Darell Provencher
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
------=_NextPart_000_0000_01C56E65.7D0ACFE0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
I don't feel very good today. I can't believe this. Maybe somehow Abers
already knew. Kilo riders and women 500m specialists all over the world are
in deep mourning. First Murray downgrades to a Cat 3 on the track. And now
this. This is not good for the future of track racing.
UCI drops kilo (and 500m) from Olympic program
Cycling's international governing body, the UCI, has decided to drop the
men's kilometer time trial and women's 500m time trial from the track
cycling program at the Olympic Games.
The move makes room in the Olympic program for BMX, which will be introduced
at the 2008 Games in Beijing under International Olympic Committee rules
that allow sports to decide which disciplines will have a place in the
program. In recent years the IOC has been extremely reluctant to add new
sports and disciplines to the Games, citing problems with the total size of
the event. In Atlanta in 1996, the team time trial was dropped to allow the
introduction of mountain biking to the Games.
However, the kilo and 500m at Athens played to a packed velodrome while the
rest of the 2004 Games struggled to gain momentum. The removal of a
traditionally popular spectacle is therefore bound to be controversial.
Reigning women's 500m Olympic champion Anna Meares was surprised and shocked
at the decision when Cyclingnews spoke to her this morning.
"We haven't been told anything about it," said Meares. "It's news to me, and
it would be very disappointing if they cut an event from a sport that is as
exciting as track cycling."
David Hoy, father of reigning Olympic champion Chris Hoy, was also quick to
express his astonishment at the move.
The UCI has, "removed an event which has been an Olympic blue ribbon
discipline since the start of the modern Olympics over 100 years ago," said
Hoy in an email to Cyclingnews. "This will completely unbalance track
cycling."
Hoy believes the disappearance of the kilo and 500m from the Olympics -
although they will continue to be part of the track world championships - is
a disaster for sprint specialists.
------=_NextPart_000_0000_01C56E65.7D0ACFE0
Content-Type: text/html;
charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2627" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=376405915-11062005>I don't feel very
good today. I can't believe this. Maybe somehow Abers already knew. Kilo riders
and women 500m specialists all over the world are in deep mourning. First Murray
downgrades to a Cat 3 on the track. And now this. This is not good for the
future of track racing.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=4><STRONG>UCI drops kilo<SPAN
class=376405915-11062005> (and 500m)</SPAN> from Olympic
program</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<P>Cycling's international governing body, the UCI, has decided to drop the
men's kilometer time trial and women's 500m time trial from the track cycling
program at the Olympic Games. </P>
<P>The move makes room in the Olympic program for BMX, which will be introduced
at the 2008 Games in Beijing under International Olympic Committee rules that
allow sports to decide which disciplines will have a place in the program. In
recent years the IOC has been extremely reluctant to add new sports and
disciplines to the Games, citing problems with the total size of the event. In
Atlanta in 1996, the team time trial was dropped to allow the introduction of
mountain biking to the Games.</P>
<P>However, the kilo and 500m at Athens played to a packed velodrome while the
rest of the 2004 Games struggled to gain momentum. The removal of a
traditionally popular spectacle is therefore bound to be controversial. </P>
<P>Reigning women's 500m Olympic champion Anna Meares was surprised and shocked
at the decision when <I>Cyclingnews</I> spoke to her this morning. </P>
<P>"We haven't been told anything about it," said Meares. "It's news to me, and
it would be very disappointing if they cut an event from a sport that is as
exciting as track cycling."</P>
<P>David Hoy, father of reigning Olympic champion Chris Hoy, was also quick to
express his astonishment at the move.</P>
<P>The UCI has, "removed an event which has been an Olympic blue ribbon
discipline since the start of the modern Olympics over 100 years ago," said Hoy
in an email to <I>Cyclingnews</I>. "This will completely unbalance track
cycling."</P>
<P>Hoy believes the disappearance of the kilo and 500m from the Olympics -
although they will continue to be part of the track world championships - is a
disaster for sprint specialists.</P>
<P> </P></DIV></BODY></HTML>
------=_NextPart_000_0000_01C56E65.7D0ACFE0--