Short and sweet, shooting eyes a fan-friendly format

Last month, ISSF, the global governing body for shooting sport, announced key changes for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics cycle.

- Shantanu Srivastava

NEW DELHI: These include increasing the number of finalists in the 25m pistol and shotgun events from six to eight and restricting the current 45-shot final of the 50m rifle 3 Positions event to only the Standing segment, dropping Prone and Kneeling.

While increasing the number of finalists in shotgun and 25m pistol events brings uniformity—all other individual events have eight shooters in the medal round—the catch lies in the 50m 3P tweak.

Considered the marathon of shooting events, the 3P event has undergone changes in each of the past three Olympic cycles. The reasons are not tough to fathom. The sporting world is struggling to bring audience to the arenas, and with broadcast money being the only significant revenue stream, sport as a product is staring at an existential crisis.

Most sports have hence resorted to format tweaks. Hockey5s, 3X3 basketball, T20 cricket are all manifestations of governing bodies desperately trying to keep their sports relevant in an age of shrinking attention span.