Absolute stupidity

[arwebb 133]

What on earth are they thinking? Why get rid of two great traditional Olympic disciplines?

Chris Hoy isn't happy and he's got every right.

Hoy denied Olympic title defence

[mexico1968 0]

is this the beggining of  the desacretitation of some "traditional" olympic sports? :rock:

[arwebb 133]

I hope not, but it makes you wonder.

[stevie 14]

Are road racing time-trails still in? Because Athens gold medallist Sarah Ulmer is now supposed to be concentrating on the 20km time trial now.

[arwebb 133]

I haven't heard anything to say any other disciplines are being scrapped.

Utterly brainless decision.

[Eruedan 0]

Well we're all pissed down under, Anna Meares won't be able to defend her gold medal in Beijing and Shane Kelly has been our wonder boy in the 1000m since Barcelona.

This only leaves 3 events for the women on the track - Sprint, 3000m pursuit and the points race.

I was all for BMX being accepted into the games but not at the cost of these events. BMX can get knicked.

[Guardian 22]

Was this the first time any event of any kind in the Olympic program has been dropped since London 1948?

[Eruedan 0]

Depends, there's been a few modifications....off the top of my head I recall the Modern Pentathlon team event going though it wasn't really a seperate event, just awarded on results from the individual competition.

Same for Equestrian and Archery.

I think the Snowboarding racing event changed from Nagano to Salt Lake from being a individual slalom to a head to head event.

That's all i can think of for the moment.

[arwebb 133]

There were team equestrian and archery events in Athens, weren't there?

[Guardian 22]

There were team equestrian and archery events in Athens, weren't there?

I'm sure it was the case for both of them. I know there was a team equestrian event, but I'm not quite sure about the archery one(s).

As for dropping those cycling events and bringing in a couple of BMX ones, which cycling events are left so far after this news?

[Durban Sandshark 154]

This is absolutely wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong!!!

In cycling, there's a beauty and appeal in racing against the opponent's time without actually racing against him or her.

Accomodate BMX yes, but not at the expense of established cycling events.

(All the more reason to expand the Olympic schedule up to a month)

[LuigiVercotti 19]

Was this the first time any event of any kind in the Olympic program has been dropped since London 1948?

Here's a list of most events that have gone from the summer games programme since 1948 or later...

Women's pentathlon (athletics)

Team Time Trial (Cycling)

Tandem Pursuit (Cycling)

Men's & Women's 10,000 metres walk (athletics)

Women's 3000 metres (athletics)

Light Middleweight (boxing)

Women's team foil (fencing)

Open Division (judo)

K1 & K2 10,000 metres (canoe/kayak)

4x500 K1 relay (canoe/kayak)

C1 & C2 10,000 metres (canoe/kayak)

Women's Team Exercise with Portable Appartus (gymnastics)

Team Pentathlon

Coxed Pairs (Rowing)

Coxed Foursome (Rowing)

Dragon/5.5 metre/6 metre/Flying Dutchman/Tempest/Soling classes (Yachting)

There has also been plenty of weight divisions in boxing and weightlifting that have changed or disappeared since 1948.

The problem for cycling is that it is a sport which has added several events (kieran, madison, bmx) and also has a technical gap between certain countries (e.g. France, Australia, Germany, Canada, UK, NZ, Italy, USA, Spain) and the rest of the world. Most Asian and African countries struggle to put cyclists on the track or road, and this means the ICU can and does lose out the great struggle for a bigger piece of the Olympics pie.

Losing the 1km time trial is a damn shame...

[jimmyc 0]

Was this the first time any event of any kind in the Olympic program has been dropped since London 1948?

Here's a list of most events that have gone from the summer games programme since 1948 or later...

Women's pentathlon (athletics)

Team Time Trial (Cycling)

Tandem Pursuit (Cycling)

Men's & Women's 10,000 metres walk (athletics)

Women's 3000 metres (athletics)

Light Middleweight (boxing)

Women's team foil (fencing)

Open Division (judo)

K1 & K2 10,000 metres (canoe/kayak)

4x500 K1 relay (canoe/kayak)

C1 & C2 10,000 metres (canoe/kayak)

Women's Team Exercise with Portable Appartus (gymnastics)

Team Pentathlon

Coxed Pairs (Rowing)

Coxed Foursome (Rowing)

Dragon/5.5 metre/6 metre/Flying Dutchman/Tempest/Soling classes (Yachting)

There has also been plenty of weight divisions in boxing and weightlifting that have changed or disappeared since 1948.

The problem for cycling is that it is a sport which has added several events (kieran, madison, bmx) and also has a technical gap between certain countries (e.g. France, Australia, Germany, Canada, UK, NZ, Italy, USA, Spain) and the rest of the world. Most Asian and African countries struggle to put cyclists on the track or road, and this means the ICU can and does lose out the great struggle for a bigger piece of the Olympics pie.

Losing the 1km time trial is a damn shame...

You can add solo syncroswimming and several shooting events to the list.  There have also been events that were dropped only to return later on. About a dozen events were dropped after 1972. All but two later returned(tandem sprint and 300m. large bore rifle being the exceptions).

[arwebb 133]

It's more than a shame. It's a joke, and a sick one at that.