You're generally all right if you do track and field. Of course, if you are a shot putter or a discus thrower, or maybe a long jumper or a triple jumper, you might find yourself getting only four attempts in competition rather than the normal six. Normal as in what you are used to, that is.

But by and large, if you run the 100 metres or the 3,000m steeplechase you are unlikely to find that it's all change for the next Olympics but one. "Sorry, we're freshening up the sprints. From now on it's the 75 metres. And remember - the last 25 metres need to be run backwards. Oh, and the steeplechase. Yes. Well all it is, is that the water jump's been beefed up - but don't worry, you've got a choice of either front crawl or butterfly. Whichever suits."

Same goes for football. Although having said that, I recall FIFA toying more than half seriously with the idea of improving the spectacle by increasing the size of the goals. More goals, more satisfaction was the line of thinking. What I say is, if that's what the game's about - and FIFA should know – why stop at enlarging the goals? Get some extra balls in there, four or five at least. They'll be banging shots home every five to ten seconds. Everybody wins.

Or how about this? To stimulate spectator interest in the big World Cup games, why not randomly fail to give a goal where the ball has obviously crossed the line?

Actually scrap that idea. It wouldn't work.

Broadly speaking, however, football is not hugely messed around with. Football is The Dude, and The Dude Abides.

For those engaged in lower profile sports, however, the same cannot be said.

Paul Goodison is an Olympic champion in sailing's Laser class. Were it not for the fact that the 2012 Olympics are on his home territory - or at Weymouth, which is very close to it – he would probably have moved on to another challenge.


The lure of defending his title on British water proved too great to resist. But Goodison had already mapped out his next move – a shift to the Star class, which has been a part of every Olympic regatta since 1932.

The latest pronouncement of the international sailing body (ISAF), which is dropping the Star class from the Games as of 2016 to make way for a new discipline, means that Goodison's aspirations are now as naught. Maybe he could consider a sex change to enter the new women's skiff class.

Nor did the move thrill Britain's triple Olympic champion Ben Ainslie, who was also considering a move to the Star class from the Finn event. Ainslie disparaged the "turmoil" within the sport, adding that it would be better to get a focus and move forwards.

Also removed after 2012 will be the Elliott 6m class, for which the Yngling class had to make way following Beijing. That decision left Britain's victorious Yngling trio of Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson high and dry in the wake of Beijing. And for what, you now wonder?

But it's not only sailors who have to cope with such radical and unlooked changes to their competitive environment.

Another time-honoured event, the modern pentathlon - which has its roots in the five-discipline event involving running, discus throwing, jumping, spear throwing and wrestling which was introduced at the Ancient Games in 708 BC - has become the modernised pentathlon since the 2008 Beijing Games.

Radical change had already taken place some years earlier when the timetable was compressed into a single day, but the decision of the international governing body (UIPM) in 2009 to combine the two final disciplines of the event, the shoot and the run, altered the aspect of this noble sport almost to the point of distortion. (Why did they stop there? They could have pushed the envelope and combined another two disciplines by having fencing battles on horseback. Or maybe by having the horses swim against each other with riders aboard.)

In the space of the last six months, the international governing body of what might now reasonably be re-named the modern quadrathlon decided to throw another change into the mix as they advanced their plans to use lasers rather than air pistols for the shooting.

This additional layer of change has altered the balance of the competition yet again. Laser shots, which have no recoil, can therefore be made more swiftly, which means pentathletes spend even less time in front of the targets, pushing more emphasis back onto the sheer physical prowess of running.

So has the technical element within pentathlon been diminished?

Perhaps. Or, if Jan Bartu, the British team's performance director, is right in his suggestion, perhaps not. Bartu believes the latest change will mean radical shifts in position will be less likely to occur in the final phase, so competitors will have to ensure they are well in the hunt before the run-shoot gets underway. Which means in turn a refocusing on the technical events of fencing and equestrianism.

Whether Bartu is right remains to be seen. But the reaction of two of his charges at the University of Bath base made it clear that all this tinkering is having an unsettling effect on competitors. Sam Weale made the point that it was unreasonable to ask pentathletes to cope with two major changes in the space of a single Olympiad. His team-mate Freya Prentice expressed concerns over the very different feel of shooting with lasers, and particularly the difficulty it created in tracking shot placement.

It may be that this latest change - which will have the effect of making it safer for youngsters to take up the sport - will be something which secures modern pentathlon's long-term future within the Games, which would offer some justification. But there comes a point when you have to ask yourself what exactly it is that you are attempting to perpetuate.

Not that change is intrinsically bad in Olympic terms. The list of the Games's discontinued events contains relatively few entries which would make you shake your head at the folly of their removal. Or am I wrong? Is there a place in the modern Olympics for two-handed javelin throwing, or motorboating, pelota basque and the tug-of-war?


Of course, some change is intrinsically good for the Games. Ask Ed McKeever (pictured).

When the canoeing event over 500m (the K1 500), at which Tim Brabants took bronze in Beijing, was discontinued as from 2012 in favour of the sexy new distance of 200m, Brabants's British colleague was one of many who had no idea how they would fare in it.

But McKeever, who has always been naturally fast but has struggled with the endurance side of the sport, now finds this new event fitting him as snugly as a wetsuit. It might almost have been invented for him, in fact, as he has already established himself as European and world champion (check) and two World Cup wins so far this season have done nothing to detract from his position as a medal favourite with London 2012 approaching (which has its own drawbacks, although we will not discuss those right now.)

McKeever's enthusiasm has been shared by his fellow competitors. As he notes, when he used to race at the 500 and 1000m distances in European and world events, there would typically be four or five heats. The new sprint distance is attracting so many extra competitors that six or seven heats are now required to start reducing the numbers.

So canoeing's governing body appears to have got things right when it comes to change. As for sailing and modern pentathlon - the jury is still out.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames