Re: Olympiad representation (was: Match Length Proposal)

[Adam Wildavsky]

Thanks for bringing this up, Eric!

I have a different experience than most. Having represented Switzerland in an Olympiad I can say that it was roughly 100 times easier to win their trials than to win ours. And Switzerland is far from the weakest bridge playing country.

The USA is seriously under-represented in the Olympiad, and somewhat under-represented in the Bermuda Bowl. I don't see either of these changing in the near future, since I don't see the constituency in the WBF that would promote this. It's a political matter, not my area of specialty.

If we did want to work on this I suspect that, as in the Olympics, the idea that each country is entitled to representation is sacrosanct. One possibility would be to promote the idea that any country might have more than one entry in the Olympiad. The number could be determined by performance in the Rosenblum, or in previous Olympiads and Bermuda Bowls.

I'd welcome other suggestions.

As a side note to this side note, there is technically no more Olympiad. Its events are now run within the World Mind Sports Games. I still prefer to call it the Olympiad. For one thing, people are more likely to know what I mean.

On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 3:05 PM, eric greco <grec...@hotmail.com> wrote:

As a side note.. Is there any possibility of the U.S. sending two teams to the olympiad?  Things have changed over time and we now have many players who previously represented other countries. Thus leaving the the U.S. with far more expert players than any other one country in the world, than any other time in the past.

[eric greco]

Adam,

  I have always thought that only having one USA team in the previous olympiad(now world mind games) was not right.  It is especially not right more now than ever given the huge concentration of USA talent with the influx of some foreign players.  I am not sure who would best help the USA in changing this but I would hope those in that position and those well politically connected in the WBF would do their best.  For example how can USA players fairly compete in the WBF point standings when it is virtually as hard to get to the Bermuda Bowl or World mind games as it is to win the trials. Also, now that this event is the world mind games and not the olympiad maybe they should change the format or even make it open to eveyone from every country like the rosenblum.

---

Date: Tue, 26 May 2015 16:04:18 -0400
Subject: Re: Olympiad representation (was: Match Length Proposal)
From: ad...@tameware.com
To: grec...@hotmail.com; usbf...@googlegroups.com

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "International Team Trials Committee" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usbf-ittc+...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Adam Wildavsky]

You could sound out the ACBL reps on the WBF Executive Council. If you're so inclined you might want to gauge or gather grass roots support first, perhaps through a site like BridgeWinners.

[Howard Weinstein]

I am haven’t yet personally heard a discussion on this issue at the WBF level, and while I can check with our more experienced reps, my guess is there is zero chance of a second team in the Olympiad years.  

The whole idea of the event is one team per country and each and every country gets a team — not like the BB years where there is at least a mild reflection of representation per bridge population.  In the past, I have heard there were some who did not even think the US should have a second US team in the BB, so this is extremely likely to be a non starter.

Howie

[Al]

Howie's summary is correct.  I'm at a meeting of the WBF management committee presently.  The meeting is in a Villa in Tuscany where the EBL has held many of its meetings.  There are only 7 of the 17 Executive Council members present.   I will have informal discussions on this issue. Many good points have been expressed in the few emails in this thread. 

Al

[Al]

Eric planted an idea ...to open the World Bridge Games (formally the Olympiad) to more than one team per country.   Past politics of the WBF has been mentioned as a stumbling block, but if a change is best for bridge it should be pursued, and the WBF will act responsibly.

After brainstorming with Adam and getting feedback from Howie, I presented the idea of open (unlimited) national teams in future World Bridge Games to some fellow WBF officials (who are attending the WBF management meeting in Tuscany) including the WBF president and EBL president.  Hearing all the benefits for bridge, all expressed an interest in pursuing a change.  

I will follow up in a few days with a full write up to the WBF.  We will discuss this at the WBF Executive Council meeting in Chennai for the 2020 Games (it appears too late to change the conditions for 2016). 

Al

On May 31, 2015, at 11:53 PM, Howard Weinstein <howiewe...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Frank Nickell]

Thanks, Al.

Sent from my iPhone

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.