Well, apparently this blog was hacked. the bastards left a malwear calling card too. Removed, and if I find the guy who decided it’d be WAY COOL to do that I’ll beat them with a socket wrench. I have one handy for just such an occasion.

Ahh, on to business. With the Olympics around the corner, a lot of people start asking why paintball is not an Olympic sport yet. “It’s been around for 20 years or more, millions played, and it’s COOL!!!” Ok, you want to know why? Here, let me spell it out for you all. We, as a sport, are not ready for it.

I could go off on a lot of tangents, but let me focus on a few key points. First is the “Olympic Charter“. See, the IOC, International Olympic Committee, has guidelines on what is, and is not, an olympic sport. They change the rules recently, but the basics are that sports must focus on athletics, and not on technology. This is being pushed to the breaking point with some of the new advances in some sports (swimsuits, for example), but the focus is on the athlete.

A good example of this is windsurfing. Olympic windsurfing is a tech sport, with sails and boards, but all the competitors use the same board and sail. So to put it into perspective, if paintball wanted to be an olympic sport, we would have to do similar. Everyone would use the same gun, or the same style gun at least. Oh, and no electronics. See, the IOC frowns on technology performing for the athlete, including ramping or assisted shooting.

More than likely there would need to be a standard uniform, standard size allowable padding, and so on. The paint usage per team or per player would need to be regulated, as even biathlon skiers get only 5 shots to hit 5 targets. Electronics would probably be out, so mechanical semis are in. Stock Class would work even better as it would show true skill but that’s my personal bias. Fields would probably be speedball style, as it’s easier to show and have an audience. So limited paint, mechanical semis, and standard fields around the world. Ya know, when I bring up “limited paint” people have fits. Imagine telling them they can’t use their new e-gun too? Oh, I can already hear the whinging.

I could also focus on the fact that eligible sports need to have an international governing body. Paintball is so splintered right now that there’s no possibility of this happening in the near future. We have a lot of independent events world wide, but no official international governing body. That can change, but nobody has made the move to do it.

But let me hit you all with the real reason paintball will never be an Olympic sport, or at least not in the near future. The “WADA Code”. See, rule 46, bylaw 1.7 of the IOC charter states that all sports in the olympics must adhere to the “World Anti Doping Agency” list of banned substances and procedures. Simple translation? Every tournament player would have to submit to random drug testing at events, and outside of events.

So, try to imagine yourself right now. Are you ready, RIGHT NOW, to pass a WADA drug test? You may think you are, but you probably don’t know what’s in the WADA code. Well, here, a link to the WADA code. Head spinning yet? Now read the prohibited list.

That’ll get your brain in knots, won’t it?

What does it all mean? Well, some of the stuff on the list is obvious. Others not so much. Steroids, good example. Many asthmatics use a banned IOC substance daily in their rescue inhalers. In fact one medal was stripped from an athlete because he used an over the counter asthma med that in the host country had the banned substance, but in his did not. Honest mistake, but t cost him a medal.

So think again, almost all the players I know have no clue what they put in their body on a week to week basis. Hell, hour to hour for that matter. And, oh yeah, if you’re an athlete in a sport with the WADA code going, they can test you out of competition too. So you could be at team practice, and a WADA guy will ask you to pee in a cup for them. Are you ready for that? Ready to have your privacy invaded? Ready to have a total stranger tell you what you’ve been doing on the weekends for recreation?

Based on what I’ve seen, and heard from everyone I’ve asked, the answer is no. “NO WAY I’m gonna do that! I’m not gonna give up my fun weekend! I’m not gonna jump through hoops so I can use my prescription meds!” Well, then no way paintball is going to be an olympic sport. Sorry. The thing is that sacrifices have to be made, personal freedoms are one of them. And not enough people I know are willing to do that. And, until they do, paintball is left out of the Olympic games.

So before you start saying paintball should be in the olympics, think about it. Are you prepared to sacrifice a lot to do it? Are you ready to be drug tested? Are you ready to sacrifice your local series for an international one? Are you ready to use standard gear and not you new “shiny paintslinger 5000″? You ready to be told that you have to have limits put on the game to make is an athletic competition, and not just a technology sport?

Think before you answer that.