Olympics pants (and I'm not talking apparel)

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Betsy Og

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At the risk of the "you're only interested when you are winning" accusation (unfairly levelled when Irish people complained after ERC (or whoever) destroyed the Heineken Cup) is anyone else out of love with the Olympics?

Sure I'll watch it for 20 minutes when there's nothing else on, but all this Ronnie Delaney "once an olympian, always an olympian" stuff tends to annoy me. People dedicating their lives to do one thing over and over and over and over in the pursuit of a few hundreds of a second - seems a bit daft to me. Or Ronnie's - you are now the supreme human being vibe - ....really??

OK I'll cheer Annalise, but beyond this week I dont think I'll be very interested in sail races. The boxing was the only thing that got the blood pumping (pardon the pun), but even on that we seem to have lost our way a little and the quality of the boxing is not the mae west either (that Joe Ward fight was a frustrating muck-fest). Throw in the huge downer of 'supplements man', and the murky 'tickets man', and all in all its been a bit dispiriting.

I did smile to myself when the golfers told "the olympic movement" (no less) where to go, they didnt like that I'd say....

So when I watch the mens 100M I'll be thinking of the parallels with an inner city garda drugs squad operation - some healthy men in pursuit of some heavily drugged men....
 
Yeah, Betsy Óg, I hear you. There's the blackmarket ticket scandal. Seems to me the arenas are three-quarters empty in the first place. No wonder @ €400 per ticket to see the boring boxing. Then we have Rugby-7's Olympians; what next? - Tiddlywinks or Darts! But, the archery was goddawful with gadgets that make it next to impossible to not hit the target. Then there is the diving into a green or blue pool, pity the poor divers who had nothing else to do over the past 4 years other than use up the world's supply of baby oil - seems to me that two sacks of spuds of equal weight would hit the water if released from the diving platform at the same time. I reckon the ticket blackmarketeers should be awarded some type of accolade for taking the hit. The whole Olympic ethic seems to have got out of hand - I look forward to the Olympics like I look to Van Morrisson as a stand-up comic.

Great the Track & Field events are to come and perhaps we'll have something to remember other than doping scandals? Thank You God, for the GAA.
 
Is it just me or have the Olympics gone well past their sell by date?


1. Not amateur.
2. Riddled with drug questions.
3. Questionable Olympic Committee management , like FIFa ?
4. Even if someone gets a Gold Medal , is it tarnished/ worth it?
5. Have we not much better Sport uses for our funds than the Olympics?

Maybe lets restart with an Amateur only Olympics.
 
Leper said:
- seems to me that two sacks of spuds of equal weight would hit the water if released from the diving platform at the same time.
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It was Galileo, using the leaning tower of Pisa, who showed that no matter what their respective weights two bags of spuds would fall in synch:rolleyes:
 
ah for crying out loud will people just relax a bit. I've been sitting watching the diving and canoing with my kids this week and they are fascinated by it. Same with the gymnastics last night. Most of the athletes in the games are professional and have been for years, it's just some of them get paid €1m for winning a golf tournament and some of them are dependent on getting €20k a year in govt grants, they are still all full time professional athletes. There is no such thing as an amateur anymore. Ok, so there are some cheats but that's the same in any sport and at least they are getting caught
 
I never bother with the first week, but I look forward to the athletics. I now discover that all the finals will be at 1 and 2 in the morning to suit US TV. I never remember it being this bad even for the LA and Atlanta games. Really disappointing:(
 
As of time of writing the medals table (Top 20 plus Ireland) is as follows. Medals per 10million population in brackets.

Ireland 1 (2.2)

USA 69 (2.2)
China 45 (0.3)
UK 38 (6.1)
Russia 30 (2.1)
Japan 26 (2.0)
France 22 (3.5)
Australia 22 (10.5)
Italy 21 (3.5)
Germany 17 (2.1)
South Korea 14 (2.9)
Canada 13 (3.8)
Hungary 12 (12.0)
Netherlands 9 (5.4)
New Zealand 8 (18.6)
South Africa 8 (1.6)
Denmark 7 (12.7)
Sweden 7 (7.6)
North Korea 6 (2.5)
Brazil 6 (0.3)
 
How come India never wins anything in the Olympics?
We've won 30 medals in total since the first modern summer games. India have won 24.
 
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It is clear that blacks dominate the track events and have done for some time. The PC explanation is probably that white folk are discriminated against in terms of opportunity but any objective observer must conclude that black people have a biological advantage in this sphere. Is it not time to recognise this and have separate black/white track events as we have separate male/female versions for all events? Otherwise Ireland will be very unlikely to ever again win a track gold medal:mad:
 
Ah jaysus, I go on me holliers, 2 weeks in Torremolinos, gorra be tropic (twang), and t'olympics goes mental. Didn't see Conlons fight but Internet has gone ape, if there was a can of petrol and a match beside the IABA tent it seems most Irish people wouldn't need you to draw a picture .....
 
Purple said:
How come India never wins anything in the Olympics?
We've won 30 medals in total since the first modern summer games. India have won 24.
Click to expand...

Historically and to be brutal a lot of them were probably too busy trying to stay alive. If you think back to partition for example and the aftermath of that and the millions who died they had other priorities. Secondly their culture and caste system probably had an impact. There are so many stories in places like the USA of athletes using (and being encouraged to use via college scholarships) sport to better themselves. In India, the caste system and the historical attitudes to lower "unclean" caste probably didn't help. Also their main sports like cricket are not in the Olympics.
 
A gold medal for the Brazilian cops!!!

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-37107450
he head of the Irish and European Olympic committees, Patrick Hickey, has been arrested in Rio over illegal Olympic ticket sales, Brazil media report.
Mr Hickey, 71, is suspected of illegally passing on tickets for the Games to touts who sold them at extortionate prices, the reports say.
His arrest comes days after a man was caught in Rio with 800 illegal tickets.
Police said Mr Hickey tried to escape when they came to arrest him.
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Is it just me or a main flaw in any organisation is leaving the Head man in situ too long ?

Mr Blatter in football.
Mr Fingleton in Finance.
Mr Ahern in politics .
Mr Pope in religion.

Life and living move on past current leaders time frames, bad habits get institutionalised.
 
Gerry Canning said:
Is it just me or a main flaw in any organisation is leaving the Head man in situ too long ?

Mr Blatter in football.
Mr Fingleton in Finance.
Mr Ahern in politics .
Mr Pope in religion.

Life and living move on past current leaders time frames, bad habits get institutionalised.
Click to expand...

in fairness, the Pope gets replaced ever few years when Head Office calls him up. Some were only in the position for a few weeks
 
Dear Daddyman,

I missed that, so can I add this.

No one past 70 gets the Head job. Although it has the benefit of making it awkward for them to last too long !
 
Gerry Canning said:
Dear Daddyman,

I missed that, so can I add this.

No one past 70 gets the Head job. Although it has the benefit of making it awkward for them to last too long !
Click to expand...

Ah but doesn't Leo Varadker have an issue about people retiring too early and that we can't afford pensions in the long term and we should all work until later in life. That's if you can call being head of the OCI and swanning about the world in first class work.
 
has anyone else noticed the slower times for the sprints - Bolt "only" running 9.8 odd for the 100m, Blake & Gatlin not even qualifying for the 200m final ??
 
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