How is this supposed to be good for the sport? The Olympics and World Champs are the most important track meets of the year. It's mid August, right now we should be watching the best in the world going at it. But instead, we're in the middle of a three week gap between DL meets.
And don't get me started on the World Indoor Championships. That meet was a f*cking joke.
Who is brilliant idea?
Moran
The World Champs are every TWO years, not every four years. They’ll be back next summer.
The schedule goes, WC, OC, WC, off, WC, OC, WC, off, ....
Just an awfully botched thread title. Have no idea what you're on about.
The World Champs were originally held every four years. Study some history, and you'll likely discover the answer to all of your questions.
sbeefyk2 wrote:
The World Champs are every TWO years, not every four years. They’ll be back next summer.
The schedule goes, WC, OC, WC, off, WC, OC, WC, off, ....
83, 87, an 89 were ever four years. Ever since 1991, they're been held every two (odd) years.
That should be 83, 87, and 91 held every four years.
A better question is why do they hold the XC world championships every two years?
IAAF needs to get paid, and stay in 5 star hotels
You're dead wrong. The OG and the WC are the biggest obstacle to track ever becoming popular because they limit it to a 2 or 3 week season, with nothing else relevant except maybe national trials. The general public has no reason to care who does what at other meets and pays absolutely no attention at all.
Diamond League should eliminate the 3 week gap. It's actually 5 weeks because the endpoints are London and Birmingham, neither of which is a real DL meet. But the federations all probably insist on a break to get their elites to compete in their local championships and make money for them.
The olympics should be eliminated and the WC will follow. Every sport olympics dominates is marginalized, e.g. track, swimming, wrestling, gymnastics, figure skating. But sports that respect themselves and protect their independence are popular, even if they're big at the olympics too. Boxing, ice hockey, and basketball are a huge part of the show, but they know better than to let that be the top tier of their sports.
Track needs a long season of competition relevant enough for people to watch and get exposure for sponsors. Instead it's held prisoner by a few megasponsors who milk it for publicity every 4 years. Ban the olympics.
Talk to Chris Solinsky, I think he would agree with you
Bad Wigins wrote:
You're dead wrong. The OG and the WC are the biggest obstacle to track ever becoming popular because they limit it to a 2 or 3 week season, with nothing else relevant except maybe national trials. The general public has no reason to care who does what at other meets and pays absolutely no attention at all.
Diamond League should eliminate the 3 week gap. It's actually 5 weeks because the endpoints are London and Birmingham, neither of which is a real DL meet. But the federations all probably insist on a break to get their elites to compete in their local championships and make money for them.
The olympics should be eliminated and the WC will follow. Every sport olympics dominates is marginalized, e.g. track, swimming, wrestling, gymnastics, figure skating. But sports that respect themselves and protect their independence are popular, even if they're big at the olympics too. Boxing, ice hockey, and basketball are a huge part of the show, but they know better than to let that be the top tier of their sports.
Track needs a long season of competition relevant enough for people to watch and get exposure for sponsors. Instead it's held prisoner by a few megasponsors who milk it for publicity every 4 years. Ban the olympics.
I agree with this (in a way): I love the Olympics and WC but I do agree that the season in a non-championship year is more interesting.
I love watching the Diamond League with various winners and some coming on as the season progresses.
I would love to see the OG/WC tied into the DL somehow so athletes will race them more seriously in a championship year.
What an unbelievable stupid decision to start with the World Championships in the year LEADING to the Olympics. - / - / WC / OG / - / - / WC / OG ... The reason was that the European Champs were already sceduled in the middle between the Olympics. When looking for the WCs the ECs are of no interest.
Then came the even more stupid decision, to do the WCs every two years before and AFTER the Olympics! (Yobes Ondieki at the time: "We will have thousands of World Champions...").
For me the only meaningful solution would be: WCs every four years between the Olympics. - / WC / - / OG / - / WC / - / OG / -
In the odd years in between there could be smaller Championships like the Europeans. And - much more important - time for going for records, some return matches, experience new events...
In every other sport, you have championships every year. It would be ludicrous to have an NBA champion every two or three years. Track should have outdoor world championships or Olympics every year. To those who think so much interest would come to the sport with no Olympics, that is by far the most attention the sport ever gets. World's provides by far the second most attention. The attention is heightened at the Olympics, then if you don't have a world championship, there is no interest, the needle does not move and you lose all the interest gained at the Olympics. What brought the big crowds in the 1960s were Olympics, national championships and meets of nations or political groupings, e.g. U.S. vs. USSR or U.S. vs. Commonwealth. Aside from these events, track is an individual sport and unlike football, basketball, and baseball, the training is incompatible with constant racing, so you can't have a real season with everyone participating in every meet, at least not in the distances. The Diamond League competition over the season is of limited interest as a result because you have only a few competitors going every meet in most disciplines. There is no buildup as a result. And times have really suffered in the distances, because there is much more incentive to win than to chase times. It was better in the Golden League and earlier days.
I think you've totally nailed it here. In theory track could have an annual championship that could be more important than the Olympics and Worlds are. But if that championship is just a super glorified version of a Diamond League meet I can't see that it could outdo the Olympics and Worlds for attention. from fans and media. A lot of what attracts "casual" fans to the Worlds and Olympics is the medal count by nation and hoping their country does well. You'd need a format that replicates that sort of interest.Take that away and for a lot of potential fans the sport is just a bunch of semi recognizable names doing semi recognizable events with an occasional high profile name turning up here and there.
zxcvzxcv wrote:
In every other sport, you have championships every year. It would be ludicrous to have an NBA champion every two or three years.
FIFA?
Jeff Wigand wrote:
zxcvzxcv wrote:
In every other sport, you have championships every year. It would be ludicrous to have an NBA champion every two or three years.
FIFA?
UEFA CL is more of a test of who the best soccer team in the world is, and it is competed annually.
For about 90 years there were no T& WC at all. Only Olympics every 4. Then from the 1934 onwards there were European Championships every 4 years always between Olympics.
That's how the WC got into the odd years. Although I vaguely remember the first WC, I do not remember why they picked the year before the Olympics instead of the one afterwards. Anyway this became moot in 1993 with the change to every 2 years.
Anyway, it is historically simply wrong to claim that annual Championships were some kind of standard. On the contrary, the global standard in Athletics and Soccer (the two sports practiced all over the world) used to be 4 years , so 2 years is already cutting this interval in half.
lookharder wrote:
Jeff Wigand wrote:
FIFA?
UEFA CL is more of a test of who the best soccer team in the world is, and it is competed annually.
Wouldn't that be equivalent to the Diamond League?
Jeff Wigand wrote:
lookharder wrote:
UEFA CL is more of a test of who the best soccer team in the world is, and it is competed annually.
Wouldn't that be equivalent to the Diamond League?
No, track is for gay trannies. UEFA CL is boys