Renowned cycling commentator angered by slimmed track schedule making way for new cycling events
Cycling commentator Phil Liggett has criticised olympic organisers and the UCI saying 'Mountain biking and BMX have no place in the Olympics'.
Already many are questioning the cycling commentator's stance, who has since making the comments told his near 95,000 Twitter followers that, although he has "nothing against MTB or BMX", "(Olympics founder) Pierre de Coubertin would have laughed his head off if he found out it (MTB and BMX) was an Olympic discipline."
"It is absolutely disgraceful what they have done. They have devastated the track with the new events and taking out the iconic events of the Olympics," Liggett said.
"They have taken out the exciting and interesting events - the individual pursuit, the 1km time trial and the women's 500m time trial, and put in an omnium that no one will ever understand.
"There is only one rider from each country in the omnium and they are a jack of all trades and master of none."
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"Nations and riders complained, but the UCI (International Cycling Union) wanted equality. It might be exciting but we are talking the Olympic Games.
"We have never had a good mountain biking event. Thousands will watch them, but they are not Olympic gold medal events. They weren't meant to be in the Olympic Games."
Liggett's stance, Twitter aside, is already drawing criticism, with Australian BMX hopeful Caroline Buchanan putting the comments down to "jealousy" of the excitment BMX racing's inclusion has generated for the Beijing and London games.
Liggett is scheduled to commentate at the Olympics, as he did over the recent Tour de France.
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6 comments
I think Phil needs to think this one through a little more. A more valid argument based presenting a comprehensive range of skills and athletic talent would be to reduce road and track and increase mountain bike and BMX fields. Peter Sagan, the most exciting rider in the peloton today, began with BMC and mountain biking. 20 years ago, John Tomac did the same. Cadel Evans, Kessiakoff, Peraud and a raft of other top names have competed as mountain bikers. Experience in mountain bike competition endows a rider with a tremendous handling skill set as well as massive high intensity endurance potential. What is less certain is whether names such as Contador, Schleck, Wiggins and Froome could hang with the best in a world cup mountain bike race. Lance Armstrong couldn't (although with practice he might have been able to raise his game). As for BMX, that is the most skilled and exciting discipline in cycling. Hands down. More so than any mountain bike, road or track race I have seen. Top BMX riders like Jamie Staff have successfully transited into track racing. And again, could a top track racer make it in BMX? Probably not. So what the heck is Phil talking about? Mountain biking and BMX are just as valid athletically as road and track cycling, and in terms of the skill set required possibly more so. Phil is the best cycling commentator in the English language, and possibly others too. For that he has my undying admiration. But in this matter he is exhibiting blind traditionalism and a lack of flexibility in his thinking.
Paul Skilbeck Jul 26th 2012 at 5:57PM
1 4He wouldn't have said this 5 years ago I would imagine? what a silly thing to say!! I've always thought Mountain biking should mirror the winter Olympics and skiing? Downhill, slalom, cross country. Simple really. timax
Gary Lee Cooper Jul 27th 2012 at 10:41AM
0 1He wouldn't have said this 5 years ago I would imagine? what a silly thing to say!! I've always thought Mountain biking should mirror the winter Olympics and skiing? Downhill, slalom, cross country. Simple really. timax
Gary Lee Cooper Jul 27th 2012 at 10:44AM
0 1I think these sort of outbursts are not at all helpful to the modern world of cycling and I thought they had died out thirty years ago with the old skool club riding bigots. Surely we should be asking why any popular event should be scrubbed to make room for new and exciting cycle events. They should be increasing the places for popular sports like cycling without knocking things out, and looking very carefully at things like boxing, archery and shooting (given recent events in the USA). Is the Olympic Games also the place for Football, Tennis Etc where major world events already exist to eclipse the Olympic events and also Equestrian events where maybe the Horse should get the medal. His comments about Pierre de Coubertin are clearly without any basis and are just for effect. There is no evidence that he supported any particular cycle discipline. In 1896 cycle racing in any form was a very new sport and its events were still under development. There were 19 competitors from 5 countries in 7 events. This was also the guy, bear in mind, who instigated Artistic events to the Olympics, of which we won our last silver medal in 1948 for engraving/etchings. There must be ample evidence in the demand profile for Olympic tickets to decide which sports are the most popular, so fighting amongst ourselves is counter productive. We should promote ALL cycling events and demand an increased presence of ALL cycle disciplines. There are many popular evolving sports in cycling still to achieve Olympic status, like Downhill, Fourcross, Cyclocross and Bicycle Trials so we don't want to close the doors for them.
MIke Poyzer Jul 27th 2012 at 4:17PM
0 0Well, he's right about the omnium, though in Athletics the general public seems to have no difficulty understanding the heptathlon/decathlon. But in every other way he's wrong. BMX is the only one of the cycling disciplines I've never tasted, but if one of the aims of these games (as we were told) is to attract young people into sport BMX is ideal for attracting youngsters, especially in urban areas. I'd love to see the IP and kilo back in, but not at the expense of MTB or BMX. In fact the first change I'd make is to bring downhill mountain biking in. If the Olympic programme needs to be slimmed down (which I agree with) then drop the football, which no-one cares about. And if swimmers can have four goes at a 100m gold then Usain Bolt ought to be able to run in four different styles too.
Jon Sparks Jul 27th 2012 at 5:29PM
0 0Hold on now Phil, our great Chris Hoy once started life as a team Haro bmx racer. And look at him now. Grant the ip and kilo I will agree should never of been dropped. But lose football, tennis.
Dean Brooks Jul 29th 2012 at 12:36AM
0 0