Motorsport in the Olympics
Discussion
Graham said:
if anyone complains it not athletic enough, I'll stick them in my tuscan for an hour at mallory and see if they have enough strength left afterwards to climb out
When I drove in my old Skyline to the climbing centre, I always made sure I had enough energy to drive home... triple plate clutch and a stiff gearbox was fun.
Graham said:
why not ? maybe bmw could supply all the cars lol
My own personal opinion is that the Olympics should be predominantly about sports where human physical ability is the primary thing being tested. Obviously there are existing Olympic events that utilise equipment but with the possible exception of equestrian (which is one I would get rid of) the human is still the source of power. I’ve no doubt that racing a car, motorbike or other vehicle is both physically demanding and skilful but any such racing is critically dependent on a non-human powered engine of some sort. The human factor is fundamentally different with motorsport.The modern Olympics are also meant to be a spiritual successor to the original Olympics, the ancient Greeks did many impressive things but inventing the internal combustion engine was not one of them. I’d also question the ability of many nations, other than the rich ones, to be able to be competitive within an Olympic motorsport event. One of the few remaining beauties of the Olympics is the ability of a small nation to win a world title.
Finally, the people behind the Olympics are not the sort of people I’d want behind motorsport. I’ve no proof but can’t help thinking that Olympic organisation is inherently corrupt.
I think the issue is that you have a non-inert third party. Namely the car.
Whilst archers, cyclists, kayakists, rowers all have equipment, it is all manually powered. There is no engine in there.
It is completely irrational, and I cannot explain it, but to me motorsport just doesn't 'fit' with the concept. With that logic, I would also take 3 day eventing out.
Whilst archers, cyclists, kayakists, rowers all have equipment, it is all manually powered. There is no engine in there.
It is completely irrational, and I cannot explain it, but to me motorsport just doesn't 'fit' with the concept. With that logic, I would also take 3 day eventing out.
RedWhiteMonkey said:
As much as I like motorsport there are loads of non-motorsport events that deserve to be in the olympics before motorsport.
But how many complete categories of sport are currently completely unrepresented?As it happens I'm bind of ambivalent about the idea in general but I think you could make a pretty good case for motorcycle trials (traditional, arena, or both) or Freestyle Moto-X, both of which require tremendous amounts of traditional athleticism, skill, and bravery - quite closely analogous to equestrianism and they'd fit into the Olympics pretty well in my view...
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