Shooting for 2016
May 27, 2008 by nopstar
Let the Push begin!
So it’s no secret that the folks at the IMF and WMC have been lobbying for this for a while. It looks like they’re coming down the marketing home stretch. One of the primary goals of the WMC since it was established in 1995 was to get Muay Thai into the Olympic Games.
The committee has been trying to drum up support internationally for quite some time. The world championships are a direct result of this effort.
I have a friend who was involved in the “World Championships” and I he told me they were scrambling for fighters apparently some of the competing countries were short on fighters. I think last minute my buddy was asked if he was interested in fighting for Puerto Rico!
As part of their effort they will be broadcasting Muay Thai live every Tuesday night(8:15 – 1o:15) from July to Dec. The fights will be beamed to 115 countries via the Thai TV Global Network (TGN). Any of you who receive satellite should be able to watch all of the action. I’ve got cable so as usual I’m SOL.
I’m not sure if it’s going to be Muay Thai or Muay Thai with protective gear. I’ve got to imagine that it’s going to be normal Muay Thai… I can’t imagine anyone getting too excited about watching 2 fully padded up fighters going at it.
So I let’s say Muay Thai get’s into the 2016 games, I’m all for it… but where is Thailand going to get fighters from? I mean last I heard amateurs fighters don’t exist in Thailand? Are they going to throw in anyone with under 15 fights? If so how is any Thai that ways 70K going to have less than 15 fights?
Surely they aren’t planning on throwing pro’s in there? I thought the whole US basketball team thing was interesting the first time around, but it really isn’t in the spirit of things is it?
Have any of you heard how they would do things? Ideas? Thoughts? Opinions?
This sounds GREAT !!!
I’m ALL for it but, if you think about it….It might make muay thai go big….BUT it might make it crash in the Worlds eyes. What I’m saying is, the people in the Olympic Games airn’t going to let guys smash eachother with unpaded Elbows, I just can’t see this happening. It would be “To Grafic” for the kids, bla bla bla…..I’m HOPING it will let people around the World learn the TRUE ART of Muay Thai, Wai Kru / Ram Muay and all the Movments of Thaiboxing !
Or people here will just say, “NO, to Grafic !”
We will see :)
hey, havent made a comment in a while and i dont want to beat a dead horse, but what about the other SEA countries ? I mean props to Muay Thai for getting this far they’ve worked real hard for this and its good that they can finally see it happen. Myanmar, laos, cambodia i think even parts of vietnam all have their own version of kickboxing, maybe it could include all of them too? but before the olympics happen what about the rest of SEA ? my two cents.
I always thought the most likely thing to happen would be for the Olympics to take K-1 rules for kickboxing. That stops it from being too specific to Thailand, and the rules are a little ’softer’ for the kids. Again, I don’t know how they’d select amateur fighters.
Littleman-
Yeah, you’re right… I think as part of the requirements of inclusion they would have to change the name to SEA boxing or something. I don’t really have a nationalistic agenda when it comes to Muay Thai. I hope it’s open to the Burmese, Cambodian, Laos and Vietnamese fighters. I think the Burmese and Cambodian’s could easily form a team, granted some of the rules and scoring would probably be different… it would be great, you kidding me the rivalry between the SEA countries it would be epic.
That being said, I don’t know how it’s going to go down. These things are all run and organized by Generals and Politicians who all have agendas. I’m sure their intentions are far less inclusive… then mine.
I have a few concerns with Muay Thai becoming an Olympic sport.
On one side, I think it would be good to show the world that these (we) are talented athletes and not knuckle draggers.
On the other side, I fear that the full pads (I’m sure there will be no other choice in the Olympics) will turn fights into point scoring matches, with light strikes etc. Which would be too bad for me, because the techniques in Muay Thai (to me) are meant to be devastating strikes.
Look at Olympic TKD and Boxing- both require protective gear. Unless something drastic happens, protective gear will be required for Muay Thai as well if it is to be included in Olympic competition. I’m sure they will also impose some very heavy rules in regards to clinching, knees, and elbows as well. You have to remeber that the Olympics are not interested in violence or demonstrations of devastating strikes. They are more interested in showing the “sport” and the athleticism and as such, I wouldn’t be surprised to see MT receive a larger push from the Olympics to be a more point stylized sport like TKD. Hopefully this won’t be the case, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
Either way, I really hope we see MT in the Olympics some day!
Even though its with protective gear, I would watch it. Dont follow Olympics at all, so It would be a nice addition to the Games. I would love to see Pro thais in there, even with the Gear.
I agree that the organizers would ensure total padding (shins, elbows, body and head), but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Check out the amateur/pro split in boxing. It provides 2 ways for a boxer to compete. And amateur boxing is, more often than not, a great prep, for pro boxing. How many world champs in boxing started off their career in amateur?
I think developing a solid amateur pathway (via the creation of potential Olympic competition) for muay thai fighters would be a good thing.
my 2 cents
:)
Its been alluded to above, but as I understand it Olympic rules prohibit any sport named after a country, or with a countries name in the title.
That means that whatever gets in the Olympics, it won’t be Muay Thai.
Another entry route is that host nations are allowed to add one demonstration sport to the Olympics they host. That sport can then go on and remain in the Olympics, or its candidacy passes to another sport.
To take two examples: Savate was a demonstration sport at the 1924 Paris Olympics, (and is unlikely to ever return) whilst women’s Judo was at the Seoul Olympics, and is now a permanent fixture.
Perhaps London could be persuaded to have some form of Thai boxing at 2012?
I agree with most of the statements above. A muay thai or muay thai-ish sport in the Olympics would, I think, greatly increase the sports popularity worldwide. If an amateur/pro split would happen, I agree that it would have a possitive effect, with more recruiting, and better and easier ways to make the foundations for going pro.
Maybe we’ll even see it here in Norway someday…