Which Olympic Pistol Disciplines Threatened?

[Mike McDaniel]

I'll cheerfully concede that I could be mistaken about IPSC, though those were the reports I read.

As to moving the indoor sports to the Winter Games, if I were running the IOC, I wouldn't be looking at AP/AR. There's too much overlap with the cartridge gun events. I'd be looking at table tennis, judo, boxing, fencing - sports that are traditionally held indoors, and thus are associated with the winter (when you spend time indoors) anyway. If I could manage it, I'd move basketball too.

The deal could be sweetened by increasing the number of competitors in each sport. I know for a fact that the fencers would snap up the opportunity to get a full slate of events.

Nevertheless, I think that the real solution is not to shuffle events, but to break up the Summer Games entirely into a Spring, Summer, and Fall Games. You hold one season a year - which means that a given event still is held quadrennially. This would knock all the Games to managable proportions, while still permitting growth.

[David Levene]

Nevertheless, I think that the real solution is not to shuffle events, but to break up the Summer Games entirely into a Spring, Summer, and Fall Games. You hold one season a year - which means that a given event still is held quadrennially. This would knock all the Games to managable proportions, while still permitting growth.

It's a nice idea Mike but I doubt that it would have the commercial pull that the summer games have now.

It is a great sadness that most of the decisions regarding the organisation of the Olympics appear (even if they actually aren't) to be based on what is good for the TV companies and sponsors rather than what is best for the athletes. I suppose it could be argued that what is good for one is good for the other, the commercial side ensures the continuance of the Games. The joy of competition seems lessened somehow.

[Sparks]

Could the air events be shifted to the Winter Games to facilitate that concern to a degree? The awkward part would be that most AP shooters also shoot FP.

Why not shift one entire discipline to the winter games instead of one entire class of firearm? All pistol events, for example? Sweeten the move by reintroducing fullbore pistol and standard pistol to the events list.

IIRC, IPSC was in the Athens games.

Nope. There was a big push by IPSC to get into the Athens games as a demonstration event, but the IOC told them that ISSF were the shooting governing body for shooting sports in the Olympics; and the ISSF are rather adamantly opposed to the idea of IPSC being a sport, going so far as to threaten the French Shooting Union with derecognition if they continuted to have IPSC members running the Union. The IPSC then said they'd ignore the IOC/ISSF decision and run a seperate event in Greece at the time of the Games and try for some fringe time on the networks to cover it; in response the Minister of Sport in Greece banned all shooting clubs in Greece from holding an IPSC match during the Olympics. 'twas a rather big mess.

[sparky]

It wasn't there. There was talk about it possibly being an exhibition event, but it didn't happen.

IIRC, IPSC was in the Athens games.

Mike,

Where was IPSC? Here are the results from Athens:

http://www.athens2004.com/en/resultsSho ... =SH0000000

Stan

[Alex]

First off I have nothing against IPSC, but it will never get into the Olympics because it's too much like "combat"; TOOO politically incorrect for a world that thinks that if you do away with all guns, people will stop the carnage that the simple minded murderers are determined to inflict on the unsuspecting. Look at RF: silhouettes to stylized silhouettes, to round targets.

Secondly I believe that very soon(London?) the only shooting events in the Olympic program will be those shot with airguns. This from a shooter who cares to shoot nothing but RF(preferably on my old stylized Silhouettes).

Hold center,
Alex