Hang gliding and the media

[DigitalBishop]

Ok, I know most of you have heard of the Red Bull Air Race that is happening in San Francisco this comming weekend on October 7th. As much as I would like to go and see this spectical happen and how they track the (ludicrously fast for prop) planes. I won't be able to make it. In any case it got me thinking a few things and asking a few questions (a dangerous prospect when you get me going).

1. Why isn't Hang gliding in the Olympics yet?
2. Why aren't Hang Gliding competitions covered by the main media?
3. What can we do to get this sport recognised more so that it will attract the media to cover it?

If they found a way to track fast planes through a course why can't they track some moderately fast gliders through one too? I can understand that the sport of hang gliding isn't loud, noisy or full of rip roaring engine noises. It doesn't have a ball passed from person to person then through a goal, or bone shattering collisions that keep that ball from that goal. It's quiet, nearly silent except for the sound of the glider cutting through the air. So is Golf except when the crowd breaks in to applause to give their approval. Yet it's on TV nearly every weekend and even has its own channel on cable.

So what are we not doing that all these sports that have coverage are doing? From Oz Report I read somewhere that the Paraglider population gained, that's a good thing. However the Hang Glider population lost around 100 or so people. For a population of a little more than 6000 that's a pretty good hit. Thankfully I know I'll join the ranks soon and know of other individuals who will be joining soon as well. We're just a drop in the proverbial bucket though.

The more people who join the sport the more it will get noticed in the media. The more the sport gets noticed in the media, more people will likely notice the sport and join. Quite a conundrum isn't it?

[JBBenson]

Many (including myself) have thought long and hard about this.

My feeling is that HG is too far removed from what mere mortals could imagine oneself doing: it is impossible (for the viewer) to readily identify with the participants. HG is just too far-out and strange and unbelievable. The mental leap is too large. We are talking about flying like Superman.

Golf works because alot of people play golf. They will never be Tiger Woods but they can fantasize about it. Car racing works the same way: everybody drives a car, and so the fantasy of racing cars is not such a mental leap.

XC-Racing hang-gliders is also not a very cinematic sport: it is akin to racing sailboats, and we know how popular that is.

The game of Polo, which has been continuously played for 2500+ years in virtually every country, has been recently rejected by the Olympic Committee as "not being international enough"(!) (The last Olympic Polo competition was the 1936 games in Berlin).

But we still have Curling in the Winter Games. Because everybody fantasizes about that.

[DigitalBishop]

But we still have Curling in the Winter Games. Because everybody fantasizes about that.

<sarcasm>Hmm yea, Curling. Throwing rocks around so they hit each other. I can definately identify with that. It's definately international too. How many places can you go Curling in good ol` So. Cal? One! In Anaheim. </sarcasm>

I think how they got Curling in to the Winter Olympics is that they all pulled together and made a lot of noise. The squeeky wheel gets the most grease. We need to make some noise about the sport.

[Christian]

Seems to me there is really no reason hang gliding couldn't be in the Olympics. However, entry is a long political haul requiring a strong organization with international leadership and well maintained sporting contacts. One look at the decentralized nature of hang gliding and the limited leadership role of the USHPA suggests we are probably not candidates at the moment.

I campaigned for the Olympics of 1980 in the Soling class--and dinghy racing is a world just as competitive and riven by personalities as we are. At the class level, Olympic sailing is just as small--there were not more than 50 competitive Soling crews in America when I was involved.

So I would look to a cadre of 50 or so of the best American pilots, with Wills Wing and the USHPA backing them, to make this pitch. It would take a whole new entity: a US Hang Gliding Olympic Committee.

They would coordinate with similar newborn "Olympic committees" in Europe and Eastern Europe and Down Under, making sure they conformed to Olympic game rules. This coalition would argue that hang gliding is a truly international sport with well established rules of competition, that scoring methods are widely accepted and secure, that fund-raising is in place, that venues are secured, and that the value of the Olympics would be enhanced by the admission of free flight, in which humans fly like birds.

Could it be done? See the list of Olympic sports here, one would have to be dislodged: http://www.olympic.org/uk/sports/index_uk.asp

Personally, I doubt any of this would get us new pilots, since hang gliders tend to find hang gliding despite all obstacles. Nobody wants to race dinghies nowadays, either--too cold and wet and weather dependent.

If you want more hang gliders, just empty the madhouses.