry supersonic...should've expanded a little, if DH is a "lifestyle sport" what does that make beach volleyball (which is an Olympic Sport)......and if Synchro Swimming is there every four years and is considered a sport then the likes of Peaty and the Athertons deserve to be there as atheletes (is that spelt right)!!

Bignige

My previous post was in no way meant to offend any Synchronized Swimmers who may be particapating in this thread (you're not one are you supersonic)

supersonic

Lifestyle to some - not me. Some do it, it seems, purely to look cool.

Bignige

supersonic wrote:

Lifestyle to some - not me. Some do it, it seems, purely to look cool.

I take it we're not still talking about the swimming now are we?? :roll:

captainfly

I can;t see how it would ruin DH being in the olynpics, there may end up being another kind of DH that suits the olympic format but that is the same for lots of sports that are in there.
Personaly I think it is an extremely charismatic sport that has a lot of flair. A chance warching of DH got me back into MTB and I am sure that with the sucess of the GB team at this there would be more investment in the sport in general in the UK.
Like I said before the technology/setup thing is covered by the likes of shooting.