Agree or Disagree: IAAF wants Cross Country to become more extreme / edgier to attract audiences & "new breed of runner"

The entire Olympics is watered down wrote:

Why drop the 10,000? There are literally dozens of Olympic events that should be cut first.

Agree strongly - the entire Olympics needs be streamlined badly. The following BS events need to go before even thinking about dropping the 10000m:

All swimming strokes except for freestyle

All the weight categories from the lifting, rowing, and fighting events - the point is to see who is the best lifter, etc. Seeing who is the best lifter weighing under 130 lbs or whatever is like seeing who is the best marathon runner weighing over 200 lbs.

Speedwalking.

Sailing - sailing is for travelling around it is not a sport plus all that high tech boat BS means it is nothing to do with the sailor as to who wins.

All that kaerin BS in track cycling. Also just have Olympic standard issue bikes for all cycling events in different sizes to remove all the tech advantages that certain teams have; we are testing athletic ability in the Olympics not engineering.

In addition:

Make the fighting sports just one event sort of an Olympics UFC. Seeing who is the best fighter using only their hands or only wrestling is like seeing who is the best speedwalker.

The Olympics is a product of Western civiliation and today Western civiliation treats men and women as equal human beings with equal rights thus the sex divisions in the Olympics has to go which will also help streamline the number of events.

All these measures should streamline the Olympics to a reasonable size and cost. Like most people I work and pay taxes and if the Olympics were to come to my country I would be sick and tired of seeing my taxes used to fund a whole bunch of BS sports events.

This thread is mentioned in a column in Outside about making more cross country extreme where the posters are called murmuring cognoscenti. I guess that's good?https://www.outsideonline.com/2277781/how-make-cross-country-more-extreme The author's solution? Make XC more exciting by having Galen Rupp chased by dogs.

As for the old audience, who among my fellow distance running fans wouldn’t be intrigued by the prospect of seeing Galen Rupp chased across the heath by a crazed beagle?

Mr. Burns would approve.

Cross country running at its best!

https://youtu.be/MlLIquCiyUw?t=48m51s

How's this for extreme? 15 finishers and 23 DNF. It was the race that got cross country kicked out of the Olympics:

During the 1924 race in the Paris heat wave, only 15 of the 38 competitors reached the finish. Eight of those were taken away on stretchers. One athlete began to run in tight circles after reaching the stadium and later knocked himself unconscious, while another fainted 50 meters from the finish. José Andía and Edvin Wide were reported dead, and medics spent hours trying to find all the competitors who had blacked out along the course. Although the reports of deaths were unfounded, spectators were shocked by the attrition rate and Olympic officials decided to ban cross country running from future Games.

I'm bumping this thread now that more information on the event has been released. It looks awesome, but over 1000 foot elevation gain in a 10K is going to have it's casualties.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/athletics/2018/10/15/search-worlds-toughest-runner-return-extreme-roots-could-herald/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

track needs to be more extreme too. We want to boost the popularity, not let it fade away. We need to add wrestling to some events, make it full contact, and add and obstacle course on the infield. Also eliminate the most boring events, and force the best athletes to meet up against each other in the same events. Track and field at the olympics should only be the 100m, 4x400m, Mile, Pole Vault, Marathon. Plus a full contact out and back 200m, mile-wrestle, wrestle-mile. Spend all the money you would on sponsoring and flying around the #5 longer jumper and put that money into promoting events and athletes that will move the needle.