We don’t need the Olympics! I’m talking the collective we as a culture, the one that has let the riders drive the companies, trends, and progression. We were the ones that hiked up golf courses before ski resorts let us, we were the ones that tinkered in our garages, we were the ones that were too busy having fun instead of being judged by an international committee.
No doubt if you’re in the know you sat down and watched the spectacle of Olympic Halfpipe that has become snowboarding. Chances are you even rooted for your favorite riders whether it was Markus Malin or Shaun White. Whether you’re from Finland or the United States that sense of national pride swept over you and of course you felt the urge to fist pump and scream at your television set or computer.
But ask yourself what have they done for us? Seriously what have they done for snowboarding at all. At first they didn’t want to let us play their games, then they decided we had to be regulated and controlled, now they’re reaching out past the riders themselves to their sponsors. Wasn’t the Olympics supposed to be about bringing the best amateur athletes in the world together to compete?
The bullshit that I see is that it costs money to train to get to the Olympics, it costs money to travel to them, hell it costs money just to snowboard in general. So of course a good rider is going to get sponsors so they can further their love and passion of sliding on snow. Now the IOC (International Olympic Committee) has extended their reach to the companies.
What does this mean? Well here take a look at this photo from the Omatic team page.
Notice anything missing? Oh but wait Omatic isn’t the only one. Check out this from the Burton team page.
Yep that’s right Kevin is there, Danny is there, but where oh where could Shaun be? You see the IOC laid down the law that if the riders names weren’t removed from the companies sites they wouldn’t be allowed to ride. Now frankly this goes beyond the bull shit of competing that was witnessed at the Olympics but crosses over into trying to control something that shouldn’t be controlled.
Here you have companies that promote a rider, pay a rider, and help get them to the Olympics. Only to be told, “Hey awesome you’re here you can’t promote the companies that have promoted you and helped you get here.” Then they go even further to tell the companies, “sorry but if you don’t remove your athlete from your page there will be hell to pay”. Now does that honestly seem fair to these companies? Should they have to go back a full year and remove content or censor it so it doesn’t mention the riders name? Can’t have an Olympic Athletes name associated with a company otherwise the Olympics might not be able to make some money off using their rights and likeness.
This borders right on the issue of Christine Brennan feeling they need to put a cap on progression in the Olympics. Which right there forms stagnation. Stagnation is what kills any great thing, if you can’t progress it then it dies. Who wants to see people doing the exact same pipe run and then being scored?
Micah Abrams over on ESPN has a great piece on the cross over of Action Sports and the Olympics. He pretty much sums up the truth that they need us more than we need them. So I leave you with this, what have they done for us?
Popularity: 13% [?]
17 Responses
So gay, I’m surprised they don’t have to ride blank boards and cover the logos on the goggles.
Posted on February 17th, 2010 at 11:58 pm
WOW, thats a bunch of BS! Thanks for the informative blog, I’ll have to pass this info around.
Posted on February 18th, 2010 at 12:10 am
wow that’s ridiculous, does the olympics require that of all competing athletes or just snowboarders?
Posted on February 18th, 2010 at 12:11 am
Back in the day. . . Olympians were not allowed to be “Professional Athletes”. Once a figure skater (seriously sorry that it has come to comparing snowboarding with figure skating) hit the ice for the Disney it was all over for their dreams of Olympic Gold. What happened to that? The Dream Team (basketball), then Pro-Hockey players. Nike put a swoosh on all their asses and brought a new level of funding for the extremely costly sporting events to be held in random ass cities all over the globe. Case in point – we have witnessed a sponsor paid half-pipe extravaganza. It isn’t about who knows who rides for who. Good luck ever seeing a big mountain “choose your line” in the games. That’s where it started and shall always remain for me. Mad love and props to those who busted their asses to get to the Ronald McDonald Olympic Arches. You can have it.
Posted on February 18th, 2010 at 12:23 am
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by SHREDunion: angry’s POV – What Have The Olympics Done For Us? http://bit.ly/a743oi...
Posted on February 18th, 2010 at 12:55 am
that is some bullshit about the sponsors. pretty sure as long as i can remember, skiiers and such would finish a race, pop off a ski, and hold it up by their head while the camera was on them to get their sponsors a publicity shot…
the ioc is ful of shit for the most part. i don’t think the games themselves are as bad as people talk about them.. hell, it puts our sport on tv… other than that, what can i watch?… peak season? thats just drama, not riding. its bullshit what the ioc puts rules on… but meh. i’ll still say cool… and take it for what it is.
people good at their sports competing in order to further their carreers.
Posted on February 18th, 2010 at 10:04 am
Holly crap you’re right! I just looked on a few other sites and the Olympic riders have been removed. I know a lot of the goggle brands have to make special straps for the games to meet the rules on logo size. The IOC is worse than Metallica!
Posted on February 18th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
If you noticed last night – zero stickers on the topsheets as well as duct tape over logo’s on goggles on some of the coaches (saw this in Womens Downhill skiing to)..even saw a few blank topsheets (Kazu) fying around…..
IOC and ISF – Snowboarding should stand up to these clowns, threaten a walk out and see what shakes….honestly do we really think that someone is going to all of a sudden want to be a snowboarder just from seeing someone do a Double Cork 25ft in the air? Kinda like thinking you could be Evol Kneivel after watching him jump Ceasars Palace Fountain!
I agree – they need us (badly) not the other way around at all…
That said it was cool to see everyone pushing their limits and was amazing seeing how far the riding has come just from last season to now…..maybe we do need the Olympics to give them something to push for? IDK…
Posted on February 18th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
well, at least they still let them appear in visa ads…
Posted on February 18th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
If you ever thought that the powers that be or the people in these positions care about snowboarding you are very much mistaken. You do not get to their position by making a stand. You get to their position by making compromises. Even if at one point they did care, by the time they end up where they are they have lost the reason why they started. Terje made that stand and there were 20 people in line that were ready to take his place. So Gian became the best snowboarder in the world, according to the IOC. Same thing goes with people and money. They would rather comprise than loose their position of power and money. It is rare that someone will make that stand. So snowboarding will suffer a bit for 12 days and then it will return as it was with a few extra Million people thinking they know what snowboarding is. Won’t change my day on the hill…. for now.
Posted on February 18th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Yeah…in addition to being taken off their sponsors’ websites, riders are also restricted in terms of the amount of logo’s they’re allowed to wear. Only one logo per article of clothing…and it can’t be larger than 6 cm or some bullshit. Thats why all the Oakley goggles the riders are wearing have a small ass logo on them. Thats freakin insane. I did see several riders show off the base of their boards after their runs though. With that said..I do think that the Olympics does drive a lot of the progression in halfpipe. And I agree with tooscoops…it is nice to be able to watch our sport on tv for a change.
Posted on February 20th, 2010 at 1:06 am
[...] Done For Us?” February 20, 2010 remindinsoles Leave a comment Go to comments http://www.angrysnowboarder.com/?p=5910 Categories: Uncategorized Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) Leave a comment [...]
Posted on February 20th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
If basketball can allow openly sponsored professionals to play, then why not snowboarders? What’s with the double standards?
Posted on February 25th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
[...] a post on AngrySnowboarder.com (pointed out to us by SouthoftheNorth’s Jonny Burns) the Angry One discovered that all the [...]
Posted on February 25th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Thanks for this write up. I got to it a but late; but it proves your feelings about all of this are totally valid.
side note tangent…
Since the games my local park has been PACKED with asshats trying to be Shaun White (in dress and attempted style, which often brings Care flight). Often overheard…”wow, snowboarding is sooo hard!” Or when I’m playing on handrails someone calls me “the next Gretchen.” It’s really sad…and frustrating because other than the obvious – I recognize my brain categorizes Gretchen in the Oakley Marketing category and not half-pipe and definitely not handrails. But that’s my problem I suppose. =]
Posted on February 28th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
I wish people wouldn’t try to snowboard. They get in the way of my progression!
Posted on March 1st, 2010 at 5:52 am
[...] of do we need the Olympics or do they need us? This also opens up a previous topic on here about what have the Olympics done for us? The USSA (governing body for grape smugglers and stunt ditch riders in the states) had this to say [...]
Posted on June 3rd, 2010 at 6:57 am
Add A Comment