lol go tell that to a Judo or TKD practitioner. The Olympics are way bigger than Muay Thai, they have the power to completely change the landscape of the sport. If Olympic Muay Thai competition were conducted with chest pads and 16oz gloves, that would become the norm pretty much everywhere. Thailand has a vested interest in winning those gold medals, and they would train accordingly. It's not elitism or gatekeeping, it's common sense
I literally addressed that in the very same post.
Muay Thai is nothing like TKD or Judo. It is more similar to boxing, and no, the existence of different rules in Olympic boxing did not change professional boxing. The existence of freestyle wrestling and greco-roman doesn't eliminate folkstyle wrestling from USA, Mongolia, The Gambia etc. Muay Thai is also a prize fighting sport and a spectator sport - Judo and TKD are not.
And before you mention it, it is not relevant that Muay Thai fighters make less money than boxers. Most Muay Thai fighters in Thailand still make money by fighting weekly in prize fights that have to appeal to audiences and gamblers. The Olympics is not frequent enough nor does it support enough fighters to change the Muay Thai.
Judo and TKD are affected by the Olympics because they are amateur sports. Also, the people that changed those rules are the same
associates that control other major competitions in those sports. It's not like some random guy at the IOC just decided to ban leg takedowns in Judo,
it was a collective effort by several authorities on Judo.
When it's time to fight for the trials, Muay Thai guys would just go at it, just like folkstyle wrestlers go at it to make the freestyle USA team. There wouldn't be a need to re-do all of Muay Thai, nor would it be profitable for the industry to do so.
The fact that you went straight to "common sense" is actually just another way of saying you didn't use any
critical thinking, which goes by your complete lack of nuance or understanding of any of those sports, much less the Olympics.
But sure, even though Thailand would already dominate Muay Thai in any ruleset, I am sure that the Olympic version will utterly destroy the rule set insanely profitable Muay Thai gyms race to adapt to different ounce gloves and headgear in fear of losing to French farangs, who somehow will be better adapted to that change .
Thailand is so far ahead of the competition, that it is laughable that you think they'd have to drastically adapt Thai rules to be anything but the overwhelming favorites at the Olympics. Yeah, I'm shocked American basketball players are still medaling without adapting Euroleague rules, and the gap between Thai's in Thailand vs the field is much bigger than Americans in basketball to put things in perspective.
And if anything, if the Olympics did change Muay Thai, it would make it
point based which literally favors how Muay Thai is already traditionally done (or rather, can easily be adapted without drastically changing stadium Muay Thai).
It's not like they'd go in the direction of ONE Championship, which is more kickboxing centric and pays enough to actually alter the way some guys fight. An Olympic style of Muay Thai isn't having just bleed battles in the Olympics lol.
