In the Forum Barcelona 2004 you can see 40 traditional games and sports.  :o

There are traditional sports exhibition like Hurling from Ireland, kabbadi from India, tamburello from Italy, chueca, played in Chile and Argentina.... but no mention about the sling.  >:(

It is strange because the Balearic Islands are quit near to Barcelona and The Balearic slingers participated in the Olympiad of Barcelona.

http://www.barcelona2004.org/eng/eventos/deportes/portada.htm

http://www.barcelona2004.org/esp/eventos/deportes/portada.htm

I often watch some of the Olympic games but I am not very knowledgable about all the Olympic traditions.

What is the Olympiad and what do they do and how did the Balaeric slingers participate?

How could slinging become an Olympic competition? Is the Federation trying to get slinging into the games?

The point of it is, the sling was never really used for sport; hunting and warfare.  And as far as I know, it wasn't part of the original Greek olympics.  Archery has been a sport for millennia, and so has throwing a javelin.  All the others are sports and always have been.  So it seems unlikely that slinging would be part of the games.  It would be nice though.  Also, equipment would have to be standardised, and people would have to be informed about slinging.  It would be a big job.

Anyway, modern spears not have much in common with the Roman pilum, for example. So perhaps standardization on modern slings could be useful. Modern disciplines often do not have much in common with antique disciplines. Good examples are Running, as in ancient times athletes ran naked carrying a big, heavy shield or Boxing, where athletes had leather ropes wrapped around their hands in order to tear the skin in the opponent's face open easier and in Boxing events people were killed rather often.
For slinging, I think standardization is not that necessary in events going for accuracy, as modern material or bullet shapes have far more influence on range than on accuracy

David,

The Balearic slingers didn't participate in the olympic games Barcelona92  
 
They participated before 15 days in a demonstration called cultural olympiad, where they met all the autochthonous sports that we have here in each one of the regions in Spain

Greeting.
Vicente


wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2004 at 6:44am:

I often watch some of the Olympic games but I am not very knowledgable about all the Olympic traditions. What is the Olympiad and what do they do and how did the Balaeric slingers participate? How could slinging become an Olympic competition? Is the Federation trying to get slinging into the games?

Ah entiendo que de habla. Hablo solo empoco de Espaniol pedo no puedo "spell" en Espaniol muy bien porque escucho y repitalo "audio CDs" No escribalo mucho.

?Puede entiende que de hablo?

David

Hola David

I can understand what you say perfectly, I understand their Spanish well, don't worry, I also speak and  write very bad in English

Greetins,
Vicente


wrote on Jul 28^th, 2004 at 6:39am:

Ah entiendo que de habla. Hablo solo empoco de Espaniol pedo no puedo "spell" en Espaniol muy bien porque escucho y repitalo "audio CDs" No escribalo mucho. ?Puede entiende que de hablo? David

I don't think that slings are that different from bows or rifles, both of which are olympic sports.  People have been slinging recreationally for hundreds of years, thousands even.  Far more than the bow and way more than any firearm.  

Chris