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Re: [RC] Olympics and endurance? - TypefI'm not sure I want to chip in but I guess I'm going to. And I'm not siding one way or the other. Heck, until this thread came along, I thought Endurance WAS an Olympic sport and even posted something about a year ago about it and nobody corrected me. Must have been something I read about World Championships or something that made me think that. I think there are a lot of sports in the Olympics that never make it to the spectator "make money" idea, like archery, one of my favorite things. I was even training for it when in high school. My instructors thought I had what it took and had a maple leave pinned to the equipment room door. I made it to state level and the school burned down. Nowhere else to train and my parents couldn't give a rip about it anyway so I had to quit. I've yet to see that on TV. Maybe they had it and I missed it but I know there are an awful lot of weird sports that are in the Olympics that I've never even heard of and still haven't seen. I agree that Endurance is not necessarily a spectator sport and it wouldn't make money for TV coverage but then these other sports aren't either. I do know that I traveled to Los Angeles for the 1984 Olympics solely to watch the Equestrian events, none of which are my field of riding expertise (not that I have one LOL). Damn hard to watch a cross country course since you only get to stand in one spot basically, but it was exciting none the less. We paid absolute big bucks to be there, too. I remember the tickets were $75 a piece for the stadium stuff way back in the back. For someone on a limited income it was a real stretch. I'd go again in a heartbeat if I could afford it. I'n not sure cross country is any less dangerous than horses traveling fast to win an Endurance ride. But then you notice I didn't say race, so then, I guess that leaves Endurance out of the Olympics. Don't mind me, I'm thinking as I'm typing. But then again, if the rules were the same as our AERC, then we'd still have a ball game. I think I'll go look up all those weird sports I was talking about. ... Jackie (killing time at work with nothing else to do but say stupid things) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Susan Young Casey" <glenn218@xxxxxxxxx> To: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 3:19 PM Subject: Re: [RC] Olympics and endurance? It's not a question of being positive or negative. It's a question of being realistic. In this case, the negative, bad sportsmanship WILL come out (on the Olympic level...as it did at the WEG) and a horse will suffer the consequences. Now, how will that affect us here at home? AERC endurance will not work on the Olympic level. UAE endurance would. However, we've seen what happens there when horses/riders aren't ready for that kind of competition. Like most of us, we ride our own ride. Our kind of riding wouldn't make an Olympic sport and I'm not sure I'd want it to.I guess if I were riding at that level (i'm not, and may never be) I wouldn't care if I had spectators or not, I would simply be glad I was able to compete at such a high level.There again, that's not the point. The point is would SPECTATORS be willing to PAY to watch? It's the spectators that make it possible for the athlets in ANY Olympic sport to compete. If an event doesn't make money, they don't have that event. Also, if TV audiences don't watch that event, it's not shown and that exposure isn't there so that the average Joe at home STILL doesn't know about endurance. That's just being realistic.I think with every change, there's probably almost always something negative.Of course there is. My Daddy says, "There's always one!" Ice skating has taken a beating with all the cheating...HA! AND beating! However, there will always be those of us who watch it because of the beauty and athleticism of the sport. The majority of skaters and judges are fair and honest people. They will overcome the cheaters of the group. We've overcome things like Catoosa. But, it was a hard row to hoe and many of us don't want anything like that happening again. We're just being realistic. ===== Susan Young Casey, Princess of Pink, LIW, RRHA, RHS Semper Obliquo (Always aside) Glenndale Grace Farm, Ft Gibson, Oklahoma U.S.A. "Ride on! Rough-shod if need be, smooth-shod if that will do, but ride on! Ride on over all obstacles, and win the race!" - Charles Dickens (1812-1870) __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! 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