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IM length as an Olympic event?
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Here's my rant for the day. Maybe Alan will repost it over to TNO.

Just wondering if there has ever been any movement to also turn IM length triathlon into an Olympic sport and how others would feel about this.

I personally think there might be a lot of advantages of this. Here in Canada when Simon Whitfield won Olympic gold it was front page news, and I mean front page of the papers, not just the sports pages. When Reid/Bowden doubled at Hawaii this year it barely made the back page of the sports section.

There is also a lot more coverage of Oly tris on TV. All Kona gets is an hour of NBC once a year with most of it being personal interest stories and very little race coverage. Oly has become more of a mainstream sport while IM still is a cult fringe sport to a degree.

If IM was an Olympic sport I could see it as being the premier endurance race of the Olympic games and IM athletes would rank right up there with decathletes as being regarded as the best all round athletes.

I tend to think IM at the Olympics would be a huge step forward. What are your opinions?
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Re: IM length as an Olympic event? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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I think you bring up some good points and I want to throw one more question out. Is the Oly or IM distance the better balance of each dicipline and if Oly is the better balance would you alter the IM distance to have the same balance?



"your horse is too high" - tigerchik
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Re: IM length as an Olympic event? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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Fuck you.
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Re: IM length as an Olympic event? [Hid] [ In reply to ]
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I see no reason why there can't be two different Olympic triathlon events - long course (IM) and short course (Oly). They're apples and oranges.

Look how many running events there are.
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Re: IM length as an Olympic event? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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The reason is television ratings. IM racing is boring as a live sport, who would be interested in watching an 8+h event?

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Re: IM length as an Olympic event? [alan] [ In reply to ]
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classy...

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"Yeah, no one likes a smartass, but we all like stars" - Thom Yorke


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Re: IM length as an Olympic event? [alan] [ In reply to ]
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"Fuck you. "

In case anyone is wondering about this, Alan also sent me two private emails yesterday over the TNO thread. He was just as articulate in those as well.

Alan, chill out, you're taking this way too seriously.

Anyways, back to the discussion.
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Re: IM length as an Olympic event? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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(Copy of private email sent to cerveloguy this morning.)

You just don't get it, do you? It's not 'what' you said...it's how and where you chose to say it. Going behind people's backs and posting about them on slowtwitch was a cowards way. You should have posted your rant on TNO..all would have been fine. As I said, I happen to agree with much of what you said, just found your method distasteful.



Grow some balls and face the people you're talking about.

'Unbookmarking' TNO...that's a good one...you were logged on (slowfella) there all morning.
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Re: IM length as an Olympic event? [alan] [ In reply to ]
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classier...

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"Yeah, no one likes a smartass, but we all like stars" - Thom Yorke


smartasscoach.tri-oeiras.com
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Re: IM length as an Olympic event? [smartasscoach] [ In reply to ]
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Here's a copy of one of the emails he sent me privately yesterday in response to a public post on this forum:

"Don't thank me, asshole. You're the one who 'backdoored' the TNO people. Why didn't you have the balls to post your rant on TNO where it belonged? "
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Re: IM length as an Olympic event? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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If IM was at the Olympics, then it would be a huge step forward for Ironman length racing, IMO. I don't think that it would be good for the Olympics or for triathlon in general.

Sports at the Olympics really need to be TV friendly, and also need to have a huge base of participants internationally, and a way to have a meaningful qualifying race / races. Ironman distance is, in all honesty, a snooze fest on television. Draft legal ITU style racing is much more exciting to watch on television, since the racing is much closer, through the swim, bike and run.

Ironman races are also much more difficult to stage than Olympic distances, and athletes would need to peak for their qualifying races so far in advance of the games, probably close to a year ahead of time, in order to rebuild and peak for the olympics that you may have a case of sending the wrong athletes.

My 2 cents

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Re: IM length as an Olympic event? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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I would say that it is very unlikley to happen. From what I heard from my inside sources at the time, when the ITU was lobbying the IOC to gain acceptance into the games, one of the stumbling points was the length of the 1.5/40/10 format races. The IOC felt that they were too long. For some reason, the IOC does not like long events. Apparently, even the marathon, perhaps the most classic of Olympic events, is considered by many IOC members to be a rather tedious and drawn out affair( I can hear the outrage from this group already!!). Therefore, I suspect that there would be little stomach for a 8-hour+ event. Of course that's not getting into the whole Ironman trademark/copywrite issue.

I can't say for sure, but allowing drafting may have been a way for the ITU to possibly say to the IOC, that they where attemping to speed up and shorten the event time - which it does by several minutes.


Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog
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Re: IM length as an Olympic event? [jasonk] [ In reply to ]
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"much more difficult to stage than Olympic distances,"

I see your point. TV coverage would only be able to show bits and pieces of an IM thru the day. But then they do the same thing with the marathon do they not?
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Re: IM length as an Olympic event? [Fleck] [ In reply to ]
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Yes, a drafting IM-lenght race is a lot more likely but still inside the 1% chance. I can see how the race would unfold... the italians would control the race on the bike and a spanish would win ;-)

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"Yeah, no one likes a smartass, but we all like stars" - Thom Yorke


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Re: IM length as an Olympic event? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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See my previous post.

2 hours give or take is about the limit for the IOC's tolerance for the "length" of an event. As it is the marathon is just about the longest single event in the Olympic Games.

As for the TV coverage, it depends on where you live. If you live in the US, yes, all you will see is high-lights of the marathon. However, if you live anywhere else in the world, you are more likley to get start-to-finish coverage of the Olympic marathon - something NBC has a strong aversion to, for some reason.


Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog
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Re: IM length as an Olympic event? [Fleck] [ In reply to ]
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How many innings is baseball in the olympics? I could see that going over two hours. I know soccer is 90 minutes but gets dragged over two hours. Though this still doesn't compare to 8+ hours.



"your horse is too high" - tigerchik
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A better Idea [ In reply to ]
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A "better" distance to lobby for and promote would be for the 1/2 IM or distances that are close to this. Why? It's really the meeting ground between "short" and "long" in Triathlon.

Olympics aside, I know some key players in the sport of triathlon who have been talking about this for years - having a BIG 1/2 M length event or a series, with very big money( bigger than IM/WTC) and getting ALL the best triathletes in the sport, short and long, together. OK there's my big business idea of the day.


Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog
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Re: A better Idea [Fleck] [ In reply to ]
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"OK there's my big business idea of the day. "

Are you selling shares. I like it. The idea could work.
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Re: A better Idea [Fleck] [ In reply to ]
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Oooh, I like it. Sort of the whole Donovan Baily vs. Michael Johnson 150m race.

It might also promote some of the shorter race champions b/c I can't name who they are [bad me]. This sport seems to have an infatuation with the long distances. I have much respect those that finish a sprint in underan hour (or very close), an Oly in under 2 (or very close), etc, etc. Each distance has its level of impressiveness.

I think "just finishing" an IM distance race is loosing its luster (the more times it gets accomplished), but it is still impressive to me. I like the idea of long course vs. short course and medium distance course. It practically promotes itself. If that doesn't work, we can always try "triathlete vs. animal" ... oh wait, that's already been done before.

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Re: A better Idea [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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Indeed, I believe that it would work to.

The key would be having decent prize money - enough that would make it a must-do race for ALL the top short and Long distance guys/gals. Look at Life-Times Fitness: I know that it is crass, but that's business - dangle enough money in front of professional athletes and they will come running. It's the same in all sports. One thing that would really work in big triathlon events is a deeper and more equitable dispersion of the money.


Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog
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Re: A better Idea [Fleck] [ In reply to ]
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There is too many things that can go wrong for an athlete during an Ironman. There is a 10 minutes difference between pro's in the swim alone. On the bike it can go even go up to a half hour. On a good course not too many people go sub 3:00 for the marathon.

Olympic Distance is very fast pace and fun to watch. You get 40 guys coming out of the swim together, all of them in a pack on the bike, and then on the run you get groups of 5-10 people running together for a sprint to the finish line. It's 10x more exciting to watch than seeing 2 people run race head to head while the rest of the field is somewhere 15 minutes back suffering from mal-nutrition.

The most I can see is maybe (just maybe) LD (4k-120k-30k), or maybe even a half IM. A half is a lot shorter and faster paced than a full, but you still need super endurance to finish strong. Races like Wildflower are very exciting for people who are into this stuff, and if you get Hawaii's pro field on a fast half IM course, woooo 3:40 doesn't seem too farfetched.
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Re: IM length as an Olympic event? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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There is also the matter of logistics...the olymoics are a pretty busy week and it is difficult to find a venue/ course close to the main city...

I would think that duathlon and aquathlon might get a start at the Olympics before an ironman distance event...

Some sort of teams format might also get a smart ...a swim-bike-run relay event of some sorts...

Yours sincerely,

Geoff Dickson
Division of Sport and Recreation
Auckland University of Technology
Email: geoff.dickson@aut.ac.nz
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Re: IM length as an Olympic event? [alan] [ In reply to ]
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In Reply To:
Fuck you.
Well, this is a 1st. Why don't you post vulgar stuff like this on a PM?
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Re: IM length as an Olympic event? [alan] [ In reply to ]
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In Reply To:
Fuck you.
I like this guy... He provides a lot of keen insight on technical matters and is a real benefit to this board.


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Re: IM length as an Olympic event? [alan] [ In reply to ]
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Fuck you.


Not to mention concise. Very easy to read his message and understand exactly the thoughts he's trying to convey.

Pulitzer material here.

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