The Guardian on sailing & Olympics

[dgadee]

I think that’s the nature of elite sport.

At the base you have participants who are trying it because it’s fun or their parents have encouraged them to try it or their school plays that sport or it looks interesting on tv.

Some will have no particular aptitude for this sport or get no enjoyment out of it and will choose to do something else.

Others will enjoy it and take their skills to the next level.

There they may find that they are out of their league. And the enjoyment may go. They may continue at a lower level or just do something else.

Nick Hornby describes this well in, I think, “Fever Pitch” where he recounts being at the top of his ability group at several levels of football until, at Cambridge, he played against competitors who were just in a different class. At which point he dropped back into the comfort zone of social five a side matches because he knew that he just couldn’t get any further.

Those next-level players, themselves, though went on only to journeyman roles in lower division teams when they found a yet higher level.

If the function of sport is to find the best, perhaps it’s an inevitable side-effect to discard the rest.

Hornby stayed active, rather than give up. Surely for the majority of the population (and the funders of health care) that is the most important thing.

 

[flaming]

I remember most boats had good crews in the 1980s and 90s at Regattas around Belfast Lough. There were also big boats with big crews. Very difficult to get the same involvement these days so you must be doing something well.

I've been running the crew organising side of the boat for 16 years now. It's never been easier to get crew than it is now. I can, and have, put an add on the "Solent sailors last minute crew wanted" facebook page and get crew at no notice. And good sailors too.

The issue at the moment, certainly in the yacht racing side of things, is enough boats to sail on, not enough crew to sail them.

 

[B27]

I've been running the crew organising side of the boat for 16 years now. It's never been easier to get crew than it is now. I can, and have, put an add on the "Solent sailors last minute crew wanted" facebook page and get crew at no notice. And good sailors too.

The issue at the moment, certainly in the yacht racing side of things, is enough boats to sail on, not enough crew to sail them.

The issue is generally finding people who are prepared to commit long term, and paying for it all.

If there is a big pool of people who want to go sailing, but not enough boats, why don't they buy some boats between them?
A modest old boat split between say four owners is not a lot of money if you're committed to racing every weekend.
People don't want to do that though.

Even in dinghy OD fleets, there's plenty of crew if you're near the front of the fleet in a well funded boat, if you're of modest talent in an older boat, people are not so keen.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

The Purpose or the original Olypic was to enable warring greek states to meet in peace and compete without bloodshed. Its revival has the same ethos even though our wars are less bloody.

So it was not for direct audience only, or even for the competitors but for whole nations at least in spirit. Doesnt matter if its mud hurling or marbles from that point of view but all athlete's hoping to bring praise (ie medals) home must train hard and the whole sport sets benchmarks for highest competence.

I have to say yacht racing at Olympic level is elitish and impossible to really understand for the casual viewer. However I do enjoy watching winter sports. The Guardian thinks we might like them to cover sport, and is entitled to their editorial opinion on what sports should be in the bag. I expect the ancient greeks argued about it also