With the recent conclusion of the Paris Olympics, what do you guys think if they made slinging and Olympic event?  Maybe a contest accuracy at measured distances using regulation size, and weight stones or cast bullets.  I would allow a little freedom as to sling design, and materials.  What do you guys think?

At this point in time I don't believe slinging has a wide enough popularity (meaning people actually doing it) that it would even be considered.

A search online returned this:
The Olympic Charter indicates that in order to be accepted, a sport must be widely practiced by men in at least 75 countries and on four continents and by women in no fewer than 40 countries and on three continents.

I think we'd need to see a lot more tournaments happening around the world before a discussion could even be started.  In general I think it would be cool to see though.  I think slinging definitely deserves to be there above some other events.  Breakdancing certainly comes to mind.

Joana wrote on Aug 23^rd, 2024 at 11:55am:

I imagine we'd see a lot of changes in an Olympic version of sling competition.  I think it's great that FBTF has those posted, but even the Slinging World Cup in Ibiza doesn't follow those regulations exactly.  The distances are different, and there are also 4 rounds of 5 throws at the 20m distance.

I think ammunition would change too.  For competition right now we generally use tennis balls or stones.  I don't think either of these would be used in Olympic slinging.  Tennis balls are too light for their size and everyone hates them.  And stones destroy whatever you're slinging at.  I think an Olympic version would still be slinging, but I imagine some things would be a little bit different from what most of us are used to.

@Joana

1st problem: would you standardize ammo? stones in balearic islands are different than in other parts of the world.
mass, density, texture changes performance and takes time to adapt. you can't train with limestone and compete with granite. Using stone as standard ammo would cause problems with resources, like money to get a supply of standard stone ammo or environmental problems by removing tons of stones from the beaches that have the good stones by slinging clubs.

If there is standardization in the form of clay/plastic bullets then we need the money to support it. It can theoretically be done but every club should have a local manufacturer to save on shipping costs or you get really expensive ammo.

If then there is no standardization we would have slingers using lead, steel, stones or tennis balls competing each other which I find cool but Olympics or local clubs wouldn't like people using lead or iron as they may be too dangerous.

2nd problem:
you need more land to run a slinging club than an archery club for the same amount of people also add the safety measures needed that would then need to be standardized by law the same way they are for gun or archery ranges.

I don't see it growing to olympic level with any set of rules. golf grew because rich people were interested. skateboard grew as an accessible past time and later sponsors threw money to good athletes attracting even more people to it, similarly pc gaming grew.

Joana wrote on Aug 24^th, 2024 at 5:08am:

Not exactly.  Anyone (or any organization) holding a tournament can have their own official rules.  I was at the Down South comp that was hosted by Practical Paracord this year.  There were other events outside of the normal 13m and 20m distances, and rules set for those events.

Slinging.org also has its own "official" rules: https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1429463497.  Although it's possible these might need a review/update.  I'm actually not sure who originally put these together.  But ultimately any organization can create their own official rules, and those rules only need to be adhered to for competition hosted by that organization.  The Olympics certainly has its own rule variations for many sports.

Again, I'm not saying the rules set by FBTF aren't absolutely fine as a starting point.  Just that it wouldn't surprise me if a final Olympic version looked a little different.  How about a round target with rings of different point values, similar to an archery target (but bigger)? 

100% agree.  Clubs, organization, and tournaments for slinging, let's go!!!  You're absolutely right that things need to be successful at a small scale first.