Exercise R Us » Biking » Should MTB down hill and trails be included in the Olympics?
Question:
> >Is it too late to get a mountain biking down hill event included in >the Sydney Olympics? > There was an article addressing this very point in something I read the > other day. Sydney has a year or more to finalise their events, and it was > suggested that the DH might make a good addition to 2000. It was stressed > that mtb is even bigger now than it was when they added it to Atlanta, so > another event might not go astray. > The snowboarders seem to have gotten about 5 new events added all at once > for 98, so mtb should have a case….
There’s quite a difference between adding sports to the winter Olympics compared to adding them to the Summer Olympics. Basically, the summer Olympics are "full", although, of course, there are always exceptions. As I understand it, MTBing got in as a replacement to the team time trial, so there was no net increase in the number of sports (OK, but I do not know what the story was for beach volleyball!). The winter olympics still has some "room". Case in point: Orienteering has been trying for quite some time to be included in the olympics. There are two main types of orienteering (i.e., are widely practiced, have real world champs, etc.): running (foot) orienteering and ski-orienteering. At this point there seems to be next to no chance in getting foot orienteering in any time soon, while there is definitely a chance for ski-orienteering for Salt Lake City in 2002. Of course all rules are made to be broken, and the Olympics seem to be especially prone to all kinds of "persuasion" (see the pre-Olympic article in Outside Mag). So I suppose anything can happen. But don’t look to snowboarding as the model. Jon Sundquist U.S. ski-O team member….who will be just another old fart by 2002 
Response:
: Having read through literally hundreds of posts on the mountain bike : event at the Atlanta Olympics posted to aus.bicycle, : that have been consistently expressed. : : The course lacked a serious lung busting climb. Water, logs and other : hazards were absent from the course. For those who are hoping that : when Sydney will redress these issues the course for the 2000 Olympics : has already been set and in my understanding is not that dissimilar to : that of Atlanta in terms of terrain etc. In other words you will be : disappointed. [CUT] I’m not convinced that the Olympic course in Atlanta WASN’T hard. All I know is what I saw in the 15 minute bursts between syncronized swimming. The BIGGEST thing I think needs to be done is that the coverage be done by a company who has experience in filming mountain biking. My friend’s have ESPN2 and I watch some of the races there, and I have Outdoor Life Network here, they have NICE coverage of mtb racin’. These companies have virtually NO money compared to the deep pockets of NBC. Yet they have awesome coverage. Cameramen running through the woods with a camera on their shoulder, finding the MOST technical sections of the course and waiting for the crash, or the rider that cleans the section beautifully(Sydor comes to mind =). THAT’s what the Olympic games REALLY needed. As someone else put it, these people were set up to cover a cross country motorcycle race… not a mountain bike race. As for a DH event I’m all for it. Trials is cool, but I think(and this goes for all MTB, but especially trials) people who DON’T ride don’t realise just how hard it is(i.e. people that don’t ride will wonder why it’s in the olympics). -Jay
Response:
Newsgroups: aus.bicycle,rec.bicycles.off-road Followup-To: aus.bicycle,rec.bicycles.off-road Organization: Loose Ends Again Some people said… | I believe it would be quite tough at this point, but not impossible, to | alter the mtb course for 2000. | >Is it too late to get a mountain biking down hill event included in | >the Sydney Olympics? It might be useful to ask if it would be easier to photograph the kayaks if they held their events on the flat part of the river… "Make it work? I can make it stand up and spit in your pocket!" – A. Ashley
Response:
Some people said… | I believe it would be quite tough at this point, but not impossible, to | alter the mtb course for 2000. | >Is it too late to get a mountain biking down hill event included in | >the Sydney Olympics? It might be useful to ask if it would be easier to photograph the kayaks if they held their events on the flat part of the river… "Make it work? I can make it stand up and spit in your pocket!" – A. Ashley
Response:
>The course lacked a serious lung busting climb. Water, logs and other >hazards were absent from the course. For those who are hoping that >when Sydney will redress these issues the course for the 2000 Olympics >has already been set and in my understanding is not that dissimilar to >that of Atlanta in terms of terrain etc. In other words you will be >disappointed. >Is it too late to get the location of the Sydney cross country course >changed?
I think, based on everything I have read about Olympic XC racing in the lead up to Atlanta, that the course they chose was specifically requested by the powers that be to be television friendly. IE they demanded a flattish, not too technical, course that supposedly wouldn’t break up the field the way a severe climb does. That is what they got…whether in the after-analysis it was successful is yet to be determined. I believe it would be quite tough at this point, but not impossible, to alter the mtb course for 2000. >Is it too late to get a mountain biking down hill event included in >the Sydney Olympics?
There was an article addressing this very point in something I read the other day. Sydney has a year or more to finalise their events, and it was suggested that the DH might make a good addition to 2000. It was stressed that mtb is even bigger now than it was when they added it to Atlanta, so another event might not go astray. The snowboarders seem to have gotten about 5 new events added all at once for 98, so mtb should have a case…. — Michael Hanslip / Archaeology & Natural History, ANU < > _The_Bottom_Line_
Response:
Having read through literally hundreds of posts on the mountain bike event at the Atlanta Olympics posted to aus.bicycle, that have been consistently expressed. The course lacked a serious lung busting climb. Water, logs and other hazards were absent from the course. For those who are hoping that when Sydney will redress these issues the course for the 2000 Olympics has already been set and in my understanding is not that dissimilar to that of Atlanta in terms of terrain etc. In other words you will be disappointed. I would like to see the cross country course run at one of the ski resorts. Thredbo is probably too far away from Sydney but there must be a location within range that can provide a good 4 to 5 k climb, lots of very technical terrain, a good fast down hill section and decent camera angles. Is it too late to get the location of the Sydney cross country course changed? While I am at it I would like to see a down hill event included in the Olympics as well. The commentators in the oz tv coverage repeatedly pointed out that cross country was just one of the Mountain biking disciplines. Why has down hill thus far been omitted from the Olympic program. A down hill event would certainly attract media coverage which would probably brush off on the cross country event. Is it too late to get a mountain biking down hill event included in the Sydney Olympics? Then there is Trial riding. With the attraction of the gymnastics and other similar sports at the Olympics and can see no reason why a trials event could not also be included. In summary. Is it too late to put together a decent mountain biking program and have it included in the year 2000 Olympics? Who do we have to talk to? (I am aware that there are detractors like the editor of a certain Australian mountain biking magazine that feel that mountain biking has no place in the Olympics. Having enjoyed the spectre of mountain bike racing in the Olympics I am prepared to defend and propose extending mountain biking as an Olympic sport.) __daavid — 666 Doncaster Road, Doncaster, Victoria, Australia, 3108. Phone (+61 3) 9840 2222 Fax (+61 3) 9840 2277
no comment untill now