runnerdnerd wrote:
I don't think this is limited to winter sports though. Summer olympics has examples of this as well. For example, modern pentathlon. I was toying with the idea of picking this up because it seemed like low hanging fruit and it would be cool to make it to the olympics in something. Then I realize I would always feel embarrassed if people referred to me as an olympian for going in something like that, because it is extremely low participation and only really accessible to upper middle class or higher participants, even if it is a somewhat athletic event (fencing, running, swimming are all legitimately athletic events in my mind).
I think winter olympics gets a bad rap because there is a higher percentage of events in the middle or bottom of legitimacy.
Good point about modern pentathlon. The running and swimming performances there are very weak, and how big is the pool of people who have trained in pistol shooting, fencing AND EQUESTRIAN. Absolutely tiny, even in wealthy countries like the US and in northern Europe. Non-existent in most of the world.
And almost the entire winter "Olympics" is just like that.