Term Limits for the Olympic team

[meyers7]

This is such an interesting issue: team sports, in which participants are picked by a committee based on what's best for the team, vs. individual sports in which the individuals compete directly against each other and are chosen simply by best performance. (I realize that neither is always the case, but more-or-less).

We don't mind those in individual sports dominating Olympic slots, because they've proved that they are the best. But we wonder whether in team sports, where we could win with a variety of different participants, that we might want to share the wealth.

Not sure how the coaches would like that. "Here coach, we know this isn't the best team would could assemble, but we want to give some of the lesser players a chance to win a medal too. Good luck."

 

[Alydar]

They wouldn't but if you are practicing 3/4 of the year with a team, with which group of guys do you think you'd have the best shot at winning a medal with??? And then add in the owner's egos and well, there you go.


I said it was a silly idea for teams. But, you raise a good point, if it just becomes a national championship, what's the point of the Olympics??


Hmmm, like a WNBA team.

I don't think WNBA teams play together for 9 months. You may be thinking of the NBA. They start to practice sometime in April and for most of the teams it's over in the first week of September. But I agree that putting a team together and practicing creates a problem.

I guess my point is that as it is done now the Olympics is a battle between national champions and exploits nationalistic fervor to generate interest (& revenue). My Olympics would be a celebration of athletics where there would be no banners, no anthems and where US television would show all the events and not just those where US athletes excel.

 

[HGN]

This idea only comes about when you’re winning all the time. As soon as the team lost a game, everyone would realize that you needed to have the best players.

The selection committee should consider longevity as one of many factors. If the 12th slot is between a 40 year old and a 20 year old, I would hope they would recognize that selecting the 20 would help down the road.

I agree Vowel..................A few Olympics with No medal and a few losses will cure this urge of limits.

 

[meyers7]

I don't think WNBA teams play together for 9 months. You may be thinking of the NBA. They start to practice sometime in April and for most of the teams it's over in the first week of September. But I agree that putting a team together and practicing creates a problem.

I guess my point is that as it is done now the Olympics is a battle between national champions and exploits nationalistic fervor to generate interest (& revenue). My Olympics would be a celebration of athletics where there would be no banners, no anthems and where US television would show all the events and not just those where US athletes excel.

And right there is where yours would fail. No TV without $$$$$.

 

[Alydar]

And right there is where yours would fail. No TV without $$$$$.

I remember back in the late 70's a co-worker was in Italy during the Olympics and he told me how European television showed every event, commercial-free, 24 hours a day on several channels. It only took 30 years for the US networks to catch up. I stopped watching or caring about the Olympics when a 4 hour "live" broadcast had about 1 hour of actual athletic competition and 3 hours of warm-hearted features about some US athlete or a walking tour in whatever city the event was being held or some other nonsense. 2 hours of Jim McKay for every 15 minutes of athletics. I saw hypocrisy when Carlos and Smith got sent home for injecting politics and then our president banned the team altogether for purely political reasons.

No $$$$? Fine. Less revenue? If wcbb can get on tv without some network doing it I'm sure the Olympics will too. Just maybe less commentary , less crap, and more Olympics.