Team GB at Olympics

[Mordac]

It does seem like a bit of a jolly for the privileged few. Officially 2012 was meant to inspire everybody to take up sport and cure childhood obesity, but everybody knew that was bollocks. If anything watching professional athletes inspires people not to bother. No normal person could ever be as good.

I admire skill more than strength and stamina, and for that I think the Winter Olympics is better. Essentially Bradley Wiggins is no better at cycling than me; he's just a lot fitter and stronger. Running, cycling, rowing - so what? Winning just means you've trained more than everybody else. Not really an achievement.

Says the bloke with the Vectra. Well done mate, you just redefined "irony".

[barrydidit]

Who is your money on if Pie eating is made an Olympic sport?

It can only be a matter of time. Some of us are in training


There are more variants on the same theme too Athlons Pieathlons Chocathlons Wineathlons - Team OA putting the fun back into run

[barrydidit]

Anyway, it's the Brownlee brothers this afternoon. I've raced against them on the moors above Haworth. Unsurprisingly, they both beat me

[DaveB]

It does seem like a bit of a jolly for the privileged few. Officially 2012 was meant to inspire everybody to take up sport and cure childhood obesity, but everybody knew that was bollocks. If anything watching professional athletes inspires people not to bother. No normal person could ever be as good.

There are one or two exceptions...

Laura Trott aged 12 with Bradley Wiggins when he gave her his gold medal to wear for the photo.

Joseph Schooling (Age 8) with Michael Phelps - He beat Phelps to the gold medal in the 100m Butterfly.



Both have cited the meetings as inspiration to become professional athletes.

I admire skill more than strength and stamina, and for that I think the Winter Olympics is better. Essentially Bradley Wiggins is no better at cycling than me; he's just a lot fitter and stronger. Running, cycling, rowing - so what? Winning just means you've trained more than everybody else. Not really an achievement.

You say no normal person could ever be that good, but then say that Bradley Wiggins is essentially a normal person who happens to be fitter and stronger than you. By your argument if you do the training then and you could be that good. Just don't forget the bike handling skills required, the tactical nouce, the drive and ambition and in most cases the sheer bloody mindedness needed.

[SueEllen]

Anyway, it's the Brownlee brothers this afternoon. I've raced against them on the moors above Haworth. Unsurprisingly, they both beat me

Raced?

You mean you have participated in the same event as them.

I've "raced" with Haile Gebrselassie 3 times. The most amusing was at Milton Keynes when he had finished before the rest of us had even started due to the delay in starting us plebs.

BTW I've done a tri as well.

[SueEllen]

Football and rugby, on the other hand, I really do enjoy.

Luckily then football and rugby are in the Olympics.

Britain's men got the silver medal and the women came fourth in the rugby 7s. (Winners Fiji and Australia respectively)

The football final is Brazil vs Germany.

[shaunbhoy]

Winning just means you've trained more than everybody else. Not really an achievement.

Spoken like the couch potato you undoubtedly are.

[SueEllen]

It does seem like a bit of a jolly for the privileged few. Officially 2012 was meant to inspire everybody to take up sport and cure childhood obesity, but everybody knew that was bollocks. If anything watching professional athletes inspires people not to bother. No normal person could ever be as good.

I admire skill more than strength and stamina, and for that I think the Winter Olympics is better. Essentially Bradley Wiggins is no better at cycling than me; he's just a lot fitter and stronger. Running, cycling, rowing - so what? Winning just means you've trained more than everybody else. Not really an achievement.

It's clear you regularly train and take part in one or more of those sports saying that.

[LondonManc]

For any races beyond a certain distance, tactics come into play too. 400m is probably the tipping point - 1-400, blast round the track as quick as you can. Beyond that, there's often research on competitors - Brendan Foster often use to refer to athletes setting a decent pace to run the sprint finish out of other athletes.

Personally, I've never seen the point of just running apart from in training at the start of the season to get you back up to speed. Always preferred team games like football and to a lesser extent rugby to just running but fully respect those who achieve great things in it; I remember cheering Cram, Coe and Ovett on as a kid.

[barrydidit]

Raced?

You mean you have participated in the same event as them.

I've "raced" with Haile Gebrselassie 3 times. The most amusing was at Milton Keynes when he had finished before the rest of us had even started due to the delay in starting us plebs.

BTW I've done a tri as well.

Hey, I never said I was competitive, don't go pissing on my chips! It was a fell race in the middle of winter, we all paid the same to enter and started at the same time and we all went to the same pub afterwards to warm up and eat soup. IIRC neither of them won because Ian Holmes was there, and he's dead good.