Shouldn't we start de-emphasizing the Olympics?

Nah - there are so many great sports across the spectrum which transform the Olympic Games into a wondrous spectacle. Yes - it's sold out some, but the magic is still there. Hence, the Olympic Games should not be de-emphasized.

Still, I would enjoy having the "IAAF" World TnF Champs on an annual basis (other than during the Olympic year), as well as winter cross country at the Winter Olympic Games. A counter-argument to holding the World Champs every year is the "off year" is that represents the year when top athletes chase their qualifying marks, world/national records, or make some cash on the roads, including for some, a foray into the marathon.

As for the XC at the Winter Olympic Games, it's definitely time for that aspect IMHO. Long overdue.

your argument is dumb. The ancient greeks held the olys every 4 years despite having even less technology than in the 1890s. We should add more emphasis to the olympics. There is no reason to limit a country's participants to 3 per event. Heats in the 10k, Thousands of runners in the marathon. Olympic xc and half marathon.

Edward Teach wrote:

your argument is dumb. The ancient greeks held the olys every 4 years despite having even less technology than in the 1890s. We should add more emphasis to the olympics. There is no reason to limit a country's participants to 3 per event. Heats in the 10k, Thousands of runners in the marathon. Olympic xc and half marathon.

There's every reason to limit it.

The size of the village isn't infinite.

I agree, the Olympics is not at all what it used to be.

First, the Olympics has a lot of very dumb sports that virtually no one in the world is able to participate in such as canoe paddling, rowing backwards, laser sailing and the like.

Second, the major sports such as track and field are riddled with drug use and cover ups of positive tests and this has taken away their magic.

Third, awarding medals to sub categories such as fastest woman or lightest weight weightlifter is also a dumb idea - I thought the idea of things like the Olympics was to determine who was the best in the world at doing something. This way of giving out awards removes the purity of the competition thereby making the whole event pretty pointless.

Finally, the bidding process for hosting the Olympics has become completely corrupt and rotten to the core. This is somewhat like the IAAF and the bidding processes to host the world championships. Like the doping issue this sort of corruption takes away the magic from the the whole bidding and voting process to host the Olympics.

nods head wrote:

I agree, the Olympics is not at all what it used to be.

First, the Olympics has a lot of very dumb sports that virtually no one in the world is able to participate in such as canoe paddling, rowing backwards, laser sailing and the like.

You mean sports that Americans aren't competitive in so therefore will be labelled 'dumb'?

Players like Kobe have said the Olympics are more of an accomplishment than the nba and more important to him

Edward Teach wrote:

We should add more emphasis to the olympics.

There isn't enough corruption? Not enough PED use at the IAAF?

Rio, like Sochi before it, will be an embarrassment off camera. It's a great way to steal billions of dollars though.

FIFA and Formula One have this all figured out. The rest of the sports are years behind.

The Olympics have done more harm to the sport of running then I think can be comprehended.

For Starters you place the 5k men's track champion on the same podium and liken there accomplishments to the women's synchronized diving winners, or worse yet, the goofy footed half pipe snowboard long course grunge division winner or the 61 to 62 lbs Greco-style womens wrestling winner. (o.k. I exaggerate but only slightly).

And then you say the 5k running event is only big enough to be worth running on a four year cycle and the elite athletes of the sport are not worth paying attention too but once in a blue moon (like a sychro-swimmer). This is despite the fact that every freaking weekend in the United State's literally 100,000's of people line up to participate in a 5k race, and millions more got out participating in the sport!!! Not to mention the immense popularity of competitive running at the high school / youth / college level that is almost unrivaled by any other sport.

http://www.infoplease.com/us/education/most-popular-high-school-sports.html

Why can't this grassroots participation duplicate itself to broader popularity, I blame the Olympic 4 year cycle and lack of high profile events remaining because the "olympics" are every athletes primary goal. Why do I as a spectator care about an elite running in the World Champs, if they don't even care because the "olympics are the goal" (it is interesting that the olympic trials seem to get as much or more mainstream press than the World Champs probably because these actually lead to the goal, unlike a world champs which go nowhere and are not the main goal) (An NBA first round game is popular cause it actually moves a team/player towards there ultimate goal...)

And then you have all the governments controlling competitors/competitions with political interference with crusty bureaucrats from corrupt organizations (IOC, IAAF) dictating all the terms and literally caring almost zero about the competition and competitive fairness yet consuming most all the financial spoils. Forcing athletes to deal with situations like the Moscow and LA boycotts, the shootings in Munich ect. These same bureaucracies have worked against the athletes in almost every conceivable way, you can go all the way back to Paavo Nurmi and Jesse Owens. (if only Nurmi had the guts to go pro and bring along his top contemporaries in a pro league, we would have a much better situation for distance running today --- A PGA style organization is desperately need by distance runners, IMHO. It is ironic that the first PGA Championship prize was funded by none other than Rodney Wanamaker, to bad the Wanamaker mile didn't maintain its Panache over the years like the PGA championship.

The OP is correct, the big sports, don't rely on the Olympics. And in those sports winning the "Majors" mean something. In track if its not the Olympic's it doesn't matter, unless its a world record, while other sports seem to transcend this problem. For example in the Kentucky Derby they don't say "that time was only the 8th best winning time ever" or in the PGA Masters winner doesn't get minimized if his winning score was 3 shots behind last years winner.

The more athletes that would rather win Boston than the Olympics the better. For all the Triathletes out there, your going to wish you continued to build up the prominence of that event rather than the "Olympic" status. Long term I think would have been better.

I agree with OP. Runners like Rono and Komen are way undervalued just because they didn't participate in that competition the corrupt IOC arranges every four years.

ihatetheolympics wrote:

I agree with OP. Runners like Rono and Komen are way undervalued just because they didn't participate in that competition the corrupt IOC arranges every four years.

They are valued just fine. The federation makes the most money in the current system.

An Olympic medal and a World Championship medal are the same accomplishment.

I agree.

But "we" have no chance of de-emphasizing the Olympics.

So Manzano's Silver is just going to have more value than Centro's Silver.

ihatetheolympics wrote:

I agree with OP. Runners like Rono and Komen are way undervalued just because they didn't participate in that competition the corrupt IOC arranges every four years.

They are valued just fine. The federation makes the most money in the current system.

trollism wrote:

nods head wrote:

I agree, the Olympics is not at all what it used to be.

First, the Olympics has a lot of very dumb sports that virtually no one in the world is able to participate in such as canoe paddling, rowing backwards, laser sailing and the like.

You mean sports that Americans aren't competitive in so therefore will be labelled 'dumb'?

No he means sports that literally no one does competitively. Canoeing and sailing are leisure activities and almost no one participates in them competitively. The Olympics has been watered down with sports no one does. They need to trim down the schedule to sports that are more widely participated in worldwide.

The Olympics needs to also remove sports where the games are not the pinnacle of that sport. One example is soccer. The problem with soccer in the Olympics is the sport doesn't care about the games as can be seen by countries only sending their U23 team. That's because the world Cup is the pinnacle of international soccer competition.

But none of the changes will be made because the Olympic games are about making the administrators money rather than doing what's best for the athletes.

ihatetheolympics wrote:

I agree with OP. Runners like Rono and Komen are way undervalued just because they didn't participate in that competition the corrupt IOC arranges every four years.

Komen way undervalued? Daniel "7:20" Komen? You must be new here.

About the technology of the Greeks - my point exactly. We no longer need to wait 4 years before a major championship like the Greeks did. Its ridiculous.

As for the athletes - they deserve to have a real chance to shine on MAJOR world stages once or twice every year - summer and winter. Be it in the 800, the 5,000 of the steeplechase.

The fact that the majority of the world's public judges an athlete (or swimmer, triathlete etc.) only once every 4 years (2-3 times in their entire lives) is a shame and a loss to the sport. We need championships more often. We need rivalries alive and kicking all the time.

All major sports have "finals" at least once a year - football, basketball. soccer, baseball, hockey.

By putting too much emphasis on a competition that happens just once every 4 years, the sport is dormant for the majority of the public for 4 years. Thats how the public has been conditioned and taught to value athletics- as a once in every 4 years gig.

As for Kobe - he was BS-ing and was able to say that ONLY because he had already been NBA champ. Ask any young NBA player that has neither won an NBA title, nor an olympic gold medal, and he would rather be an NBA champ without question.

We need to get people and the majority of public looking for athletics peaking at least once a year and not once every 4 years.

Daniel Komen - is obviously well known Letsrun. Much less so to the general public.

Calling it like it is wrote:

Komen way undervalued? Daniel "7:20" Komen? You must be new here.

Right. Never underestimate the influence of the powerful lrc message board.

Doesn\'t soccer only have its main championship every four years? And it is the most popular sport in the world.

trollism wrote:

Edward Teach wrote:

your argument is dumb. The ancient greeks held the olys every 4 years despite having even less technology than in the 1890s. We should add more emphasis to the olympics. There is no reason to limit a country's participants to 3 per event. Heats in the 10k, Thousands of runners in the marathon. Olympic xc and half marathon.

There's every reason to limit it.

The size of the village isn't infinite.

Who says everyone has to be in the Village?

Here's my AMAZING idea for the marathon: allow only the "true" national qualifiers to stay in the village (top three per country), but make the race open entry (with corrals by recent best times, of course). Or use qualifying times like 2:30/2:45 (m/f), so at least everyone in it is a serious athlete. So many benefits in connecting the vast numbers of casual-semicompetitive runners to the race, and ZERO drawbacks.

Closing the 26.2 mile course for less than 100 runners is, well, stupid. (Same for the US trials marathon; USATF should just open it up!)

Calling it like it is wrote:

Doesn't soccer only have its main championship every four years? And it is the most popular sport in the world.

If soccer waited 4 years for the World Cup there would be not soccer.

Soccer has annual national leagues, national cups, Champion's league.

An immense amount of annual competitions where the best teams in the world take each other on intensively and frequently.