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Olympic Downhill Poll Response

Dec 6, 2013 at 21:02
by Andrew Edmondson  
The statistics and arguments used to support claims that Olympic acceptance will help DH are optimistic, but misleading at best.

900M viewers for the opening ceremony as an indicator of DH success at the Olympics isn't even apples and oranges...more like apples and hydraulic fluid. 900M viewers to watch a tradition of lighting a torch. If we're lucky, that's 900M aggregate sporting enthusiasts for all 28 sports (which contain multiple disciplines, e.g. DH is a discipline of the sport of cycling). How many of the 900M watched BMX? Probably not very many because it aired across three days at 7AM EST...The irony is that BMX was added to pull in a younger audience, which failed. Organizers want/need a younger audience to help SELL MORE SHIT.

I'll offer 100% concurrence that racing is a natural fit for the Olympics (Thanks OG Olympics), but when racing goes to the Olympics it takes a whole new form. The skin suits will come back, right/wrong or indifferent, which is funny to me since "we" banned them because they made "us" look like kooks; thus the push to a more motocross image. Skin suits are just the tip of the iceberg. Blood dope much?

The real question to me is whether the extra attention will actually convert to additional funding streams for DH (don't think parts are going to get cheaper). It's no guarantee that the extra media and external corporate attention will lead to anything other than the dark ages of DH...ask BMX how it was doing in 1992. BMX almost died with exception to the few pillars of rider owned companies that kept it on life support (S&M, Hoffman Bikes, Standard Bike Co, FBM and the lot). Once the public attention shifts away to something else, the money evaporates and the 'soul riders' are left to pick up the pieces. Anyone shredded a Specialized Fat Boy recently? shit no. Not that Specialized can't make great bikes, but they only made BMX bikes when they thought they were going to miss the boat. Their BMX boat sank (despite TJ Lavin shredding everything). I wonder what the new Cervelo WC DH bike will look like...

Imagine a pendulum that someone pulls in one direction. Don't be surprised that the pendulum swings the equivalent distance in the opposite direction when released. The pendulum is always released, e.g. wrestling has been an Olympic sport since 700BC and was excluded from the next summer games.

If the intent is to tank DH in order to position it for a spectacular rise from the ashes, stronger than before, then maybe going to the Olympics is a great idea. DH will be exploited. 4 dudes will make 4 million dollars a year and the rest will be holding the umbrellas.

Growth is good most of time, but the mechanisms triggering growth are paramount. Slow, steady, but uncompromising growth is the sure fire way to keep things on our terms and headed in the direction that our community views as appropriate.

I need a beer.

[PI= size=l0 align=c][/PI][PI= size=l0 align=c][/PI]
enjoying some golden sunlight to shut it down for the day...


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