Olympic 2020(1) Thread

I used to bring those back all the time from Japan... matcha , pumpkin flavoured at Halloween , pink lemonade to name but three...

 

Amusingly, Germanic music for the German horse to dance to. Will be surprised if they don't end with a version of Deutschland Uber Alles.

 

Interesting what happens nest - as they're a category 1 sport they get a great deal of funding...

 

Reckon that will go down as a disappointing day which was epitomised by the results in the rowing. Still, gold, silver and bronze is not bad - just reflects the rise in expectations

 

There are also big-mouthed former champions letting rip from the sidelines. So, if things don't go well in the next couple of days, they'll be an almighty dust-up and probably a head or two rolling for whoever's currently running the setup.

 

Just like a disappointing draw in footy, you still add to your points total, so still plenty of positives.

 

As I remarked before some sports were 'marked' on 'engagement' and others for 'Olympic success'. I specifically remember 'rowing' in the seminars/colloquia because the (material) scientists and engineers discovered that their services were not required (a particularly group had been working on ultra-hydrophobic composite surfaces were miffed at this) but the stats weirdos had a field day with all the vast amounts of data that these boats collect (the experimental scientists were miffed with them because they were just doing data mining - nothing novel at all which was a point stated on all the funding application forms it had to be novel work to be funded).

It won't be heads that will roll it'll be funding cuts. The people holding the purse strings are pretty ruthless.

 

When does the athletics start?
The first week is just the warmup act. I mean horses prancing about ffs.

 

Yes, I was meaning heads rolling because of the inevitable funding cuts. Yes, they are very ruthless and they can use the National Lottery/Public Funding, value for money, club to bash them severely around the head.

 

Don’t know anything about rowing, what happened with the blokes who almost veered off and nearly crashed into the Italians?

When asked afterwards by the BBC reporter who was in charge of steering, the poor bloke who said he was could barely string a sentence together trying to explain what happened.

Then the BBC anchor almost felt the need to apologise that the question had been asked. I appreciate it was right after the race and they were probably all massively shocked and disappointed, but it was a perfectly valid question, I’ve never seen anything like it happen before.

 

The athletics events begin on Friday 30 July, with 10 days of action culminating with the men’s marathon, which ends on the final day in Tokyo, Sunday 8 August. The women’s 100m final is on Saturday 31 July, and the men follow on Sunday 1 August.

Looks like the finals are late morning/midday.

 

It's so unusual to see it happen. Inexperience or just plain farkw1ttery. I'm surprised that the Italians didn't raise an objection as it cost them silver, but there again like the Mary Decker/Zola Budd incident in 1984, sh1te happens, and there's not alot you can do about it, particularly when inexperienced competitors are involved.

 

Thank you for not calling it 'Track And Field'.

 

Why not? This is a soccer forum, isn’t it?

 

Soccerball surely.

 

Oh dear. 4th again. BBC pundits blathering about 'amazing journeys'. However, in the cold, hard light of day, it's only 1 rowing medal so far.

There are big hopes for the the women's lightweight double sculls later. Let's hope the pressure doesn't crush them.

 

Well done Ireland. Gold in the men's lightweight double sculls. BBC pundits very sniffy about the Irish brute force technique over the more refined strokes from the other boats. The technique that isn't suited to winning an Olympic final. Lo and behold they win.

 

"It's an outstanding performance from the British crew", crow the BBC pundits. Yes, that's right, it's fourth again, as they clutch at straws and play the plucky loser card, which was supposedly banished to Atlanta 96 and games before then. It was a very close race, but yet again, they are falling short. They have one more day of finals to save themselves from the most brutal of post-mortems. Once again, the only boat to do anything in this regatta was the one that was judged as a rank outsider for a medal, the quad sculls.

 

You are making it sound like they are failures "but yet again, they are falling short" as they finish 4th best in the world. Hopefully you wouldn't brand your own children as similar failures, if they just "fall short" after years of determined effort.

 

Collectively, they are falling short. Perhaps they're over-fishing the same old talent pools rather than casting their net in waters further afield or not fished before. The amount of money poured their way means other deserving sports miss out.

 

World Champions and World Number 1s not showing up seems to be the theme. The shooting bloke the latest example. Looked far too happy with bronze.

We aren't winning any surprising or shocking golds either.

 

As reg says though, a lot of money goes into these people/their sports and with a finite pot it means if they're getting funded inevitably someone else isn't.

 

Yes considering the 9 medals in London 2012 suggests 1 silver is a massive underperformance. Obviously have to congratulate those that did finish top 3 but coming 4th in so many races and by such fine margins suggests we aren't getting the extra edge that we previously had which is why there will surely be a massive post mortem

 

For the rowing suspect it's no coincidence that performances have dropped off following retirement of the hugely successful head coach J*rgen Grobler

 

And it's high time the rowers got their funding pulled. We've had our golden period and now it's over. Put the money into boxing, horsey dancing and BMX. Sports where the participants actually seem to have some talent.

Also I'm sick of seeing things like this new basketball 3on3 or skateboarding with no Brits. You can't tell me you couldn't have found 3 kids who'd have killed to be involved. I mean, what's the point of all the stupid skateparks around the country if we can't find a few Olympians out of them.

 

If you are only interested in medals, then we came second in the entire world in Rio, having been the only nation to ever increase numbers just after hosting the Games. This year, we are currently making our best start to the Games.

 

The Rest is History podcast is always excellent, they’ve done two episodes on the history of The Olympics, one on the ancient games and one on the modern. Really interesting stuff, had no idea how the modern version of the games came about and who* was responsible for some of the traditions.

*

Spoiler

The Nazis, who else?

 

It were all fields in my day.

 

Agree overall it is a great start, but I think you're missing the argument that the funding is attributed to performance and ultimately that performance is measured by medals. From a funding perspective rowing has seemingly under delivered though I admit I don't know how many were predicted. I'd have thought at least 3 (men and women's 4s and the pair today)

 

Yes, because of the shortage of money in other sports over the years, you get talented kids like taekwondo silver medallist Lauren Williams living in a caravan so she can be near her training centre while she moves up the ranks.