Athletics at the Summer Olympic Games 2020

[NearPup 4,183]

10 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

That goes for so many events in the Olympics though.

Yes, and those are usually the events that are at risk when it comes time to make cuts. Generally speaking people saying that "this event being cut from the Olympics would kill said event" is, IMO, a pretty good indication that it's a good candidate for being eliminated from the Olympics. The IOC is ultimately not who is killing the 50k walk, it's WA that has wanted to get rid of it for ages.

 

The 50km race walking event shouldn't need the Olympics to survive, the fact that there won't even be a world championship anymore proves that the IOC isn't to blame for the demise of the event.

[dcro 10,211]

4 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

That goes for so many events in the Olympics though. Most of them don't often make for a four hour piece of twists and turns (although this was basically the first 50k I've seen in a long time where not that much was happening, and still plenty happened). Rarely had 3:50 hours go by as fast as this morning..

It kind of is though since apparently free beer and sausages are the grand plan of getting more spectators involved.

[heywoodu 16,461]

3 minutes ago, dcro said:

It kind of is though since apparently free beer and sausages are the grand plan of getting more spectators involved.

I'm not saying it's not niche, it is. Just saying that considering the program of the Olympics, that is far from being a reason to not be in the program. Probably the events of which people would be most likely to react laughing and saying "Wait you're really watching that?" would be race walk, doubles luge and rhythmic gymnastics/artistic swimming  

[dcro 10,211]

6 minutes ago, NearPup said:

Yes, and those are usually the events that are at risk when it comes time to make cuts. Generally speaking people saying that "this event being cut from the Olympics would kill said event" is, IMO, a pretty good indication that it's a good candidate for being eliminated from the Olympics.

I guess so, but this stands for way too many Olympic events. In particular for the likes of canoeing, sailing etc.

[heywoodu 16,461]

7 minutes ago, NearPup said:

Yes, and those are usually the events that are at risk when it comes time to make cuts. Generally speaking people saying that "this event being cut from the Olympics would kill said event" is, IMO, a pretty good indication that it's a good candidate for being eliminated from the Olympics. The IOC is ultimately not who is killing the 50k walk, it's WA that has wanted to get rid of it for ages.

There should be a lot more anger towards WA than towards IOC in this case, absolutely. Or in general, because WA isn't doing much good anyway.

[NearPup 4,183]

2 minutes ago, dcro said:

I guess so, but this stands for way too many Olympic events. In particular for the likes of canoeing, sailing etc.

Ya and those are the events that are on the chopping block :/

 

But you know, as sad as I am to see the C-2 slalom being cut, they immediately eliminated the event from all International competition the moment it got removed from the Olympics, which to me is proof that the ICF didn't see much value for the event other than being a medal at the Olympics. As much as I dislike "extreme" canoeing as an event, it actually survived as a non-Olympic event, both inside and outside of the ICF (no joke the only time I've ever seen canooeing on American TV it was a non-ICF "extreme" canoeing race). Why couldn't C-2 slalom?

[heywoodu 16,461]

Meanwhile, women are about to start. Since it's the walk and weird things always happen it's hard to actually predict, but if the walks were to deliver a podium sweep, this is basically the main chance. Let's see if anyone can upset the Chinese.

[hckošice 16,621]

What one has to read in this forum sometimes..I swear

[dcro 10,211]

Brazil leads!

[heywoodu 16,461]

4 minutes ago, hckošice said:

What one has to read in this forum sometimes..I swear

It's like knives straight into your soul