Olympic 'finals' proposal

Hm......I think your teacher and textbook are well out of date. I believe the Olympics were opened to professionals in the 90s. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Games#Amateurism_and_pr ofessionalism

In any case, "shamateurism" has been widely practised to get around such restrictions. Atheletes were paid to do imaginary jobs while actually training and competing full-time.

You are not likely to win a sailing medal today without training full-time for several years. Unless you happen to have wealthy and indulgent parents, the money to live while doing so has to come from somewhere.

 

Edited by Stefan Lloyd

Originally posted by turnturtle Do you think the final resolution is as bad as we initially thought?

It's turned out to be a bit of a storm in a teacup. Double points for the last race isn't really a huge change, although I hope it doesn't "trickle down" to grass-roots events.

I really stick with my comments about falling between two stools. I don't think that this will make sailing significantly more TV friendly, while it has still damaged the fairness of the event from a competitors perspective, although less than I had feared.

Good egg Rick bringing this thread back to the front. The selling feature of track racing is its in a velodrome..... everyone can see it all at once. Has anyone out there seen the team racing at Kirby, I heard it could be similar and therfore a good challenger to the likes of tracks biking???????

If it is, I vote for all olympic sailing to go out the window, and the into of 1 event...... team racing...... in scorpions!

Three team racing events please with weight bands like boxing

one for lightweights : max  weight  for a team of six 320 kg

one for middleweights 300 -480 kg

one for normal people (now known as heavyweights in the topsy-turvy world of dinghy sailing 450 kg plus.

Boats as appropriate - all teams to include at least 2 members of either sex

 

Advantage - dirt cheap to organise- 18 boats max to buy, sailors only present for a few days, lots of good telegenic racing. Copuld be fun.

 

Gordon-

Team racing for the Olympics. Yeah, what a good idea. First boat doesn't win, complex rules, everyone interfering with each other, not higher, faster, stronger but how much can you interfere with the other guys? Its about as good a fit with the Olympics as championship draughts...