If slalom was as popular as some other sports, how do you think it'd be different?
do you think there would be new disaplines?
you could have different classes for boat lengths and stuff.. like there is in sailing (I think)
do you think that more events would have ettiene style comentary??
i was jus wondering how it could be different if it was a bigger sport....
any thoughts??
what if???? - .....
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Pingu
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I remember some discussion about the size of teams & sports on the BBC discussion site when Campbell was being criticised for not trying hard enough to get a gold medal and "settling" for silver.
The writer gave the example of swimming. A precis of his/her argument was:
Swimming has too many disciplines, events and consequently athletes at major championships.
It is accepted that the fastest stroke is front crawl.
Therefore why have dozens of additional events for slower strokes like breast stroke and butterfly? After all when did you ever see anyone swimming butterfly other than in a race?
And as for backstroke, that's the equivalent of an athletics race where you have to run backwards!
As far as slalom is concerned though we have to accept that we will always struggle to attract widespread interest in our sport.
My view is that it's to do with the fact that we are having a race but we only see one competitor at a a time. Compare this with sailing or rowing where you can see all the competitors together. This is probably more exciting to a neutral observer and shorter and snappier for TV coverage. The exception is downhill skiing which is run like slalom though perhaps part of the attraction of that sport is that there is a reasonable chance of seeing a broken leg or two!
The writer gave the example of swimming. A precis of his/her argument was:
Swimming has too many disciplines, events and consequently athletes at major championships.
It is accepted that the fastest stroke is front crawl.
Therefore why have dozens of additional events for slower strokes like breast stroke and butterfly? After all when did you ever see anyone swimming butterfly other than in a race?
And as for backstroke, that's the equivalent of an athletics race where you have to run backwards!
As far as slalom is concerned though we have to accept that we will always struggle to attract widespread interest in our sport.
My view is that it's to do with the fact that we are having a race but we only see one competitor at a a time. Compare this with sailing or rowing where you can see all the competitors together. This is probably more exciting to a neutral observer and shorter and snappier for TV coverage. The exception is downhill skiing which is run like slalom though perhaps part of the attraction of that sport is that there is a reasonable chance of seeing a broken leg or two!
Out of Darkness cometh Light
thats not the only reason why it isnt popular.
i reckon cos has to be run on a river. and there arent many of them.
like there are endless places to play football, rugby etc. hence there popularity
all that stuff about swimming is true to an extent. but its not like running backwards at all.
you dont always swim racing necessarily, so its just another style....it doensnt really matter how fast they are. its jus differnt. more like boxing i'd say. "why dont you only run super heavy weight cos there the strongest and best"
thats just stupid
I am only askin cos we were talkin about how there should be female C1.
and then you could have female C2
and then you could have mixed.
if there was a bigger following of the sport
I was just wondering what kinda ways you all thort it might be different
i reckon cos has to be run on a river. and there arent many of them.
like there are endless places to play football, rugby etc. hence there popularity
all that stuff about swimming is true to an extent. but its not like running backwards at all.
you dont always swim racing necessarily, so its just another style....it doensnt really matter how fast they are. its jus differnt. more like boxing i'd say. "why dont you only run super heavy weight cos there the strongest and best"
thats just stupid
I am only askin cos we were talkin about how there should be female C1.
and then you could have female C2
and then you could have mixed.
if there was a bigger following of the sport
I was just wondering what kinda ways you all thort it might be different