You might have caught some of the discussion about this in the Shoutbox yesterday. Terje Haakonsen has written an amazing letter calling for a change to the existing setup surrounding the Olympics. You can read the full letter over on Snowbroader here. There’s a lot of detail in the letter but the basic thrust is that the current setup for the games is going to cause scheduling issues affecting the quality of riding and the progression of the sport.

Haakonsen says, “Everyone working with top level snowboarding contest knows how much the date conflicts in Olympic qualifying years is hurting the sport. This has been bad before, but in 2013, when riders are qualifying for both halfpipe and slopestyle, it has the potential to be a nightmare. And this is the fundamental problem of competitive snowboarding: it will never reap its full potential before the Olympic issue is solved. Snowboarding is not a 4 year cycle event. It is a daily operation where progress is happening in all corners of the world – summer, winter, spring and fall. At the moment, the Olympic halfpipe finals is only good for the podium winners, the IOC and the broadcasters. It does not help the sport as a whole.”

One solution suggested by Haakonsen “could be a common Olympic ranking, not sanctioned by FIS or TTR, but a joint ranking list based on results from the best events in the world. By embracing this, the IOC would take a credible position for the youth of the world and take charge in the ongoing action sports revolution.”

Have a read and let us know what you think. Do you agree with his solution or is there a better way?

(Photograph by Frode Sandbech for Oakley)