it seems a little arbitrary having medals for both freestyle and also backstroke, butterfly, etc. Like, in track and field there’s not a 100m “running backwards” event. Why are there so many medals for swimming? Who decided it was that important relative to other forms of physical endeavor?
It also seems awkward in comparison to olympic weightlifting, which has TWO different lifts as part of a single event. I understand that they already bracket it by weight classes, but why not break it into a medal for the clean-and-jerk and another for the snatch? Or alternatively, add other events that test strength and precision?
I’m okay if the answer is just “that’s how it’s always been” and general path-dependence, but it seems a bit odd.
In: Other
I think you are trying to approach this matter too idealistic. At the end of the day the Olympics is a capitalist endeavor. Unfortunately the days of it being a celebration of human artistic and physical achievements in Ancient Greece are over.
The Olympic committee selects sports and their respective sub disciplines based on two factors: how big are the sports associations that regulate the sports, with which comes money and power. And how well do TV licenses sell and which sport attracts the most viewers.
Sports that have very small athletic associations will eventually be kicked form the Olympics because they can’t supply athletes, referees, rules etc. Sports that don’t perform well with viewership will be kicked too.
For some reason, swimming performs insanely well during Olympics probably because it’s a direct competition with relatively quick races and results. Although swimming is largely unimportant outside of the Olympics and the world swimming associations aren’t all that powerful in the Olympic committee, they just bring TV money.
Weightlifting performs poorly in Olympics viewerships. The only reason there is any competition at all is the relatively powerful weightlifting associations. They are powerful because weightlifting seems to be a little bit more popular outside of Olympic events. If it wasn’t for them, the sport would’ve been long from the Olympics long ago.
Latest Answers