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Anyone else gonna lose their lives watching this?

 

Any thoughts?

 

Favourite sports?

 

Anyone have anything to say at all? :lol:

 

 

 

Edit - should have put "London" as a tag :P

Edited by darkshine

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nope tight shedule for me, once ive polished my coat hangers, i have to arange my nuts and bolts acording to size, then ive got to count how many grains of rice i have in my rice box.

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Just come upstairs for a ###### and to check the forum, finished at 1:30 this morning, back on for the start of things at 9:00.

 

Up to 20 chanels of HD Olympics, the choice is killing me. Watched the Mens team archery, 4 seconds to go, Italian guy having to hit a 10 for gold and makes it beating a young USA team, brilliant moment. Will be at Lords on Wednesday taking up my seat can't wait.

 

A-S Warrior you are simply jelous because the male gymnasts have bigger muscles than you, lol.

 

See you again in two weeks, unless I need the toilet again, need to cut down on tea drinking as toilet breaks are getting in the way, bye.

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A-S Warrior you are simply jelous because the male gymnasts have bigger muscles than you, lol.

 

im content with my current standard. i watched the bejing olympics, and i got into the 2004 olympics also, it just dont care about london 2012, why? beacuse once again this country has gone overboard and shoved it down our throats until we,re all sick of it. it happens everytime our country does something. the queens jubilee, royal wedding, elections, christmas, the millenium, everything! its embarrassing, other countrys take things in there stride but we always go to far promoting things.

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Sarcasm alert

 

First of all the response here is staggering, I'm just blown away by the enthusiasm

 

Real reply

 

So it's me and LancsLad so far is it? (And Mannify for the gymnastics - no comment on that one lol) ;)

 

AS Warrior - they were never going to go easy on the coverage of this - the phenomenal amount of money that has been invested alone would be reason enough to advertise the hell out of it and take over some channels - but they are hoping for much more for the future from the Olympics being held here than TV coverage and ramming it down people's throats - as understandable as that is. We have a pretty good history for certain sports and they want new blood to come in on that - what better advertising opportunity? Not to mention tourism (which I imagine is worth a pretty penny). And when the country is in a massive crater of debt - can you blame them?

 

And it's more than that - it's about being seen by the world, every country wants their sports people to win - they all know the Olympics is in London.

 

Everyone I know isn't very patriotic a lot of the time - and as I see it there's a lot to not be proud of... but sometimes there is - I won't argue for the Jubilee, I didn't care, I can't sit and justify the coverage for the Royal wedding - I didn't watch it - I didn't celebrate the millennium - but I did watch the new year celebrations that year... Christmas happens every year... you can take it or leave it. And as for elections - well in some respects I don't give a ###### about that either, although I do show a minor interest to know what is going on.... but I think it's all a farce...

 

But are the Olympics really the same as those things? Really? A coming together of the world's athletes (and other sports people) from 204 countries all around the world - some that are either at war, or enemies, or they are so small nobody has ever heard of them. And they all come together and compete, side-by-side... The abilities of these people are more than inspirational at times, and it is their chance to stand and be proud for the achievements, for their country and a load of stuff I can't even imagine.

 

Shouldn't we be able to watch this? Shouldn't the coverage be at a level that allows us to see what we want to see? Shouldn't the nation cheer Great Britain on? And shouldn't we do it for this if we can't do it for anything else?

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Last night I watched the table tennis and there were two women competing from middle east countries wearing head scarfs for religious reasons, just shows the power of the Olympics to make real change happen. It's not about Coca Cola but about individuals such as those women to show what is possible through sport.

 

I was moved and the next match on included an individual without a lower arm who was dropping the table tennis ball from the notch of her elbow. I initially though she was at a disadvantage because she wouldn't be able to put backspin to pull the ball back into the bat to serve, I was wrong I watched in HD how much variety she could impart onto the ball.

 

You get out of the Olympics what you want. Personally I just want to be inspired to be a better me, have to say it is delivering so far and we have hardly started.

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Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Brunei sent women for the first time this year - which is a pretty big step...

 

I think being inspired to be a better you is a message we could all do with taking away from this - but you are right, we can get what we want from it.

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I'm unrepentant! (LOL).

 

I'm not interested in sport generally and I'd rather watch paint dry than athletics or swimming so I find the 24/7 concentration on the 2012 Olympics hard to take.

 

Also, for those of us living in London there's been constant travel disruption for weeks leading up to the actual start of the Games and this will last throughout the event. My feeling is that it would have been better to hold it in Manchester where there were already facilities in place rather than in a heavily populated area like London and the south-east.

Edited by indiscreet

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Playing the London traffic card isn't the best excuse :lol: not a bad one - but not the best either :D

 

There's lots of events... not just athletics and swimming ;)

 

Paralympics schedule

http://www.london201...le-and-results/

 

Olympics schedule

http://www.london201...le-and-results/

 

And if you go to

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/

 

You can watch what you want when you want - or not as the case may be.... :)

Edited by darkshine

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I forgot to mention the diving. I really care what happens to Tom Daley because I watched a documentary about him and the bond between him and his dad, who died earlier this year after a five year-long battle with brain cancer, was inspiring. I really hope he does ok, because he's a lovely lad who works hard and, as far as I can work out, cares about others.

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I'm dreading travelling tomorrow as many of the roads in South East London will be closed during the times I need to get to places of work.

 

And not just the roads. London Bridge Station is a no-no during the time when most people going to work need to use it.

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What do you think of the whole "legacy" business?

 

Ministers will be anxious to avoid the fate of other nations which have seen performance standards plummet since they hosted the Games. Australia are languishing at 16th in the medals table 12 years after finishing fourth on home soil, where they won 16 gold medals.

 

No Olympics host country has ever seen an increase in sports participation after the Games.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/can-britain-convert-gold-into-legacy-8010170.html

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No Olympics host country has ever seen an increase in sports participation after the games

 

I think host countries throw a lot of their money at holding the games in the first place, then have little interest in investing even more money in sports (particularly in schools) after the games finish because of that....

 

Also there's people who tend to be ever so slightly fickle... Wimbledon comes on and the local tennis courts fill up. We do well at cycling - there's a load of idiots suddenly appearing on nice bikes with all the cycling gear on - and I know they are just fad following cuz the bikes are brand new and the riders are red faced and breathing heavy.... Two weeks later these most of these people won't there any more...

 

Personally I think the Olympics should promote sport (to use just one word to describe everything) and it is doing while it's on - but as with everything else it takes money to create a sustained interest - but it also takes people to take responsibility for themselves too, because there's a fair amount of options that do not cost a great deal, or after an initial outlay don't cost much to maintain. After that, it's again, up to the individual whether they have the drive and motivation to take it further and invest in better equipment or to keep it as a sort of hobby/interest/activity...

 

So I don't think it's all about governments, or money, its about the people of a nation too.

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What do you think of the whole "legacy" business?

 

 

http://www.independe...cy-8010170.html

Seems that the Indy have rather mispresented Australia's Olympic record post-Sydney - although Oz fell short of their total medal count at the 2000 Games, their gold medal count and overall position were fairly constant across the other Noughties Olympics. So maybe their shortfall in London is nothing more than the trough in an expected cyclical variation, as one lot of athletes retire while the next generation is still up and coming.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_at_the_Olympics

 

On the matter of home advantage, I'd be interested to know if Great Britain has won any medals in events for which we wouldn't normally qualify.

Edited by Aeolienne

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In response to the legacy element of the games there are so many levels to this. At a personal level I have very mixed feelings this afternoon. I am writing this in between the qualifying races of the Mens BMX. My seven year old races BMX every week. He rides in a team who are national champions, and is a reasonable standard. One of his team mates is for example the current World Champion in his age group this year.

 

What disapoints me watching the event today is that everyone we know in the sport applied for tickets yet there is only one family who we know who got them and will be there over these few days. I look at the crowd and wonder how many people are genuinely interested in the sport. How many of the kids there with parents would want to race. I more or less know what the two dozen or so top club jerseys look like in this country. I know if we had been lucky to get tickets my son would have worn his with pride. I have yet to spot one in the crowd, not from just his club, but any.

 

I do question the legacy thing from this perspective. On the face of it the games have been a great succes but I do wonder if it is just a big bandwagon people have got onto over the past two weeks and as soon as it is over everything will be back to as it was before. My son is now at a house with other members of his club watching the action together. Some of them were out for a 30km bike ride this morning, others were at the local track helping with a summer club trying to get new kids involved in the sport. They will be screaming and shouting for Liam and Shanaze our two riders, individuals who they see many times durring the year at race meets, both two fantastic and accesible indivduals. I am just disapointed they can't all be in the stands, I just hope the people who are there get a fraction out of the day as they would have, if so there may be the outside chance of some legacy for the sport.

 

Just a few personal thoughts.

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On the matter of home advantage, I'd be interested to know if Great Britain has won any medals in events for which we wouldn't normally qualify.

 

I think Volleyball, Handball and Waterpolo were events we usually don't even qualify for (not sure if there are others) - and as far as I'm aware no medals were won in those events.

 

In response to the legacy element of the games there are so many levels to this. At a personal level I have very mixed feelings this afternoon.

 

What do you think now?

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I know that for example there were a lot of new kids who turned up for BMX coaching sessions this Saturday and Sunday, one question is how many will stay in the sport along with all the other new recruits in other areas.

 

As someone who has been involved in sport at a reasonable level I still have mixed feelings. Going for the games in the first place was in the vested interests of the 'blazers' at the top of UK sport, it was a case of simply getting the tax payer to fund a bid project every cycle and they were all in employment. The lottery funding simply proped up top level sprotsmen and sportswomen in many areas. A lot of this money is not very well spent and I think comparissons between sports are very valid.

 

For example cyling and rowing and triathlon are very centralised around Manchester, Weymouth and Loughborough. As a result they pool resources such as coaches,physios, nutritionalists, mechanics etc... In contrast Atheletics and Swimming are still very dispersed in my eyes. As a result a lot of the funding goes on individual coaches and support staff, I do question this approach when for example the syncronised divers train at different ends of the country for most of the time. The fact that Mo Farah decided to turn his back on British coaching and seek out Salazar in the States should not be lost. When success comes our way we lose sight of things such as Andy Murray is a product of the Spansh youth coaching set up, I don't think this helps at all.

 

Once we got the games there was a massive push in all areas to make sure we did well. For me this is like cramming for exams aged 15 or 16. Whilst at an overall level it is a rough indication of where an individual is up to it is not the full picture. In a similar way I personally feel we passed the Olympic exam possiibly even with a grade 'A'. I do feel a lot of this will quickly get lost over the next few months. I know that if I was to examine many kids a couple of months after their G.C.S.E.'s their performance would dip considerably, the motivation would not be there, they would have forgoten a lot of good things which were worth remebering in the long term. The foundation might not be there to build on, the presumption might be it is there but in reality it might be a bit shaky.

 

I think in some areas such as cycling and rowing come Rio the performance will still be there because the people who oversee those sports have built them in a very sustainable way. I think we will see the sort of thing which happened prior to Bejing where elite perfromers gravitate to the sustainable areas, Rebecca Romeroe type examples. The truth is that these sports don't need the levels of funding they once recieved because a lot of the infrastructure has been built but if we follow existing funding protocol their budgets might even rise. Sports like Atheletics in my opinion might have been well served with a serious review of their funding in that it might have forced them to look at their elite structures. In all honesty if we take medals as the target we owe the USA and Ethiopia around 10 million for Mo's training. It is a case of an individual having some very good private tuition running up to their exams, when they get to university they might start to struggle again. We can't rely on private tuition in my opinion for the elites we need to build good state models.

 

I know British Cycling and how it is structured pretty well and consider it to be a very good state model for sport which is based on a broad platform with lots of things happening at grass roots level. I saw an interview with Dave Brailsford the head of British Cycling by the BBC and he was asked would he consider changing sports and if he did would he be successful, his answer was that he believed his model would not just work in sport but in any walk of life. I also saw Steve Cram turn at one point to Chris Boardman, atheletics to cycling, and say I wish we knew what the secret was to your succes. Boardman's answer was take me out for a curry and I will tell you. We should look at best practice but people will not because it highlights their own mistakes.

 

What I think in all honesty is that untill we get rid of a lot of the arrogant and dated opinion of the 'blazers' who overide many areas of British sport we will not have a legacy at all, only memories of a great two weeks. My fear is that the success of the event might simply act as reinforcement for them. Cameron coming out and pledging more money will do the same. I have hope for some areas. I suspect the medal haul will for example do wonders for British Boxing, and we might return to a situation of my youth where every inner city neighbourhood and town had a simple down to earth boxing gym which was a mecca for getting kids off the street, getting fit, developings skills and importantly discipline. I think the answer is push money through to grass root areas. The concept being touted that schools are responsible for sport is somewhat misguided. Where sport is needed schools have sold off their playing fields, teachers havn't got the time to take teams after school, it can't be the responsibility for 4 or 5 PE staff they simply wont go around all the kids. The model which was there before the cuts was not sport it was after school childcare for working parents which in my experience was non competitive. This extra funding might well end up in the private sector with their already excellent resources inner city Hackney where its needed?

 

If we want a legacy in respect to long term sustainable performance it will come down to the same thing as before. Motivated kids being driven around every weekend to events up and down the country, and to training one or two nights a week minimum. Building new facilites would reduce the burden of traveling for many parents and would be welcome. New facilities would also encourage grass roots development at a local level. I think the legacy question is how many parents following the Olympics will feel the desire to focus more time on their kids, find a sport they enjoy and put the time and effort into allowing them to develop their potential, I think the answer is not many. There will be a few, but sleeping in a tent and getting up and setting up a race bike in the rain on a cold windy day in October is not what most people see when they look at sport on the TV, they see the glory and the end product, they don't understand what it takes to get there. For those people who think I am talking about myself here as some dedicated parent I am not, I am talking about my partner. I am simply one of the selfish ones who wants to be out training for himself most of the time as a lifestyle choice. People like me are not that important we are shallow, we will fill the gyms for a few weeks and then get bored, the important people are the kids, the important ones in this are individuals like my son 'who' should be singing 'my generation' I wonder if anyone will really listen. Its one thing to finish off the games with this sentiment in a song, another thing to put it into practice.

 

A few personal thoughts.

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One legacy which I hope comes from London 2012 is sustained interest in women's football. I noticed that women's football was a bigger deal than we expected, and I hope this translates into greater interest in and investment into women's football. I must admit I have a personal reason for my interest in the fortunes of women's football - my 4 year old daughter loves football. She loves both watching and playing football, and I really hope that as she grows up and progresses through school, she will have enough opportunities to explore her potential. She starts school in September, and although there is mixed football to an extent, in the older years there is only boy's football. It looks as though we'll have to seek out opportunities for her, but it would be great if the momentum from the Games would naturally increase the possibilities open to her.

Edited by Mannify

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One legacy which I hope comes from London 2012 is sustained interest in women's football.

That seems to be the one legacy we have - elsewhere sporting participation is down.

Edited by Aeolienne

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