Online Petition - SAVE 50M PISTOL SHOOTING AT THE OLYMPICS

[brucef]

If you have a moment and would like to add your support to this online petition, have a look at
https://www.change.org/p/international- ... e-olympics
At the time of posting this topic, there has been over 1000 signatures in just on 12 hours since the petition went online, including many time Olympic and World Champion Ragnar Skanaker!
Lots of other Olympic and World championship shooters there.
Thanks Bruce

[ChipEck]

I signed. Hopefully everyone who reads this will sign as well.

Chip

[UtahDave]

Thanks for pointing this petition out. I will repost the link on some other shooting sites.

Dave

[Chia]

You're damn right I'm signing that. I want there to be an Olympic shooting sport for me to try out on by the time I get decent enough to go anywhere! Sheesh!

[ChipEck]

Already over 1,200 signatures!

[Ricardo]

While I disagree with the precise accusation leveled at the ISSF, and don't share the somewhat paranoid sentiment, I signed the petition. I must say that I'm also disappointed with the lack of editing. It's always good to have a second person check one's writing before submitting any formal document.

[jmdavis]

Perhaps direct letters to the sanctioning bodies would work better than a petition run on a website controlled by an anti-gun group.

[SlartyBartFast]

While I disagree with the precise accusation leveled at the ISSF, and don't share the somewhat paranoid sentiment, I signed the petition. I must say that I'm also disappointed with the lack of editing. It's always good to have a second person check one's writing before submitting any formal document.

I agree. But I won't sign the petition until the wording is changed quite drastically.

The thing that has to be realised is that you have to make friends to gain influence. A badly worded petition that puts people on the defensive will create more enemies than friends and make it more difficult for people to influence and make changes.

So language about people turning in their graves is a bit much. And to accuse the shooting federation of being anti-shooting is crazy. The last being patently ridiculous if you consider that shooting has been named a core sport.

There's another fact that needs to be addressed. How do you balance the 9 vs. 6 medal count?

What women's events get added and which men's events get eliminated to gain gender equality?

50m pistol is a men's only sport even with the ISSF, so there are no women to step up to fill an Olympic women's 50m pistol event. 50m rifle isn't being eliminated, another bad error on the part of the petition wording. 50m prone is being eliminated. Another men's only discipline at the Olympics.

Petition the ISSF to add women's competition in 50m pistol as a recognised discipline and encourage the participation of women in the sport so that the two events can be added back to the Olympic roster.

Biggest problem is probably old men in the IOC and the ISSF, a majority of men in clubs, and nothing but men online. Where's the representation of women in shooting and how they want to compete at the Olympics?

(PS: 50m pistol might have a history at the Olympics, but until I got involved in shooting I had no idea it existed. It wouldn't be the only ISSF discipline not represented at the Olympics. And as long as international calibre 50m ranges are built for the Olympics, ISSF competitions and training can be promoted and hopefully flourish)

[renzo]

The thing that has to be realised is that you have to make friends to gain influence. A badly worded petition that puts people on the defensive will create more enemies than friends and make it more difficult for people to influence and make changes.

Maybe you´ve read too much Dale Carnegie. Sometimes you can´t find a middle ground, and you have to face the need to say things as they are. Political correctness may foster some carreers, but it does leave the principles behind; and now we have no space left to retreat, if FP goes, it goes forever!!!

So language about people turning in their graves is a bit much.

Why? I´m sure Baron de Coubertin is spinning in his grave like a top since quite a few Games. As for modifications, FP must surely be the event that has retained more than any other its original form, no target size has ever been necessary and time reductions have been introduced solely for the purpose of facilitating match management, not improve or deduce scors which - by the way - have never been even close to perfection, which shows the inherent difficulty of it.

50m pistol is a men's only sport even with the ISSF, so there are no women to step up to fill an Olympic women's 50m pistol event.

You´re misinformed. Between Mexico City 1968 and Seoul 1988 OG`s, FP (as well as other events) were MIXED.

And AFAIK, the Commonwealth Games hold the Women FP event.

Petition the ISSF to add women's competition in 50m pistol as a recognised discipline and encourage the participation of women in the sport so that the two events can be added back to the Olympic roster.

I think you´re not being realistic. Once an event is dropped, it remains out. It was the ISSF burden to propose what you said, and what others suggested, before deciding in a cloak-and-fog committee what we´re just now coming to know.


Biggest problem is probably old men in the IOC and the ISSF.

You have a point there, and I fully agree. Eternity is for believers, not for rulers.........................

[SlartyBartFast]

Renzo, attacking the ISSF isn't going to help shooting sports internationally in any way whatsoever. And going on a complaint about "political correctness" doesn't address any of the points I made.

You're right. deCoubertain and many an athlete have reason to be disgusted by the modern games. But if the world and the IOC can accept breaking the principle of amateur athletes only and the whoring out to the highest bidder, what importance does how long a sport may or may not have been in the games mean?

Mixed sports are a non-starter from both an international perspective, and from the perspective of encouraging participation by showing excellence of both genders. Mixed team sports also suffer from being a non-starter from an international perspective.

There are perhaps other valid and workable solutions. And the ISSF is guilty of being too opaque in their decision making process.

But setting battle lines, calling names, and making enemies (particularly when no alternative is proposed and errors are made in the argument) isn't going to unseat either the ISSF or the IOC.

Commonwealth games only has 50m pistol men's. They seem to have had many pairs events. But looking at results, seems the pairs were exclusively two men.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_ ... mes#Events

But unlike the Olympics, the CGs in 2014 had 8 men's and 8 women's events. A drop in total umber of events from the previous games though. But no mass sporting event needs to represent all of an individual sports disciplines. That's the role of the sporting federation at world cups and world championships.

BTW, Shooting events are optional sports at the CG unlike the OG where the remain a core sport.

[David Levene]

Commonwealth games only has 50m pistol men's. They seem to have had many pairs events. But looking at results, seems the pairs were exclusively two men.

Wrong. I'm not sure when they started but pairs events in all of the CWG events went after Delhi 2010.

Free Pistol for Women was suggested for Glasgow 2014 but the idea was dropped.

[shaky hands]

Though I do not belong to "eleite level 50m pistol shooters," I signed the petition, but I had two thoughts doing so.

1. It was a great idea to start a petition and make grass root shooters be heard.
2. Unfortunately, the 8th grade rhetoric and the unnecessary segways into politically loaded territory will be certain to negate the petition's potential impact.

[SlartyBartFast]

Commonwealth games only has 50m pistol men's. They seem to have had many pairs events. But looking at results, seems the pairs were exclusively two men.

Wrong. I'm not sure when they started but pairs events in all of the CWG events went after Delhi 2010.

Free Pistol for Women was suggested for Glasgow 2014 but the idea was dropped.

David, you might want to consider your quick jump on my post and saying "wrong". As I clearly said "have had".
Yes, according to the wikipedia article I referenced, all pairs events were dropped after 2010.

It's no wonder the suggestion for women's free pistol was dropped. Where would the competitors come from? The ISSF and national organisations and competitions completely ignore women's competition in 50m pistol.