TargetTalk

Anyone thinks it's only a matter of time when shooting will be on the chopping block? If the IOC eliminate a sport ever four or eight years then ultimately shooting will be considered. What do you guys think? And, hopefully the rule changes will do some good.

Pretty likely that some events will ultimately be scaled down. Shooting, however, due to being essentially gender-neutral, is one that has a lot of scope to scale down while remaining effectively competitive. Also, the rule changes won't make any difference.

Oh come on Dave, can't you just see the millions of sports fans flocking to ISSF-style shooting events online and on TV thanks to the new and improved rules? Kidding of course. Maybe if they forced the female competitors to wear really skimpy bikinis like they do in beach volleyball... and had the guys shooting mock-duels with paintball guns... You know, spice it up a bit.

But seriously, I doubt shooting will ever be entirely removed from Olympic competitions, considering that shooting was one of the founding sports of the modern Games. It was the very first sport listed at the first modern Olympics wasn't it?

Plus,
It is the second most participated in sport by country, after track and field.
For many countries, it is the only way in to the Olympics.
another thing, the IOC is mostly European, and shooting is a major sport in Europe.

The Olympics has become all about money, they will drop any sport not pulling its own weight, sorry to say.

Gerard wrote:But seriously, I doubt shooting will ever be entirely removed from Olympic competitions, considering that shooting was one of the founding sports of the modern Games. It was the very first sport listed at the first modern Olympics wasn't it?

Don't count on history saving shooting. Wrestling was in the first modern Olympic games too, and I believe it was also in the original Olympics in some form.....

One of the legacies of a Olympics is that the venues are for all to use after the event........how many Olympic shooting ranges still exist ?
Not many...

David M wrote:One of the legacies of a Olympics is that the venues are for all to use after the event........how many Olympic shooting ranges still exist ?.

Not London thank goodness.

It's fine having the buildings and equipment but without having a high continuing use or other funding stream they quickly become a millstone.

Congratulations to those who have kept their Olympic ranges going.

I heard both the Athens and Atlanta stadia are like graveyards these days. Depressing monuments to the truth of the fact that the games are immensely expensive but for the majority of the world, only momentarily engaging.

Dave IRL wrote:I heard both the Athens and Atlanta stadia are like graveyards these days. Depressing monuments to the truth of the fact that the games are immensely expensive but for the majority of the world, only momentarily engaging.

And plenty others have been demolished. Whilst a legacy in the form of bits of the London range spread across the UK would have been great, I tend to concur with David.

Rob.

Atlanta kept open the venue for quite a few years, money was a big problem in keeping it open. Plus some Antigun sentiment as well.

Don't get me started....

Given the cost of electronic scoring gear, I think it might be a good idea for ISSF to have a set, and take it to the venues for the World Cups, World Championships, and Olympic Games.

I hope not! The more units are sold the cheaper they'll get. It's my hope that more clubs will start to invest in electronics with the advent of Meytons and the Suis Laserscore units.
With rubber scroll consumables and mechanical parts, you were spending a lot of money on something that still needed consumables and was difficult to maintain in-house (as opposed to Gehman boxes which are an on/off circuit with one or two motors - electrical, not electronic!).

The laserscore systems with no consumables or mechanical parts (well, electricity and optional record printers) are far more appropriate for a club in terms of ongoing costs and maintenance.


I don't think Shooting is in immediate danger, but not because of it's history, but because - as others have mentioned - it's one of the individual sports where small nations can compete effectively (the Olympics is ultimately about advertising, and if you only have team events, then you cut out all the nations who can't raise competitive teams, only individual sportsmen). Wrestling was also individual, but it's a tiny sport in terms of participation. Even in the UK, shooting has an order of magnitude more clubs than Wrestling.

Of course it could be threatened with replacement by a new more mass-market individual sport such as sport climbing or wakeboarding. As others have said, there's also space for consolidation - such as merging men/women into mixed events which could cut costs - now the value of the sport in terms of available medals is not something we'd want to reduce, because you reduce the sport's attractiveness to the likes of UKSport who are looking for maximum medals per £ invested. However there's room to move and negotiate with the IOC.

I'd be interested to know how many people tuned into the online shooting coverage at London. It might not have mass market appeal such that it gets broadcast time (although in some countries it does), but I'll bet there were lots of people streaming the finals. I'll bet the shooting finals had some of the highest ratings for the streamed non-broadcast sports, which is something the IOC will be considering when they look at the sports they include. Shooting may be a very quiet sport (in media terms) but it's still the second largest participation sport in the UK after fishing! For all the people who turn out to support their team at the weekends, not many people actually play football or rugby or whatnot...

They have already canned the 300m center fire and Running Boar. They can lose the entire Track and Field Event List before the shooting IMO. Oh look a guy that can run fast. YAWN...

As a wrestler myself it sucks that it might be on the block. There aren't any wrestlers compared to shooters around my area but I can tell you as far as an individual sport that is the toughest, wrestling rules them all. I've played so many different sports and none of them compared to the wrestling for difficulty and physical intensity.

I'd hate to see it go to nothing but laser scored shooting. That is simply not shooting. If we do that we might as well make laser tag an Olympic Sport and Paintball! Who the hell speed climbs? No one I know and it is flat where I live nothing to climb. How many people climb compared to shoot? I would bet $$ it is a small fraction.

Oh and Modern Pent. is going to be history too right. That is some shooting going bye bye.

Bowman26 wrote:I'd hate to see it go to nothing but laser scored shooting. That is simply not shooting.

The laserscore system refers to a laser in the target that detects the bullet's point of impact and scores the shot, not a laser in the gun like the new modern pentathlon experiments.

Oh and Modern Pent. is going to be history too right. That is some shooting going bye bye.

They're still in for a few years yet...

It's my hope that more clubs will start to invest in electronics with the advent of Meytons and the Suis Laserscore units.

They'd be nuts to. We just threw out our SIUS 25m blocks, because they never worked 100% properly and SIUS kept ripping us off. It cost us a ton of money (most of our club's equity) to learn this lesson, but we learned.

whatever about Sius, we're using Megalink and they work perfectly. Another nearby club is using Meyton and they seem even nicer in a lot of respects. Tougher.

Just remember that there are a biilion people in India, a billion people in China and another 500m+ in the rest of Asia who have discovered shooting over the last 10 to 20 years. They DO like winning medals, they are achieving in the sport that does not require muscle, power or fleetness of foot. And they are good at it!!

They all vote at the IOC meetings.

How you present it on TV depends on the producer. It can be riveting sometimes as we all know!!

The populations of China and India may be approx. billion each but I guarantee you that not even a fraction of a percent of them have access to the sport. The Chinese if they throw the resources at any sport can basically be top contenders and their resources are pretty limitless. So I don't think the Chinese need shooting to stay so they can win medals.