Should motorsports be in the Olympics?

Motorsports in the Olympics?


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I made a short post on my blog about this topic, so I'm not going to go over a ton of details, just wanted to hear your opinions.

I feel it's time for motorsport to be part of The Games in a Race of Champions style competition with multiple types of vehicle, maybe multiple styles of track. Haven't figured out all the details in my head yet, but racing drivers are some of the top athletes (maybe not Tony Stewart in NASCAR) in the world and deserve to have a gold, silver or bronze medal hung around their necks.

Your thoughts? or vote
 
The Olympics is, or should be, about human fitness, strength, endurance, ability, and skill.
For this reason, powered vehicles should not be included as that removes key components.

(For the same reason, "sports" involving horses also shouldn't be included.)
 
The original Olympics included chariot racing. Chariot driving was deemed a skill that was necessary for warfare along with many other of the ancient Olympic disciplines.

I still think motorsports should not be included in the modern Olympics
 
Chariot racing was added later.

This however undermines the argument: "In the chariot racing event, it was not the rider, but the owner of the chariot and team who was considered to be the competitor, so one owner could win more than one of the top spots."
 
From the FIA web-site FAQ about them joining the IOC:
5. Will there be motorsport at the London Olympics?
No. The Olympic Charter specifically bans sports with an element of motorization from eligibility
So it won't be happening any time soon I think.

Personally, I'd quite like to see it. The hosts could provide a fleet of identical cars (even karts) to bring the costs down and remove the element of the guy with the biggest pocket winning. One issue would be participation levels in Africa, in particular, but that's true for many other sports in the Olympics I guess. The cars should/could be electric, to bring it more in line with the Olympic spirit.

Then you have the debate about which sports should be in the Olympics. Motorsport requires as much skill as any sport, and requires more strength and endurance than some others so for me that's a non-issue really. I find it surprising that we have people denying this on a F1 forum. I understand people wanting it to be a pure test of human strength somehow, but the majority of Olympic sports do require some sort of equipment. The fact is, the Olympics is not just about athletics and swimming.
 
There are a several sports in the olympics that are about skill rather than physical ability. Shooting and archery come to mind.
Driving in motorsport is a skill. I think if it were to be added it would have to be in a category where all the cars were the same even down to being provided by 1 single supplier (no teams).

How about go-karts, then top drivers from any motorsport field could apply, you could have knock out stages / races to see who goes into the final.

I have voted yes. Why not, they let golf in.
 
I think there are many sports in the Olympics where the test of human skill also depends on another factor. The previously mentioned equestrian, sailing, maybe even shooting or archery to some extent. Yes the cars are powered by engines, but it takes some serious skill, endurance, concentration, ect to race in motorsports.
 
The prohibition on sports with a means of propulsion was lifted in 2007, and the FIA have recently signed up to the relevant Anti-Doping procedures and been recognised by the IOC.

So in principle it could happen, though I believe it should not.
 
It will never happen.204 nations took part in the 2012 Olympics with each competitor spending at least one year in training for the event.
So the Olympic commitee buy 204 go karts and send one to each country expecting to qualify for the Rio Olypics.
Or are those nations expected to buy their own.No matter how poor a nation is training for most events can be carried out by the individuals themselves.Few can afford to buy and run go karts for their expected entrants.
 
The only way it would work was if every vehicles' performance was absolutely identical, so I've voted no. Arguably the same could be said of bob-sleds, with countries having the best aero facilities etc having the best sleds.
 
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