Edited Date/Time
6/22/2017 11:38am
When we did the Forum Hot Seat w/ Stik a few weeks ago, this topic came up. I used to think DH in the olympics would be the end-all, be-all of DH having "made it." now i'm not so sure. i think i can see the pros and cons, but my gut says no. stik didn't think it was a good thing, others think it would be great. the XC course for the 2016 games in Rio is already having issues.
what are your thoughts on DH being in the olympics? good? bad? who cares?
I personally think that we don't need it. Our sport is in a great place right now, we have World Cups, world champs and events like rampage and now the Crankworx world tour, all of which we get to stream all the action, live. We have great bikes to ride, specific trail centres and professional build crew that make and maintain them For us. What more could we ask for.
And also some fans, hell a lot of fans of Downhill that are also riders have this attitude already. I don't think the sport going mainstream would cause this to suddenly come about. That's just part of being a fan of anything.
I agree that we are in a great place, but you could argue that we only got to this place thanks to the boom in the 80s and 90s with TV coverage many people started to ride and paved the way for the great time we're enjoying at the moment. Imagine how great it could be if that success continued for longer. It's about time Downhill had a second chance at mainstream coverage. In 10 years when we're all riding 10kg 180mm trail bikes (thanks to coverage more r&d and thus better bikes) that climb like mountain goats and descend like demons you'll thank me
1) More exposure isn't a terrible thing, and it could 'legitimize' more downhill type trail building. Instead of some fringe sport you might be able to convince local land managers you need a double-black downhill-only bike trail for "training for the Olympics."
2) I can't imagine it would do anything negative for the image or the rest of the real competition via UCI. Olympics is like that already - everyone gets all hot and heavy and then a year later no-one remembers or cares anymore. How many viewers really go watch diving / gymnastics / etc after the Olympics?!? The UCI is already a political animal and they'll keep running the WC DH show no matter what happens in the Olympics.
3) I couldn't be more excited for the likes of Gwin or Minaar or Ratboy being a gold-medal Olympian. Look at how nuts World Champs is every year - could you imagine the emotion and bike setups and people coming out of the woodwork for an Olympic gold?!?
I think it'll be awesome for DH to be an olimpic sport.. Exposure will be good, bringing more money into the sport would be awesome too, maybe finding new talent in different countries, exposing more kids to it. I think most of us would be stoked to get paid to ride bikes, the more money you get, the better.. DH is a very physical sport, you could get paraplegic, cuadraplegic.. You need expensive insurances for you and the people you love, save for old age, maybe you wanna travel the world on your off time.. I think that "It'll be enough if I get a couple of bucks and and some free bikes and gear" mindset is selling our sport short.. I mean of you wanna ride for fun and cuz you love riding your bike, you can do that regardless of DH maybe becoming an olimpic sport or not.. Why shouldn't ratboy or gwin make as much money as a SX or MX or rally racer make? They endanger their life in the same way, the train as hard.. As far s venues, i'm sure the olimpic comitee will come up with some sort of "track standards" sure some venues would be better than other but we already have our fare share of that on the WC circuit.. I'm all for DH in the olimpics.. Let's get some of that olympic's cash..
The fact of the matter is, DH in the Olympics will give us riders more sponsors, more trails, better+safer equipment, and a bigger mtb industry, where there will be more people (not just riders, mind you) who can legitimately live off of mountain biking.
This may not be apparent in countries like the US, UK, France, and Canada, but exposure in the Olympics can potentially help hundreds of thousands of riders in places like Central Africa, Nepal, China, and the Philippines, where funding is sorely needed in the sport.
It's so frustrating when you have to explain from the ground what DH is, because most people don't have a single clue of what it means. Sometimes one fella has seen Kelly's backflip over the canyon in a facebook video and than he thinks you're nuts and you (try to) jump 40ft cliffs on your mtb. But that's it.
More popularity to the sport would mean more money, more clubs (there isn't a single DH association or club in my country), more chance to pick up talents, more local tracks build or at least preserved... I would like to reach a land owner in order to get his consentement to build a track and having him saying: "DH? Oh yeah those nice smiling fellas riding wild tracks and enjoying nature in a rad way" instead of "Mtb what? Dh what? Get out!"
But the use of the Olympic Force comes with a big darkside... (pfffff pssshhhhhh) As long as we can preserve the "gravity spirit", the values of gnar, friendships and respect between the riders, we can make it and get people out from watching silly soccer and go out biking and sending.
1) Most proponents of Olympic status for any sport aren't really trying to grow the sport, they've got their eyes on dollar signs. DH is already the most expensive form of MTB racing and it's much more geographically specific than XC/Enduro, going to the Olympics won't change either of those things.
2) Under current rules only one rider per country gets to enter Olympic cycling events. That means if DH were to happen at Rio it would happen without Gee Atherton, Sam Hill, Stevie Smith, Remy Thirion, Connor Fearon, Danny Hart and so on. The Women's would go ahead without Carpenter, Seagrave, Ragot or Nicole. Not much of a competition with two thirds of the world's best written out before the start line.
3) TV broadcast rules would neuter the event. See Olympic XC tracks compared to World Cup XC tracks. The track design would be ruled by making sure it had 100% camera coverage, easy access for broadcast gear and maximising sponsor visibility, the quality of the track coming somewhere down the list of priorities. It wouldn't be a great advert for DH.
4) Related to 1, with Olympic status comes government funding, comes the pressure to deliver results, comes the corruption. By the same token with Government funding comes reliance and collapse when that funding disappears. MTB racing in general has popped up where there are riders and the money to support it, Olympic status will add a layer of arbitrary politics over the top of that that we don't need.
DH is always going to be the F1 of mountain biking. It's too expensive, too specific and too dangerous for the majority. XC, Enduro and Tri are so massive because they reflect what 95% of riders already do, they just do it at the same time as 500+ other riders. They also all got there without Olympic status.
DH is the one sport where I kind of care about the riders' personalities...though this is probably because they're largely underpaid and doing it for the love...not because they think of themselves as effing demigods driving around in lamborghinis or bentleys, referring to themselves in the third person.
And yes...it would be a logistical nightmare to have it in Summer....
so it should just be fat bikes in winter on the dh ski courses. Problems solved.
The masses can kiss our asses.
DH doesn't need or belong in the Olympics. Neither does XC,BMX and a lot of other sports,specially soccer.
I don't want DH to be a super sanitized, made-for-tv show like XC is now.
On the other hand,I'm not sure I want everybody to know about a sport where top-level athletes stick pieces of cardboard and female higiene products on their jerseys to cheat safety regulations.
Maybe mtb will never reach the heights of the mid-nineties again. Maybe it isn't so bad.
eventually organizers will look for more exiting sports. (it's happening in small amounts)
Athletics is what Olympics is about, but it will bore the younger generation even for participating.
DH could be the type of sport, which can draw a new crowd to the event in the future.
DH is a sport in the winter Olympics, so why can't it be a "summer Olympic" sport too?
Benny
The downside, as others have mentioned, would be that its one shitty track choice away from making DH look really lame and that may be too much of a risk to take.
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