Motorsports in the Olympics?

zeoniks

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It would definitely be great if they could implement some type of racing into Olympics; I love the idea of countries competing with one another in one common venue for Olympic Gold.

Yes, there is the A1GP, but it's nowhere as popular at Formula One nor will it top the publicity the Olympics get every four years. Of course there will be problems with running a motorsport venue, especially costs and environmental issues, but it would be great if it were considered.

What do you guys think?
 
Ummm.....bad idea, I think.

First issue would be the nationalities: would it be the drivers or the cars. And there we come across another point. If you give everyone the exact same car and just pick the drivers from all the countries, I really don't see the point. You already get that in the "junior" Formula series. And furthermore, would it be rally cars, F1 cars, WTCC cars, rallycross.....what surface would it be, what would the format: multiple races, only one, head to head or time trials.....it has way too many question marks.

AND if did somehow get the theory working, I still don't see the point. First of all the olympics are not a motorsports event. That's why you call it "motor"sports and not sports in general. It just doesn't fit. Racecar drivers are not athletes in the traditional sense of the word and that's exactly what the olympics are: battle between athletes.

And my last point is that I don't see racecar drivers appreaciating the olympic games, also mainly because of the point I made above: they drive cars. They don't swim, run or shoot arrows. As much it is a physical thing to drive cars, yes. Maybe even more so than let's say shooting or riding horses. Especially F1 drivers.....all they ever want to achieve is the F1 WC.....that's what they work for all their life, so do the teams, of course. The olympics would be just one race among al others.

And I won't even get started on the whole money issue, since it is't exactly cheap to race even now, let alone with some olympic nonsense.
 
The Olympics is about the human body. ;)

Formula 1 series, etc. cover the motorsports.
 
There's too much in the Olympics already.

Viper, don't think you can use that argument as there is little between sailing and motorsport. Just that one uses wind and the other an engine.
 
Viper, don't think you can use that argument as there is little between sailing and motorsport. Just that one uses wind and the other an engine.

There's sailing in the Olympics? :blink:

I know there's rowing, but I wasn't aware there was sailing.
 
same goes for horseriding, technically all the dude has to do to is sit there and "control" the horse
racecar drivers do the same thing.

And if it ever happens (which it won't), they'll have to do it like the race of champions where they just get all the best drivers and have them race all sorts of different cars. Winner is the fastest overall
 
There's too much in the Olympics already.

Viper, don't think you can use that argument as there is little between sailing and motorsport. Just that one uses wind and the other an engine.

Same goes for Equestrian.

See what bothers me about certain Olympic sports is how subjective some can be. I understand that gymnastics, trampoline, synchronize swimming, etc involve a great degree of skill, but if a judge doesn't like you, they'll just take away some points.
 
I want to see a massive, all-in, demolition derby. All you need is a big circular arena, fill it with dirt, give a driver from whatever countries are fighting wars with each other a scrapyard-destined beater and watch the carnage. Oh yeah.
 
OK, after been a clot and not noticing this thread despite been posted today and posting a duplicate thread. I think this is a good idea. My idea is use A1GP as its single-spec, so its fair, its already about nation vs nation and would fit well. Another event could be a rallying stage using identical cars (Group N cars just to keep it cheap). Also, motorsport is one of the few sports where men and woman compete side by side, should Olympic Motorsport be the same? or like other Olympic sports split the men and woman up?
 
There's sailing in the Olympics? :blink:

I know there's rowing, but I wasn't aware there was sailing.

The type of sailing in the Olympics is pretty intense

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NldeTAH2160[/YOUTUBE]
 
It's definitely possible...

As far as the format and rules go, it wouldn't be that difficult to do.

However, motorsports are VERY expensive, especially if each team had to buy X number of standardized cars + parts just for the Olympics. Not to mention the training facilities, which aren't as simple as shoving a hay bale with a target on it on the other side of a field and taking aim.

That's why I think they should use A1 GP, the cars and team already exist, you've just got to put them on the Olympic team for each nation.
 
What if you had each competing country build there own car with loose specifications? Then you could have drivers from there respective countries compete in a series of races.
 
That's why I think they should use A1 GP, the cars and team already exist, you've just got to put them on the Olympic team for each nation.

That's the thing about A1GP. The infrastructure for an Olympic motorsport is already there, but I'm sure the logistics are a lot more difficult than said. It would be awesome if it were an endurance race of some sort.
 
The type of sailing in the Olympics is pretty intense

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NldeTAH2160[/YOUTUBE]
Even if it gets included it wont get any coverage. Just like sailing or kayaking. The bull shit ribbon twirlers and crap like that get all the limelight. Sailing is so much more entertaining then some four foot tall 14 year old from Izcrapistan that spends a month every four years tumbling around for a bunch of short slitty eyed communists.
 
That's the thing about A1GP. The infrastructure for an Olympic motorsport is already there, but I'm sure the logistics are a lot more difficult than said. It would be awesome if it were an endurance race of some sort.

For London 2012, its very possible, a lot of the A1GP teams are based in Europe. You could use Silverstone or one of the UKs many race tracks. the 2016 looks like it'll be in Tokyo or Madrid which are all in F1 hosting countries so the tracks and stands are already there. Its properly one of the easier sports to organise when you think about how much it takes to build a stadium for the field events and a big pool for swimming events.
 
Well there is the Race of Champions race every year. Very similar and a format that could be implemented at the Olympics.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYK-mB_GUtA[/youtube]
 
Yeah, but how are you going to convince the IOC to include motorsport? "It's as much of a sport as horse racing and sailing" and "we already have international events in racing that are similar in concept" are pretty flimsy arguments. Sorry to rain on your parade, but Olympic motorsport is staying firmly in the realm of dream.
 
The Olympics is about the human body. ;)

Formula 1 series, etc. cover the motorsports.



the Olympics was designed to show the gods how much humans appreciate their body.
I think by including motorsports is like a slap in the face.
 
Even if everyone wanted to see some kind of spec touring racing in the Olympics, there would be enviromentalists pouring out of every crevice of this Earth to protest the use of "pollution spewing death machines", that the organizers would probably not show it.

And as someone said earlier, the broad casters are really only interested in the swimming and gymnastics stuff. NBC showed all of 10 minutes of the US vs. China Basketball game before cutting back to talking about Phelps and then watching the US women's gymnastics.


What I say we should do, is expand on the RoC, make it more publicized, perhaps get ISC and others involved with RoC to make it a bigger spectacle than it is. Honestly, the RoC is the best format, I think, outside of having a week long event that tries to squeeze in every type of motor sport.
 
Even if everyone wanted to see some kind of spec touring racing in the Olympics, there would be enviromentalists pouring out of every crevice of this Earth to protest the use of "pollution spewing death machines", that the organizers would probably not show it.

I disagree, you don't see and enviromentalists protesting at F1 circuits. There isn't really a big anti-motorsport movement.
 
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