Off Topic Brazil Olympic opening ceremony + events thread!

I'm seriously considering avoiding spending any money on QPR for the next 4 seasons and spending it on 17 days in Tokyo in 2020.

Want to know how we did it Aussie? We took £300m pa lottery money, stole your 'excellence' approach from Sydney 2000, and then pinched a load of your coaches. So you may rightfully share in our success. Now we have grown our own coaches and I expect the Chinese to pinch them too.

 

Well, the EU are really taking the piss now, claiming our glory with this laughable tweet after we've given them the heave-ho...

 

apparently race walking is your best bet stan

 

Team GB's rise in world rankings is no fluke. Over the past four years they have received £274m in funding, 75% of which has come from the national lottery. Personally I applaud this approach, but I'm sure there are others that would say that £205.5m lottery money could have been put to better use.

 

That would barely be noticed in the NHS, education or any of the, on paper, more important things. You can't really measure what benefit a gold medal has on the country but if it gets a few fat kids running or cycling it might even pay for itself over time.

 

I think your government should be applauded for using the monies to fund the team. The people of GB giving back to the people ( teams ) of GB.
Great stuff.

 

Not yet, and quite probably not before Tokyo 2020. Suck it up....

 

What do you mean by "our glory". Britain won 67 medals. Take those medals out of the EU total medals and the table would read.

1. European Community countries - 258 medals
2. United States - 121 medals
3. China - 70 medals
4. GB - 67 medals.

 

Sorry Fingy, how the hell can you be 'patriotic' for the EU? It's like kissing your sister. The EU is not a country, get over it...

 

The original tweet was issued by the EC was to highlight how well the European athletes did as a whole. Who mentioned patriotism? How do you make out they are "claiming our glory" when the facts are, the table would look very similar in terms of placings if you took GB out of it? I am a very proud European and I don't kiss my Sister, thanks very much.

 

They are doing what they do best, claiming something that is distorted for their own benefit. They know the game is up and their 'gravy train' has hit the buffers. Good riddance...

 

That's not how it's done though mate is it?

GB came 2nd and have done fantastically well.

 

The EU are simply desperate for any good news they can get their hands on. Bless...

 

What are they claiming? The table would look exactly the same if you took GB out of it. I'm not too sure where this perceived distortion is? Maybe you could enlighten us.

 

I am the first to acknowledge how well GB as a country done Col. I am just a bit miffed at Sooper's mathematics. The table would look the same if GB were included or not.

 

27 countries under one flag means 26 wouldn't have competed, only three per country most events. No guarantee winners would even have competed baring in mind how many unexpected winners there were. It's just self-promotion from the EU which is pure fantasy...

 

I really don't get what point you're making Fingy.

GB came 2nd.
The table has never, to my knowledge, been calculated using EU countries as a block.

I should imagine that if you asked all the athletes who took part in the Olympics whether they'd like to represent their OWN Country (Ireland, GB, France, Germany etc etc) or the EU, they would choose to represent their own Country.

 

Isn't it amazing how different people can see things so differently? All countries/organisations etc can blow their own trumpets as they see fit. All the EU did was quote actual figures. There is no fantasy involved in that and I am sure they as an organisation are fantastically proud of how all Team GB athletes did, just as they are proud of the athletes from all 27 EU countries.

 

Of course they would Col. I am not denying what was won by who in terms of countries. My point to Sooper was, how are the EU "claiming our glory" when the mathematics would show a similar table pre or post Brexit. That is my point.

 

It is distorted because the countries they are comparing against the EU only had 3 competitors per event against 81 from the EU. On that basis the EU (or should I say the rest of the EU?) spectacularly underperformed. The table they show is a nonsense...