Pistol Shooting on Olympic TV

[Alex L]

I have been a bit of a Couch Potato for the last fortnight, due to the Olympics! I am very disappointed to see that the Oz TV did not show (or I may have missed) any Pistol shooting, during this time.
They must be biased against our sport, or do not know how to present it to the public. They have shown some on previous occasions, and they seemed to have plenty of spare "space",this time, as we got constant replays of other events.
I don't know if any other countries got any coverage of Pistol shooting, but
I u\would like to hear about it, if you did.
The Shotgun people get quite a lot of coverage. Obviously, the coloured disks have made a lot of difference, and make viewing easier, so the TV cameras can pick up the action.

With the electronic targets I don't think it shows the shooters and the targets at the same time. However, the Finals series was invented especially for TV - so why are they Not there?

Maybe they need to put some colour behind the targets to show the shots.
They need to revamp the whole thing, and make it more presentable, so the spectators (TV viewers)can see what is going on. Perhaps by making each shooter fire the shot alone, then the next shooter, etc. would add to the excitement and tension.

Congratulations to the US Rifle shooter, who wrote an excellent articel and self-evaluation. He showed true sportsmanship and good character.
I hope, one day, I could meet him , when I visit Colorado, and shake his hand. (Sorry, I can't remember his name, at the moment! - Old Age!!!!)
Alex L (Melbourne, Oz)

[guest]

I don't think the networks are biased against our sport. They make money knowing what the majority of people want to watch. I love shooting AP, but I can't imagine why anyone not involved in the sport would want to watch it. THERE IS NO MOTION! With shotgun you get to see the movement of the barrel and the targets flying across the screen. With archery you get to see the bowstring being drawn and released and the arrow sticking out of the target and vibrating.

Let's look at our kids for a moment. Their world is much more intense than mine was. I built a skateboard from a two-by-four and a roller skate; their skateboards are designed and manufactured for acrobatics. I wanted a cheap pellet gun; they play laser tag and paint ball against each other.

I fear and predict any sport not showing adrenaline at work will slowly depart the televised sporting world. Practical shooting has a better chance of surviving; I see lots of kids playing shooting video games at the local arcade. Is it true the Olympics are based on skills needed by a warrior? Then lets have combat or practical shooting, whatever you want to call it. Just a thought.

[Pradeep]

Is it true the Olympics are based on skills needed by a warrior? Then lets have combat or practical shooting, whatever you want to call it. Just a thought.

Perhaps a while back. I don't see how twirling around a ballroom or running around with ribbons could have anything to do with being a warrior :)

Wasn't IPSC trying to be a demonstration sport this year? If the USA could bring back some golds from a future IPSC Olympics event, NBC would have no choice but to at least show some of it. Of course with everything being cut and pasted to fit into "prime time", hadly anything is shown live.

[Pradeep]

A thought for 2008, with China being big into shooting, I think we can be sure that all the events will be covered by cameras. Whether the home nations choose to broadcast it is another matter.

[Sparks]

Wasn't IPSC trying to be a demonstration sport this year?

They were trying to get that arranged way back prior to even the Sydney Games, but the IOC declared that there was one international federation for shooting sports (the ISSF) and that any new events had to come through them. And the ISSF wanted nothing to do with the IPSC. So it never happened. And personally, I'm glad, even if for only selfish reasons - one IPSC event in the Olympics and all of the other 182 countries in the world who don't have a second amendment right to keep and bear arms, will have lost their greatest asset in protecting their sports - the safe and harmless image of the olympic sports and the prestige that goes with them.

Right now, we can argue in Ireland that we should be allowed have air pistols and smallbore pistols and rifles and shotguns because they are used as sports equipment in the Games. You get an IPSC event in there, and we wind up losing that argument. I mean, we've had a terrorist problem in Northern Ireland for thirty years - if you think for even a heartbeat that the government here would allow ISPC competitions to continue after the first media wave of condemnation of these "people learning to kill people" showed up, you don't know enough about Irish politics!!!

[race1911]

Funny thing...........I've shot IPSC for 7 years and never once thought of a target as "learning to kill people" and I can vouch for a vast minority of IPSC shooters that feel the same way....our firearms are used just like a tennis racquet, a piece of equipment that allows us to enjoy an extreme competition..............maybe if it had have been televised with all the action, athletics and strategy that goes into shooting an IPSC competition then there might have been more interest in the other shooting sports.........just because its not your interest, we areall shooters and must stand together for the shooting experience that we all enjoy!

[Pradeep]

I have to agree with you that the image of people running around with unlimited IPSC guns at the Olympics will scare the crap out of a lot of people.

But on the other hand, what happens if one day 25m rapid fire pistol is removed from the Olympics? What justification would there be for many countries citizens to continue to own semi-auto .22s. Maybe the women could keep them for 25m sport pistol. It's dangerous to base gun ownership rights on Olympic competition, event numbers are only going down. At least in Australia they seem to accept any event with a recognised World Championships. So Met Silh, IPSC, NRA etc can still continue. I think there will come a time when the countries that have banned guns from civilian ownership, yet still have criminals using them, will come to realise that law-abiding citizens don't commit crimes with guns they own. Sadly by then most will be socialist regimes with no hope of going back to how things once were.

The prob is that once an event is modified for the Olympics, that's how it's shot at the World Champs. One can only hope that they don't switch to 5 shot air pistols after Beijing.

[Sparks]

Funny thing...........I've shot IPSC for 7 years and never once thought of a target as "learning to kill people"

You've misread what I wrote....

[race1911]

Sorry for the misread Sparks.......I still think "action" shooting on tv would be more "entertaining" as a spectator sport and could spur a little more interest into some of the other shooting sports

[Sparks]

Sorry for the misread Sparks.......I still think "action" shooting on tv would be more "entertaining" as a spectator sport and could spur a little more interest into some of the other shooting sports

Maybe in the US race - but trust me, in Ireland, it'd be the first step towards the elimination of target shooting :(

[Spencer C]

With the electronic targets I don't think it shows the shooters and the targets at the same time. However, the Finals series was invented especially for TV - so why are they Not there?

The ISSF and Sius Ascor have developed excellent split screen displays that show the shooter AND the shot placement - but then, the host broadcaster always knows better...

S