I wonder who makes more money, the USOC or X-Games.

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"your horse is too high" - tigerchik

Check back in 15 years my friend....

Remember where the Internet ws 15 years ago. In this day and age 15 years is like a century was four decades ago.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Not that life is about money or that money proves anything but I bet the X-Games is a larger marketing engine and generates more money. And it's neen around how long? Ten years?

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"your horse is too high" - tigerchik

Well, I don't know any of the numbers. USOC and the Olympics are still absolutely massive. But it is worht menitoning the first Olympics to really turn a significant profit was L.A.

When you consider that, the Olympics are in the dark ages when it comes to sports marketing. The X-Games benefit from the foundation in sports marketing that the Olympics laid. Also, there is 1000X more media now than there was in the Olympics even 30 years ago. Cable TV, Satelite, Internet, Gaming- it is an all-consuming media monster with a huge appetite for the fresh and hot and current. X-Games feeds that. The Olympics is a body picked clean to the bone by media. It has been covered from every angle and now every story is just a more harsh caricature of its previous version.

I like the Olympics, very much, but they don't make me say "Whoa!!!" out loud like X-Games.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I think that you are already seeing that change... Incorporation of snowboarding into the winter olympics.

I worked for long time in the Rollerblading industry as a photographer and even longer as a skater. I was at the first 4 X games. My problem with where action sports idustry right now is the commercialification of the entire genre.

Many of us started as misguided youth looking for something to do and direct our energy. When we started even at the highest level it wasn't about getting to be on TV and be famous, it was just fun and hanging out... not as serious as it is now. What I lament about is the double edge sword of success... People create somethign new and fresh... people become interested in it and start t make money with it (good for everyone)... more money comes in and that thing becomes not as new and fresh... 20 years down the line that thing that seemed so fresh and new is established and stagnant. While it may be entertaining it lacks soul...

Not really sure what my point is... Like many thigns in life may you all strive to do what feeds your soul regardless of what it does to your pockets...

Uhhhh... Lack of Sleep makes incoherence profound

I think the IOC needs to have its eye on the Comcast/Disney debacle. That merger, if it ever happens, will produce a media engine that can sway programming choices. Networks will dictate to the IOC, not the other way around.

Right now it is nearly at the point where networks are saying, "We can't have THE Olympics, but we can have our OWN "Olympics" and since we are the people controlling who sees what we can decide what gets put through the cable and on the satelite. Why pay tens of millions (hundreds?) for broadcast rights when we can "make" our own Olympics for 1/4 the cost.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Tom,

I really hope that you are wrong on this one. With the Olympics being so important to so many different countries, the last thing I would want to see is an American television network dictating the sports that should be in the Olympic Games.

I don't see anything wrong with the networks putting on their own sports festivals, isn't that what the X-Games is? But I can honestly say that I've never gone to check the X-games schedule to find out when the street luge finals were on. If I happen to see the X-Games on TV, I'll stop and watch it. But I will make a point of watching the CBC Olympic coverage for 2 weeks every 2 years.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Realistically, I hope I am wrong too for the same reasons you mentioned. X-Games and other manufactured sports festivals do have a "manufactured" feel to them.

The Olympics does have a heart and soul. Sometimes lost or distorted, but nonetheless rooted in mythology and history.

There is no minimizing the significance of that.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

20 years down the line that thing that seemed so fresh and new is established and stagnant. While it may be entertaining it lacks soul

Just like musical genre's. Something starts out new and exciting, and then it's overkill. People understand what you're getting at. It is a valid concern.

the last thing I would want to see is an American television network dictating the sports that should be in the Olympic Games.

Other coutnries are very interested in X-Games stuff too. I watch the X-Games and there's folks from Canada, China, Austrialia, etc. X-Games is gonna grow like mad within 5 years ... where it goes after that depends on if they can keep it fresh or if it starts to go stale ... like taku was talking about.

The Olympics does have a heart and soul. Sometimes lost or distorted, but nonetheless rooted in mythology and history.

True. Most of my lasting images of the Olympics are the athletes on the podium, wrapped in their flag, anthem playing, tears rolling down face. That visual is universal. It is about more than money.

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-- Every morning brings opportunity;
Each evening offers judgement. --

Figure skating vs.......

http://expn.go.com/...126_msbdpipe02_V.jpg

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

If you knew you were beating a dead horse, why'd you post?

It's what I do.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

It's not about the individual athletes anymore, it's about how many medals your country gets versus the other. Thus we have overpaid, pampered professional athletes in the Olympics. There will never be another 1980 Hockey Team. I mean, who really cares if the USA professional hockey team, basketball team, baseball team, etc win?? The people on the team probably care less than anyone.

It used to be you poured your heart and soul into trying to make the Olympic team. You had a choice to make on whether or not to turn pro, or wait a few years so you could represent your country. Now if you don't make the medal round, it's no big deal. The Olympics are just what you do in the off-season. You didn't want to risk getting injured anyway for the actual professional season.

I used to love the Olympics. Now, with the exception of a few sports, I could care less.

Sorry -- I'll turn my rant off.

Now that most pro leagues are international ... the olympics has become somewhat obsolete. We can see the "best of the best" every night on ESPN and TNT. Russia's/Check's best are in the NHL. Yugoslavia's best are in the NBA (and Spain, China, etc). Japan's best are in MLB (mexico, DR, PR, Australia, Cuba, etc).

As Du U Tri said, many of the best skip the olympics b/c it interferes with the off-season schedule. Jesse Owens already beat Hitler, Herbie Brooks already beat Russia ... what's left? The only thing interesting that can happen (from my USA perspective) is that some smaller country has its "Miracle" by beating us (generally speaking). There's no more "little American engine that could" stories out there.

Heck, many college sports have gone international to the point to where every conference game is a display of international talent.

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-- Every morning brings opportunity;
Each evening offers judgement. --

I have two kids, I would about have to tie them down to watch the winter olympic games . . . and they even ski (cross and downhill). They will watch the X-games however. Most of it is the "shock and awe" factor, but the simple fact is that they would rather clean the dog pen instead of watching figure skating. I will concede that they do watch hockey . . .

I think the olympics have lost much of their appeal due to the end of the cold war and decline of communism. It was always us against them and once that founddation is gone it is just not the same. I final medal count doesn't mean what it once did.

When will the Olympics pay attention and blow the dust off?


Not anytime soon. There's a move to add ballroom dancing as an olympic "sport".

A few observations, Tom:

1. The Olympics are truly INTERNATIONAL. X-games are not at that level. . .yet(?). The X-Games are an American marketing tool that is still just gaining ground overseas. Go to other countries and see where the X-Games telecasts rank in the daily programming. NOT very high. Kind of like OLN and TDF broadcasts in this country. The only reason ANYONE pays attention to those is that we have Lance currently running the table on the world. Take him away and the mainstream folks go away. The Olympics cause the TV sports watching world to pause every 4 years (ok, ok, every two now that they've offset the winter and summer games, but you know what I mean)

2. The X-Games athletes still have the reputation for not being "serious" about their sports. Sure, there are some great things being done, and there are a few of them that take long-term views of their approach to the sport. But most of them still come off as the kid on the block who can do the coolest stunt this week.

3. I guess what I'm ultimately saying, Tom, is that the X-Games seem big to you because you have an X-Games mentality. Just like your list of the toughest athletes, your view (as many of ours here on the forum) is a bit more diverse, but not mainstream.

4. Referencing your remarks and my first point. . .The Olympics need to seriously revamp their marketing. They seem to be relying on the behemoth principle that they've used for years. Make it the biggest thing around and that is the appeal. But how do you revamp the image of sports that are now measuring differences in athletes by increasingly esoteric minutiae. In the X-Games I've watched, there are clearly defined levels, and someone is nearly always head and shoulders beyond the others.

I think you're right on each of these points TriBriGuy.

A couple thoughts: You mentioned I had an "X-Games mentality". True. I grew up riding bikes and skateboarding and running after I got over my weight problem as a child. I didn't do mainstream sports. Because of my weight problem I wasn't initially accepted very well in them.

I think there are millions of viewers out there with similar backgrounds, and hundreds of millions more developing over the next two decades.

X-Games athletes didn't start out as serious, but they are now. Advances in equipment, training, coaching and technique happen in the X-Games sports at light speed. In the olympics they happen over decades.

X-Games can (and does) happen every year. The four year (two year?) Olympic cycle is too long.

X-Games is rewriting the book on what sports are visually stimulating.

I love watching the Olympics and really identify with the international aspect of the competition, the tradition, the beauty, the more subtle, refined nature of many of the sports such as figure skating- which can be fun to watch and is very impressive- but I think a future generation of sports viewer wants something else. X-Games may be an early version of it.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I think ballroom dancing looks like fun. If I were dating anyone I would like to try it- like I say, it looks like fun.

But in my opinion, it isn't a sport. I acknowledge that it is physically demanding and certainly requires extensive training and skill development. But it doesn't fit my "mold" for and Olympic sport.

Of course, Moto-X Freestyle and Big Air competitions certainly don't (currently) fit the Olympic concept of sport. That doesn't mean controlling a 200 pound motorcycle upside down 60 feet off the ground while twisting backwards and trying to stick your landing 120 feet away isn't an incredible feat of athletic strength and skill.

I've seen a lot of figure skating and I love it- I really do enjoy watching it. But the other night I was damn near jumpng off my couch watching a guy land a heel clicker backflip and a kid on skis do a 1080 McTwist 18 feet out the top of the Superpipe. If you've ever skied a half pipe you can connect.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com