UK Petition - Keep the Olympic Range

[Richard H]

Did a quick search and 1948 only had 4 shooting events and only 59 nations took part in the olympics so venues would not need to be as large as todays.

1908 there were 15 shooting events most look to be fullbore and even the smallbore stuff is not like todays .22 stuff so there probably were never any ranges that would accomodate modern smallbore comps.

[PaulB]

I agree, basically if the government has ownership of a range it most likely will be destroyed unless it happens to be on a military base or such.

I remember someone telling me that the IOC rules prohibit any Olympic event from being held on a military installation. Can anyone verify this?

[Richard H]

Bisley is partialy own by National Defense, no? 2 Olympics were held there, but there may be new rules.

[David Levene]

Bisley is partialy own by National Defense, no? 2 Olympics were held there, but there may be new rules.

As I understand it the National Shooting Centre at Bisley is Crown property, held on a long lease by the National Rifle Association.

As for Olympics being held at military installations, the proposed site for the shooting in 2012 is the Royal Artillery Barracks at Woolwich. The IOC are perfectly happy with this.

[Richard H]

There seems to be this idea that the Olympics has something against the military of countries, thats very far from the truth. Some of the sports were exclusively participated in by members of the military until relatively recently.