> Take a look at who is at number 10 and number 5 (both of which would never
have taken part in winter Olympcs had standards been imposed back then)
When speed skating was Norway's most popular winter sports, the totally amateur
participants from 'exotic' countries were always among the public's greatest
favourites. Still athletes like this got lots of attantion in sports that still
allows them. Grave commentators tend to mention them as the ultimate proof of
the sport's world wide importance.
Indeed speed skating is hurting itself by limiting its participation.
And doing it to pursuit a dream of live TV coverage, that's only imaginable in 2
or 3 countries anyway.
Everybody asleep or nobody interested? In Ushuaia it is the talk of the town! 500 m 39,50 36,00 1000 m 1.18,50 1.11,00 1500 m 2.00,00 1.49,00 3000 m 4.15,00 ...
Marnix Koolhaas
m.koolhaas@...
Jul 10, 2009 1:32 am
... Actually, I see a lot of skaters that will miss these marks in Vancouver.... I think that is funny you have to skate faster than what you will skate at...
... When speed skating was Norway's most popular winter sports, the totally amateur participants from 'exotic' countries were always among the public's...
... ISU needs some way to select them. ... The ISU started its limitation policy long before the IOC came to think of it, and they apply them to their own ISU...
... Well, as a matter of fact there was no participation limit until the 1924 OG where each country could enter only 4 skaters in each distance. As this...
... That's national quotas. Qualification times were introduced by the ISU in the 1980's; originally to avoid skaters from Spain and Greece. ... TBH...
... Well, yeah, but your remark was that "speed skating is hurting itself by limiting its participation (...) to pursuit a dream of live TV coverage", which is...
... It was a general comment on ISU politics, aimed at the comment to the post about Olympic time limits; not at the post about the limits itself. ... Without...
Patrick, I agree 100% with you. As long as you speak of World Cups, World Championships, or the like. Why does speedskating even have national quotas is...
... Speed skating surely needs to focus on popularity in the few countries where it's already popular. But that's not the same thing as keeping other countries...
These are very sharp qualification times. I guess potential candidates at least have to go to Calgary or SLC to skate these times. And even then: I calculated...
Is this the same tournament that has as its motto "participation is more important than winning" ? They should state lowland and highland limits for both...
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