The 2008 Olympics Thread

[deecay]

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

[ramondo]

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.

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.

[Pauro 76]

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.

[Macy]

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).

[Dodge]

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?

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.

[Aberdonian Stu]

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

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.

[Macy]

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.

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.

[Dodge]

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.

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.

[OwlsFan]

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

[Dodge]

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

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

[Jinxy]

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.

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.

[pete]

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?





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...

[Dodge]

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

[pete]

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

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.

[Dodge]

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

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]

[bennocelt]

[QUOTE=Dodge;1005881]

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.

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

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

[SkStu]

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.

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...

[Jinxy]

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.

Other sports like what?

[bennocelt]

Other sports like what?

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

[Dodge]

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

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

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

... or Nrwegian or Brazillian showjumping?

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

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