IOC should mull sports overhaul - Cookson AFP News – 10 hours ago UCI President Brian Cookson attends the podium ceremony of the elite men's road … The International Olympic Committee (IOC) should consider moving sports such as track cycling, judo and badminton to the Winter Games, according to the president of world cycling's governing body, the UCI. Brian Cookson, in an interview with Press Association Sport released Tuesday, said such a change could take the pressure off the "overheated" Summer Olympics and allow those sports to have more events and more medals. "If you have a problem with Summer Olympics where the whole thing is perceived as over-heated with too many facilities, too many sports, too many competitors and so on, why not look at moving some of the other sports that traditionally take place in the winter in the northern hemisphere indoors," Cookson said. "So why not look at combat sports like judo, or other indoor sports like badminton, you could even say what about putting track cycling in the Winter Olympics? "If we moved track cycling to the Winter Olympics and that allowed us to have more track cycling events and more medals then that could be a pretty good outcome. "So let's talk about those things and see what the stakeholders, the national federations, the teams and the competitors have to say about those options." IOC president Thomas Bach has announced a review of the whole Olympic programme with the results to be presented at a special session in Monaco at the end of this year. Cookson, who unseated Ireland's Pat McQuaid last September as UCI president, said cycling has enjoyed huge success in the Olympics but that sports' leaders should not just accept the status quo. He added: "If you look at the London Olympics the lesson from there is the cycling events were incredibly successful from the point of view of attendance and media coverage, and there were huge crowds for the road races. "But we shouldn't just accept the status quo without thinking 'what are the possibilities here?'. "Thomas Bach has instituted a debate about the format for the Games and let's think about the Winter Olympics, why does it have to be snow and ice? "The reality these days is that the base for the Winter Olympics the last few times has been two or three hours drive away from the mountains." Turning to doping, something which has plagued cycling in recent years, Cookson warned that every sport needs to be aware that some of their athletes will be doping. "There are two categories of sport, those that have a doping problem and are trying to do something about it and cycling, I would suggest, is one of the leaders there," he said. "The second category is those that have a doping problem and are in denial about it because there are forms of doping that affect all forms of sport. "If you are running your sport and think that you don't have a doping problem then I think you need a wake-up call because there will be a form of doping that you need to do something about." BCers, So what is your take?
The atmosphere would not be the same. It is just another world championship. Badminton will never gain the recognition it deserves if it is to be moved.
Badminton is safe where it is - in the Summer Olympics. As long as the three massively populated nations - China, India and Indonesia - are in the forefront, there will be no moving badminton anywhere As for this cycling guy, he does have a pea for a brain!
How about having badminton in both the Summer and Winter Olympics. At least the spectators and ice athletes can enjoy some warmth in a spacious indoor stadium. Or introduce "badminton on ice" as an innovation?
Great idea!!! maybe we can finally turn badminton into a team sport like ice hockey!!!! That will make badminton the most popular sport in the world!!! YEAH!!
And the plastic shuttlecock will be in greater demand as well. The ice badminton rules will change too. No singles or doubles but a team event of five players in an enlarged court size. Team members can rally among themselves for a maximum three times before striking the bird over to the opposition. However the service remains the same, unless the net height is raised much higher.
In all seriousness, this is what another poster has to say If moving to winter mean getting bigger entry, it gets my full support!
Poll generated. Joking aside, is the idea really that bad? In the UK, badminton has seasons and there, it's the autumn and winter that is the badminton season.
As they are now the Winter Olympics has little appeal for me. Men's hockey is competitive. The ski-cross is pretty cool. Totally admire the X-country skiers' fitness, but kind of boring to watch for the uninitiated. And there are far too many judged events: skating, moguls, half-pipe, etc. Not sure how happy the sponsors are, either. Because interest in the Winter Games is slight from 3 continents of our globe. So why not move some sports from summer to winter? Badminton, basketball, volleyball, martial arts, fencing, wrestling, weight lifting are all easily transferable. Even swimming (maybe they could divide up the billion medals that they give out in that sport between Summer and Winter olympics) So, I am all for moving badminton! It would be an attractive alternative sport at the winter games -- as opposed to the poor homely cousin that it is now at the summer games.
April 1st coming up?? if not that, Mr. Cookson need to spend more energy cleaning up his own sport instead .
If they did the move may be a blessing in disguise. The winter Olympics has a far lower profile which may shake badminton's obsession of making the Olympics their highest profile tournament, allowing it to move on to bigger and more professional places.
Gymnastics are also easily transferable to the Winter Olympics. In Nagano, Japan, the snow fields are about an hours drive away from Nagano itself Football (soccer) doesn't have to be played in the summer. In most countries, it is played in the cooler months as is rugby. Heck, a sport doesn't even have to be close to the city. Equestrian was held in HK in 2008 - very far from Beijing. Badminton's Korean Open is played in winter...
The Winter Olympics is for Winter sports: Skiing, figure-skating, icehockey, curling,... Everything else is at the Summer Olympics. If badminton was moved to Winter, you'd have to move a bunch of other sports, following some kind of "similarity" reasoning: basketball, handball, gymnastics, all these shooting events, weight-lifting, ... Crazy idea...
In Europe, badminton is a winter sport. People switch to tennis in the summer! I think you got the right idea about all indoor sports potentially moving. Even the IOC has to be more flexible otherwise, cities will not host the two biggest sports events. http://www.wsj.com/articles/olympic-organizers-to-consider-multi-nation-bids-1418054169?mod=WSJ_article_EditorsPicks_2
Almost nobody "switches" to tennis in the summer (maybe 5% of serious players). But you're right: league-matches and most regional tournaments in Europe are September-March. If nobody wants to host the Winter Games, the IOC should better think about whether their goal to always grow and make bigger and more spectacular games every 4 years is the right direction. If an event is too expensive because it's too big, you'd better think about shrinking it before enlarging it even further...
I think there should be another option to vote for: "No, Winter Olympics should be for winter sports." That's my main point: In WO, you have sports like skiing, ice skating, ... That's winter-sports. Everything else is in Summer Olympics. Otherwise, you could think about moving weight-lifting, shooting, wrestling, judo, boxing, all ball-sports to WO... And some og them are classical olympic sports....
