Comments on: – We need luck – and hard work!

By: Zbigniew Malinowski

Zbigniew Malinowski — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 11:58:20 +0000

I’m really surprised we are still talking of TV-oriented sport while it should be already obvious, after 20 years of failures, that orienteering IS NOT A TV SPORT and it will never be. Moreover we are still talking about it while TV is becoming obsolete. Instead of wide-spread TV transmissions we are going to have narrow directed specialized Internet transmissions. Narrow means “directed to those who care” and it could be worldwide trasnsmitted in the same time.
Anyone who saw EOC transmissions this spring knows that even in swedish it was very interesting (for orienteers) and should we do it in english or multi-language we could get much more commercial funding. Companies prefer to have very well defined audience and they are ready to pay more par one viewer.

And olympics… let’s forget it. We’ll never have stars like Michael Phelps. Anyone is bothering about Modern Pentathlon olympics medalists? Who knows gold medalists in Archery by heart? But, on the other hand, someone remembers doping cases in olympics? I do… Let’s be different. Let’s be better.

By: Lenka

Lenka — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 08:42:37 +0000

Do you mean the IOF Council? Yes, there are women in the IOF Council. See http://orienteering.org/about-the-iof/council/

By: Lenka

Lenka — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 16:48:50 +0000

That’s a question of practise in every country. In the Czech Republic there is a selection of national competition organizers 2 years ahead, it means a 2014 calendar will be known this fall (2012). And it seems to be sufficient.
If a country wanted to organize a WC race in 2015, it had to apply before the end 2011. There was a case this year that one o-federation in Central Europe found a big sponsor who was willing to pay costs of WC in sprint in 2015. It was suggested this race could be added to the WC 2015 programme for instance before the final series in Switzerland (runners would just make a stop on their way to SUI, a stop paid by the sponsor). But there was no chance to add this race to the WC programme since the late application (spring 2012). The question is: are we striving for promoting of orienteering into other countries/regions and getting money in, or is it more important to rigidly follow long-term deadlines?
The Czech view is that the WC calendar should be flexible until 2 years before the particular WC season (i.e. some changes can be made in the 2014 WC calendar by the end of this year), and after that the calendar should stay fixed. Unfortunately, the practise is different – on one side it is not allowed to add a race for 2015, on the other side the date of NORT 2013 has been changed this spring (just a year before!). Is that ok?

By: hatifnatter

hatifnatter — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 12:33:33 +0000

These guys are praying “Olympics, Olympics, Olympics…”
But what they really do about it? Sochi was a real chance for them. Russian olympic committee promised to win these games, so any possible gold is counting. So they only really needed to explain to mr. Zhukov that it will be a gold for Russia, but not for Canada, Germany or US. After it all the rules and claims do not matter, since Russia used to solve problems on the base of money but not rules.

Well, of course it is also the fail of mr. Beliaev and his friend mr. Elizarov (ROF bosses). But they are hopeless and busy with other things. However, have you heard anything about IOF activity in this direction? I’m not sure if they know who is mr. Zhukov…

And who is next? Korea is definitely not interested. After they may hope for Finland or Sweden, but I’m not sure…