Quote:
Originally Posted by undercoverbrother
Interesting, I guess I look at it the other way. At the WC the margin of error is smaller. Take track, in a race with a diluted field (Olympics) you can afford to have a miss-step. At the WC the field is tighter and therefore the repercussions of a miss-step can be greater. In short at the WC you need to be “on” for every race, at the Olympics you can take an early race “off” or “easy”. Also, in my mind, back to back or three time WC Gold is more impressive than an Olympic gold. The ability to reach and maintain a level of completion across multi years in amazing. At the Olympics you can get someone that peaks at that time, but can’t maintain that level.
|
I think you may be mistaking World Cup fields with World Championships.
The so called "lessor" countries also participate in most World Championships. I'm thinking athletics, bobsleigh/skeleton, figure skating, alpine and nordic skiing, and swimming as examples.
For each sport there is a certain qualifying line that an athlete has to make to participate.
And likewise, be it an Olympic year or a non-Olympic year, the nations are given spots based on finishes in the previous major event.
As for extra rounds, these also occur at Worlds.
But lets take the 100m event in athletics, or the old preliminary rounds in Figure skating for example. The first round of competition is kind of a play in round - those athletes that have accumulated a certain level of points or achieved a standard don't even take part in them. So there isn't a case of being knocked out early or having to take it easy.
As for which is prized more, let's look at Martins Dukurs - the world's best skeleton racer, 3 time world champion, but keeps getting burned at the Olympics with 2 close silvers and mentions how frustrated his is about that.
For Canadians, take Kurt Browning and Patrick Chan: 4 time and 3 time world champion. Browning infamously had some struggles during the Olympics (injury and errors) and Chan lost his best chance at gold in Sochi. Both are obviously very happy to be world champions but extremely disappointed in not being able to up their game for the Olympics.