FAI, soaring and Olympic Games

I'm sorry to hear you react negatively to this.

Actually, Olympic sailing motivates many, many thousands of junior sailors worldwide to focus on the goal of qualifying for the Olympics. And this has a significant impact on youth sailing programs in the USA (massive growth) over the past 5-10 years, High School sailing teams'(growing rapidly in the USA over the past 10 years) and college sailing teams which have grown moderately. The US Sailing (SSA of sailing) effort to grow youth and high school sailing is directly related to Olympic sailing. They recruit and fund the US Jr Olympic development team and the side effect is that it provides the US as much larger pool of talent to develop. Thousands of kids have this in mind as they progress into the sport at early youth levels.

I say competition is good. At all levels. This adds to the growth and keeps kids in the sport longer. The Olympics are a big deal to kids. It's recognizable. Little about the sport of gliding is.

Gliding, especially in the US, is really poor when It comes to developing youth interest. As an organization the SSA has nearly hit rock bottom in this function. In fact, it may already be a lost cause. But Europeans and other FAI countries would probably enjoy an Olympic event to shoot for. But they don't appear to be working very hard for it either.

The Olympics would hurt nothing. But being part of the Olympics is a huge deal for many sports. Especially small ones. The initial upside of a new Olympic category for gliding is high when compared to to low cost of supporting the Olympic test event (the first step in this process). If successful, Gliding could be re-introduced into the Olympics. That would provide an opportunity for great exposure (major media, nationalistic pride, youth interest, exposure otherwise impossible) for the sport, especially outside (key) of the current demographics (tiny). That would be good, if not great for soaring.

I'm personally very positive about this idea. I find it curious that the FAI and IGC have not pursued this any further. It seems like a no brainer really.

The FAI is trying to do it from scratch with SGP, for example. Very difficult. But the Olympics has a massive pre-built audience to tap into. If you combined the two fomats, it could get a massive boost.

It would also be great for the sailplane manufacturer who is selected to build the gliders selected for the Olympic gliding competition. Sales of dozens of new gliders would be likely. Perhaps hundreds.

And, of course, it would be damn fun for the athletes/pilots and fans. Soaring has an exceptional visual appeal and "exoticness" that is second to none. And soaring would also be the only aviation sport in the Olympics. I would be surprised if paragliding or hang-gliding doesn't win the race however as we have wasted tons of time doing nothing, or have already given up apparently. Maybe it's time to make another proposal?