NPR

Slick wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 5:35 amThat’s the fun of it though. One of the best experiences I’ve ever had was being in a pub when the GB women’s curling team won a gold at the Winter Olympics a few years back, absolute mayhem

Upon beating Yasmani Acosta of Chile in the 2024 Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling 130 kg final, López became the first and only athlete in modern Olympics history to win five consecutive gold medals in the same individual event.

silvers and bronzes are merely tie-breakers. Champions are all that count.

Tichtheid wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 7:35 am For the first time ever, well since I was around four, I didn’t watch anything, mainly due to time and also due to restricted coverage.

I enjoyed the story of Cuban wrestler Mijain Lopez, an absolute bear of a man

Upon beating Yasmani Acosta of Chile in the 2024 Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling 130 kg final, López became the first and only athlete in modern Olympics history to win five consecutive gold medals in the same individual event.

sturginho wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 7:56 am

Tichtheid wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 7:35 am For the first time ever, well since I was around four, I didn’t watch anything, mainly due to time and also due to restricted coverage.

I enjoyed the story of Cuban wrestler Mijain Lopez, an absolute bear of a man

Upon beating Yasmani Acosta of Chile in the 2024 Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling 130 kg final, López became the first and only athlete in modern Olympics history to win five consecutive gold medals in the same individual event.

And he suplexed his coach in celebration!

sturginho wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 7:56 am

silvers and bronzes are merely tie-breakers. Champions are all that count.

That's one of the stupidest things I've ever read on the internet.... and I post on NPR....

Lobby wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 9:21 am

sturginho wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 7:56 am

silvers and bronzes are merely tie-breakers. Champions are all that count.

That's one of the stupidest things I've ever read on the internet.... and I post on NPR....

I've often thought a fairer system of evaluating medal performance would be to have a weighted table, with Golds worth 3 points, Silvers 2 and Bronzes 1. This would still make golds the most important medal, but wouldn't completely disregard the other medals as the current system does. Such a system would avoid anomalies such as Dominica and Pakistan (1 gold medal each in total) appearing above Turkey in the medal table, despite Turkey having achieved 8 medals in total; 3 silvers and 5 bronzes.

A weighted medals table for 2024 would have given a top 10 of

USA (250 points)
China (198)
France (122)
GB (115)
Aus (108)
Japan (97)
Italy (77)
Netherlands (71)
Germany (70)
Korea (67)

Lobby wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 9:21 am

sturginho wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 7:56 am

silvers and bronzes are merely tie-breakers. Champions are all that count.

That's one of the stupidest things I've ever read on the internet.... and I post on NPR....

I've often thought a fairer system of evaluating medal performance would be to have a weighted table, with Golds worth 3 points, Silvers 2 and Bronzes 1. This would still make golds the most important medal, but wouldn't completely disregard the other medals as the current system does. Such a system would avoid anomalies such as Dominica and Pakistan (1 gold medal each in total) appearing above Turkey in the medal table, despite Turkey having achieved 8 medals in total; 3 silvers and 5 bronzes.

A weighted medals table for 2024 would have given a top 10 of

USA (250 points)
China (198)
France (122)
GB (115)
Aus (108)
Japan (97)
Italy (77)
Netherlands (71)
Germany (70)
Korea (67)

average joe wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 11:17 am My Olympics experience this year amounted to the occasional YouTube short. I've learned the following.

Blue drag queens are pretty shit viewing as far as drag queens go.
Ugly woman hits harder than pretty ones.
There is such a thing as too big a "pole" in pole vaulting.
I can go to the Olympics as a breakdancer. Probably won't win anything but can certainly do a better impression of a worm.

average joe wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 12:44 pm @laurent No, I'm not clicking on any of that, and you can't make me.

Hugo wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 3:37 pm https://x.com/LarryMadowo/status/1823376057581371537

Tebogo with a heroes welcome in the Botswana national stadium.

S/Lt_Phillips wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 5:53 pm Fancy running a marathon with a stress fracture in your femur?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c990yd94j7eo

Sandstorm wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 7:34 pm

S/Lt_Phillips wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 5:53 pm Fancy running a marathon with a stress fracture in your femur?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c990yd94j7eo

Shows the sheer drive these Olympians have compared to us mere mortals.

Big D wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 9:35 am One trumpet said MHS "shouldn't have slowed down". GTF he ran the 5th fastest time ever, that is very very hard to do.

Teams of computer programmers have taken part in a Robot Dog Olympics to develop innovative tech solutions for the British Army.

Around 40 coders from across the country assembled at Ministry of Defence (MoD) Abbey Wood in Bristol.

They were challenged to programme the robotic dogs to perform tasks including a 50-metre sprint and gymnastics.

Sandstorm wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 9:41 am

Big D wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 9:35 am One trumpet said MHS "shouldn't have slowed down". GTF he ran the 5th fastest time ever, that is very very hard to do.

Anyone who's tried to run a 400m race against other competitors at any level, would know all about it! Horrible event.

Big D wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 9:35 am

Sandstorm wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 7:34 pm

S/Lt_Phillips wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 5:53 pm Fancy running a marathon with a stress fracture in your femur?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c990yd94j7eo

Shows the sheer drive these Olympians have compared to us mere mortals.

I honestly think there is a large portion of the public who don't understand the gulf between elite sportspeople and the public. It's been amplified by social media.

Jethro wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 10:54 pm Frack off U.K's Eddie the Eagle, Oz has gone one better



Seriously a PhD that's just taking the piss, defund the Universities immediately, we could probably better use the money on a live Bluey stage show or something.

Big D wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 9:35 am

Sandstorm wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 7:34 pm

S/Lt_Phillips wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 5:53 pm Fancy running a marathon with a stress fracture in your femur?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c990yd94j7eo

Shows the sheer drive these Olympians have compared to us mere mortals.

I honestly think there is a large portion of the public who don't understand the gulf between elite sportspeople and the public. It's been amplified by social media.

There was a poll where 10% of the public thought they could win a cycling road race medal (yougov poll had it at 6%) with 4 years training. Remko averaged 30mph for 6 hours over 2800m of climbing.

They are the elite of the elite sportspeople. That is partly why I'll defend Matt Hudson-Smith and Jake Kerr for "failing". One trumpet said MHS "shouldn't have slowed down". GTF he ran the 5th fastest time ever, that is very very hard to do.

ASMO wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 2:34 pm

Jethro wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 10:54 pm Frack off U.K's Eddie the Eagle, Oz has gone one better



Seriously a PhD that's just taking the piss, defund the Universities immediately, we could probably better use the money on a live Bluey stage show or something.

Will this be in the special Olympics too? Wonder if they will disallow those with cerebral palsy for having too much of an advantage. (yes i am aware i am heading to hell for that one)

Hugo wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 2:34 pm

Big D wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 9:35 am

Sandstorm wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 7:34 pmShows the sheer drive these Olympians have compared to us mere mortals.

I honestly think there is a large portion of the public who don't understand the gulf between elite sportspeople and the public. It's been amplified by social media.

Agreed.

IMO you can always tell people that have never played sport at any level by those who fail to appreciate the incredible skills of the also ran professionals of any discipline.

To your point, finishing a Grand Tour is an exceptional achievement regardless of where you place. Just making an Olympic final in athletics is something to be proud of.

More than a quarter of people in Britain think they could qualify for the next Olympic games if they were to start training today, a new survey has revealed.

The survey, which was produced by YouGov, invited members of the public to indicate if they believed they could become an Olympic-level athlete within the next four years across 25 different sports.

As the 2024 Olympics draw to a close, 27% of those surveyed believe that they could make it to the LA 2028 games in at least one of those sports.

The most common discipline people favoured their chance at was in the 10m Air Rifle Shooting, with 15% believing they could either ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ qualify.

The next most popular responses were archery (13%), badminton (10%) and table tennis (9%). However, confidence was low among those surveyed when it came to more physically demanding sports such as rhythmic and artistic gymnastics, diving, rugby sevens and skateboarding – only 3% believe they could qualify for these disciplines.

Overall, younger respondents were more confident than their older counterparts, with 17% believing they could qualify for archery, table tennis and the 100m sprint events.

Those aged 18-24 were by far more confident in their chances at the 100m sprint – for those aged 25 and above, only 2-7% believe they could qualify for the blue-riband event of athletics.

Male respondents were also noted to be more confident than females, with more men than women believing they could compete in all but four of the 25 events.

Of those four events, the largest difference was noted in the 100m breaststroke, with 9% of women believing they could compete in this event by 2028 compared with just 4% of men.

weegie01 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 5:05 pm

Hugo wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 2:34 pm

Big D wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 9:35 am

I honestly think there is a large portion of the public who don't understand the gulf between elite sportspeople and the public. It's been amplified by social media.

Agreed.

IMO you can always tell people that have never played sport at any level by those who fail to appreciate the incredible skills of the also ran professionals of any discipline.

To your point, finishing a Grand Tour is an exceptional achievement regardless of where you place. Just making an Olympic final in athletics is something to be proud of.

More than a quarter of people in Britain think they could qualify for the next Olympic games if they were to start training today, a new survey has revealed.

The survey, which was produced by YouGov, invited members of the public to indicate if they believed they could become an Olympic-level athlete within the next four years across 25 different sports.

As the 2024 Olympics draw to a close, 27% of those surveyed believe that they could make it to the LA 2028 games in at least one of those sports.

The most common discipline people favoured their chance at was in the 10m Air Rifle Shooting, with 15% believing they could either ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ qualify.

The next most popular responses were archery (13%), badminton (10%) and table tennis (9%). However, confidence was low among those surveyed when it came to more physically demanding sports such as rhythmic and artistic gymnastics, diving, rugby sevens and skateboarding – only 3% believe they could qualify for these disciplines.

Overall, younger respondents were more confident than their older counterparts, with 17% believing they could qualify for archery, table tennis and the 100m sprint events.

Those aged 18-24 were by far more confident in their chances at the 100m sprint – for those aged 25 and above, only 2-7% believe they could qualify for the blue-riband event of athletics.

Male respondents were also noted to be more confident than females, with more men than women believing they could compete in all but four of the 25 events.

Of those four events, the largest difference was noted in the 100m breaststroke, with 9% of women believing they could compete in this event by 2028 compared with just 4% of men.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/other/o ... 28%20games

Enzedder wrote: ↑Thu Aug 15, 2024 5:53 pm Jaysus Weegee - that's our whole GDP just on Sports funding. There must be some bloody well off coaches and Administrators over there.

weegie01 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 15, 2024 5:15 pm Edit.
Where did the formatting i have in my post go when I submitted?

Because I am actually this sad, I made up an analysis table of the cost per medal for UK medals. I only took into account Govt funding.

Although funding is now looked at over longer cycles than a single games, there are a few sports you'd think are getting twitchy about funding.

Sport Grants Medals Cost per medal

Breaking £135,000 0 #DIV/0!
Wrestling £276,000 0 #DIV/0!
Volleyball £286,000 0 #DIV/0!
Water Polo £375,000 0 #DIV/0!
Handball £375,000 0 #DIV/0!
Table Tennis £1,350,000 0 #DIV/0!
Basketball £1,350,000 0 #DIV/0!
Surfing £1,404,457 0 #DIV/0!
Fencing £1,542,015 0 #DIV/0!
Archery £2,632,674 0 #DIV/0!
Badminton £3,379,544 0 #DIV/0!
Modern Pentathalon £5,681,906 0 #DIV/0!
Judo £6,439,612 0 #DIV/0!
Hockey £13,689,907 0 #DIV/0!
Boxing £12,075,886 1 £12,075,886.00
Sailing £22,800,520 2 £11,400,260.00
Taekwondo £8,259,987 1 £8,259,987.00
Gymnastics £13,445,737 3 £4,481,912.33
Swimming £18,928,318 5 £3,785,663.60
Canoeing £13,943,804 4 £3,485,951.00
Shooting £6,246,092 2 £3,123,046.00
Rowing £23,794,482 8 £2,974,310.25
Cycling £29,314,683 11 £2,664,971.18
Equestrian £12,353,367 5 £2,470,673.40
Triathlon £7,246,639 3 £2,415,546.33
Weightlifting £2,293,000 1 £2,293,000.00
Athletics £22,766,243 10 £2,276,624.30
Diving £8,911,163 5 £1,782,232.60
Sport climbing £1,629,345 1 £1,629,345.00
Skateboarding £1,839,045 2 £919,522.50
Artistic Swimming £467,250 1 £467,250.00

Enzedder wrote: ↑Fri Aug 16, 2024 4:49 am FB_IMG_1723783686361.jpg

Sandstorm wrote: ↑Fri Aug 16, 2024 7:15 am That poor woman

Sandstorm wrote: ↑Fri Aug 16, 2024 7:15 am That poor woman