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More track cycling, less of the golf and tennis blow-ins please

Jack Bobridge is part of Australia's men's team pursuit team in their crack at a gold medal. (AAP Image/POOL/John Veage, Tour Down Under)
Roar Guru
13th August, 2016
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On Friday evening Rio time, Great Britain’s track pursuit team beat Australia to take the gold medal. Both teams broke the world record, with Britain shaving just a bit more off to edge out the Aussies.

The team pursuit is in many people’s eyes the blue ribband event of the track cycling program. It showcases the depth of national talent, with teams drawing from a pool of five riders needing to work together through the heats and finals. Four riders take to the track in any one heat.

What isn’t immediately apparent is the huge commitment needed to win the Olympic team pursuit. It’s a project led by national federations, with Cycling Australia and head coach Tim Decker building the team up over the four0year Olympic cycle.

You don’t just turn up with five elite cyclists to the Olympic team pursuit. You won’t see many Tour de France contenders here – despite both being endurance cycling events. One exception is Brad Wiggins, 2012 Tour de France champion who stopped focusing on road cycling to focus on this race in 2016.

In truth, the team pursuiters are not the absolute cream of cycling talent. That goes to road cycling, where professional salaries are on offer. The team pursuit is traditionally the domain of young talent, who learn the ropes under the watch of their national federations. Alex Edmondson is 22, Sam Welsford only 20.

Jack Bobridge, reigning Australian road champion, is an exception. He rides for professional road team Trek-Segafredo, but with a contract that allowed him to focus on these Olympics.

Bobridge is listed at a featherweight 65kg, crucial for getting over the steep climbs he’ll tackle on the road. But it’s a penalty on the track, where air resistance is your main opponent and muscle bulk is needed to push through it.

Wiggins has bulked up from a skeletal 70 kg when he won Le Tour in 2012 to a listed 83 kg in 2016. What would the result have been had Bobridge focused exclusively on the track team pursuit?

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After four years of preparation and with some team members potentially moving onto focus on professional road cycling careers, it all came down to less than four minutes on the Rio velodrome. The anticipation and pressure felt by the riders and their support team would have been palpable.

And the Aussies missed it. By mere fractions of a second. Even with a world record-pace ride. No gold medal – although silver was a mighty achievement.

Unlike events like swimming, there are few follow-up events in track cycling. Bobridge holds the world record in the individual 4km pursuit, a stunning time of 4:10.5 that he set at the national championships in 2011. But it’s no longer on the Olympic program.

What is now on the Olympic program is sports with a broad fan appeal, like golf. At the time of writing, Aussie Marcus Fraser was doing a sterling job, hanging onto the lead and sitting at 10 under par.

I’ve played a fair bit of golf in my time. I have a lot of respect for what is an extremely skilful game that requires incredible mental strength and concentration. Qualities I lack in spades.

But I fail to get excited by golf at the Olympics. When interviewed, Fraser told of how he had prepared for the event by checking the course out on YouTube. It just doesn’t compare with four years of dedicated toil by our track cyclists, holding back their form so that they could build and peak for a single, do-or-die Olympic race.

Meanwhile, top-ranked golfers Rory McIlroy and Jason Day didn’t bother even turning up. There’s plenty of golf tournaments for them to choose from. The Olympics is just another on the schedule. There is no special preparation for them – they are a travelling show, who bring their wares to whichever tournament is up next.

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It’s a similar deal with Tennis. Australia’s Nick Kyrgios could barely hide his contempt for Olympic tennis. Stars like Novak Djokovic were bundled out in the first round. Roger Federer had a sore knee and didn’t enter.

The Olympics should be the pinnacle of a given sport. The reality is, it’s not for some sports. And you can draw a line between which are true Olympic sports, and which are not.

The true Olympic sports are those for which a gold medal is the coveted prize and which require dedicated preparation by an athlete to build to their peak condition.

Professional skill-based sports like golf and tennis don’t make that criteria. The purer athletic sports – (track) cycling, track-and-field, swimming – do.

Unfortunately, the IOC has gradually scaled back the track cycling program. The 500m, 1 and 4km individual pursuits, and madison events are gone, although the omnium was added. These are events in which Australia has a proud history, won by cyclists including Anna Meares, Scott McGrory, Graeme Brown and Brett Aitken.

Rory McIlroy and Roger Federer are much bigger names than most track cyclists. But the IOC has erred in succumbing to the commercial temptations of including major sports like golf and tennis.

It’s not too late to learn that lesson and return the Olympics to its former glory and once again representing the highest level for participating sports and their participants.

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