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Olympics???

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
I asked Grant Graves and he gave me good reasons
but it said at the bottom of the email that -->This information is proprietary and confidential.

So I can't reprint it. But it sounds like if we get more people
in more countries to form national freedive groups it will help.
 
Ask Grant to give you permission to post it, maybe he'll say yes.

adrian
 
I sent him an email but he might be on the road getting ready
for the nationals this weekend.
 
Never mind, I think I can guess the reasons. One mustn't screw up potential negotitiations.
 
I am interested still, if you get permission to post it...
 
i don't think the punters would want to see unconscious freedivers being dragged to the surface and being given CPR... let's face it.... it's just never going to happen.

i suspect that we'd see more accidents (possibly deaths) in training if freediving were to become an olympic sport, because many competitively minded freedivers would inevitably take greater risks with inadequate safety in their bid for olympic glory!! :)

let's try to list some of the most dangerous olympic sports. do any involve a non-neglegible risk of death during training?

cycling maybe - from road crashes. deaths are quite rare i would imagine. cycling is so mainstream and recognised that these deaths are probably just 'accepted' and seen as unavoidable tragic accidents.

what about downhill skiing...?

any others?...

most olympic sports seem to be pretty tame. the worst that usually happens is an athlete pulling a muscle or something.

of course the other obvious (and more minor) problem is that not every city has access to deep water (100m+) and reasonable conditions... London? Moscow? New York?
 
As far as I know, the only sport that has a slim chance to be recognized by the IOC is the swimming with fins. CMAS is trying to push it there. The organization is a member of the IOC for the very reason...

IB
 
Originally posted by Wishbone
As far as I know, the only sport that has a slim chance to be recognized by the IOC is the swimming with fins. CMAS is trying to push it there. The organization is a member of the IOC for the very reason...

IB

I would imagine all of the depth diving disciplines would not be great candidates since you can't see the person diving, as a spectator. Static is probably out because it is boring for a spectator. So you're left with dynamic, which could work, but still has the SWB issue...
 
There are several sports in the Olympics that are hard to observe in person. At least the attendees would get to see two of the most important parts, the start and the recovery. There are also several sports that do not have many personal attendees on site. I’m sure us freedivers could provide as much public attendance as some of the other sports.

Just my personal opinion - as long as the current attitude of exclusion and control from some of the current people of CMAS persists, I would rather not see freediving in the Olympics with the CMAS representing our sport!
don
 
Here's what Grant said:

That is the goal. The entire organization, on the international level, is geared toward that end. We are a sport federation actually. Just like the IOC sports are. We are the national designate for the USA. Each country has a representive organization like the USAA. The competitor are subject to the same controls that an olympic athlete would face. We have defined rules and anti doping testing (testing generally is reserved for international competition and World Records). It is very expensive. We could perform testing at the NAtionals if we wanted to. It is $500 a test. So, maybe when we are a bit larger. I plan on trying to see if one of the labs might want to sponsor us for that or a doctor.

So, more to your question. To be considered for the Olympics, we have to have representation from a certain number of member countries. I do not remember how many that is. AIDA, which is the International Association for the Development of Apnea, our international governing body, would need to have members from more countries. So, really the idea that freediving be an Olympic sport really depends on you and I. We need to help grow freedivings popularity so that more people and countries want to be involved. Once that happens, we can go to the IOC and ask to be included in the Olympics. The other option is for a host country to demand that freediving be included as a demonstration sport. So, based on popularity in a host country that might work, but that would only have freediving in one games. Plus, it would be a no metal situation. But, anything is a good thing. Freediving is not a new sport in the fact that people have been doing it for a long time. It is a new sport in the larger picture of the world and organization. There has only been a coordinated single voice effort on the internation level for the last eight years. Before that it was highly specialized and individual.

So, this is an exciting time. You are in on the ground floor of and an exciting sport that will continue to grow. It is also very cool because you can continue to particpate till you are very old often times at a very competitive level. Also, you could very well see it a s a part of the Olympics of the X Games before the end of the decade.
 
donmoore-

Did you click on the link for more info?
It took me to the Freediver movie page?
 
Don,

This demonstration is really a great idea. But there were demonstrations of other disciplines in the past that didn't achieve anything but certain increase of the popularity of the soprt.
CMAS is in fact really pro-freediving oriented so that is not the issue either...
The diving events can be easily televized with some investments for mounted cameras and few divers. That can be REALLY attractive for the vewers. So that is not the sissue either, I guess...
By adapting the rules you can also adapt all the disciplines to minimize the risks of people drowning and convulsing constantly on the TV screen - make them more technically challenging and stuff... So that might be tackled too...

In my personal opinion Alun smacked right on target. Leaving aside all the disciplines that could be performed in a pool, all actual diving sports are impossible to be held in a city that doesn't have an access to depths. That is one HUGE issue. And there's more to it - the Olympics are held usually in August. Now that is not a great month in terms of good sea conditions. You can postpone a tennis match 'till the rain stops, but you can have bad sea for several days - the organizers of the games cannot afford that...

Now there is an organization (sorry, but forgot the name), which is trying to embrace all the non-olympic sports and organize parallel games. Maybe that's the answer...

Actually, there is one more freediving discipline that has olympic potential and is gaining more and more fans and supporters every year - the underwater hockey...
 
Wishbone,
The link went to freediving demonstration for me. Must be a computer thing. :confused: Did you read the “Situation in Italy” thread? The CMAS is anti-depth dives. Even so much that they want to band athletes who compete in another association’s depth dives from entering their competitions. Can you imagine how much public interest there would be in freediving if there were no depth disciplines? Talk about boring!

Funny they don’t restrict their spearos' depths!

I don’t think deep water and weather are insurmountable difficulties. Sailing and many sports have to be 100’s of miles away sometime from the majority of the Olympic events. As far as weather goes, its just a part of depth dive competition. Martin Stepanek broke the world record cb last year on a cold stormy day in 6’ seas at Cyprus. It was anything but ideal, but neither he or his main competitors, had a choice. That’s was the conditions on the day their competition dives were scheduled.

Good discussion. Hockey would be a great addition as well.
don
 
Last edited:
Don,

I've read the Italy thread now...
This is definitely not very good, but I guess the harsh position of CMAS is somewhat predictable, having in mind all the sh*t that flies between the other freediving bodies. As a matter of fact I am kind of glad, since there may be a slim possiblillity for all that to stop.
We have CMAS as governing body of the spearfishing and with some glitches and bumps and sore arses, things were moving in the right direction. That was before CMAS to start turning its back to the unconvenient spearfishing...
But back to the point - there always was only one World Spearfishing Championship and one Euro Championship - and that is the normal situation... Freediving federations pop up and go down like worms after rain. My personal opinion is that this is not constructive at all.
Nowadays people discuss more the scandals and stuff than the actual achievements of the athlets. This is not normal...

Cheers!

IB
 
---- That was before CMAS to start turning its back to the unconvenient spearfishing... ------


Hem, Wishbone... who told you that? Do you know that CMAS set up a new campionship for Teams and gave spearfishing comps news rules?

After Chile we'll have the new rules...

Would you provide new rules to a discipline you want to drop?
I wouldn't.

Joefox
 
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