International Olympic Committee News

[Federer91 2,797]

How not surprising is that almost all of those sports are the ones who don't have an established event series through the year to promote the athletes and sport itself.

 

The same sports who need to have a World / Continental Championships every year, just to have a meaningful event with hope to get some attention and minor revenue.   

[dcro 10,210]

Also they are the same federations whose disciplines lose all prestige as soon as they get removed from the Olympic program. And by prestige I mean any kind of international participation.

[dcro 10,210]

I wonder if anyone knows of a list of athletes who got selected for the 1980 Olympics, but eventually never became Olympians due to the boycott?

[hckošice 14,835]

17 hours ago, dcro said:

I wonder if anyone knows of a list of athletes who got selected for the 1980 Olympics, but eventually never became Olympians due to the boycott?

 

There a list for 1984 somewhere I believe I read it once, for Czechoslovakia  including the likes of Jarmila Kratochvilová or Helena Fibingerová

 

but in other hand former TCH won a full pack of medals at the "Druzhba" Games 2-18-28 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship_Games

[Griff88 1,952]

18 hours ago, dcro said:

I wonder if anyone knows of a list of athletes who got selected for the 1980 Olympics, but eventually never became Olympians due to the boycott?

 

Not much online resources available for Indonesian athletes, but there are Adang Ajiji (archery - male), Suminar Rachmat & Murniningsih (archery - female).

 

These 3 athletes never had the chance for 1984 unlike the last member of the team: Donald Pandiangan (who competed in 1976 and 1984). However this also became a heartbreak for Donald, because he is reported to break the FITA world record in 1977 National Games and was top 12 in the World Championships.

 

He felt that he lost the best chance to medal (he cried when Indonesia officially boycotted), but in the end he decided to take up the women's archery coach position in 1988 which you know what the results are

[phelps 7,678]

On 01/05/2020 at 14:30, Federer91 said:

How not surprising is that almost all of those sports are the ones who don't have an established event series through the year to promote the athletes and sport itself.

 

The same sports who need to have a World / Continental Championships every year, just to have a meaningful event with hope to get some attention and minor revenue.   

 

actually, Fencing and Shooting have 2 of the best world circuit through the whole year (and they alsohave them live and ondemand for free on the internet), just to name a couple...

 

the problem is that almost all these sports have always been just a pastime for rich and bored high society people and they never developed themselves as "popular disciplines", therefore nowadays we can't pretend them to suddenly become what they are not, just because the modern technologies are helping a few of us to fall in love with them beyond their true space and interest...

[phelps 7,678]

20 hours ago, dcro said:

I wonder if anyone knows of a list of athletes who got selected for the 1980 Olympics, but eventually never became Olympians due to the boycott?

 

well, the 1980 Games were boycotted by 64 Nations (65 if we count Liberia, too...they participated to the Opening Ceremony but then withdrew from all the actual sport events)...

 

among them, USA of course, but also Canada, West Germany, Japan, Kenya (just to name those who had more medal chances than the others)...even Iran and many othe Middle East Nations...

 

Countries like Italy, France and Great Britain, instead, decided to participate without their athletes enrolled in the military forces and under the Olympic Flag...

 

the 2 most prominent Italian names missing the Olympics despite being huge medal candidates were Mariano Scartezzini (that year he was the 2nd best 3000m steeple chase specialist behind a Kenian, who was also absent) and Felice Mariani (judo bronze medallist in 1976 and among the favourites in the -60kg in that year)...

not sure about some fencing specialist, though...

 

for what concerns the US team, instead, here you can find the full swimming and athletics teams, with many of those athletes that could easily be considered "miss medals" because of the boycott (the 2 biggest names to me are Mary T. Meagher and Tracey Caulkins in swimming and Edwin Moses and Renaldo Nehemiah in athletics, of course)...

Swimming Team 1980...http://magazines.swimmingworld.com:9997/spipdf/1980usolympictrials.pdf

Athletics Trials 1980...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_United_States_Olympic_Trials_(track_and_field)

 

p.s. in that T&F team, there should have been also Matt Centrowicz Sr., dad of Matt Centrowicz Jr., who won the 1500m in Rio...

[Federer91 2,797]

1 hour ago, phelps said:

 

actually, Fencing and Shooting have 2 of the best world circuit through the whole year (and they alsohave them live and ondemand for free on the internet), just to name a couple...

 

 

Hmmm, i know the fencing World Cup and it's a complete mess. There is no organisation of the calendar whatsoever, just random events scattered around the year. A sabre thing here, a foil event there, men and women competing in different cities.. Is there a valid ranking system, which are the top tournaments, do all the best fencers compete in them? Compare it with the tennis circuit, where everything is clear from top to bottom. How can people learn and get to know who are the stars of fencing? If they made a product, which can be marketed by the TVs around the world and not give it for free on the internet, maybe they wouldn't be so much dependent on the IOC money. 

[pdr4332 218]

4 hours ago, hckosice said:

 

There a list for 1984 somewhere I believe I read it once, for Czechoslovakia  including the likes of Jarmila Kratochvilová or Helena Fibingerová

 

but in other hand former TCH won a full pack of medals at the "Druzhba" Games 2-18-28 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship_Games

 

With regard to the 1984 boycott, a few weeks ago I read an article in the local sport press written by an old sport commentator from Hungary about the HU women's basketball team who found out about the boycott just when they defeated Yugoslavia on a Qual tournament in Havanna, Cuba and thereby qualified for the Olympics... 

[Olympian1010 7,977]

28 minutes ago, Federer91 said:

 

Hmmm, i know the fencing World Cup and it's a complete mess. There is no organisation of the calendar whatsoever, just random events scattered around the year. A sabre thing here, a foil event there, men and women competing in different cities.. Is there a valid ranking system, which are the top tournaments, do all the best fencers compete in them? Compare it with the tennis circuit, where everything is clear from top to bottom. How can people learn and get to know who are the stars of fencing? If they made a product, which can be marketed by the TVs around the world and not give it for free on the internet, maybe they wouldn't be so much dependent on the IOC money. 

Yes, the randomness of the fencing calendar is absolutely something that needs to be fixed. There is a valid ranking system, the top tournaments are the world champs, world cups, and regional champs, and the best fencers compete at those tournaments. I wouldn’t actually use tennis is an example of good organization. There’s like 5 organizations that all run different aspects of the games, and it’s hella confusing. I mean, what even is the Davis Cup? Why haven’t the WTA and ATP combined? Why doesn’t the ITF actually do their job? Why are there dozens of different circuits? It’s not that much better than fencing honestly, it’s just more popular.

 

I have mixed feelings about television monetization. I think IFs should sell exclusive rights to their live streams, but then they should have an area on their website, or preferably YouTube, where they post free replays a week or two after the competition. That way they make money off their streams, but also promote the sport like the purpose of an international federation is to. They could even have their streaming service with the same principles. If you want to watch something live, you have to pay like $5 USD a month, or $2 USD a game (or something like that), but then it becomes free after the tournament ends or weekend passes. I do think that IFs should be non-profits or at least be for-profits that return all money to the athletes, and do the most to market their sport, govern their sport, develop their sport, and support their sport.