Olympic Shooting Sports - We need to revive them

[Justin]

I'd love to see IPSC as an olympic sport. Can you imagine the US's "dream team" for that?

I would, too. However, someone would have to devise an innovative way to allow television viewers to keep track of scores in real time. When you watch beach volleyball, basketball, javelin, or practically any other decent Olympic sport, it's very easy to keep track of who is winning.

Even the judged *cough*sports*cough* are easy to keep track of score-wise.

Developing a way to keep track of scores on an IPSC-stage in real time would help move things in the right direction.

That, or it would be best to adopt a shooting sport that is already spectator-friendly such as Steel Challenge or Sportsman's Team Challenge.

STC could be an excellent Olympic sport, and it's one that has received airtime on ESPN. (Though probably just ESPN 8 - The Ocho! )

 

[wacki]

I'm absolutely certain that the firearm community is missing a big opportunity here. I've shown the benelli xtrema video to people that previously had no interest in guns and it made them go "wow, that looks like loads of fun". History (e.g. Annie Oakley, switzerland) proves that sport shooting can draw crowds... and big ones. Shooting sports can make it on TV it's only a matter of customizing the sport and promoting it properly. I suspect we will need to break away from traditional paper target events if we intend on making a splash. When this happens, it will be a boon for the firerarm community and our rights to keep and bear arms in general.

 

[Justin]

Hence my advocacy for Steel Challenge or Sportsman's Team Challenge. STC uses all steel targets except for the shotgun portion, which uses clay pigeons.

That said, there are many, many administrative hurdles to overcome before you would see any new shooting sports added to the Olympics.

 

[Shung]

not mentionnionning the fact that everything that relates guns to military or leo's for sport is really badly seen by the "good thinking people" that form the huge mass of the olympic...

Sad... because many olympic sports come straight from military disciplines..

 

[Thernlund]

Having just skimmed the thread from my last post forward...

I saw someone mentioned getting SpikeTV or some channel to air shooting competitions. Here's an idea: Have a "Shooting Sports Olymics", hold it at the same time as the Olympics, and get it aired so a large audience can be reached. After a couple decades maybe the Olympic committee would roll it into the real Olympics. Isn't that pretty much how alot of stuff gets into the Olympics? Large viewership on ESPN, ESPN2, or whatever?

We just gotta show them that it's something people want to see and a viable competitive sport. But I guess that may be an issue in itself. Maybe people at large don't want to see it. *shrug*


-T.

 

[HB]

The problem with most shooting sports are that they are boring to watch if you don't know what they are doing. Even with the addition of electronic targets in the rifle and pistol events, it isn't much fun watching a guy shoot 60 shots for an hour and a half. There is no movement to keep things interesting. I shoot both 3-P smallbore and air rifle (and occasionally air pistol) and I find it boring to watch if you can't see the targets through a spotting scope. It's also hard to make it seem like a race.

I agree that a steel match or other "practical" match sans the humanoid targets would be pretty cool and easy to make watchable.


HB

 

[Old Grump]

.Cheese asked "The Olympics is from Mars?"

You are kidding right? The Olympics was a direct descendant of the martial arts, running, boxing, wrestling, throwing or tossing heavy weights and or disks, javelin throwing. Today its gymnastics, volley ball, ping pong, basketball, do I need to continue. The committee needs to be retired and a new committee set up that recognizes the origins and traditions of the Olympics.