Why No Olympic Skydiving?

[Muppetdog 0]

?

[piisfish 135]

do you feel very olympic today ???

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[PhillyKev 0]

It's boring to watch for the vast majority of the public.

[adamjenner 0]

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It's boring to watch for the vast majority of the public.

damn whuffo's.....i was thinking the same thing. example, the space games...never seen it on tv.
apparently ESPN plays it but i've yet to see them on there.

[Muppetdog 0]

Dude boring, 80% of the stuff they have for Olympic avents are boring. Why not some 4-way or free flying or pond swooping. If they could take half pipe snowbording and make it an event, damn come on.

[quade 3]

Ever see the reaction of one of your whuffo friends to even the best skydiving videos? I'm guessing it's interesting for them for about 2.3 nanoseconds and afterwhich they get this tilty-headed, confused dog look because they just don't understand WTF they're looking at.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[adamjenner 0]

you have a point. i love watching skydiving movies but if you're not a jumper it can be *yawn* as i've seen from some of my friends.

but that brings me back to what i said, if not in the olympics then you think they could air some of the footage from the space games on tv?
I mean i've heard jumpers say it's on tv...somewhere, sometime...but i haven't seen it yet.

[tunaplanet 0]

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It's boring to watch for the vast majority of the public.

Just like over half of the events.

Seriously, try again with another guess.

Forty-two

[quade 3]

No. That's really the major reason.

There just aren't all that many people interested in it.

Consider the sports they feature. Today I watched women's beach vollyball. I'm tellin' ya, 90% of men would rather watch four chicks in bikinis than watch four guys in black jumpsuits.

That's kind of a duh -- isn't it?

It's about the MONEY. Keeping people tuned in between the commercials.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[Douva 0]

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It's boring to watch for the vast majority of the public.

Yes, skydiving could never be as exciting to the general public as classic nail biters like synchronized swimming and badminton. The truth is, the absence of Olympic skydiving has nothing to do with being boring or exciting--The way things are setup, the Olympic committee can't add a new sport without removing an old sport. Any proposal to remove an old sport obviously meets with a LOT of resistance. Every modern "sport," from skateboarding to video gaming, is trying to get into the Olympics. The winter Olympics have always kind of starved for sports, so the Olympic committee is lot more open to "trend sports" for the winter games than the summer games, which have always had more than enough sports to fill the schedule.

--Douva

I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

[Douva 0]

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No. That's really the major reason.

There just aren't all that many people interested in it.

Consider the sports they feature. Today I watched women's beach vollyball. I'm tellin' ya, 90% of men would rather watch four chicks in bikinis than watch four guys in black jumpsuits.

That's kind of a duh -- isn't it?

It's about the MONEY. Keeping people tuned in between the commercials.

I don't think your assessment is accurate, Quade. Unlike the X-Games, which are primarily a marketing tool, the Olympics have never been an event to simply aim for ratings grabbers. Both the summer and winter Olympics include events that are mostly ignored by the general public. I think my previous post does a better job of explaining why newer, trendier events seldom find their way into the Olympics.

Blue skies,

Douva

I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

[quade 3]

I said, major, not only.

There are other reasons as well but they all boil down to a general lack of interest for the television and live audiences.

For somethings as horrendously expensive as an international skydiving competition, there would be very little to show for it - both figuratively and actually.

Take a look at this web site for some insight.

http://www.iaaf.org/tvseminar/news/Kind=524288/newsId=24750.html

If you think the Olympics is about athletics, then you've been fooled. It's about money.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[Douva 0]

I bet if we could promise at least one accident per event, we could draw in the TV audience the way NASCAR does.

"Dale Earnhardt, Jr. picks up the the grip on the 'left doughnut,' and OH, WAIT A MINUTE, FOLKS...he just funneled it, and wait....yes, it looks like he knocked loose Jeff Gordon's pilotchute, and Gordon is fighting with a nasty horseshoe. This disaster comes on the heels of Kyle Petty's premature reserve deployment during the free fly competition."

Or maybe we could just get some bigger than life personalities like pro-wrestling.

"I will cut your risers and spot you over your mother's house, you flailing sack of dog excrement! I am going to take you DOWWWWNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!"

I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

[DrunkMonkey 0]

*WARNING-Slight Thread Jack*

...But ever notice ignorant NASCAR rednecks never advocate disbanding NASCAR when some hick gets into a fatal wreck, but if a skydiver hurts themselves, they're all about banning/restricting skydiving?

[quade 3]

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I bet if we could promise at least one accident per event, we could draw in the TV audience the way NASCAR does.

And that's one of the reasons why I think that swooping -may- have a chance as long as they keep making it difficult -enough- to have the occasional chow, but obviously we don't really want to promote sport death. Fine line there.

Even pond swooping though has some inherent issues chief among them that damn ride and repack cycle. If you had a fairly large number of contestants, rigs and Porters -- made a kick ass event that lasted about 1.5 to 2 hours -- kept the action right in front of the grand stands -- had some spectacular failures. . . yeah, -maybe- you'd be on to something.

Expensive as hell to put on though.

As of now, I figure that even in the best of instances, we're only about 1/3 of the way there for an event like that. Then again, ain't nobody at PST been asking for my opinion.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[ltdiver 3]

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As of now, I figure that even in the best of instances, we're only about 1/3 of the way there for an event like that.

I believe that Jim Slaton is quietly making headway this direction.

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[jtval 0]

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It's boring to watch for the vast majority of the public.

lol YEt that same vast majority spends most thier life in fornt of the tv.


( i know what you mean but it just sounded wierd the way you said it)

not a spectator sport

My photos

My Videos

[homesickanvil83 0]

Trampolining and curling are Olympic sports, and I have to say that I find this a bit funny, especially curling. One might as well add darts to the list of Olympic sports. I think there must be some aspect of skydiving that could be included as an Olympic sport, especially with the wide range of different disciplines skydiving offers.

[shropshire 0]

Just a thought but.....
There's already a World Air Games... could that be raised to be a 3rd Olympic platform under the IOC banner (Summer, Winter, Air)

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[BlindBrick 0]

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It's boring to watch for the vast majority of the public.

Yes, skydiving could never be as exciting to the general public as classic nail biters like synchronized swimming and badminton.

Dude, you may think I'm BS'ing you, but in Asia, badmition is incredibly huge. While probably not as blood-thirsty to their fellow fans, Asian badmition fans are just as hard-core as Euro soccer fans.

-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[PhreeZone 14]

Name me another sport that requires a car/airplane to do at the Olympics.

Skydiving is better as a cerimonies event (rings over Souel), etc then as a competitive event.

I want some one to name me the top 3 ranked skysurfers, the members of Airspeed, MAjic and the russian 4 way team and who the top accuracy competitiar was.


Not even jumps care enough to follow their own athletes.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[Muppetdog 0]

Most of the people who watch the Olympics only learn the names of the participants while they watch. They usually don't turn on the tv knowing every person in every event.

[skipro101 0]

Im going to agree with quade here. Its the monet folks.

And whoever it was who said the olympics has never been about ratings and marketing, your mistaken. There are thousands of items and services that try to capatalize on the olympics, you can see the olympic rings everywhere from Mcdonalds bags to bracelets.

Not many people realte with skydiving...


However....if curling can be in the olympics.....lol, I dont see why skydiving cant

[brokky 4]

...(Just a thought but.....
There's already a World Air Games... could that be raised to be a 3rd Olympic platform under the IOC banner (Summer, Winter, Air) ...)

The platform for a sport to become Olympic is the World Games (under the patronage of the Int. Olympic comitee).People like BJ Worth and Roland Hilfiker have been trying for years to get skydiving in there.During the last 2 World Games (Finland 1997 and Japan 2001) ,Skydiving was part of it .(FS-4,Freestyle and accuracy).Next year the World Games take place in Germany,where there will also be Canopy piloting.
Somebody mentioned here that trampoline is an Olympic sport,well last time(Japan 2001), it was still in the World games...so maybe there´s hope??

wuk??

http://www.brunobrokken.com

[Zenister 0]

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Its the monet folks.

sure its not the matisse?

____________________________________
Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.