Not reading this whole thread but mixed 4x1, 4x8, and DMR. We don't have enough relays IMO and it would increase the athletes who make the Olympics and exposure IMO.
4x800 with regional qualifiers to the Olympics and potentially rounds? offers a chance for upsets in the regionals which could lead to interesting stories.
For example: some sort of 6 european teams, 2 oceanic teams, 3 asian teams, 4 na/ca/carib teams, 3 south american teams, 6 african teams. Last year if everyone ran their best guys with their best time in the qualifier it would have been:
Europe:
1- France 6:53, 2- Britain 6:54, 3- Spain 6:56, 4- Belgium 6:56, 5- Italy 6:59, 6- Netherlands 7:00 (with Poland, Ireland, Germany, Norway, Czech Rep. all under 7:05)
Oceania:
1- Australia 6:59, 2- New Zealand 7:04
Asia:
1- Qatar 7:03, 2- Japan 7:04, 3- China 7:07 (with India under 7:10 and Iran under 7:15)
North America, Central America, Caribbean:
1- USA 6:52, 2- Canada 6:59, 3- Jamaica 7:02, 4- Puerto Rico 7:08 (with Mexico at 7:09)
South America:
1- Brazil 7:06, 2- Chile 7:14, 3- Venezuela 7:17 (Colombia under 7:20)
Africa:
1- Kenya 6:47, 2- Algeria 6:55, 3- Botswana 6:59, 4- Morocco 7:00, 5- South Africa 7:01, 6- Ethiopia 7:04
It would then be a 2 round affair with 3 heats qualifying 4 each and a 12 team final. This would create a world cup type feel with a diverse set of nations and chances for upsets.
What about a mixed sport event? I'm thinking biathlon but with running. Like a 8k/XC/steeple combo with target shooting (mass start). Or a four person mixed gender relay but across different sports like 800m swim + 1500m run + 800m swim + 1500m run where you have a swimmer of each gender and a runner of each gender. Imagine a US team of Katie Ledecky, Elle St Pierre, Aaron Shackell, and Cole Hocker. You can't tell me that wouldn't get a lot of TV play.
Cross country used to be an Olympic event. That would be awesome. Over its three appearances at the Olympics, Finnish runners dominated the event. Tying in with the emergence of the Flying Finns, Hannes Kolehmainen won the inaugural event then Paavo Nurmi won the following two editions, winning gold medals both individually and in the team race.
Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele and Paul Tergat, all highly successful African long-distance runners, jointly issued an open letter in 2008 to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge, urging him to consider the re-instatement of cross country as an Olympic sport.
The LA28 schedule includes the Olympic debuts of the 50m backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly for both men and women, and a mixed 4x100m relay on the track.
I should have added: "It didn't go down very well."
I think this thread is just moving too quickly for individual posts to get much traction, since most people won’t read the middle pages of any thread. I thought your joke was funny.
6K or 8K XC for both men and women. It needs to be a distance that doesn't overlap with a track event so it has its own times and tactics and isn't just a slower 10k on a different surface, and it should be the same distance and course for men and women. 15K would eliminate too many mid-distance oriented runners.
It’s not like NCAA XC where it’s a separate season for mid-distance runners; mid distance runners can compete in mid-distance events. And if someone like Jakob wants to jump in the XC race at the end of the Athletics program, awesome, but let him race a longer distance as opposed to an event that’s deliberately designed to give milers a chance.
15k might seem too long given what we’re accustomed to, but I kinda like it. The International XC Championships, the precursor to World XC, was between 14k and 16k in length (most often 9 miles) from 1906 through 1961. Plus it creates a unique opportunity for the Zersenay Tadeses of the world who aren’t fast finishers in a 5k/10k track race but aren’t marathoners either.
"The LA Games have articulated a priority in gender equality. For the first time in Olympic history, the number of female athlete quota spots (5,655) will surpass male quota spots (5,543). The Games will also feature full parity in all team sports, with women’s soccer expanding to 16 teams – four more than the men’s tournament"
How many Olympics have there been where it was seriously slanted the other way? 30? Was there not a point where women could not compete at the games at all?
Not reading this whole thread but mixed 4x1, 4x8, and DMR. We don't have enough relays IMO and it would increase the athletes who make the Olympics and exposure IMO.
Being an American Olympian in T&F is a big deal and it is a huge accomplishment to make a team. It shouldn’t be watered down to where meh athletes are competing.
Distance medleys are only interesting to Americans, and medleys overall are only interesting to the absolute top tier track and field countries. The rest of us who can barely scrape together one decent athlete in each event can't be bothered.
I want to see the open 3000, but I realize it's not going to happen because it cuts into a lot of the matchups in the 1500 and 5000, and cross country, which feels like the most likely event to be added.
I want to see ultras or mountain running as well. Yes, a lot of people are talking about how it wouldn't be interesting and how nobody watches it, but think of it more as a way for the host country to showcase the country at an even larger scale than the marathon does. It's not like the broadcast would keep up with every minute of the race, but it would check in periodically.
Ultra fans in LRC won’t give up on having an ultra in the Olympics, but they aren’t living in reality. If it did happen, it will be when pigs fly and hell freezes over. It would have to be both and not just one. If it did happen, it would called the Hell Freezes Over Olympic Ultra.
Olympic air time cost a fortune way and the fact that extremely few people will watch it is a big deal. Once again, it needs to prove it can attract viewers and it can’t debut at the Olympics.
Distance medleys are only interesting to Americans, and medleys overall are only interesting to the absolute top tier track and field countries. The rest of us who can barely scrape together one decent athlete in each event can't be bothered.
I want to see the open 3000, but I realize it's not going to happen because it cuts into a lot of the matchups in the 1500 and 5000, and cross country, which feels like the most likely event to be added.
I want to see ultras or mountain running as well. Yes, a lot of people are talking about how it wouldn't be interesting and how nobody watches it, but think of it more as a way for the host country to showcase the country at an even larger scale than the marathon does. It's not like the broadcast would keep up with every minute of the race, but it would check in periodically.
Ultra fans in LRC won’t give up on having an ultra in the Olympics, but they aren’t living in reality. If it did happen, it will be when pigs fly and hell freezes over. It would have to be both and not just one. If it did happen, it would called the Hell Freezes Over Olympic Ultra.
Olympic air time cost a fortune way and the fact that extremely few people will watch it is a big deal. Once again, it needs to prove it can attract viewers and it can’t debut at the Olympics.
the one "ultra" event I'd be interested in would be kind of gimmicky, but perhaps cool: an ultra triathlon relay, men's and women's:
5 mile swim (is that long enough?)
200 mile bike ride (again, right length?)
50 mile run.
it would last most of the day, and the broadcast could check in and out with the event while showing other events