Discussion: Yet another 'sport' to make it into the Olympics long before orienteering....

Its about time to face the reality.

Noooooo, we can totally hold out hope for a few more decades! As long as chess isn't in there we've still got hope, right?

I think the more surprising exclusion is squash. A truly international sport, very good for spectators and advertisers, plenty of high quality athletes, well established broadcast techniques etc.

Lots of ridiculous obsolete sports need to be expelled first: power lifting, hockey on grass, horseback riding, to name a few...

Power lifting is great, because it's maybe the most simple and objective event there is: whoever picks up the biggest rock wins.

Maybe, but it is now all about drugs, anabolics, steroids. Those athletes look real ugly.

Horse riding must be banned, no question about it, I am now thinking as a progressive liberal. No one is asking the poor thing if it is OK to mount her or if she wants to go jump around. Maybe she is having a bad day

Chess has its own Olympiad Not sure they need all the rings.

Maybe, but it is now all about drugs, anabolics, steroids. That goes for many olympic sports... https://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0327/61345-oconnorc/

I'd be much happier with horse riding if they gave the medal to the horse instead of the passenger.

There are two ways new sports become attractive to the IOC. One is to bring in a large new TV audience, the other is to offer realistic medal chances to otherwise under-represented countries (e.g. rugby with Pacific Island countries).

Hockey on grass an obscure sport? Maybe in North America. Wouldn’t be surprised if global participation has that obscure hockey on ice covered...

In the US, it's a bizarre quirk that hockey on grass is played almost exclusively by high school girls. We had a male exchange student when I was in high school, and there had to be a special allowance to let him play.

Did they make him wear a skirt while playing it?

Seems to me whenever orienteers express surprise at such and such sport being in the Olympics that that sport is invariably much more popular than orienteering. We're pretty blind about our own insignificance on the world stage.

Pedantic note: Powerlifting is not in the Olympics, though it is in the World Games, which puts it on similar footing to Orienteering. Weightlifting, however, is in the Olympics.

I think there was a controversy about whether he should wear a skirt, because that was the only uniforms they had. I don't remember how it turned out, this was over 40 years ago.

We had one boy who played field hockey at my high school (20+ years ago now). He wore shorts.

This thread will never die. One might ask, however, what is the upside of being in the Olympics? More exposure? More participation? More fame? That is to put the equation backwards. A sport gets into the Olympics when it already demonstrates those things, not as a means of getting there.

Orienteering is popular in those countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland etc) with high value of Human Development Index...which strongly correlates with achieved level of critical thinking . America was not even in top 10 last time I checked.

What a bad decision making process. The main reasons according to the article are "more urban", "more artistic" & "every day was a sellout". Probably the real reasons are "very low costs ", "very small risk" & a good chance to make a huge profit.

It's called Hockey. The lesser known quirky sport is known as Ice Hockey.

I think there are a number of people who want their sport in the Olympics because they feel it will validate their sport as one of the real, respected ones. Personally, I don't care though I would like to see fighting removed. Specifically, the kind where you punch your opponent.

Agree with jj. I'd also like to see IOC dump all those activities that can't define a result objectively (ie anything where judges can do their biased bit).

My master plan: Olympics every year, rotating between Summer, Winter, Judged, and Non-Athletic (chess, billiards, shooting, etc). I might move some indoor sports from Summer to Winter after opening up space by moving figure skating to the Judged year.

(Never gonna happen.)

Obscure sports do benefit from Olympic exposure. I participate in two obscure sports, orienteering and curling. (I have actually participated in both in a single day a couple of times.) Curling, of course, is in the Olympics and got lots of coverage when the USA won. The result was that there has been a lot more interest in joining our curling club. It is true that not everyone who comes out to a "learn to curl" event joins up but, I believe, that is what happens when people come to an orienteering event, too.
At the Salt Lake Olympics, there was a move to get ski orienteering as a demonstrator sport, a step to including it. It didn't happen. Given that much of what happens with orienteering is not "seen" because it is in the woods, it is not a spectator sport. This has been changed, a bit, with GPS technology that allows the routes of people to be seen in real time. It is probably not enough to convince people, however.

Olympic Marathon for all. Can orienteering ride on this wave? If I recall orienteering is the biggest participation sport at WMG.
https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1075848/pa...

Orienteering WAS the biggest participation sport in WMG in terms of visitors from away.
However now that WMOC has divorced from WMG I think the number of orienteers going to WMG will drop back in to the few hundreds.

I think live tracking of orienteers projected on to a computer or TV screen is pretty exciting stuff. Perhaps of they made the map project in a more three dimensional way and give the icons a more human appearance they may have something.

One might ask, however, what is the upside of being in the Olympics? More exposure? More participation? More fame? That is to put the equation backwards. A sport gets into the Olympics when it already demonstrates those things, not as a means of getting there.

I think that's the point of having a stated goal of being "in the Olympics". The things a sport needs to get into the Games are things people want for orienteering. Saying, "these projects directly help our Olympic dream goal" is just another way to package things that might make people feel more inspired than just doing them to do them.

That's the way I feel about it too - while I think the chances of reaching the Olympics are remote, the things orienteering is doing ostensibly in pursuit of that goal are, for the most part, things which are in our interest anyway.

There's no doubt that part of the attraction of the Olympics is financial; my understanding is that the share of curling (probably the smallest Olympic sport) of the Olympic TV rights money is several million dollars per Olympic period.

Wow great meme Emma! Is there somewhere we can find more orienteering memes like that one?

With social media savvy like that I think the future of orienteering is in good hands.

@Rhombus, ask and you will be rewarded. Shoot @orientmeming a follow on Instagram, you will not be disappointed!

Basic sports psychology:

Goals should be SMART The A stands for 'attainable' . If you tell me I should support an IOF project because it will help get O in the Olympics I will not be interested because it's never going to happen. If you say that same project will help increase participation and/or exposure those seem like goals worth pitching in for.

An organisation that tries to justify its olympic project on the grounds that 'well these are worth doing anyway even if we don't get into the olympics' doesn't fill me with much confidence. It's delusional - if they are delusional about that what else are they delusional about?

Another pro-Olympic reason is that in countries where national funding for sports at all levels is a thing, there is much more funding available to olympic sports than non-olympic.

That's not saying if I agree with it or not - but may explain some of why the European countries are generally keen on the idea.

In Australia olympic sports are better funded than others by government. But I agree with the comment that goals should be SMART

What a week for doping eh. World’s top bridge player banned for doping with synthetic testosterone. Yes bridge.

Was he doping for the after-game parties?

Ouch!
I didn't realize it was a Norwegian Bridge player. :-(
It is really hard to figure out how testosterone was supposed to help in Bridge?
More aggressive bidding?

CLUBS!! I BID NIIIINE CLUBS!! RARRGH!!

In fairness I think there would be clear cognitive gains that could be made from taking testosterone in competition. Testosterone has been proven to improve endurance performance by over 10%, and while bridge isn't exactly your most physically active sport, international bridge matches can be intense with players playing the guts of 12hrs a day. It is a mentally enduring sport, and your brain being a physical piece of your body will no doubt last longer while using performance enhancing drugs.

Also JJ, nine clubs is not a valid bid.

Nothing wrong with 9 clubs. You are allowed to carry up to 14. But you can't change them during the round.

ColmM, JJ was so fired up on his testosterone that he forgot his /sarcasm tag.

@mike, they play some awful odd conventions in oxford I take it

NINE CLUBS IS MY OPENING BID! I WILL USE THEM TO TRUMP SMASH YOUR HEART!

Can someone take JJ's "vitamins" away please, I think he's got the dose wrong again.