What a period of time it has been for us in sport in the past year. 2nd in the Olympics. Wimbledon winner. Masters winner. Tour de France winner. The Ashes. Leicester City. Cook Cup whitewash. F1 World Champion. Rugby Six Nations Grand Slam. Ryder Cup still to come. Too bad international football gets in the way.
If I had to pick one solitary event from Team GB for these games, it would have to be the Women's Hockey. The drama, tension and emotion of that was just absolutely unbelievable. In saying that, there are way too many moments to choose from.
Did anyone hear Micheal Johnson last night. He pretty much stated that the UK sport organisation got a new director of performance (Peter Keen) in years ago and he was not well liked because his view was that just taking part wasn't enough anymore and the GB attitude of just being happy to be there was binned. Lo and behold making athletes push to win helps them win.
Bravo, Great Britain, on a fantastic Olympic performance. Glad to see the English Speaking Peoples dominate.
The judging in the Joyce fight was ridiculous, but the judging in the fight ahead of it was even worse.
I heard an interesting report about this on 5 Live yesterday. The British Olympic Committee used to set targets for each athlete, Gold, Silver, Bronze, make the final, make the semi-finals etc. This was then scrapped and all athletes were simply set the target of getting gold.
Isn't that a refreshing change to actually aim to win and win alone instead of just being happy to be there. Funnily enough they are taking about this very subject on BBC news right now and it seems that UK sport has across the board taken the idea brought in by cycling's 'secret squirrel club' mantra in that minimum gains (10th here and there) soon leads to a half a second improvement. As an example they have brought in McClaren to redesign the rowing boats within the limits allowed to reduce drag and this is going on across all sports which UK sport have jurisdiction over. Earlier in this thread there was a conversation about English football's view of setting targets of making the finals as being enough. Clearly that thinking is backwards as this proves.
I'll certinaly be buying the BBC highlights when they come out, the London DVDs are immense, this will be equally so
England footy, maybe, but the Olympians certainly seemed to be all-out to win! I haven't seen much of any 'after you, Claude' attitude for a long, long time.
Yes we talked about this higher up they brought in a new director of performance in around 2004 and his view as 'aim for gold everytime'. English footballs management have admitted that their aims are to make finals.
Speedo Ends Deal With US Swimmer Ryan Lochte After Rio Controversy http://news.sky.com/story/speedo-usa-ends-sponsorship-deal-with-us-swimmer-ryan-lochte-10547895 Serves the cock right.
Yes, I saw that. But sometimes that's a realistic target -- like for the men's 4x400m, but they were cheated out of it. Sometimes I rely on this forum for objective info, as US TV rarely mentions non-US results, except for the mega-names like Mo. I somehow managed to miss GB's epic performances in the Men's Gymnastics. The BPL coverage is better over here than over there, though, with British commentators.
for me the one single stand out event was the womens trampoline Bronze , everything about that is what allows us all relate to our Olympic athletes . performance of the games has to go to the FULL Gymnastic team , they have pushed through so far in such a short space of time Team , yes the Women's Hockey, a real example to our ****y professional footballer types . The "gutted for you" award goes to Muhammed (taekwando) altho he placed a medal higher than expected he just had to take a full stride backwards to win gold. Twat of the games (during cometition) goes to the French boxer Yoka - not for winning , but his total unsportsmanship in the final round , this is the olympics not MSG, a complete lack of class in the games. the hide in the changing rooms award goes to The women's Heptathletes , they are all pretty fly and id hide in their locker room - notable mentions to women's hockey and womens cycling. scap this **** award goes to the sports of Football , Basketball , Golf and Dressage - the first three have tournies that are much higher profile to the participants and the dressage is just crap , ok synchronized swimming is a joke but this is similar stuff where the horse is the star n gets nowt