What do you think of the Olympics.

1908’s massive success can be accounted for by the fact that only 22 Nations were involved, compared to some two hundred and odd taking part today.

Steve Ovett was saying yesterday that the success of the swimming and cycling teams was due to the fact that the coaching is done more by group than by individual. Not explaining this well I know but it seems that it is down to the fact that most of the cycling is done in Manchester with the cyclists getting together there to train regularly. Same with the swimming from what he was saying. The problem he sees with track and field is that the training is scattered across the Country. You have athletes training at their local clubs, but those who would be classed as elite aren’t centred in one place, therefore they often have only themselves to challenge. I suppose it would make good common sense for all the sprinters to train together regularly, the same with the long and middle distance runners and I suppose the field eventers. That way, they have other elite athletes to inspire them, rather than training more or less in isolation. That would require money and planning and I suppose it also brings into question the ‘amateur’ nature of some of the events, though that is already tainted by the inclusion of such commercial events as football and tennis.

They’ve done well. That can’t be argued. Whether there’s the will to put enough money into these sports to encourage further success in four years time we’ll have to wait and see.

Regards,

kev35

But has that not always been the case, why should things be different this year. I agree that the system seems unco-ordinated, but there has always been a well known, familiar athlete that has done the business, not anymore it seems, the media seems to be too obsessed with money making sports. Perhaps some of these footballers who earn more in a day than most of us do in a year should help out the athletes rather than spend it on their bloody kitchen tiles, they can always top up their earnings from exclusives to Hello Magazine if they feel that skint.

I heard that the cost of the London olympics will not cost more than 9.4 BILLION pounds!!!

It sounds a lot when you say it like that…

…but it only actually represents about three quid per person per year since the games were last held in Britain. 🙂

Hi
For all the shouting about Olympic Medals (and up to NOW the rowers and cyclists with swimmers have done Bl***y well ), how many “if any” will our athletes get in the Track and Field events after all they get a lot MORE money for training that the others??? :eek::eek:

1908’s massive success can be accounted for by the fact that only 22 Nations were involved, compared to some two hundred and odd taking part today.

Steve Ovett was saying yesterday that the success of the swimming and cycling teams was due to the fact that the coaching is done more by group than by individual. Not explaining this well I know but it seems that it is down to the fact that most of the cycling is done in Manchester with the cyclists getting together there to train regularly. Same with the swimming from what he was saying. The problem he sees with track and field is that the training is scattered across the Country. You have athletes training at their local clubs, but those who would be classed as elite aren’t centred in one place, therefore they often have only themselves to challenge. I suppose it would make good common sense for all the sprinters to train together regularly, the same with the long and middle distance runners and I suppose the field eventers. That way, they have other elite athletes to inspire them, rather than training more or less in isolation. That would require money and planning and I suppose it also brings into question the ‘amateur’ nature of some of the events, though that is already tainted by the inclusion of such commercial events as football and tennis.

They’ve done well. That can’t be argued. Whether there’s the will to put enough money into these sports to encourage further success in four years time we’ll have to wait and see.

Regards,

kev35

I hate the olympics!

I hate the Olympics

And the thought that it is going to cost us the taxpayer, there is no denying it!!

I heard that the cost of the London olympics will not cost more than 9.4 BILLION pounds!!!!!:eek:

What the hell!!:mad:

Why should the Lottery contribute anything?? oh yeah I forgot it must be a ‘good cause’

:mad::mad::mad:

Brit Girl has just won a Bronze in 400m hurdles, just missed out the Silver. Another medel for the Track and Field team.

Interesting, I’ve heard nothing but critism from Brendon Foster over the attitude of the British Athletics Association, he’s concerned that their attitude and lack of proper preparation is going to undermine the performance of the other athletes. He has a point, I’ve never seen such an underwhelming team in such an important games. At this stage of any Olympics we are usually looking for the stars of track and field to perform and drag us up the medals table, but apart from some possibly unexpected results, who do we know, where are the Coe’s, Ovetts, Holmes, Christies, in their time household names prior to any competitions. We haven’t got any have we, so why not. Whats happened. Poor Paula Radcliffe, a brilliant athlete in her time, was chucked into the arena while not fit, thank God she was shoved of to one side and we weren’t subjected to the overblown trauma of her inevitable, failure. It’s not her fault, I reckon that the powers that be wanted a famous name to encourage the public and she was subsequently bunged into the arena to keep the public happy. I’m surprised that Mr Coe hasn’t taken off his trousers and had a go himself, he might have done better than the poor sod chucked into the 1500m and run down because he wasn’t obviously coached properly.
If you want to have a go at me, I used to be a pretty nifty middle distance runner myself, I just wasn’t prepared to take on the world for a pittance, is that the problem that we have, with lottery money being doshed out for all sorts of pathetic causes, why should our track and field athletes have to rely on that leading up to the next games, it’s very sad.

Brit Girl has just won a Bronze in 400m hurdles, just missed out the Silver. Another medel for the Track and Field team.

Well done Big Verne, that really cracked me up!!!!!
My missus father is Hungarian, he escaped during the 56 uprising and hates the Russians with a vengeance, he is also very keen on sports, he subscribes to all the Sky sports channels.
Thing is, he hates the Chinese so much he reckons that they are such criminals that they shouldn’t host the games at all, so he won’t watch it, I tell him that we are ahead of his Russian foes, but he doesn’t want to know, he will not watch any of it on principle.
Silly sod.

Easy, Have a population of 1.3 Billion, pick all the good ones you can, and throw billions, the best coaches you can get and four years into training them, got to win more that anybody else just on the averages, though I wouldn’t mind betting that some dodgy things have been happening in the background. Though the Chinese seem to have done what the UK have done, targeted a lot of their resources in the areas where they knew they could win the most medals.

They had 1.3 billion before.
They picked all the good ones at aged 3 before.
The billions makes the difference, and it has been spread “Accordingly”.
Non-state radio is admitting to the cheating, the reporters may be dead shortly.

Yes, the massive UK lottery money investment seems to have paid off, but we were good at these sports before – we just lacked that final killer winner attitude (IMO).

Anyway, speaking of Olympians, I’m off to Greece now. Monarch, from Gatwick. CU on 5th Sept.

How can you win Gold at events that you didn’t even enter last time round, or were utter rubbish?

Easy, Have a population of 1.3 Billion, pick all the good ones you can, and throw billions, the best coaches you can get and four years into training them, got to win more that anybody else just on the averages, though I wouldn’t mind betting that some dodgy things have been happening in the background. Though the Chinese seem to have done what the UK have done, targeted a lot of their resources in the areas where they knew they could win the most medals.

Well, we can’t mention such things due to the yellow card/red card system on the forum but there is one nation that is cheating rather a lot, with false fireworks, pretty singers, 13 year old athletes, judges with fat wallets etc. How can you win Gold at events that you didn’t even enter last time round, or were utter rubbish?

In preparation for 2012, and in keeping with the spirit of the modern Olympics, I heard Seb Coe has ordered a bundle of brown envelopes and is applying for Lottery funding for the bungs.

Leaving that aside, it is the best “Team GB” result ever, notwithstanding 1908, which probably included all the athletically fit people on the planet at that time.
HM Liz is probably already drawing up the New Years honours list with the Gold winners on it.

All allegedly of course.

Amazing, good on you girl, I watched it live and I was in tears, I thought this might happen when I saw her in the heats, she’s the absolute dogs, go and give the other track athletes a good talking too, I’m sure she will, though they might not need it.
I’ve looked up the statistics, we haven’t done this well since 1908 when we had the advantage of hosting the games, though 56 golds is a bit over the top, can’t work that one out, but 16 so far is beyond dreams, I love it, I always get really into the Olympics whether we do well or not, this year is very special, it might go certain birds up, but it’s given us alot of fun neverthess, whatever happens next doesn’t matter really, we’ve done well so far, as as as I’m concerned, it’s been way beyond expectations.

Pete, In 1908 most of the people who did turn up from other countries outside of Europe had been on boats of one type or another for at least 2 weeks (6 weeks in the case of the guys from down under, unless they happened to be living in Europe). In a lot of cases the Brit won, because he was the only good athlete to turn up.

One thing I’ve noted however, almost every medal table on almost every news web site that covers the Olympics from a number of counties shows China first, US second and UK Third….Except the US news sites that show US first, China second and UK fifth (Behind Russia and the Aussies). No…No…No… Number of overall medals don’t count, unless you have the same number of gold and silver medals as another country, then the Bronze ones come into play, Likewise Silvers only come into play when numbers of golds are equal. Gold = Country won the event. Silver & Bronze = well done, but your a Loser.

How the Aussies think the medal table looks Here

How the Russians think the medal table looks Here

How the Germans think the medal table looks here

How the Americans think the medal table looks Here

I’m not usually anti American, but this really grips my poo. Just face it, the Chinese are whopping your backsides USA.

Well done to the Brts….my wife is very happy.
She provides me with a running total.

BTW: My sister-in law is telling me all her friends are already planning on renting out their London residences (they all have others outside the city) for the duration of the London games.

Amazing, good on you girl, I watched it live and I was in tears, I thought this might happen when I saw her in the heats, she’s the absolute dogs, go and give the other track athletes a good talking too, I’m sure she will, though they might not need it.
I’ve looked up the statistics, we haven’t done this well since 1908 when we had the advantage of hosting the games, though 56 golds is a bit over the top, can’t work that one out, but 16 so far is beyond dreams, I love it, I always get really into the Olympics whether we do well or not, this year is very special, it might go certain birds up, but it’s given us alot of fun neverthess, whatever happens next doesn’t matter really, we’ve done well so far, as as as I’m concerned, it’s been way beyond expectations.

the Athletics Association must be pretty useless if they cannot deliver world class athletes as they have done before, we have a large population, I cannot accept that we haven’t a world beater somewhere in amongst them.

We do, and her name is Christine Ohuruogu ! ;):D

Good on Team GB, now in possession of more gold than the Bank of England. I wonder if Northern Rock will be in touch about a sponsorship deal soon… i.e Team GB sponsoring Northern Rock ! :diablo:

Well don’t worry Finland, one of the worlds greatest nations, India, has only one medal so far, I’m amazed, perhaps they should put their money into their people rather than their nuclear weapons programme, it’s ridiculous and must be embarrasing for the multitudes that must be interested in these games.
Do we have an Indian member who can comment on this.
Incidentally, I’m really impressed that our so called no hoper has just won a silver medal in the high jump, it gives us confidence, anything could happen after this, it’s the same old story, once the tidal wave gets going, who knows where medals will come from, as long as it isn’t Australia, Steve.

Well sofar we have done better than many expected, 3 medals (one for each colours) sofar is far better than we did in last games.

I’m specially pleased that two of the medals were from shooting, my own sport. I’ve woken up early before my work started to watch the finals. Also I’ve now personally met three olympic medalist:)

I don’t expect many more medals to us, only the from the men’s javelin throw (which is the most expected event in the whole games in here!) in which we if all gods are mercifull upon us we may even take douple victory…