BBC to stop broadcasting athletics after Tokyo

Does anyone feel like the issue may actually be that a lot of T&F countries(USA, Britain, etc) have become too good and too used to the sport. These countries and meets have become so good that no one cares unless a world record is being broken which simply isn't sustainable.

The only time we see real continued involvement is when there is an unstoppable Farah/Bolt type of character racing.

Our more involved communities/activists in the sport (people on this site) won't even call someone a pro athlete until they have run 3:30(exaggeration...you get the point). In the speed climbing or crossfit these pros arent really that good because no human limit has really been pushed but the sport knows to succeed it has to call everyone a pro and self-hype beyond measure. The crowd watching has no clue so they are just enamored with it.

Coevett wrote:

The BBC could try giving British athletics more coverage on their website and news channels. They give more space to disabled athletics than able bodied. They only report on Brits if they are black or female, preferably both. Charlie Grice didn't even get a mention when he became the 4th fastest Brit ever.

Even the idea of broadcasting the 'British' championships is probably considered 'racist' by the PC maggots who infest the BBC these days.

Theres far more disabled athletes on lottery funding than able bodied, even including the relay teams. Look on Power of Ten.

Paarafan wrote:

There are more para athletes being funded the GBA than able bodied it is thus quite right that we should move to athletics on tv being mainly about para athletes.After all a para medal equals an able medal.Stop being in the last century.

Are you for real or trolling?

If it's true that there are more para athletes being funded than able bodied, then that's a disgrace.

BBC and GB athletics/the lottery council, and basically the entire PC establishment that runs this country now, seems to think the paralympic medal table is as important as the real thing., or more so even. It's like the PC medal table, so why wouldn't a country brainwashed with PC see finishing top of the wheelchair medal table the most important thing in sport (and beyond sport) just as the GDR back in the day poured a significant fraction of its GDP into finishing top of the Olympic medal table to prove its ideology correct?

It's one thing to promote stories of human resilience, courage, and overcoming the adversity of your disability, but it's another thing completely to actually promote the spina bifida one legged blind bipolar amputee T4 3DPO category gold medalist is as equal to Usain Bolt or Mo Farah.

I'd rather the money and attention given to the paralympics was instead given to Masters athletics. Of course the BBC wouldn't be interested in that, even though aging is a disability that every human on Earth will suffer from. If the amount of lottery funding given to disabled athletes was given to masters athletes to compete at a 'Master's Olympics' that was given as much coverage as the paralympics, then the VM60 WR for 1500m would likely be under 4 minutes, and maybe the stars of the past would continue competing (and in front of huge crowds).

[8ghio'aetdb V wrote:

Theres far more disabled athletes on lottery funding than able bodied, even including the relay teams. Look on Power of Ten.

The ironic thing about this is that you regularly read of some of the best and world class athletes in GB having their lottery funding brutally stopped, simply because he or she has been injured for more than 12 months (ie. become disabled).

I wonder if British para athletes similarly have their funding switched off when they get injured? If the wheelchair double amputee 100m paralympic gold medalist suffers a pulled..something..in training, does the lottery funding council tell them if the injury isn't cleared up in a few months - 'it's time to get a real job sonny'? Somehow doubt it.

Not Grice wrote:

Yes its the BBC's fault we don't want to watch a 3.30 1500 runner go through in 2.10 and then get outkicked. Its so entertaining.

Exactly.

No front page news for coming 4th in a diamond league either. Despite the 3:30.

The winners of the British champs events was covered quite generously on BBC sport website. Regardless of the athletes race (don't even know why this has been raised as an issue but we are talking to Coevett after all)

I take it you don't like disabled people then. Along with black people and females.

Not really surprising I guess

It's diabolical wrote:

Track and field (and cross country) have a real branding/image problem. Does anybody make any effort to really market the events/athletes?

Plenty of other sports manage to attract a crowd. Maybe football is a poor comparison, but if we take something like cricket, it's managed to use T20 to get people in. Short evening games with beer/music/audience engagement pulled in an average attendance of more than 6000 in the 2017 tournament and that increased last year.

What was the crowd for the national athletics championships? A 2 minute Google search did not furnish me with the information, but judging by your pics it was pretty dire. Someone at UK athletics needs to get their stuff together here.

Anyone got any suggestions? Let's brainstorm this and send it to UKA.

Yeah, tickets were in the region of £30 a day minimum. Main stand was over £60 with some tickets £100+.

This is a tricky argument. It has a logic but that logic would extend to female athletes being less worthy of funding/promotion than male atheltes if they are performing at a lower level.

This is a good point. Half of the world's population will soon be over the age of 40 so the Olympics should now have a master's category by default if they insist on having a women's category.

The mockery of paraatheles may well get you a visit from the police for a hate crime.

Further it is uk sport policy that there is parity and such is partly manifested in the greater number of funded para athletes as seen on the power of ten.To do otherwise would put GBA/UKA in breach of the 2010 Equalities Act.I can see any non funding of trans athletes as also getting legal recourse.

You may not be happy but this train has already left my last century chum.

Coevett: please note that being over 35 is not deemed a disability.

Coevett wrote:

I wonder if British para athletes similarly have their funding switched off when they get injured? If the wheelchair double amputee 100m paralympic gold medalist suffers a pulled..something..in training, does the lottery funding council tell them if the injury isn't cleared up in a few months - 'it's time to get a real job sonny'? Somehow doubt it.

You doubt it because you don't know anything about it.

Paralympic athletes must run/jump/throw certain times/distances, qualify for certain competitions and/or finish in the Top-whatever (varies from country to country) in their event to receive funding.

I know a former Paralympic gold medalist who was injured for a few months in 2015, and when he went back to competition he was unable to qualify for Rio.

He lost thousands of dollars just like that. He lost the funding and he lost other perks like free massage and physio, free access to the track, swimming pool and gym. He had no money to pay his coach and no money to pay his guides (this was a T11 runner).

What is the source for this claim? Is the statement verifiable? Athletics is one of the very few sports the BBC carries live; it would be surprising if they gave up on it. Having said that, provided another free to air broadcaster takes over I wouldn't be at all bothered; I can only watch their coverage with the volume turned off!

Coevett wrote:

The BBC could try giving British athletics more coverage on their website and news channels. They give more space to disabled athletics than able bodied. They only report on Brits if they are black or female, preferably both. Charlie Grice didn't even get a mention when he became the 4th fastest Brit ever.

Even the idea of broadcasting the 'British' championships is probably considered 'racist' by the PC maggots who infest the BBC these days.

^^TROOF!^^

starfish wrote:

Coevett wrote:

I wonder if British para athletes similarly have their funding switched off when they get injured? If the wheelchair double amputee 100m paralympic gold medalist suffers a pulled..something..in training, does the lottery funding council tell them if the injury isn't cleared up in a few months - 'it's time to get a real job sonny'? Somehow doubt it.

You doubt it because you don't know anything about it.

Now isn't that a recurring theme...