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Olympics 2016


alison

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Shock, horror!

 

Was it at 2012 that they showed us a medal table with Yorkshire ranking among the countries, or was that the Commonwealth Games?

 

 

2012 ... and just yesterday I saw a similar table showing that Lancashire were then ahead of Yorkshire in the rankings!

 

Oh and if Jason Kenny and Laura Trott were listed as a nation they would be on the leader board too with 5 golds between them from this Olympics!!!

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Vaguely on topic, perhaps more worthy of Room 101, but I made the mistake of switching on BBC "Olympic Breakfast" to see a replay of Bolt's 200m win. After 10 minutes of giggling and inane girly chat worthy of Loose Women, I switched off when a presenter asked Mark Lewis-Francis "So, all this hype about Usain Bolt - is it justified?"

 

Where has she been since 2008?! In a darkened room with no access to the outside world?

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 "So, all this hype about Usain Bolt - is it justified?"

 

 

Of course, given his achievements, it's justified and does much to promote athletics.

 

However, my slight issue with the focus being so much on Bolt is that, by comparison, the feats of other competitors (including those whose events are multi-disciplinary) can appear to be downplayed.

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I have mixed feelings about the Olympics.  Yes, most enjoyable to watch, particularly the London ones, but all this money spent in Brazil where audiences have been poor.  Then all the facilities just stand there and rot.  You can see the Bejing and the Athens ones online and it is a terrible waste of money.  Why not decide on one venue and always have them there?  Athens would be the obvious place and would give a boost to Greece.

 

I am also uneasy about the success of Team GB.  Sure, they have been terrific but isn't it a bit odd that such a small nation as we are suddenly excels at all sports?  This can only be because of the huge amounts of money that have been poured into sport but when was it decided that this was a priority for our nation?  Many of the activities being funded are minority sports and yet the funding is seemingly endless.  I am NOT saying it is necessarily a bad idea - just asking when it was decided that the UK must become the top sporting nation.

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I have mixed feelings about the Olympics.  Yes, most enjoyable to watch, particularly the London ones, but all this money spent in Brazil where audiences have been poor.  Then all the facilities just stand there and rot.  You can see the Bejing and the Athens ones online and it is a terrible waste of money.  Why not decide on one venue and always have them there?  Athens would be the obvious place and would give a boost to Greece.

 

I am also uneasy about the success of Team GB.  Sure, they have been terrific but isn't it a bit odd that such a small nation as we are suddenly excels at all sports?  This can only be because of the huge amounts of money that have been poured into sport but when was it decided that this was a priority for our nation?  Many of the activities being funded are minority sports and yet the funding is seemingly endless.  I am NOT saying it is necessarily a bad idea - just asking when it was decided that the UK must become the top sporting nation.

With John Major apparently ;-)

 

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/shortcuts/2016/aug/17/how-john-major-became-an-unlikely-olympic-hero

 

I don't think the funding is endless, it's highly targeted at sports that have proven success. Cycling gets £30 million to pay everyone and all the equipment for a 4 year Olympic cycle and it's produced almost a clean sweep of gold medals. You could argue this doesn't mean much, but the success in London (and Beijing?) has contributed to a cycling boom in the UK. Even if the London Olympics has not stopped the UK from being a nation of couch potatoes surely it has been an inspiration to some. If the government doesn't fund minority sports then the athletes have to find funding themselves and some sports will die at an elite level in the UK.

 

I looked up the actual outlay and it seems to be about £543 million over an Olympic cycle.

 

http://www.uksport.gov.uk/our-work/investing-in-sport/how-uk-sport-funding-works

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Maddie Hinch, you are a bloomin' marvel!

 

Congratulations to the GB women's hockey team!

 

 

Sorry, I could have sworn the commentator was calling her "Manny", so I assumed it was short for Manuela or something. Now corrected!

Edited by alison
Correction
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No, I seem to have missed out on all that :(

 

As we near the end of the fortnight, I'm very conscious that I've seen certain things half-a-dozen times over, while missing out on a lot of other events I would have liked to have watched, had I known when they were on, or had they not been clashing with something else :(  May try and finally catch some of the handball tonight.

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I couldn't help contrasting the fantastic determination and sense of purpose of this team with the appalling collapse of the England football team against Iceland. :(  In fact, just about every British competitor I've seen in Rio has had the most tremendous spirit and will to win. And I think the women in this hockey match probably ran more and were fitter than most footballers (and I say that as a football fan). Something needs to be done to identify and solve the England (football) problem and maybe looking at these Olympic sportspeople/sports/methods would be helpful. I think the reasons for the football problem are many and complex; but I just hope that Sam Allardyce can cut through them and restore the pride in our national game.

 

Seeing Nick Skelton get his medal was so emotional! And he's older than me!! Just brilliant. Beautiful horse, and the reward for a lifetime of horsemanship. I think I heard he's the oldest person in Team GB; and of course Amy Tinkler is the youngest, and also got a medal. Now there's inspiration for you - old, young, male, female - medals everywhere! :)  

Edited by bridiem
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Did anyone watch the rythmic gymnastics? The hyperflexion freaks me out a bit but the fluidity of movement and skill with the apparatus is amazing.

Darn it - I usually love to watch that. That's the trouble with the Olympics - so much is going on that you are bound to miss something. I have had the last fortnight off work and have been able to watch far more than would usually be possible (including a lot that I thought would be boring or "not my thing", and which turned out to be gripping. My 18 year old son and I ended up watching the hockey final tonight and found it riveting, despite both our expectations - although my son was highly amused by my explosion of "Yesssss!" when we won, and told me to "get a grip"!

Am staying up to watch Lutalo Muhammed's final tonight. Just a word to anyone who has kids/grandchildren who may be interested in Taekwondo as a result of the Olympics - Olympic Taekwondo is not traditional Taekwondo - it's a sport form that was developed to get it into the Olympics a few years ago.

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Yesterday was both emotional and stressful, wasn't it! What a fantastic horse Big Star is; so clever and he tries so hard, tucking his feet up at every jump! And to see Nick Skelton finally win such a well deserved gold after that awful injury was incredibly moving. I was holding it together until his lip wobbled on the podium.

 

I think all overpaid Premiership footballers should be forced to watch the GB Women's Hockey semi final and final, to see what it actually means to have that overwhelming passion to win, the stamina and determination to give the whole game your all, despite pretty brutal injury, and to never give up. Those footballers who fall over crying if they break a fingernail should be ashamed of themselves, as should the ones who see playing for their nation as a necessary evil, so listlessly pass the ball between themselves to pass the time.

 

Too many fantastic players to mention but Maddie Hinch is absolutely outstanding.

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Just a word to anyone who has kids/grandchildren who may be interested in Taekwondo as a result of the Olympics - Olympic Taekwondo is not traditional Taekwondo - it's a sport form that was developed to get it into the Olympics a few years ago.

Aw, I'll have to look into this - watching all the Taekwondo these last few days I was feeling quite keen to try it out too!

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By all means do - I didn't take it up until I was 44 and I love it! Usually most clubs allow you to try a class or two for free to see if you think you will enjoy it.

 

I stayed up to watch Lutalo Muhammad's final and can't begin to imagine how he must have felt having the gold snatched away from him in the LAST SECOND... Just goes to show that you can't relax for a moment. I can't watch the replay, too painful. A rather dubious decision earlier in the match when Muhammed scored 4 points with a head shot, only to have it appealed and taken from him due to "no contact". I'm afraid I don't see how it was no contact when he kicked off the other guy's helmet and sent it flying across the arena! But hey, that was the ref's decision, and it's too late now.

 

And although he was understably devastated, his gracious behaviour on the podium when he must have felt terrible was exemplary, and a perfect example of the Taekwondo tenet of Courtesy. Well done Lutalo.

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I do the ITF style of Taekwondo (the original form), which also have a series of movement (patterns, or tul in Korean) which I really enjoy - having done ballet in my youth I can see a lot of similarities in the need for precise and graceful movements that have to be performed perfectly.

 

In fact the WTF (World Taekwondo Federation) is about to rebrand itself as just World Taekwondo, the acronym WTF having a rather unfortunate meaning in terms of abbreviated text speak...☺

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