Angling for Olympic glory

Angling for Olympic glory

October 14, 2016
2020 Tokyo Games
2020 Tokyo Games

2020 Tokyo GamesWhen it comes to news stories, August is traditionally the silly season. But this year it appears to have been extended.  There is a serious bid to have angling included as an Olympic sport in the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Now it used to be said that following ocean yacht racing from a distant cliff top was about as exciting as watching paint dry. But small waterproof cameras,  remarkable drone technology  and an expensive sport which is now prepared to open itself up to the media has transformed TV coverage of all sorts of sailing. 

But what on earth could TV producers do with a fisherman casting out into a stream or hefting out a lure for some deep sea fishing? The initial excitement would surely wear thin as the cameras dwelt on the fishermen waiting for them to catch something while the fishermen dwelt on the water waiting for something to take their hook.  Even the best anglers can have a blank day. But for them, it is rarely a wasted day because the entire hunt has in its way been enthralling for them. But the world’s TV audiences could be forgiven entirely for quickly losing interest and switching channels.  Even experienced fishermen will only take so much delight in watching another angler.

So why people claiming to represent the “sport” of fishing want it to become an Olympic event is deeply puzzling, not to say rather mad.  While there is a great deal of skill to angling and competitions, some of them international, are now held regularly, they are very much for those in the know. The argument for fishing to go Olympic is based in part upon the huge number of people who are supposed to regularly go off with rod and line to catch something. But this is to overlook the fact that most fishermen and indeed women - the largest salmon ever caught was taken by a female angler - tend to be solitary individuals, well pleased with their own company except when they mix with their peers to talk about the big fish that got away.

Moreover while fishing can be indeed competitive, it is hardly ever a fair competition. The odds are never equal. It is not just the skill with which the angler presents the fly or lure but the likelihood or not that a fish may even be there at that particular moment. So many imponderables exist that it is impossible to see how a level playing field, or even a level playing water, would ever be established. And except for the occasional thrill of a landed fish, it is very hard to believe that even the most imaginative TV producers could turn this into compulsive viewing. A camera beneath the water would have to move around and thus very likely spook the fish.

There are other sports that genuinely deserve Olympic status, of which rock climbing is a prime contender, combining as it does great skill, strength and courage on what would doubtless be spectacular climbing walls. 

With the best will in the world, fishing is simply not a spectator sport.
Anglers should give up any Olympic dreams and return to their Montana streams or bonefishing flats in the West Indies. There is no way any of them should endure the absurdity of standing proudly to attention on the top Olympic podium while their national anthem is played because they happened to have caught the biggest fish.


October 14, 2016
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