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Olympics sponsors want nothing to do with Team USA shooters

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S

Silver Arrows

Banned
Article

If Team USA’s Kim Rhode wins a medal in skeet shooting Friday, she will claim a piece of Olympic history: the 37-year-old Californian will be the first woman to take the podium in six straight Olympics.

Landing a big-name sponsor might be the bigger feat.

In the year leading up to Rio 2016, Rhode’s agent Patrick Quinn pitched her to around 20 companies that back the Olympics. None were convinced.

“The big mystery is how someone like Kim isn’t part of the Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and the Olympics sponsor push,” Quinn said by phone from Chicago. “It would be nice to have an Olympic sponsor recognize the magnitude of her accomplishment.”

Coca-Cola Co. and Procter & Gamble Co. didn’t respond to a request for comment, but Rhode and other shooters on Team USA think the reason is obvious. The rise in gun violence and mass shootings in the US have attached a stigma to shooting as a sport, they say. So while companies like Winchester, Beretta and Otis Technology support Rhode, she doesn’t have a single sponsor from outside the firearm industry.

The same is true for USA Shooting, even though the sport has since 2000 been the fifth-highest medal producer for the US team at Summer Olympics. The very first gold medal for any sport awarded in Rio went to Ginny Thrasher, 19, in her Olympics debut.

Politics may tell only part of the story. American television audiences don’t tend to watch shooting — or, for that matter, a number of other sports.
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Seems like a somewhat unintended side affect of the spat of ever increasing mass murders happening in the US. Or maybe intended, who knows.
 
I

Irnbru

Member
DrForester said:
Shooting might be a popular pastime in the USA, but it's not a popular sport.

Cry harder, lady.
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I'm not seeing where she's crying as she still has sponsors, just not the big names becuase it's not a hot sport and much less popular due to recent times. I mean, she just won 6 consecutive medals in 6 consecutive games, but she's crying I guess. Sharpshooting is pretty fun, but I prefer archery.

She's pretty cool in rl, she's spoke at my alma matter as she's an alumnus, haha.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
I actually do not minds gun's used for sport like this. Same for hunting things like deer in areas without major predators and such. I don't see what the big deal is, its not like they're shooting cut outs of people. Its just target practice taken to the highest levels.
 
P

popo

Member
Hit a target from a mile away and nobody wants to know. Hit an insurgent from a mile away and they will make a movie about you .
 
K

Kinyou

Member
I wonder how the athletes in other shooting disciplines fair. The guns and athletes look so weird it feels hard to even still connect it to real life shooting.

YlYU94w.jpg
 
A

Abounder

Banned
Dr.Acula said:
The harsh reality is that she an overweight 37 year old woman, that's why she's not getting sponsors.
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Yessir. After all the Olympics aren't exactly an ethical organization especially at the next venue, it'd be awesome if they did care about politics but yea right
 
V

Veins

Unconfirmed Member
I think it is because shooting is a sport most people only "care" about once every 4 years in a "huh, this is on TV next, I might watch it" sort of way.

Also it isn't very glamorous.
 
L

Lmo911

Member
Kinyou said:
I wonder how the athletes in other shooting disciplines fair. The guns and athletes look so weird it feels hard to even still connect it to real life shooting.

YlYU94w.jpg
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That's because "real life shooting" is playing with toys mainly. If you were serious about it, you'd wear the crazy things. That's how optimized the sport has become.

Really I think this would appeal more than AR-15 guy to a large part of the public. It reduces it to the skill and not the gun.
 
B

Barrylocke

Member
Veins said:
I think it is because shooting is a sport most people only "care" about once every 4 years in a "huh, this is on TV next, I might watch it" sort of way.

Also it isn't very glamorous.
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I agree to an extent. A lot of people in America mostly pay attention to the "prime time" events of swimming, gymnastics, track and field, and the events based on more mainstrean sports like basketball and soccer.
 
J

Jack The Nipper

Banned
DrForester said:
Shooting might be a popular pastime in the USA, but it's not a popular sport.

Cry harder, lady.
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this seems off base to me, she is doing something that is a sport. Guns are glorified in movies and violence that do a lot more harm to society than she is oing and it takes skill to use them. Why are you going in on her so hard?

I think it has more to do with it not being that exciting or popular than just guns though. If she got the coverage or power of phelps I think they would do it
 
B

baxter2231

Member
Well you know if they bothered to even air it then maybe people would watch. There are a bunch of sports they dont bother covering, how do you know people wont watch if you wont try?
 
G

golem

Member
baxter2231 said:
Well you know if they bothered to even air it then maybe people would watch. There are a bunch of sports they dont bother covering, how do you know people wont watch if you wont try?
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Even if it was shown I don't think the public would take to it necessarily. They need a more interesting competition style to garner interest like 3-gun
 
C

Carcetti

Member
I watched pistol shooting on accident last week and I have to say the greek contestant who won had an amazing death stare. She looked like a total, absolute killer.

That said, it's a sport where you watch people shoot silent guns with zero emotion in their faces. Not very marketable.
 
M

Mammoth Jones

Member
Shooting sports aren't mainstream. It's silly to expect them to be. That said its a sport and they should be proud of their accomplishments. Go Team USA!
 
M

mugurumakensei

Member
Shooting has several problems that make it hard to sponsor for anyone but firearm companies. the biggest problem is for most companies they can't make the claim that they are a necessary part of achieving Olympian class for shooting. maybe, a contact lenses company might. otherwise, it's sight, stability of the gun, and some level of upper body strength.
 
B

btrboyev

Member
Because people want to see freaks of nature in athletics, not someone who can shoot very well. Shooting is just not a popular sport. Archery suffers the same thing, though I think archery takes more talent.
 
S

Silver Arrows

Banned
gutter_trash said:
Conservative Canada are pro-guns and want to loosen up Canada's restrictive gun laws to imitate the US's

The National Post has a Conservative bias, and Conrad Black is a Trumpateer
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Once more, there isn't any sort of that sort of insidious bias present within the article, at least what I can see.

It's raising a fairly decent point.
 
A

Aurongel

Member
It's hard to market to a mass audience in America without physical prowess to back it up. It's sad and unsportsmanlike but true. A sport like skeet shooting has everything working against it in that regard. Our American view of what makes a sport is far more narrow than what the idea of sports actually encompasses.
 
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