They need to reduce events. Especially for running. So adding long course tri not happening . Most of long course winners these days have ITU background

Bingo.

Can you imagine if we had to call both long course and 5150 "Olympic Distance"? OH THE HUMANITY.

You kind of answered your own question in your post. One of the primary things the IOC focuses on is revenue. This comes from the following:

1. Broadcast partnerships
2. Commercial sponsorship
3. Domestic sponsorship
4. Ticketing
5. Licensing programs within the host country

So this is why in the next few decades you might see more and more traditional Olympic events and sports get removed and replaced by those which are better suited to meet the above criteria. The IOC is likely starting to look at Millennials and Gen Z and see what types of events they are watching or participating in. Sadly, something like break dancing might end up garnering more interest in sponsors and more viewers than a 3.5 hour long triathlon race.

I believe a couple years ago there was talk about switching the triathlon from olympic distance to sprint distance to make it more entertaining. There was also some discussion by the IOC in 2014 about dropping the 200m and 10K from the track and field lineup

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Matt

ITU was trying to add an individual supersprint race for Paris but IOC has said no https://www.triathlon.org/...letes_for_paris_2024
Pretty much zero chance of introducing long events to the modern Olympics. Supersprint would probably have made it in if there was a 5m gap jump on the bike...

when tri was pitching to get into the 2000 olympics, two of the rules the IOC gave them were:

-it can't take longer to finish than a marathon (the longest running event at the games)
-the first person across the line has to be the winner

so that sort of rules out long course.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

They need to (but won't) ditch half or 3/4 of the pool swim medals.
I like swimming. But WTF.
Imagine biking where there's races at 5k, 10k, 20k, 40k, 80k and 150k.
All with permutations... biking forwards. Biking backwards. Biking using your left leg first. and biking with the right one only.
Oh then a couple of team relays riding forwards.
And individual running forwards then backwards then left then right as 1 race.

3/4 of the races are races racing in the most efficient inefficient method.

can we get an event where people swim as far as they possibly can under water while holding their breath?

Actually what would be interesting is three events...sprint, mixed relay, and 3/80/20 non drafting. Same athletes from your team for all events (in some ways to similar to XC skiing in the Olympics, where you have a team and they compete in many medal events....or swimming...or track). No change in number of athletes. Just get rid of Olympic distance because the same person who will win at 1.5/40/10 is likely going to win at 750/20/5 both as drafting format.

This. Couldn’t agree more

You mean like the numerous events they had in track cycling and track running - ie hurdles, steeplechase - although the track cycling programme is now much reduced.

There's only two permutations for each off-stroke, 100 and 200. And then there is medley. I assume you also think similarly about cross country skiing and biathlon?

Isn't swimming one of the most profitable sports for the Olympics? There's no way they'd ditch any of the 4000 swimming events if it meant losing funds to a lesser known sport/event.

Triathlon in the Olympics will never see a longer version of the event.You can expect the Olympic Distance to be replaced by Sprint Distance.The Team triathlon will stay and the new Super Sprint Eliminator will be the next addition if World Triathlon ( the ITU ) can convince the IOC that it is a great spectacle event over the next few years.

IOC confirms 3 triathlon medal events and 110 triathletes for Paris 2024 | Triathlon.org
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Look out eSports...discussions will revolve around 'mouse pad or keyboard' and endlessly debate over cup-holder position.

And the participants will use the word 'versus' as a noun!!!!! Oh the humanity!!!!

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I believe my local reality has been violated.
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Happiness = Results / (Expectations)^2

“why can’t there be full or half distance racing in the Olympics?”


Because it will never be!

Chemist did lay most of the details out there.

The IOC is a "Business" - and that sums it all up right there.

I recall back to the days when Les McDonald the founding President of the ITU was trying to get triathlon into the Olympic Games. One of the admonishments that he was given by the IOC was that the triathlon race(s), whatever they are, can't be any longer than 2 hours!. In the eyes of the IOC - shorter more "entertaining" races/events are better!

You can safely rule out any longer triathlons forever!

In fact as someone else has mentioned I can see them chopping the traditional "Olympic Distance" race in half and just going with what we now call a "sprint" 750m/20k/5k

The introduction on the Mixed Team Relay or MTR, I believe is going to be a bit of a shot in the arm for the sport. But it also challenges the sport at the games, because, the other thing that IOC is always trying to do is to limit the total number of athletes at a games. So if a sport, that's already in the games, like triathlon wants to add, a new discipline or event, the IOC goes back to them - that's great, as long as it meets this, this, and this criteria, it's all good, but you can't have any more athletes at the games for your sport as a total! Just because you have a new event or discipline - you can't just add more athletes!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

As noted in my OP, I know it’s not happening. But there is room for skate boarding and break dancing?

Triathlon is pure head to head competition, with no judges (ex those giving drafting penalties). Host cities don’t need to build a special purpose stadium. Just find a body of water and shut down a road. Olympian headcount would go up about 80 people.

Do it on the penultimate day of the fortnight, so as not to conflict with the marathon. If you did the Oly/sprint at the start of the games, you could have some guys like AB try a double or triple with the mixed relay.

Oh well. At least we can look forward to archery, shooting and equestrian events.

[quote Waingro

Oh well. At least we can look forward to archery, shooting and equestrian events.[/quote]
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Come on,that is such a myopic view as those sports you listed are just a valid as triathlon. Showcasing all of the worlds sports and their athletes is what the Olympics is all about.

You can be sure that there are hundreds of millions of Olympic Games viewers who don't give a shit about the Triathlon events.

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Totally agree all the excessive swim medals won't be dropped.
It's all about the $$$ now, not sport for the sake of sporting endeavour (and as others said a new sport has to be TV friendly as the TV rights bring in huge $$$ too).
Also cheap to televise a 50m pool compared to outdoors.

I just wish the IOC got serious and put in a real sport like break dancing.....

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It is a brave new world..

But there is room for skate boarding and break dancing?


I get a bit teary eyed and all mystical when, I think back to how literally one man - Les McDonald, single handily got triathlon into the Olympic Games, in the early to mid 1990's. No Les, and triathlon is NOT in the games!

Back then, if you literally befriended and charmed the IOC President (Juan Antonio Samaranch) and key Board Members enough, you somehow got into the Games(It is a bit more complicated than that - but I'm not far off!). There is a crazy story that I believe has been part fictionalized, of Les, shinnying up a drain-pipe to get into an ultra exclusive party at a Hotel, in Europe where Princess Anne (who was for a time on the IOC Board) was in attendance - just so Les could get the Princesses attention, and give her the Triathlon pitch, one on one! That kind of approach worked back then. It's a whole different game now as others have said - based on TV, rights, money, and more money!

I was living in Vancouver at the time, in the 1990's, where Les was based, and he would often phone me up, and we would have these long rambling conversations about triathlon, the Olympic Games, and how his audacious (one of Les's favorite words) pursuit was going. I think it's why when I did watch on TV, Simon Whitfield, who I knew well, win that first men's Olympic Medal, with the Maple Leaf on his back, I broke out into tears, watching the race, with my then 3-year-old son sitting in my lap asking me, "Dad, why are you crying?"!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I think it is a fair exercise to gauge different sports on a scale of worthiness.

Is the sport played across a large number of nations?
Is it played by a large number of people?
Is there an Olympic tradition to it?
Are the Olympics the most prestigious competition in the sport?
Is it a real objective competition (I.e., not judged)?
Is it really a sport, as opposed to an activity (see break dancing)?

Triathlon scores pretty well on that criteria.

Not that viewers are going to lock into an eight hour 140.6 broadcast, but with the way TV cuts in and out of events throughout the day, they could hit the key points, and then join for the conclusion. Or cut it in half and make it a 70.3, which is more likely to have head to head competition.

2 hour broadcast window.
No gruelathon (staggering runners, collapsing athletes).
The IOC is never going to allow a brand as part of the Games (& at the time of ITU lobbying to get into the Games it was "at war" with Ironman).
Draft legal was the turning point, on the competition side, for entrance into the competition program.

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#swimmingmatters
Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
The Doctor (#12)

I think ITU is packaged better for television. They tried to get the super sprint elimination format in from 2024 but failed. So they are looking more towards Superleague than Ironman.

I've always felt Long Course was really more niche than short course (I don't live in North America for perspective). A 7-8 hour event is not something that is really gonna be put on mainstream TV, like ITU does from time to time. It's a really hard sell.

There is a big focus on the following
- reducing (or at worst maintaining) numbers of athletes (but watch the number of officials continue to grow).
- TV friendly events
- more events using the same athletes
- more 'medal moments'.

LC fails on every part of this - athletes are unlikely to double up, it's an event too long for the casual viewer etc etc.

And each of these focuses suck.