2016 Olympic Games, Rio

[RedruthRFC]

My favourite statistics so far in our Olympics so far we've won the most medals across different sportsizes than any other nations at these games.

We'd be beating USA if you removed the swimming.

I saw that earlier on, and that's without taking part in (IIRC) six sports. I was looking at the medal tables last night and couldn't believe that more than a third of the USA's gold medals came from one sport. Pretty sure that many of us have had this rant already on this thread.

Aprospos of nothing, did anyone see this?

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...-olympics-money-athletes-medals-a7195011.html

I was amazed how much money is flying about for golds in some countries.

 

[SelimNiai]

I saw that earlier on, and that's without taking part in (IIRC) six sports. I was looking at the medal tables last night and couldn't believe that more than a third of the USA's gold medals came from one sport. Pretty sure that many of us have had this rant already on this thread.

Aprospos of nothing, did anyone see this?

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...-olympics-money-athletes-medals-a7195011.html

I was amazed how much money is flying about for golds in some countries.

Not surprised by the cash, am surprised our lot dont get any.

 

[RedruthRFC]

Not surprised by the cash, am surprised our lot dont get any.

Given the pleas of poverty from the BOA, handing out cash to winners would be a bad political move IMO. The fairly moderate sums don't surprise me, but the larger ones do as does the fact that Qatar weren't on the list!

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Not surprised by the cash, am surprised our lot dont get any.

TBF our Athletes get huge funding compared to most of those countries with the lotto money.

 

[ncurd]

I wouldn't say we don't chuck money at golds our entire funding system is ruthlessly performance based. However it's a key point of ours we focus on funding sports not individuals and people who can get by on their own are expected to.

We seam to understand facilities and coaches and general infrastructure are just as important as the athletes themselves. Waiting money on medal bonuses is just waste.

 

[die_mole]

the reason that poorer countries give more money to gold medalists than richer countries is because richer countries spend more money on the athletes before the game so all the athletes get paid rather than just the ones that win

 

[ncurd]

the reason that poorer countries give more money to gold medalists than richer countries is because richer countries spend more money on the athletes before the game so all the athletes get paid rather than just the ones that win

Most of those countries aren't poor at all.

 

[SelimNiai]

I wouldn't say we don't chuck money at golds our entire funding system is ruthlessly performance based. However it's a key point of ours we focus on funding sports not individuals and people who can get by on their own are expected to.

We seam to understand facilities and coaches and general infrastructure are just as important as the athletes themselves. Waiting money on medal bonuses is just waste.

Thats why that Judo(?) guy went and represented Moldova wasn't it, some bruhaha over funding

 

[RedruthRFC]

TBF our Athletes get huge funding compared to most of those countries with the lotto money.

I don't see that the two are comparable. One is investing in improving performance, the other is rewarding good performance. Saying that, based on pub conversations (yeah, I know), British Olympic funding seems rather geared that way too.

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the reason that poorer countries give more money to gold medalists than richer countries is because richer countries spend more money on the athletes before the game so all the athletes get paid rather than just the ones that win

So why are Singapore top of the table? They've got the third highest GDP by capita in the world! Despite the fact that Azerbaijan are a relatively poor country (still within the top 50%), I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that their athletes are well looked after given their history.

As others have said, if this money is significant to these nations, wouldn't it be better spent on infrastructure rather than rewarding the few who succeed despite a lack of infrastructure.

 

[ncurd]

Thats why that Judo(?) guy went and represented Moldova wasn't it, some bruhaha over funding

Aaron Cook, Taekwando and selection actually. He fell out with British governing body as he didn't like their training regime so funded himself. He became world champion and world number 1. We didn't select him over Lutalo Muhammed who use to be a weight category not in the Olympics and we only were allowed one entry. Cook tried to contest the decision in courts and failed.

Muhammed went on to win Bronze in London (I had tickets for this which is why I followed the story Cooks from Dorchester as well and I use to live very local).

Cook went to compete for Isle of Man than Moldova as he felt British Taekwando was biased against him.

Muhammed made the semi final today, Cook went out first round.

 

[die_mole]

Most of those countries aren't poor at all.

indonesia, azerbaijan, kazakhstan are not exactly wealthy countries, also thailand, phillipines, and kyrgyzstan give more for gold medals than any western country

also where did i call them poor

 

[SelimNiai]

Aaron Cook, Taekwando and selection actually. He fell out with British governing body as he didn't like their training regime so funded himself. He became world champion and world number 1. We didn't select him over Lutalo Muhammed who use to be a weight category not in the Olympics and we only were allowed one entry. Cook tried to contest the decision in courts and failed.

Muhammed went on to win Bronze in London (I had tickets for this which is why I followed the story Cooks from Dorchester as well and I use to live very local).

Cook went to compete for Isle of Man than Moldova as he felt British Taekwando was biased against him.

Muhammed made the semi final today, Cook went out first round.

Ah right. Seems the coaches were right all along

 

[RedruthRFC]

indonesia, azerbaijan, kazakhstan are not exactly wealthy countries, also thailand, phillipines, and kyrgyzstan give more for gold medals than any western country

also where did i call them poor

You called them poorer without mentioning who they are poorer than. Poor doesn't mean "not wealthy", only one of the countries on the list in the Independent is outside the top 50% of wealthy countries in the world by GDP according to the IMF.

Where are you getting your information about how much the "poorer" nations spend on their Olympic development programmes?

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Ah right. Seems the coaches were right all along

Results oriented thinking. What's to say that he wouldn't be contesting the gold if he hadn't suffered all that disruption? Saying that, he was unlikely to be a good fit within team GB is he didn't agree with the way they worked.

 

[ncurd]

Having mics on the players in the Hockey for anthems seams unusually cruel.

 

[die_mole]

poorer relative to the other countries on the list, does everything need to be spelled out?

SI had a blurb about it during the 2012 olympics

 

[RedruthRFC]

I wouldn't say we don't chuck money at golds our entire funding system is ruthlessly performance based. However it's a key point of ours we focus on funding sports not individuals and people who can get by on their own are expected to.

We seam to understand facilities and coaches and general infrastructure are just as important as the athletes themselves. Waiting money on medal bonuses is just waste.

Certainly is. It's not something I knew much about, so I found this article which improved my understanding:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b5060cfc-53ff-11e6-befd-2fc0c26b3c60.html#axzz4HoDpXnwo

the way the system is explained makes sense and given limited resources seems laudable. That's not to say that it doesn't seem chicken and egg and very unfortunate for sports like basketball in which heavy investment would in all likelihood be throwing good money away after bad in terms of earning medals.

Given medals the number of medals on offer, it's interesting that swimming doesn't feature among the "big" sports. I guess it would take too big an investment to have a serious impact.

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poorer relative to the other countries on the list, does everything need to be spelled out?

SI had a blurb about it during the 2012 olympics

Not at all, careful use of language and a bit of pseudo-academic rigour in stating sources would have saved all of this nonsense.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

I think in general we are so far behind the USA in swimming already (As are most teams) it is better to go the gradual climb rather than go all in ATM.

 

[ncurd]

The swimming issue is twofold one similarity between distances and styles (specifically freestyle and butterfly) means dominance can easially be obtained.

Swimming is getting better in this country but our infrastructure was strongly lacking especially in Olympic size pools. We're slowly starting to see breakthroughs like Peaty and Adlington but it's such a specialist sport that is competed at such a high level it's going to take a fair bit of time.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Team Gb hockey team is alright

 

[ncurd]

Lutalo Muhammed has upgraded his bronze to arrange least a silver this time.

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Team Gb hockey team is alright

Most women hockey players are.....they're fing dangerous with those sticks though.