The 2008 Olympics Thread

Disappointing result. I am not sure there was as much bias as the panel claimed. Let's be honest: with the Chinese guy at home they were always going to claim bias whether it existed or not. What I would like to see is a slow motion of the shots where the Chinese guy scored to see if they were all genuine. Sure some of Egan's good shots didn't count but one could also say the same for the Chinese.

Question: the panel said the Chinese guy made Egan come on to him. Why did Egan have to come on to him? Could he not have stood back as well and waited for the Chinese boxer to come on to him? Why did he have to go forward?

Because he was losing from early on.

I'll have to watch a replay of the fight but I'm pretty sure the Chinese lad was getting points when in fact Egan was landing?! It's all part of amatuer boxing but it still hurts. Egan will be sickened for the rest of his life. I've seen some shocking verdicts following amatuer boxing over the years but at the Olympic games they need to get it right. Club shows and blatant robberies go hand in hand but in front of a world wide audience? Have they not learnt their lesson from 1988 and the Roy Jones saga? Now we hear that the ref's/judges were 'assigned' and not random........hmmm sounds dodgy.

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Originally Posted by OwlsFan

I am not sure there was as much bias as the panel claimed. Let's be honest: with the Chinese guy at home they were always going to claim bias whether it existed or not. What I would like to see is a slow motion of the shots where the Chinese guy scored to see if they were all genuine. Sure some of Egan's good shots didn't count but one could also say the same for the Chinese.

Question: the panel said the Chinese guy made Egan come on to him. Why did Egan have to come on to him? Could he not have stood back as well and waited for the Chinese boxer to come on to him? Why did he have to go forward?

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There was, RTÉ showed 3 replays of scores the Chinese fighter got. One landed on the gloves, another was a palm to the face(not even with any force) and the other looked like a slap, it definitely wasn't the white part of the glove anyway.

They then showed a 12-15 second clip of one part of the fight where Egan scored 3/4 clear blows(four if you want to count a clear perfect bodyshot with force).

I also saw a clear left uppercut for Egan not scored right after the Chinese boxer scored his first point. I also saw the Chinese boxer earn one point when he didn't throw and Egan landed.


I'd say if you watched the whole fight back in slow motion you would find Egan a winner by two maybe even 3 times the Chinese fighters score. But it seems easier to justify when you're watching it live and watching the scores go up. It was a blatent robbery and I'm not surprised hearing the controversy about judging selections.

It sounds like sour grapes giving out about judges but that fight was a hometown job if ever you saw one.Egan hit the Chinese guy with 2 top notch body shots and not scored.

The Olympics should be impartially judged.

Kenny Egan was robbed IMO.
He connected at least 4 or 5 times and got no scores for it where as the Chinese fella only had to blink and got points.
In fact on numerous occasions Egan connected and the Chinese fella got a point!........that happened at least 3 or 4 times!
You knew it wasn't gonna be Egan's day when the Chinese fella got a point while standing 2 feet away from Egan.

Keep the Chinese happy!, No golds for Ireland!..............Keep the Chinese happy!, No golds for Ireland!................Keep the Chinese happy!, No golds for Ireland!.....................Keep the Chinese happy!, No golds for Ireland!.................Keep the Chinese happy!, No golds for Ireland!;):p:D

I wanted to see a slightly less biased reaction so as soon as the fight ended I flicked to the BBC and they were probably more shocked than RTE. The studio presenter said something along the lines of "I can't imagine what you must be thinking if you're watching in Ireland".

I had felt it was a fairly close fight right through but Egan probably deserved to be level at worst at the end. When he got within a point the Chinese fella seemed to get another point without even throwing a punch.

Hard to take but a silver and two bronze is a fantastic return from this Olympics.

I am really gutted, really gutted:(

I thought the judging was alright upto this fight, and all the fights i saw the true winner did come out on top
BUT jeez Egan was def robbed in this fight
I would have had the score level - and Egan to win it on countback

im really peed off, and the Chinese cheat said he would beat Egan in Dublin too - well bring that on

did anyone see the judo and the way the british were cheated in that???

From betfair forum.



BEIJING (AFP) — Boxing officials were battling to contain a major scandal on Saturday as serious claims of bribery and the manipulation of Olympic judging panels emerged after a series of disputed bouts.

The International Boxing Association (AIBA) suspended Romanian technical delegate Rudel Obreja after he held an impromptu and rowdy press conference and made lurid allegations against senior officials.

AIBA also revealed that it had been tracking "possible attempts of manipulation" for more than two months and had brought in an International Olympic Committee (IOC) observer "when the situation became more serious".

At a testy media conference late on Friday, AIBA technical delegate Terry Smith was grilled by journalists who questioned a series of Olympic results.

Smith insisted none of the fights was ***** although he said the scoring system, where three out of five judges need to press a button simultaneously for a point to be awarded, was under review.

"I'm quite confident that nothing has affected these bouts," Smith said.

He denied Obreja's suspension was a "tit-for-tat" move after the Romanian said a top official was involved in manipulating judging panels and claimed bribery was at work in AIBA presidential elections of 2006.

Taiwanese President Wu Ching-kuo declined to address the disciplinary affair but admitted judging standards needed a shake-up.

"You can see from this tournament how we need to upgrade the level of the judges," he told journalists on Saturday.

"We need re-education and re-training to achieve a higher level. No more cheating, no more manipulation but better referee judges."

Obreja's unauthorised news conference on Friday ended in chaos when it was interrupted by AIBA secretary-general Ho Kim and the two traded heated remarks.

Obreja had been about to be removed from the commission overseeing the computerised refereeing draw, according to disciplinary official Tom Virgets.

The extraordinary developments accompany a series of ringside controversies which have incensed the boxers and coaches involved.

Frenchman Alexis Vastine screamed and wept after Dominican Felix Diaz was awarded a decisive two-point penalty for holding in the dying seconds of their light welterweight semi-final.

"I've been robbed," said Vastine. "I didn't know that could happen at the Olympics."

Irish light flyweight Paddy Barnes was staggered not to be awarded a single point against Zou Shiming in the Chinese world champion's 15-0 victory.

The Algerian camp had also claimed Ouatah Newfel was unfairly eliminated from the super heavyweight quarter-finals to smooth the path of China's Zhang Zhilei.

Ukrainian fighter Vyacheslav Glazkov, who beat Newfel and was due to face Zhang in the semis, withdrew at the last minute on Friday with an elbow injury.

AIBA's Smith said there had been no foul play, adding Obreja's allegations were "totally wrong".

"I will be the first to admit that not every point scored in boxing is recorded," he said.

"There will be points missed but we know most of the time that the right boxer wins the contest."

Smith added that Obreja's claims were under investigation and that AIBA hoped to settle the matter soon.

Disciplinary commission member Virgets also praised the reforms to the AIBA under president Wu Ching-Kuo.

"For 20 years this has been an organisation that has been under a cloud of suspicion but we have seen in the last year or so, under the new reforms, that that suspicion has been largely reduced," Virgets said.

Olympic boxing has a turbulent history including attacks on referees and sit-down protests. At Seoul 1988, Korean boxing officials attacked New Zealand referee Keith Walker, sparking a full-scale riot.

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Barnes got no points at all against a Chinese opponent when he blatently scored about 4 clear points-ffs.

I knew that the Chinese was obviously going to get some of the decisions today as he was at home, but I mean, some of taht was ridiculous.

I'd be spitting if I was Egan, and I'm sure he will be if he ever decides to watch the fight again...

Another horrific performance by our Irish olympic "heroes"..., boxing aside another complete flop.

Well what do you expect when our 'sport-mad culture' puts more emphasis on potential medal winners reaching their sporting excellence in some damp field in Mayo on a Sunday morning involved in a "passionate" battle between two miserable townlands no one ever heard of.

You wonder how many medal winners over the decades were lost to the blackhole of regionalised idiosyncratic insularism that is the GAA rather than representing their nation in the eyes of the world in sports other than unheard of oddities of hurling and bogball.

Our League of Ireland clubs in recent years have been far more heroic flying the Irish flag worldwide than the GAA (or senior Irish soccer them) can possibly be and our olympic heroes with their massive media attention are capable of.

This is an upsidedown country in sport.

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Originally Posted by Boh_So_Good

Another horrific performance by our Irish olympic "heroes"..., boxing aside another complete flop

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All bar 3 of the athletes performed above their rankings. All swimmers, sailors, cyclists and canoeists performed above their rankings. The rowers were at their ranking.

Not a flop, just not very good at the sports...

Paul Hession did well and I suppose Alistair Cragg getting to the final is good. Don't orget Eoin Reinisch coming 4th in the canoeing is an achievement too.

But still a sh!t games for Ireland. Not good enough. A review of training is needed.

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Originally Posted by rambler14

A review of training is needed.

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Its nothing to do with training. We just don't have anything near the facilities, or the numbers participating in sports, to EVER be a world figure.

I'll post it again for people who think this olympics was a disappointment. Its only the 2nd time in our hostory that we've had more than 2 medalists (and the sailing pair don't count)

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Originally Posted by rambler14

But still a sh!t games for Ireland.

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Three different people winning medals for Ireland? I'm not remotely interested in boxing, but I'd have to disagree. And most athletes out performing their standing as Dodge said.

Unless we are comparing ourselves to countries of upwards of 20m (or 4-5 times our population), and with more economically desirable natural resources to fund long established Sports Academies. In that case, yes, a sh!t games for Ireland.

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Originally Posted by rambler14

But still a sh!t games for Ireland. Not good enough. A review of training is needed.

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I agree, we should be doing much better in reality

the boxers did us proud (thanks to Keegan and the other unsung heroes), Hession and Eoin Rein did excellent, ................but the rest?

Im sorry but we do have plenty of sporty people in this country. We are surrounded by water and cant win in sailing? We have the best horses and jockeys in the world and can never medal in equestrian? Shooting? Mountain bike racing? rowing?

I think you cant really blame the athletes, they try their best under the circumstances. I really blame the Olympic commitee, pat Hickey and all that. Delaney also on the irish olympic board, jeez. Thats the problem they havent a clue about sport. I think more people like Keegan should be running the show

Apart from the boxers, we have the wrong people representing us. Guys from Dun Laoghaire in the sailing?( i mean, please!!)
. Maybe stick a guy from Connemara in there. Ruby walsh type on a horse. A guy built like anyone of the Cork hurlers doing any of the team sports. Why cant the female ga players be trained to do volleyball or handball. Im not joking there are people who are fit, healthy and made for sport - its just that someone in sports admin needs to refocus their efforts into the right sports, and unfortunately we have fools running the show

There's just not enough investment in Irish Olympic sports. GAA gets the most money, GAA, football, horseracing and rugby get all the attention in the media.

After that, there's very little effort made to get people involved in other sports. That's why we don't produce top athletes. And that investment won't be coming along for a long time with the budget cuts.

[QUOTE=bennocelt;1005871]Im sorry but we do have plenty of sporty people in this country. We are surrounded by water and cant win in sailing? [/qupte]
You realise we're not the only country that has a coastline don't you?

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We have the best horses and jockeys in the world and can never medal in equestrian?

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We have good horse races, and some Irish horses were ranked in the top 19 in 3 day eventing. There was only one Irish horse in showjumping (ridden by a Belgian who finished nowehere)

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Shooting? Mountain bike racing? rowing?

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What do you actually know about these sports, and why di you think we should be doing better?

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Apart from the boxers, we have the wrong people representing us. Guys from Dun Laoghaire in the sailing?( i mean, please!!)
. Maybe stick a guy from Connemara in there. Ruby walsh type on a horse. A guy built like anyone of the Cork hurlers doing any of the team sports.

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This is the laziest piece of thinking ever.

Some people, need a serious smack of common sense when it comes to sports in this country.

Firstly the boxing was a farce, the only way to get a decision against the Chinese in a contest like that was to do what the Italian lad did in the next fight and stop him. I thought Egan was ver magnanamous in defeat afterwards, I would say when he watches a re-run it will leave him less impressed.
With regard to the rest of the olympic team, it's all right to say they performed to their world ranking but do yous not think that is the problem, the "ah sure they did their best" attitude is rampant. The Brits won medals in Cycling, because they hosted the last track world championships and pumped loads of lottery money into it. They've done the same with Rowing, Sailing & Swiming They hired the former Australian Swiming coach which is why they've done so well in the pool, unless there is serious investment in
A) Facilities
B) Coaches
&
C) The athletes themselves to allow them to be fully professional
there will be no progress & few more Olympic medals for Ireland.
The trick is to pinpoint sports that we can quickly get to international standard in and which aren't overrun with dominant bigger nations

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Originally Posted by endabob1

unless there is serious investment in
A) Facilities
B) Coaches
&
C) The athletes themselves to allow them to be fully professional
there will be no progress & few more Olympic medals for Ireland.

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I completely agree. Unfortunately, unless things have changed dramatically in the past 18 months since I've been away, most of that money set aside for "Sports" will be divided equally into five pots as follows:
1. Horse Racing
2. Greyhounds
3. GAA / Rugby / Football combined
4. Incredibly basic infrastructure / All other Sports / ministerial fact finding trips to watch Man U in the Champions League / the provision of a big tent at the Galway Races / a new hat for the ministers wife for Royal Ascot and .
5. More Horse racing, and probably a bit of dressage for the craic with the change.

One cannot complain - Horse racing gets the most success, has the most coverage, and brings in the most money. It probably is also by certain accounts the most popular "Sport" in Ireland - Olympics or no Olympics, people talk about it. How many people will be bemoaning the sad state of Irish Athletics in 10 weeks time, when the football and rugby are full tilt?

A female friend of mine who was big in volleyball (no, not a reclaimed Gaelic footballer) used to volunteer / work for the volleyball association. After one year's budget announcement, she told me that this year, there was enough money for a national men's volleyball team, or a national women's team. Not both. Volleyball does not win votes, so give it a token few quid to give the impression that we're doing our bit. This, I might add, was when we were hearing how unprecedented the surplus in the exchequer was, and the same year that the Education Dept was expected to return €50m unspent.

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Originally Posted by endabob1

The trick is to pinpoint sports that we can quickly get to international standard in and which aren't overrun with dominant bigger nations

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Again, this is the way forward, but it is incredibly unlikely that Ireland can have real success with this tactic, without colossal investment. Firstly, because these sports may seem "minority" to us, but some major nation must have lobbied for it to be there or it would not have made it (would there be softball without the States demanding it? And where is Pelota or our style of Handball?) Secondly, if it is a genuine minority type sport, all the bigger nations are bigger (duh) and therefore are likely to have large minorities who like these sports (in many cases larger than our potential pool of sporty people not already copywritten by the GAA). Finally, if we do identify something like that, we are talking about at least 15 years of aggressive promotion, backed by heavy financial commitment from the government, and genuine exposure from RTE, married to a nationwide net of local clubs and teacher led introduction in the schools from an early age, with no guarantee of a medal as the Michael Phelps of whatever sport may come good in Mongolia or Togo at the same time as our great hope.

Traditionally, boxing has been a good sport for us, and perhaps we should target things that are at least within our nature. The horses would be a good bet, if we could keep them off the drugs (step aside professional cycling!), but really, is this the way forward - few enough people in Ireland have access to that kind of sports facility? Similarly sailing.

Personally, I think that the hammer would be a plausible event for Ireland to aim for, but this is largely based on the fact that it is the only event we ever won Gold twice in (Dr. Patrick O'Callaghan - in my opinion, our greatest Olympian); it currently seems to be sewn up by the former Soviet bloc, but the world record stands since 1986, so it is not as difficult to estimate your chances of a medal there as with the 100m - one of the reasons for Britain's cycling success is their concentration on the track - they know to a split second what a gold medal winner is likely to be able to do a lap in. If you can get close, you get close to a medal. That is the approach I'd like to see taken whatever we target.

:D http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/olympics/...ve_with_t.html

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Originally Posted by Boh_So_Good

Another horrific performance by our Irish olympic "heroes"..., boxing aside another complete flop.

Well what do you expect when our 'sport-mad culture' puts more emphasis on potential medal winners reaching their sporting excellence in some damp field in Mayo on a Sunday morning involved in a "passionate" battle between two miserable townlands no one ever heard of.

You wonder how many medal winners over the decades were lost to the blackhole of regionalised idiosyncratic insularism that is the GAA rather than representing their nation in the eyes of the world in sports other than unheard of oddities of hurling and bogball.

Our League of Ireland clubs in recent years have been far more heroic flying the Irish flag worldwide than the GAA (or senior Irish soccer them) can possibly be and our olympic heroes with their massive media attention are capable of.

This is an upsidedown country in sport.

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I had the same rant 4 years ago http://foot.ie/showthread.php?t=17047 (check it out for aswad's reply - lol) In hindsight, I think it was justified, as even the gold medal that we won after I posted the thread was later taken away.

No doubt there'll be a similar post in 4 years' time.

But I don't really get your argument about GAA players who should be representing Ireland in "other" sports. Regardless of what you think of the GAA, it's the players' choice.

I'd agree with the notion that we should pick something we're good at and concentrate on it, and you'd hope boxing will get a boost from recent performances, but it's an "all eggs in one basket" situation. We need to also concentrate on the likes of track and field, and rowing, and possibly showjumping.

Interestingly, growing up in 1970s Ireland I was under the illusion we had some of the best showjumpers in the world. But looking back on it, they never did anything at the Olympics.

Also interestingly, the RTE appears to be going out of its way to say the last gold medal Ireland won was Michael Carruth's at Barcelona.

Anyway, let's hope there are some competitors with the ambition and ability and funding to give us an across-the-board chance at London, and not have us depending on the odd exceptional performance to decide if a particular olympics was "successful" or not.

The London 2012 segment of the closing ceremony was embarassing. That ugly logo, the headache inducing graphics, Boris Johnson looking like a tramp... So many things wrong about that am-dram thing too.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olym...12/7577999.stm

The kid spraying graffiti in the opening sequence, the dancing commuters throwing away their newspapers, the dancing commuters climbing over the guy in a wheelchair on that bus, just shockingly bad. I dont see London 2012 being a success unfortunately.

We shouldn't be focusing on particular sports we should be putting the structures in place that allow our sportspeople to develop to the best of their ability. That means funding and facilities. Probably the best example of how to do it is the UK cycling - built the velodrome, and now have it as a centre of excellence and have a stream of people coming through. Proper funding allows people to concentrate on their sport and still have a comfortable lifestyle raising families. There's talk this morning on the radio about keeping the boxers amatuer for the next olympics - will they put together a package that'll allow them to make that choice though?

Unfortunately too much money, and lottery money not Government Tax Revenue less we forget, is focused on the insular GAA games and the gambling industry (horses and dogs).

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Originally Posted by Macy

There's talk this morning on the radio about keeping the boxers amatuer for the next olympics - will they put together a package that'll allow them to make that choice though?

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if they get good offers to go pro, they can't compete but the olympic boxers have been living and training as professionals for a good while now. With a bursery and expenses in place of fight fees. Which all backs up your main point.

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Originally Posted by bennocelt

Apart from the boxers, we have the wrong people representing us. Guys from Dun Laoghaire in the sailing?( i mean, please!!)

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Odd that the part of Ireland where sailing is most popular should be the home of some of our Olympic sailors isn't it...oh wait no it's not at all.

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Originally Posted by Dodge

if they get good offers to go pro, they can't compete but the olympic boxers have been living and training as professionals for a good while now. With a bursery and expenses in place of fight fees. Which all backs up your main point.

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Despite of, rather than because of, the funding though from what I've been hearing. One thing to do it for one olympics, but to carry on for another 4 years maybe a bridge too far.

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Originally Posted by Macy

Despite of, rather than because of, the funding though from what I've been hearing. One thing to do it for one olympics, but to carry on for another 4 years maybe a bridge too far.

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Well I know one of the medallists and he's been living OK as an amateur boxer for the past 5 years. Again, nothing like what he could earn as a pro, but then they're never going to compete with that.

Joint 62nd with Austria in the medals table seems about right for a country of our size.

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Originally Posted by OwlsFan

Joint 62nd with Austria in the medals table seems about right for a country of our size.

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51st in the American table :D (ahead of portugal and Belgium)

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Originally Posted by Boh_So_Good

Another horrific performance by our Irish olympic "heroes"..., boxing aside another complete flop.

Well what do you expect when our 'sport-mad culture' puts more emphasis on potential medal winners reaching their sporting excellence in some damp field in Mayo on a Sunday morning involved in a "passionate" battle between two miserable townlands no one ever heard of.

You wonder how many medal winners over the decades were lost to the blackhole of regionalised idiosyncratic insularism that is the GAA rather than representing their nation in the eyes of the world in sports other than unheard of oddities of hurling and bogball.

Our League of Ireland clubs in recent years have been far more heroic flying the Irish flag worldwide than the GAA (or senior Irish soccer them) can possibly be and our olympic heroes with their massive media attention are capable of.

This is an upsidedown country in sport.

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Boo-hoo. We get the same handwringing after every Olympics. The fact is, the vast majority of our population only give a f*ck about these minority "international" sports for about 2 weeks every 4 years. Synchronised swimming. Rhythmic gymnastics. Archery. Fencing. Dressage. Clay-pigeon shooting. Who cares? So we didn't win a sh*tload of medals. You'll have forgotten about it in a week. But hang onto that post above for 2012. I'd hate for you to have to think it all up again from scratch.

Although the boxing scoring seems to be difficult at the best of times the scores in the Egan fight were laughable. I think the judges were reacting to the crowd. Egan himself was very gracious although he may not have seen the tape yet.

Maybe he can get a job as stunt double...? Just me?

http://dynimg.rte.ie/0001ab16190.jpg

http://media.monstersandcritics.com/...ciaranrome.jpg

If we are honest we don't care about Athletics or the minority sports. I do think we need to adopt a policy like the UK where they assess the results of their funding. I don't know how much sailing or the equestrian sports get but they are not delivering & the stereotype would indicate that funding not needed much. Boxing on the other hand has consistently delivered & should have increased funding. The stereotype would suggest boxing clubs are in less affluent areas so big social benefit also.

RTE pundit suggested we should skip the sprints & long distance (we can't compete) & target other events - not sure what is left... :confused:

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Originally Posted by pete

If we are honest we don't care about Athletics or the minority sports.

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Speak for yourself. :p although Obviously in national terms you're right :(

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I do think we need to adopt a policy like the UK where they assess the results of their funding.

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Thats already in here. The better you do the more funding you get. If you don't succeed, you don't get further funding.

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Boxing on the other hand has consistently delivered & should have increased funding.

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You mean the sport that has qualified 1 boxer to each of the last 2 olympics and earned one european medal and one world medal since the 1992 olympics? I'm not saying it shouldn't receive the funding, but this knee jerk reactionary stuff is exactly the type of crap Irish sport can do without. We've had world medals earned by Rowers for te past 4/5 years, and Athletics is consistently earning us medals on world and european stage (indoors and cross country mostly). Are you suggesting we stop funding because we only had 5 athletes ranked in the top 15 this year?

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RTE pundit suggested we should skip the sprints & long distance (we can't compete) & target other events - not sure what is left... :confused:

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Throwing, walking, jumping. The more "technical" events. No real shock that walkers are turning out to be our best performers

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Originally Posted by Dodge

Speak for yourself. :p although Obviously in national terms you're right :(

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I meant the collective we.

Rowing has never delivered an Olympic medal. I believe World medals are probably concentrated at the lightweight category? Equestrian must benefit from 0% tax on stud fees. Like sailing funding will not make much difference to participation levels. If we already target funding at sports that deliver then fair enough.

Regarding the boxing scoring I read elsewhere that sports with level of judging are discredited as at least with swimming or athletics you are either the fastest or you are not.

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Originally Posted by pete

Rowing has never delivered an Olympic medal. I believe World medals are probably concentrated at the lightweight category?

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We've had 2 4th places in the olympics. Medals mostly at lightweight but the majority of them at Olympic events (The lightweight 4 that finished 10th thisi year won silver in 2005 and bronze in 2006)[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Dodge;1005881]

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Originally Posted by bennocelt

Im sorry but we do have plenty of sporty people in this country. We are surrounded by water and cant win in sailing? [/qupte]
You realise we're not the only country that has a coastline don't you?


We have good horse races, and some Irish horses were ranked in the top 19 in 3 day eventing. There was only one Irish horse in showjumping (ridden by a Belgian who finished nowehere)


What do you actually know about these sports, and why di you think we should be doing better?


This is the laziest piece of thinking ever.

Some people, need a serious smack of common sense when it comes to sports in this country.

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oh sorry Dodge, to be different, my mistake, i forgot .you are the demi-god when it comes to all sports:rolleyes:

irish atlantic = tough enuff, im sorry no excuse coming in at 33 or whatever. I bet if you look Switzerland have beaten us.

Do you know Norway and Brazil got medals in equestrian!!!! make any excuse you want, i dont care.

The other sports i mentioned. yes why not. i suppose we should continue with the athletics, as we are famous for our running. Maybe we should start badminton or table tennis.
I dont know, maybe ye guys up in Dublin are a bit soft?

Im sorry but have you not noticed young fellas and women all over the country running themselves into the ground, all nights of the week....in the name of GA. I wish someone would just divert their attention to other sports.

lazy? whats your problem? Are you happy that we did so well in the walking! (yippee)
Ireland should be doing much better, why not?
God you think no one in Ireland did anysport at all

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Originally Posted by passinginterest

I wanted to see a slightly less biased reaction so as soon as the fight ended I flicked to the BBC and they were probably more shocked than RTE. The studio presenter said something along the lines of "I can't imagine what you must be thinking if you're watching in Ireland".

I had felt it was a fairly close fight right through but Egan probably deserved to be level at worst at the end. When he got within a point the Chinese fella seemed to get another point without even throwing a punch.

Hard to take but a silver and two bronze is a fantastic return from this Olympics.

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just to reiterate the Irish bias argument, the canadian commentators were dumbfounded with the points that the Chinese guy got and at one stage Egan landed a clear body shot and they said "well theres another one back for the irishman" - it wasnt given - and they said "oh, i guess not" and commented on how bad the scoring had been...

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Originally Posted by bennocelt

Im sorry but have you not noticed young fellas and women all over the country running themselves into the ground, all nights of the week....in the name of GA. I wish someone would just divert their attention to other sports.

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Other sports like what?

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Originally Posted by Jinxy

Other sports like what?

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Why cant ireland compete in sailing? really why not?
or cross country equestrian?
Or mountain biking?
or rowing?

get a few of the ga ladies to try out for basketball, volleyball, handball, etc

Hockey? try out a few hurlers

Look at some of the Gb athletes who switched sports........from cycling to running. I think there can be a cross over in some sports
jesus look at the O halpin brothers doing well down under, or all the ga heads that have done well in football down through the years
Katie taylor playing football........i mean most decent sports people are quite good at a lot of sports

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Originally Posted by bennocelt

irish atlantic = tough enuff, im sorry no excuse coming in at 33 or whatever. I bet if you look Switzerland have beaten us.

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Go on then, tell us what you know about Swiss sailing then...

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Do you know Norway and Brazil got medals in equestrian!!!! make any excuse you want, i dont care.

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... or Nrwegian or Brazillian showjumping?

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lazy? whats your problem? Are you happy that we did so well in the walking! (yippee)
Ireland should be doing much better, why not?
God you think no one in Ireland did anysport at all

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You still don't get it do you? You think we've a god given right to do well at something. EVERY country and every athlete in the oilympics breaks theior balls to get there.

I'll ask you this, what gives you the right to bitch and moan at the sailors and every other sport? What have you ever done to help anyone aget to an Olympics and excel? You've already shown you know **** all about most of the sports, but you still think you can give out about them not reaching your high standards?

The problem with thsi country isn't that the best athletes are playing GAA or football, its that they're all sitting on their arses watching the olympics every four years wondering why we're ****e at everything