Discussion: Does Motorsport Have a Place at the Olympics?

[Koen Verlinde]

Obviously not.

 

[wombat999]

Why not. They've got horse dancing in the Olympics. Bunch of toffs on horses prancing around an arena...
Sailing is also part of the olympics. Another quite expensive hobby full of toffs...
What irks me about the Olympics and other similar events is the amount of whining you get from athletes when their funding is cut by the govt. and lottery. Most of them them are from quite affluent backgrounds in the first place.

So right.....Not!
Most athletes are from average backgrounds or in the case of poor countries from dirt poor environments. The sailing classes are hardly Americas Cup standard. Agree, it costs to own horses (my partner has three!) but it takes skill and ability to ride the Equestrian events, let alone cross country. As for 'E-Sports', the concept is a crock.

 

[RobJLee]

I'm referring to British athletes and costs and lifestyles in Britain wombat, where the majority can't afford to keep and ride horses, and the majority cannot afford a sail boat. They are very "elite", read "of the wealthy", hobbies.

They are one of many epitomes of the inequality of wealth in the UK.

As are most of the athletes, very few, if any, of even our track and field athletes (the most basic of athletes) come from poor council estate backgrounds. And when you boil it all down we (the average joe here in the UK) are funding them to do their hobbies and then get rich from sponsorship, media work etc.

So yeah why not have motorsport of some sort in the Olympics - we (here in the UK) could fund Team Britain and paint the vehicles British Racing Green, kind of like going back to how motosport was in it's infancy.

 

[bosco lam]

NO

 

[Jach]

Let's be honest. Olympic is to some extent unsportsmanlike, it is and has always been all about POLITICS rather than pure sports, which is so unfair for many hard-working athletes.
We don't want Motorsport to be "polluted" by it anyway.

 

[jimortality]

While I'm also on the no fence, maybe Rally could be an Olympic sport? Olympic Rally Champion has a bit of a ring to it.

 

[Ruy Horta]

Let's be honest. Olympic is to some extent unsportsmanlike, it is and has always been all about POLITICS rather than pure sports, which is so unfair for many hard-working athletes.
We don't want Motorsport to be "polluted" by it anyway.

Unlike racing right?

https://www.autosport.com/wec/news/136849/gdrive-team-loses-le-mans-lmp2-win

http://gdriveracing.com/en/

 

[Jach]

Unlike racing right?

https://www.autosport.com/wec/news/136849/gdrive-team-loses-le-mans-lmp2-win

http://gdriveracing.com/en/

Yes, unlike racing.

 

[Patrick van der Meulen]

Olympics should be about pure physical endurance/performance of athletes. They already have way too many sports which drifts away from the original Olympic principles.

 

[Tim Meuris]

Would be the only thing worthwhile watching for me from the olympics

 

[Sky]

i say yes because britain only wins the events where you sit on something: like a bicycle, a boat or a horse.

 

[NDG]

Skeet shooting is in the Olympics... A human standing straight up aiming and shoots at flying clay disks. I'm talking about training precision and then using a machine to finish the job. A machine that ignites to operate similar to a combustion engine. Basically, what racers do really. Skeet shooting VS Archery is machine aided VS pure manual effort. And so is Cycling and Running. Or the topic Kart racing (VS mano mano Running).

Riding something expensive to move around is also not a new thing in the Olympics. See Equestrian at Wikipedia, and oh yeah! I smell Motocross as equivalent here. Riding something jumping over obstacles? Hell yeah!

And so on and on and on... Point of view vs another point of view will get the conversation nowhere near decent. Those people who decide what belongs to the Olympics needs to have a list of checkboxes what is allowed and not. And you will see that given all the sports that are now in the Olympics, racing is not stepping out of the norm.

Personal opinion though, and some rather weird instincts, I'd rather not see racing cars or karts in there. I listed things above that shows it can be added in the Olympics but imagining racing being there still feels wrong.

 

[dale223223]

Here's an idea. Make a motorsport specific "olympics".

Also, I think a better idea than just having a collection of different individual series would be to bring out the best overall driver(s) by having them compete in multiple forms of racing to see the best overall drivers in all types of racing combined. That way it could be something different and compelling rather than just a mashup of what already exists in the professional driving world.

Also make it a tour instead of what the current olympics are. More use and revenue for already existing venues and more accessible for a larger amount of people.

 

[whip]

no

olympics should about athleticism, there's far too many stupid events in it already

 

[Will Mazeo]

Racing shouldn't be there just like the horse sports IMO
But then... they wanna put vido games there... ridiculous

 

[Blackmarch7]

Motorsports has two side as mind game and physical game. If one side down, the sport will be corrupted.

But I know Olympic games is physical games, festibal of macho men.
Macho men can't ride kart track in the right direction. So it can't be.

 

[sebduloiret]

why not "cooking" events too? as much to go into ridiculous to the end ^^

 

[motoliser]

There are already some competitions that shouldnt be there, so definitly NO.

 

[fastfab]

Even if I would like it, I answered no.
First, even if pilot ARE athletes, I don't think motorized sports fit with the spirit of olympics.
Second, what I like about olympics, is that it's the ultimate goal and championship for a lot of sports that don't have already broadcasted big worldwide event. If you do marathon, curling, ice skating, javelot, swimming, horse riding, canoe etc... Olympic gold is the ultimate deal for you.
If you are a motorsport pilot, olympics will only be disreguarded as a side think for rookie, like it's the case for Football for exemple.

The only way I can see it as a success, if it's like Ice Hockey, were winning Olympics is a big deal with top players from different federation competing. To sum up, if the best pilot from rally/F1/nascar/V8 etc. representing their country... compete every four years on an electric kart, I would sign for it!
But if its just another rookie antichamber for F1... Just let the idea die.

 

[Serj]

What about playing video games at the Olympics?

yeah, for example, brutal competition of tetris players.