Ultra Running in the Olympics

No, add cross country or the half marathon before you do that.

Between slim and none when it comes to adding ultra distances. There's already talk of shortening the Olympic triathlon distance....which, for the elite women, takes just over 2 hours. No way the IOC wants to have an event like the 100K/62.2 miles that takes around 6:15:00 for the elites to run.

One thing is for sure. If they do add ultra running to the Olympics it will completely turn the event upside down. Lots if elite marathoners who miss out on the marathon team and don't have the speed for the 10K would move up to try to make am Olympic team. All but the very elite of the current crop of ultra runners would get toasted. Records would fall right and left.

Personally, I hope they never add it.

How many people would actually watch it though? The marathon is long enough as is, I can't imagine anyone wanting to watch an entire ultra race. Broadcasting that would seem like a huge pain as well. Spectating even worse, as runners will be spread apart by huge margins. Let's see how "hardcore" XC turns out before even thinking about adding Ultra Running into the Olympics.

BeRealNow... wrote:

How many people would actually watch it though?

Not arguing for Ultra's in the Olympics but to your point there are not many watching the 50k race walking event. Yep there is already an Ultra Marathon event for a medal but you have to walk.

BeRealNow... wrote:

How many people would actually watch it though? The marathon is long enough as is, I can't imagine anyone wanting to watch an entire ultra race. Broadcasting that would seem like a huge pain as well. Spectating even worse, as runners will be spread apart by huge margins. Let's see how "hardcore" XC turns out before even thinking about adding Ultra Running into the Olympics.

How many people watch racewalk?

Only if they add a biathlon part to it like fencing. Ideally at every water stop

A mountain/ "extreme trail" running event might be cool. Cross Country would be as well again in general.

Maybe on a loop course up to 50km would not be too boring...they'd have to add some drama elements in there (mud pits, etc) and technical parts.

It's all about the number of beds!

The IOC along with the host city agree on the number of beds that would be required to house the athletes, coaches, etc.

Then working with the different international sports federations, the IOC determines the number of entries each sport will be allowed. The sports federations then go back and formulate the standards to hopefully not exceed that limit. This is easy for team sports but very difficult for a sport like athletics.

There has been much talk over the years to add other sports to the Olympic program that would attract a younger audience. This would make it difficult for athletics to add any additional events to the program. The only realistic thing we could do would be to add new events with athletes who are already there.

I would rather see XC or a short mountain running course instead of the 5k, adding cyclo cross and getting rid of BMX would be nice as well.