FAI, soaring and Olympic Games

On Monday, October 31, 2016 at 9:09:01 PM UTC+3, Sean wrote:
Actually, in Olympics, Pan Am Games, etc., often the sailing events are held miles away from the main Olympic city. For example, the Atlanta Olympics held our events (Sailing) in Savahnah, Georgia. 3-4 hours by car.

I think you miss the point of Dubai entirely Bruce. You may be thinking only of yourself, and even then only conventionally.

If we want soaring to grow substantially then we really need dramatically more poeple to notice it. To get interested in it. We need dramatically more exposure. Assuming we found a means of increasing public exposure (and image) of soaring...out of that pool, a few might get inspired to try it. Out of that few, some will get their license and so on.

These events, such as Dubai and the Olympics, are aimed at gaining exposure for the sport of soaring. They are aimed at demonstrating how soaring competitions work to the public and honoring the athletes & teams and ultimately the champions.

The Americas Cup has adapted itself to fit the TV format required to build advertising value. They run very short, fast, exciting races in a stadium environment as much as possible. This has raised awareness of the sport of sailboat racing dramatically and he events (NBC sports) are actually getting impressive ratings.

It is possible for soaring to have a similar jolt of energy. It just requires the proper circumstances. And none of this, Olympics, Dubai, etc., affects any other soaring pilot negatively. It simply raises awareness to a sport which is dismal (especially in the USA) from a marketing perspective.. See sailplane Grand Prix.

In other word you should be thankful. We could use all the help that we could get right now...don't you think?

I think we should be more positive and thankful to those trying new ideas vs. insulting them.

I watched the air sports from Dubai. There was pretty much exactly zero coverage of the glider races. I doubt many people saw it of even knew it was there. And those who saw it probably didn't get excited by a literal sled ride. It was nothing like even a Grand Prix race. It was not even anything like the sprint races on the last day of the 2006 NZ Grand Prix, which at least were close to terrain and required making use of what lift there was to improve the average speed (you could I think just about finish the course at best LD with zero lift). The Dubai races started with enough height to be MC 3 or 4 (or more?)


The glider aerobatics near Palm Jumeirah got quite a bit of coverage, but that's not us.