Single handling both sexes?

 

Chris et al

The issue is not necessarily which particular classes should be involved at the Olympics, the politics of selection (retention?) being just a symptom of possibly a different problem or malaise - it is more one of what exactly is the point of sailing in the Olympics ?  Prestige ?  Promotion of the sport ?  Income streams for the 'organisers' ? .....Most disciplines, let along individual classes or types, are not involved anyway so why on earth is there such emphasis on it.   'Dinghy' sailing is just one branch and participation is very possibly not proportionally dominant by sheer numbers involved either.

Few question involvement in the Olympics .... but perhaps they should at a more basic level.  Some sports do not get involved, others see it as a bit of a side-show.

You mention elimination by 'age' of discipline from involvement -  Sailing is one of the few equipment based disciplines so it is reasonable to assume some upgrading.  On the other hand unless Homo Sapiens 2.0 is released some  time soon I suspect running along the current lines is fairly safe for now. .....  Of course drug 'enhanced' competitors will and already have pushed these boundaries a tad !  

Edited by Cirrus - 18 Oct 16 at 3:26pm

Originally posted by Cirrus It bears repeating .... why all the fuss about the Olymic bit ?      There is plenty of vibrant life outside and our sport hardly needs the 5-ring circus.  If it served to attract more into sailing there might be a case but the 'coverage' is token, expensive, difficult and generally very poor.   Is there any measurable and sustained impact on participation ?  It hardly scratches the surface of competitive sailing in all its different forms and arguably artificially maintains a focus  on a very small sample of sometimes over priced, atypical but politically well connected classes when the rest of the sailing world really has moved on ... in some instances by many decades.  WF might well like the association for all sorts of reasons ... but does the circus  (or even WF in its current form for that matter)  really cut it  ?

Yep, the Olympics gets less inspirational with each passing occurrence........anyway, most of them have asthma (allegedly).

Sport at the lower Sunday afternoon level is much more important IMO. Encouraging kids to kick around on a piece of scrap ground is much more beneficial to nation and individual. If they still kick a ball around the same scrap of ground when they're 40 then that's fantastic.

Edited by transient - 18 Oct 16 at 9:51pm

Originally posted by GarethT It would probably help if the IKA hadn't p!ssed of a lot of potential allies by trying to lie their way to Rio.

The IKA is a manufactured body foisted upon us by bloody sailors, we have no desire to be part of ISAF/World sailing, have every board have to pay $6 to have a label on it and the price of kiting increased, small manufacturers crippled and backroom deals involving large brown envelopes deciding who makes the kit we use.

.... as noted earlier there seems to be no reason to think that Olympic dinghy ailing is lagging and the rest of the sport "has moved on"

At the very least hightly debatable .... and if 'outside' it would not matter at all.  Those disciplines that were appealing, older or newer, would prevail and prosper - not because some old crusties in power supported a particular model cos 'that is what they used when they were young themselves'.  Tell me how many times did the Star need the wooden stake through the heart before it was 'moved on' ?  .....and we can anticipate similar lobbying and politics with the Finn emerging in the future.   World championships simply  don't have to be 'second best' to the 5 ring circus ... unless 'they' make it thus and tell the rest of us plebs it surely is ....


Edited by Cirrus - 18 Oct 16 at 11:34pm

"Oh yes, all your questions about why sailing is in the Games, and the effect of leaving, are very valid. In the long run it could be a good thing if sailing wasn't there. National bodies in some nations may lose their funding but if that means they have to earn it by catering for the grass roots that could actually be a good thing for the sport."