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The Official Olympic Thread

chicken_badge said:
I think they all had a choice of when to do each type of dive. This 3.6 dive, most of them chose to finish with it, but Daley chose to do it at the start (it was the one he had to redo I think). He chose to end with a 3.3, but the others did their 3.3 earlier.

All did the same dives, just in a different order.
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Having a different order can make you stand out a bit from the crowd. Having the easiest one last come with both positive and negative sides.
 
Anyone else slightly miffed that the Spice Girls are in the closing ceremony.

For me they embody everything that is wrong with society today, plastic, manufactured, talentless, celeb magazine culture that we should be shoving under the bedside rug, certainly not celebrating it.
 
unknown said:
Anyone else slightly miffed that the Spice Girls are in the closing ceremony.

For me they embody everything that is wrong with society today, plastic, manufactured, talentless, celeb magazine culture that we should be shoving under the bedside rug, certainly not celebrating it.
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But that means they are the ideal choice to represent the plastic, manufactured, talentless, celeb magazine side of our culture. If Posh is involved, which seems certain, why not the rest of them?

Besides, you know that without the Spice Girls and girl power we'd never have won all the medals by the likes of Ennis, Trott, Pendleton, Adlington, the three rowing and sculling crews, Jones, Adams, Gibbons, Tweddle and Daley.
 
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jts1882 said:
Besides, you know that without the Spice Girls and girl power we'd never have won all the medals by the likes of Ennis, Trott, Pendleton, Adlington, the three rowing and sculling crews, Jones, Adams, Gibbons, Tweddle and Daley.
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I'm not sure about that at all. They've had nothing to do with investment in women's sport - that's what made these people Olympic champions.
 
I know this debate has been done before - but how can people represent a country in which they haven't been born or in some cases even raised! Especially since the spirit of the Olympics is built around the 'national' spirit. Perhaps there should be a cut-off age of sorts - I find it pathetic to the point of renaming the Olympics one day to the UN games or something along those lines.

Number of athletes are offered citizenship in return for good money and tempting lifestyle for their families, then go on to win medals for their new-found employer in turn rendering the competiton one of who was the best 'agent' on sourcing out the best foreign athletes to come and compete for them. To a lesser degree this can be extended to athletes training in a foreign country, with foreign coaches, an using foregin facilites, etc. This is where I hold considerable respect for the Chinese in this regard and their self-sufficient 'system'

What do people think?
 
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ArcspacE said:
I know this debate has been done before - but how can people represent a country in which they haven't been born or in some cases even raised! Especially since the spirit of the Olympics is built around the 'national' spirit. Perhaps there should be a cut-off age of sorts - I find it pathetic to the point of renaming the Olympics one day to UN games or something along those lines.

Number of athletes are offered citizenship in return for good money and tempting lifestyle for their families, then go on to win medals for their new-found employer in turn rendering the competiton one of who was the best 'agent' on sourcing out the best foreign athletes to come and compete for them. To a lesser degree this can be extended to athletes training in a foreign country, with foreign coaches, an using foregin facilites, etc. This is where I hold considerable respect for the Chinese in this regards and their self-sufficient 'system'

What do people think?
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The Olympics don't seem to have any rules. Qatar and Bahrain have "bought" a number of Kenyan and Ethiopian runners and even made them change their names to something more arab/muslim sounding. For once, football is ahead in this debate in forcing players to choose at senior level.

I have no problems with people like Mo who qualifies on two grounds: he was brought up in Britain from a young age and his case his father was born in Britain. He is British and thinks himself British. He spent his formative years here, so its more natural for him to compete for Britain than for Somalia.

In principle I have no problem with anyone born to a British parent and brought up abroad. I'd prefer them to have some solid links with Britain, living here for some time or at least holidays to visit relatives. I find opting to represent Britain without ever living here, just because its clear you won't make the US team, a bit questionable. I think links through grandparents shouldn't be sufficient without a minimum residency requirement, which would have excluded Hargreaves and Budd.

P.S. The Chinese self-sufficiency is easier to maintain when you have 1.3 billion people and a history of drug programmes.
 
If someone is trained and brought through the ranks of their representing country, then fine. Every other case of representing another country doesnt sit right with me.
 
There was a female athlete who competed for the Soviet Union, Commonwealth of Independent States, Russia or Ukraine and then Germany. I saw something on her during the TV coverage. My memory says she was a competitor this time, but that seems unlikely on thinking about it.
 
ArcspacE said:
I know this debate has been done before - but how can people represent a country in which they haven't been born or in some cases even raised! Especially since the spirit of the Olympics is built around the 'national' spirit. Perhaps there should be a cut-off age of sorts - I find it pathetic to the point of renaming the Olympics one day to the UN games or something along those lines.

Number of athletes are offered citizenship in return for good money and tempting lifestyle for their families, then go on to win medals for their new-found employer in turn rendering the competiton one of who was the best 'agent' on sourcing out the best foreign athletes to come and compete for them. To a lesser degree this can be extended to athletes training in a foreign country, with foreign coaches, an using foregin facilites, etc. This is where I hold considerable respect for the Chinese in this regard and their self-sufficient 'system'

What do people think?
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I think a South African is trying to get our medal count down.
 
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