Paintball in the Olympics?

[automagkid24]

One of my friends said to me that in 08 that the Olympics will have paintball, speed skating, and skateboarding. I was wondering if anyonehad herd this also.

[AGDlover]

i've think i've heard something about skateboarding and BMX but paintball i dunno

[Nomad]

Not a chance in hell.

[RingOfScale]

OFFICIALLY it does qualify to be an olympic sport. The requirements are
1. played in at least 25 countries
2. at least 4 continents.
and paintball has that. i mean god damn, if beach vollyball and ping-pong are olympic sports, paintball could easily be one. there are probably more people who play large paintball tournaments then large vollyball tournaments.

-RIngOfScale

Now we just need to get Texas Hold'em in as an olympic sport ...

[BobTheCow]

I had heard POSSIBLY, as an exhibition game, much like baseball used to be, and a number of other things.

I figure if beach volleyball and table tennis make it, paintball has a good a chance as any. (Not that I'm knocking beach volleyball... I do love me some beach volleyball... )

**edit** HOLY CRAP, me and RingOfScale just said basically the exact same thing... *shivers*

[WenULiVeUdiE]

It requires MUCH more than that. Let me dig up a few posts of mine from FoN and you'll see what I mean.

The main thing needed is a central governing body for our sport, otherwise known as an IFs.

Here is one of my posts from FoN concerning paintball and the Olympics. I have a few more on there, if I find them they will be posted.

Yes, soccer has been an olypmic sport for a while.

I think one main problem with this sport is everyone thinks it's so simple. Just shoot the other guy. Well we as paintball players know there is more to that. There's snap shooting, athletic ability, etc. But when you look at other sports such as basketball, all basketball is, is get a ball through a hoop. This is why X-Ball was created. It's more complicated, therefore it is somehow better for home viewing.

Another issue relating to why we havent gotten into the olympics is we have no major governing body. It is required by the Olympic Committee that each sport in the olympics must have one central governing body. Here is a direct quote from the PB2X article entitled " How can we get Paintball into the Olympics" by John Amodea.

"International Olympic Summer Sports Federations (IFs): IFs are non-governmental organizations responsible for the international administration of one or more sports. The IFs are responsible for developing their sports worldwide, enforcing the rules of their sports, establishing eligibility criteria, hosting international competitions, conducting their sports at the Olympic Games, and contributing to tge Olympic ideal in general."

Clearly we cannot even think about the olympics until we have an IFs. We currently have the NXL for easier home viewing, but that does not govern all of paintball, and is just a National league. It has been tried in the past to create an IFs for paintball, but they have all failed. European players have gotten the closest to getting an IFs, all they had to do was govern the rest of the world.

Here is another quote from the same article

" The International Olympic Committee (IOC) chooses the sports that are introduced into the Lympics. To have any shot to be included in the Olumpics, a sport must be widely practiced by men in at least 75 countries and on four continents, and by women in at least 40 countries and on 3 continents. Sports widely practiced in at least 25 countries and on 3 continents may be included (rarely) in the program of the Olympic Winter Games. In addition all sports must have a national/international governing body that runs events, develops the rules, etc. "

The host country of the games may choose one or two demonstrational exhibition sports. If people show enough interest in the demo sport, it may be added to the Olympic games in the future. Example- baseball and tennis were demo sports in 1984 in LA and they became medla sports in the 1988 games.

Another quote
" How close is paintball to meeting the criteria" We're getting there. Paintball is now being played competitively in more than 50 countries and certainly on 4 continents, The problem with paintball is that there currently isn't a "federation" governing the sport. ( See IFs) This is a must before any consideration will be given to including paintball in the Olympics, even a demo mode. "


Andrew

[bokraham]

I used to think that paintball had no place in the olympics, and that it's place was in the x-games. However every sport in the x-games you can get seriously injured on just a minor slip up, paint ball is not that way. The reason that I thought that paintball had no place in the olympics is because we rely on batteries and alot of techknowlogy, also you do not need to be a top athlete to be a good paintballer. What changed my mind was watching sabers and sailing in the olympics today. Sailing does not have much need for athletic poweress. In sabres there are really complicated systems where if you touch something with your sword, it is electronically regitered. The argument could be made to that system of electronics is just there, so the blood would not need to be drawn. If you think about it, in paintball you shoot paint so that you don't need to be shot with a real gun to be marked. I really don't know where I was going with this, it's late.

[Ratzo]

I was just thinking the same thing of getting paintball to the Olympics.
My wife was just looking at me like I was nuts.
Come on we've got teams that fly around the globe to play tournemnets,
All we need is a promoter to create an international series, and we'd be well on our way.

[shadowfalcon78]

my brother said that paintball was gonna be in the athens '04 but just missed by 1 vote.

[bryceeden]

I don't remember where I saw that, but I remember reading that is missed '04 by one vote and would be in '08.

[Southparkrocks]

http://popularmechanics.com/outdoors...d/index2.phtml says its true but http://www.aafla.org/10ap/SportsLett...Lhome.html#st8 says its not

[Chipper]

I think that paintball should start off trying to get into the X-Games and recieve more reconigtion. Then we can shoot for the Olympics.

[warbeak2099]

Well, if we just get an IF we'd be in business. I think it'd be great starting out as a demo. Then we could move towards becoming an event. The problem is creating a central governing body. It could be like a counsel made up of 50 heads. Leaders in the sport, like TK, Bud Orr, Glen Palmer, Dennis Tippmann, Colin Thompson, etc. Basically the people that started the sport. The ones who've been in it from the beggining and who we'd trust to make the right decisions. And for those of you who might object to Tippmann being in there, he contributed as much to our sport as any other person. If not for Tippmann we wouldn't have screw-in tanks.

[dirty_canadian4894]

i bet you that if paintball was in the olympics it would be the only no cheating BIG tournament ever. and it wiould also be watched more than most of the other summer games because i dont really know anyone that likes to watch the summer games

[Chojin Man]

a tournament with no cheating? yeah right. olympics or not there is still going to be cheating in one way or another.