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The 2024 Paris Olympics Thread

I have always been a huge Olympic games fan . It's the pinnacle of your sport and the one that most athletes target as the medal they want the most , whatever your discipline is .
When I watch the slow , gradual progress that we are making over here to support our athletes , it brings to mind what GB did after the Atlanta games . I'm pretty certain that GB treated that - in the aftermath - as a watershed moment . They had a really poor games I seem to recall and set about afterwards to create an environment to allow far more athletes , over several disciplines / sports , to have a genuine ambition , not just to reach an Olympics Games , but to have a strong chance of bringing home metal .
GB pumped huge money in a targeted manner at the Olympics , and at sport in general , and are now reaping the rewards . It's very impressive to watch I have to say .
GB are now 5th on the table - 33 medals , with many more to come before next weekend .

It's very hard for a small country like us to follow that model , but it does prove that you simply have to support not just the athletes with money , but also the coaches ( by coaching them too ) , and build the infrastructures that are needed .
 
I won't praise a Tory Government very often, but the National Lottery funding made a massive difference, that was already in place before Atlanta, it was just too early to see the benefits, although I think Blair funnelled more in that
direction after we'd won the Olympic bid.
 
Watching the Hockey and being able the hear the ref and his conversations with players and their VAR is great stuff
 
I have always been a huge Olympic games fan . It's the pinnacle of your sport and the one that most athletes target as the medal they want the most , whatever your discipline is .
When I watch the slow , gradual progress that we are making over here to support our athletes , it brings to mind what GB did after the Atlanta games . I'm pretty certain that GB treated that - in the aftermath - as a watershed moment . They had a really poor games I seem to recall and set about afterwards to create an environment to allow far more athletes , over several disciplines / sports , to have a genuine ambition , not just to reach an Olympics Games , but to have a strong chance of bringing home metal .
GB pumped huge money in a targeted manner at the Olympics , and at sport in general , and are now reaping the rewards . It's very impressive to watch I have to say .
GB are now 5th on the table - 33 medals , with many more to come before next weekend .

It's very hard for a small country like us to follow that model , but it does prove that you simply have to support not just the athletes with money , but also the coaches ( by coaching them too ) , and build the infrastructures that are needed .
Absolutely, when you consider between 1956 & 2012 we only had 2 gold medalists (and big red flags against 1 of them) and several games where we didn't win a single medal it is remarkable. Competent people got involved in boxing in early 2000s saw what UK were doing & saw it the way to go.
Shows what good governance and leadership can do, the ticketing scam in 2016 involving our olympic officials (can never claim you have had a good olympics when you have had more officials arrested by local police then medals won) was a national embarrassment but it meant the government could get rid of Hickey and his cronies who were more interested in what they could get out of the job for their own benefit rather then the progress of Irish sport, and got competent professional people instead.
If thst hadn't happened his protege ( who he already lined up to replace him in 2017) John Delaney would now be in charge!
 
Yeah, I can remember when we used to end up with probably two golds, one in shooting and one in sailing.
 
Watching the Hockey and being able the hear the ref and his conversations with players and their VAR is great stuff
Amazing how sensible it seems in non-PL contexts innit
 
Yeah, I can remember when we used to end up with probably two golds, one in shooting and one in sailing.
It was mostly 4-5 when I started taking an interest in 1968-1972. Remember being disappointed we only got 1 in athletics in both those Olympics.
 
It was mostly 4-5 when I started taking an interest in 1968-1972. Remember being disappointed we only got 1 in athletics in both those Olympics.
Yeah 5 was the norm when I was a kid, that's what we got in 80, 84, 88 and 92.

We've being coming down at each Olympics since London where we got 29 golds -
27, 22, this will be a fair bit lower than that. If it's low to mid teens I think that'll be the new norm.
 
Just thinking the same thing. I remember 9.87 or close to that standing for most of my upbringing
 
On
She is also phenomenal. Another athlete who is capable of dominating her event.
12/1. It'll be won by a Track and Field gold medalist if we have one, so I guess I'm gambling against one for the other, but not with my heart - I hope they both win and KJT
 
Fuck, I miss sprinting.

That couldn’t have been more than a hundredth of a second.

Edit: 5 thousandths!
 
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