Rio Olympics

[SpiritofBurnden]

I can remember all the Olympics from Tokyo in 1964, and for decades, we heard the athletes saying the facilities and backing were missing.

If only we could receive support, they said, we could do much better. We didn't win many medals in those days.

Well, now we are seeing the results that decent financial backing can produce, thanks to the national lottery.

I think it's brilliant that an aspiring athlete, whatever their sport, can now realise their true potential.

It may well cost something like £350 million to support them, but I'm all for it.

All those talented athletes with medals in their pockets that are now returning home wouldn't have stood a chance of getting near the podium a few years ago, and now we are the second most successful country on earth.

It's a far cry from the past, when we won one or two gold medals at each games, and long may our success continue.

I've seen every Olympics since Montreal in 1976 and my abiding memory is of commentators desperately trying to find tenuous links between the foreign competitors winning all the medals and GB, in lieu of anyone else for us to cheer. In the LA Olympics, Mary Decker, the golden girl of US track team was married to a British discuss thrower we'd never heard of, so she was as good as one of ours. The Daily Mail even campaigned for South African Zola Budd to get British citizenship prior to those games, because we had no decent female track athletes of our own.

 

[SpiritofBurnden]

Very sad that the stadium is nowhere near full for the final event.

I stayed up to see Mo Farah receive his medal and the only people left in the stadium were a small section of British supporters who had all congregated in front of the podium.

Given his status as an athlete and that this could be his last appearance at an Olympic games, it was pretty astonishing that the rest of the crowd didn't think it was worth staying for.

There weren't many more in the stadium when Usain Bolt received what could be his final Olympic medal either.

 

[mat]

Can't stand Neymar, I get the impression he's a thundercunt!!

Agreed.

That advert where he gets to ball smacked in his face i always hoped the director ordered multiple retakes.

 

[kaz7]

Mo won again!

 

[TCIB]

I stayed up to see Mo Farah receive his medal and the only people left in the stadium were a small section of British supporters who had all congregated in front of the podium.

Given his status as an athlete and that this could be his last appearance at an Olympic games, it was pretty astonishing that the rest of the crowd didn't think it was worth staying for.

There weren't many more in the stadium when Usain Bolt received what could be his final Olympic medal either.

Against the backdrop of severe corruption in their gov and extreme poverty in many areas it came across as a bit crass and farcical (green water etc).
It made me feel ill at ease tbh, the whole thing. That said well done team GB, really great effort. Is it right Manchester would be 4th in the medal table alone?

 

[inchy14]

I stayed up to see Mo Farah receive his medal and the only people left in the stadium were a small section of British supporters who had all congregated in front of the podium.

Given his status as an athlete and that this could be his last appearance at an Olympic games, it was pretty astonishing that the rest of the crowd didn't think it was worth staying for.

There weren't many more in the stadium when Usain Bolt received what could be his final Olympic medal either.

That's because no Brazilians were left in anything.
No coincidence teams were disqualified so the Brazil 4x400 men's team were in the final track event of the games, it would have been empty a lot earlier if they weren't. Only interested in their own country and its chances, it's been an absolute disgrace attendance wise and something the IOC need to consider before awarding future games.

(Won't hold my breath though).

 

[prestonibbo_mcfc]

That's because no Brazilians were left in anything.
No coincidence teams were disqualified so the Brazil 4x400 men's team were in the final track event of the games, it would have been empty a lot earlier if they weren't. Only interested in their own country and its chances, it's been an absolute disgrace attendance wise and something the IOC need to consider before awarding future games.

(Won't hold my breath though).

As long as MacDonalds and Coca Cola done alright, who cares;-)

 

[dronefromsector7G]

Against the backdrop of severe corruption in their gov and extreme poverty in many areas it came across as a bit crass and farcical (green water etc).
It made me feel ill at ease tbh, the whole thing. That said well done team GB, really great effort. Is it right Manchester would be 4th in the medal table alone?

The socio-economic situation in Brazil is terrible... Oh look some shiny medals are being handed out!

 

[SpiritofBurnden]

The socio-economic situation in Brazil is terrible... Oh look some shiny medals are being handed out!

That sort of glib response doesn't explain why they turned out in force to cheer on their own athletes though, or when Usain Bolt was competing.

Granted not everyone can afford it regardless of cost but not everyone in Rio lives in poverty. It also doesn't explain why they didn't turn out for some of the free events, or why they didn't turn up when tickets were handed out to the locals.

It also begs the question why their government applied to stage the games in the first place. It's not as if it was forced on them. Scaling back the Paralympics because they can't afford it reflects poorly on both them and the IOC.

 

[LWashington]

Fucking Hell - Ukraine's Rythmic Gymnastics Team just did Madonna's Vogue and we're kicking,heading and back flicking the hoops. Brilliant sign them up.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/olympics/36688151 (Starts at 16.10)