19 August 2004 05:38 rec.sport.disc Ultimate In The News - WSJ Olympics article
>this is a sweet article from the wall st journal a few days ago: > >OLYMPICS >Why the Frisbee Won't Fly >At the Games in Athens >By BARRY NEWMAN >Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL >August 17, 2004; Page A16 >ATHENS, Greece -- Frisbee is a traditional Greek sport; members of American >Greek-letter fraternities know that. But before the college Greeks had the >Frisbee, the ancient Greeks had the discus. >"People have thrown things throughout history," says Jim Kenner, who is 56 >years old and expended time as a youth playing Frisbee and not working much. >He now owns Discraft Inc., a maker of flying discs in Wixom, Mich. "Flying >discs trace their roots to pie tins and cow pies," he says. "In terms of >sport, there wasn't anything suitable except the discus in the past." >The Frisbee's forerunner was a 10-pound rock. The idea was to throw it. >Since the Athenian artist Myron sculpted the Discus Thrower in 450 B.C. >(pictures of the famous statue are everywhere in Athens this month) the >discus has changed a good deal: Now it's basically 4? pounds of steel. But >the idea -- to throw it -- has not changed. >Frisbee, meantime, has blossomed from a lazy game of catch on the frat-house >lawn into the sport of "ultimate," a high-voltage cross between soccer and >American football. It was known early on as ultimate Frisbee, but Wham-O >Inc., which owns the Frisbee trademark, wouldn't get behind it. So it's just >plain ultimate now. >That causes branding issues: Ultimate? Ultimate what? But as far as its fans >are aware, the truly ultimate championships aren't the ones taking place >here. They rolled out two weeks ago up in Turku, Finland, where 1,500 >athletes joined in, playing on 76 teams from 23 countries. >How come the Frisbee is on the outs in Athens while the discus, after 2,700 >years, remains so unbendably in? For those who think the Olympics are >slightly behind the times -- members of the International Olympic Committee >included -- that's the ultimate question. >As soon as Athens shuts down, the IOC will begin a rethink of the games >people play at future Olympics. "It's going to happen from now on -- a >revision and checkup of the program," says Ron Froehlich, head of USA >Gymnastics and a member of the IOC's program commission. "It's a matter of >what appeals to the audience." >Softball and baseball may get chucked. So might Greco-Roman wrestling. From >the long jump to the javelin, no track-and-field event is sacred. Fourteen >pursuits long to replace the rejects. Nothing that relies on motors or minds >need apply; that leaves out water skiing and checkers. But golf and karate >are lobbying hard. And, lest ballroom dancing be forgotten, it has >repackaged itself as "dance sport." >Movement, music, emotion -- it has everything ice dancing has except the >ice. "It's a beautiful opportunity for target marketing," says Ken Richards >of the U.S. Amateur Ballroom Dancers Association. Come 2008, he hopes, >there'll be some serious boogieing in Beijing. >Korfball has less Olympic promise, like a list of other IOC "recognized" >sports: bowling, skydiving, surfing, fistball, wushu, tug-of-war. How about >Frisbee? Perhaps like skateboarding, which seems content for now with the X >Games, ultimate is happy with gathering in places like Finland for its own >World Games. But as for the Olympics, ultimate's organizers just don't think >it's worth the hassle. >"A sport with Olympic aspirations needs to be a political organization," >says Nob Rauch, a Bostonian who has checked this out for the World Flying >Disc Federation. "It takes too much energy." >So Athens 2004 is a one-flying-disc town. In Olympic lore, the discus is >secure. But its place in the Olympic future may not be -- not unless >somebody takes a swing at bringing the discus up to date. >That would be Palle Densam, a Dane who works on an island in the Baltic Sea. >He has spent years trying to build a better one. >When he began, a discus was made of metal-rimmed wood, and the men's world >record -- set by East Germany's Juergen Schult in 1986 -- was 243 feet. Now >Mr. Densam uses plastic plates to shift metal weight onto the rim. His >Hi-Spin model is machined for headwinds; his HyperSuperSpin is canted for >tailwinds. In Sydney, Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania won the gold medal >throwing a Densam discus 227 feet 4 inches. But the world record still >stands: 243 feet. >Will any non-Frisbee flying disc beat that? In Athens, where Mr. Densam's >discuses will be filling the air, probably not. But in Beijing? >"I'm thinking of that," Mr. Densam says. "Maybe I can improve my discus one >more time." >Write to Barry Newman at [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Wayne Retter [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________ BritDisc mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://zion.ranulf.net/mailman/listinfo/britdisc Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/informed.asp
