> > Would the Olympics have the prestige they currently enjoy if
> > anybody could just show up and compete?
> >
> You mean like the Jamaican bobsled team? Or the Greek ski team in the
> Salt Lake Games? Or Eddie "the Eagle" the ski jumper? Or how many
> others who are there just to experience the olympics? I might be
> jealous of them being there, but I'm not going to tell them they can't
> do it.
Actually, none of them could be in the Olympics any more. Because of the
size of the Olympics, it was felt that having people who could not add to
the competition level but ate up the limited resourses was harming the
competition.
Rules were added that require competitors to prove that they can compete
significantly at that level before they can go to the Olympics.
Sports that want to be included in the Olympics also are looked at from the
standpoint of will the added competition be worth making the games larger.
It is very hard to get a new sport into the competition and there are quite
a few that are already there that would not be allowed in if they were new.
Inline skating (actual racing rather than foo-foo subjective exhibitions) is
one of the sports that has been working for years to show that it has a high
enough level of international competition to be worthy of taxing the already
overloaded facilities.
If the additional people at nationals do not harm the competition, none of
that applies.
Since AX doesn't lend itself to compaison of times between people who are
not competing on the same course at the same time, it is really good that
local competitors can go to nationals and see just how they compare to the
best.
If the number of people at nationals harms the competition, then there needs
to be a way to determine those who can add to the quality of the competition
in a fair manner and to give a chance for the wannabees to compete against
enough of the best to know what they can do.
None of which has anything to do with should a novice be able to expect to
walk in with the car they happen to drive on the street and have it be
competitive with the card prepped for national competition.
National competition is not oriented to novices, nor in my mind, should it
be.
The SCCA has rules in place that allow local people to cater to novices or
special needs of their areas.
If people in an area get in to racing low riders, your local region can make
a class for them without fighting over the nit picking rules that would be
required to make it a fair national class. That way you can have rules
loose enough to allow people to run cars that were not built specifiacaly
for the rules.
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