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Thought this would warrant it’s own thread rather than just putting it in the Stupid Questions thread.
Although the Olympics and Paralympics are obviously the best known, there are actually lots of multi-sports events nowadays.
Last month, we had the inaugural European Games. When I first heard about these Games, my initial thought was “Ah. They’ve decided to copy the Asian Games.” And my next thought was “Oh, I wonder when the Winter Sports version will be”.
So, I went straight onto Wikipedia, and made a couple of surprising discoveries.
Firstly, rather than just Europe and Asia, most regions of the world are now covered by their own multi-sports events:
All African Games
Asian Games
European Games
Pacific Games
Pan-American Games
Secondly, the Asian Games are the ONLY ones that have a Winter Sports version!!! :shocked: And there don’t seem to be any plans for the others to follow suit.
I was genuinely shocked by this. Europe and North America are the dominant regions when it comes to nearly all Winter Sports, yet neither of their multi-sport events have a Winter version?!
During last year’s Commonwealth Games, I often thought “Oh, I wish there was a Winter Sport version”. But, given the difficulty the Commonwealth Games Federation are having just to get candidates to host the forthcoming (Summer) editions, I can’t see a Winter version coming any time soon.
So, why are there so few Winter multi-sports events?
Is it the old story that the powers-that-be see Winter Sports as less important to Summer sports?
My guess is that it is down to cost. For nearly all summer sports, the facilities required to hold them are already found in most cities anyway:
Running track
Indoor arena
Swimming pools
Football pitches
Tennis courts
Admittedly, most hosts would want to build new facilities. But they don’t have to if they don’t want to.
The same cannot be said for Winter Sports. Nearly all Winter Sports require specialist facilities that most cities simply don’t have:
Ski Jumping hill
Bobsleigh course
Alpine ski courses
Nordic ski trail
Nordic ski trail with shooting range
Slopestyle course
Ice rink
OK, so a lot of cities do have an ice rink. But not all do!
Not only do most cities not have these facilities, but they are expensive to build. The Ski Jumping facility was the single most expensive thing to build in Sochi. Admittedly, the huge cost here was down to complications that arose due to the geology, but even without that it wouldn’t have been cheap to build.
But, why do we need to build anew? Let’s face it, there have been 20 cities that have hosted the Winter Olympics. Twelve of these are in Europe (well, eleven when you take out Sarajevo), and five are in North America (the other three are in Asia).
So, what is stopping the organisers of the European Games and the Pan-American Games from holding Winter Games that re-use the facilities that are already in these cities from the time they hosted the Winter Olympics?!
Although holding a multi-sport event without building anew would still incur some cost, it would be outweighed by a huge boost to the economies of these cities.
There doesn’t need to be a huge cost in holding Winter versions of the European Games or Pan-American Games. So, that brings us back to the belief that Winter Sports don’t matter as much as Summer sports.
It is a real shame that there are not more Winter multi-sports events. I would love to see there being a European Winter Games.
Hey, wouldn’t it be great if, for the years when there was a European Winter Games, the European Championships in the various Winter Sports (e.g. figure skating, speed skating, curling, bobsleigh, skeleton) were held as part of this bigger event. It would add an extra layer of prestige to the competitions, and give the participants a taste of what competing at the Olympics would be like.
It might even encourage other Winter Sports that don’t currently hold annual European Championships to do so. For example, ice hockey (which used to have annual European Championships, but stopped after 1927); the various ski disciplines; or snowboarding.
Also, I would love there to be a Winter version of the Commonwealth Games. And I am sure that most Canadians would too, as they would clean up!
For that matter, unless we look to non-Commonwealth countries as hosts, Canada would probably end up hosting every edition. Canada is the only Commonwealth country that has hosted the Winter Olympics (in Calgary in 1988, and in Vancouver in 2010), and so is the only country that has all the necessary facilities already in place. OK, so there are some facilities in Scotland, but not all of the Winter Sports are catered for there.
Of course, I don’t expect all multi-sport events to hold Winter versions. But, some more would be nice.
CaroLiza_fan
Although the Olympics and Paralympics are obviously the best known, there are actually lots of multi-sports events nowadays.
Last month, we had the inaugural European Games. When I first heard about these Games, my initial thought was “Ah. They’ve decided to copy the Asian Games.” And my next thought was “Oh, I wonder when the Winter Sports version will be”.
So, I went straight onto Wikipedia, and made a couple of surprising discoveries.
Firstly, rather than just Europe and Asia, most regions of the world are now covered by their own multi-sports events:
All African Games
Asian Games
European Games
Pacific Games
Pan-American Games
Secondly, the Asian Games are the ONLY ones that have a Winter Sports version!!! :shocked: And there don’t seem to be any plans for the others to follow suit.
I was genuinely shocked by this. Europe and North America are the dominant regions when it comes to nearly all Winter Sports, yet neither of their multi-sport events have a Winter version?!
During last year’s Commonwealth Games, I often thought “Oh, I wish there was a Winter Sport version”. But, given the difficulty the Commonwealth Games Federation are having just to get candidates to host the forthcoming (Summer) editions, I can’t see a Winter version coming any time soon.
So, why are there so few Winter multi-sports events?
Is it the old story that the powers-that-be see Winter Sports as less important to Summer sports?
My guess is that it is down to cost. For nearly all summer sports, the facilities required to hold them are already found in most cities anyway:
Running track
Indoor arena
Swimming pools
Football pitches
Tennis courts
Admittedly, most hosts would want to build new facilities. But they don’t have to if they don’t want to.
The same cannot be said for Winter Sports. Nearly all Winter Sports require specialist facilities that most cities simply don’t have:
Ski Jumping hill
Bobsleigh course
Alpine ski courses
Nordic ski trail
Nordic ski trail with shooting range
Slopestyle course
Ice rink
OK, so a lot of cities do have an ice rink. But not all do!
Not only do most cities not have these facilities, but they are expensive to build. The Ski Jumping facility was the single most expensive thing to build in Sochi. Admittedly, the huge cost here was down to complications that arose due to the geology, but even without that it wouldn’t have been cheap to build.
But, why do we need to build anew? Let’s face it, there have been 20 cities that have hosted the Winter Olympics. Twelve of these are in Europe (well, eleven when you take out Sarajevo), and five are in North America (the other three are in Asia).
So, what is stopping the organisers of the European Games and the Pan-American Games from holding Winter Games that re-use the facilities that are already in these cities from the time they hosted the Winter Olympics?!
Although holding a multi-sport event without building anew would still incur some cost, it would be outweighed by a huge boost to the economies of these cities.
There doesn’t need to be a huge cost in holding Winter versions of the European Games or Pan-American Games. So, that brings us back to the belief that Winter Sports don’t matter as much as Summer sports.
It is a real shame that there are not more Winter multi-sports events. I would love to see there being a European Winter Games.
Hey, wouldn’t it be great if, for the years when there was a European Winter Games, the European Championships in the various Winter Sports (e.g. figure skating, speed skating, curling, bobsleigh, skeleton) were held as part of this bigger event. It would add an extra layer of prestige to the competitions, and give the participants a taste of what competing at the Olympics would be like.
It might even encourage other Winter Sports that don’t currently hold annual European Championships to do so. For example, ice hockey (which used to have annual European Championships, but stopped after 1927); the various ski disciplines; or snowboarding.
Also, I would love there to be a Winter version of the Commonwealth Games. And I am sure that most Canadians would too, as they would clean up!
For that matter, unless we look to non-Commonwealth countries as hosts, Canada would probably end up hosting every edition. Canada is the only Commonwealth country that has hosted the Winter Olympics (in Calgary in 1988, and in Vancouver in 2010), and so is the only country that has all the necessary facilities already in place. OK, so there are some facilities in Scotland, but not all of the Winter Sports are catered for there.
Of course, I don’t expect all multi-sport events to hold Winter versions. But, some more would be nice.
CaroLiza_fan
