0.273

[chef]

How do those African countries get swimmers competing who have never swum the distance they compete in, etc?

their countries don't set a benchmark that they must qualify for in order to be able to go, they are simply sent because they want to and their country can afford to send them/is interested in having them represented in the sport

[d000hg]

AFAIK countries can select and put forward who ever they like
It was the British Olymic Assosiation which decided that these girls weren't good enough to compete for Britain which means there will be no British entry for that event

Seems fair enough then. Tough for the girls but that's competitive sport...

[Zippy]

I think this is very unfair on them. They are not so bad that they would embarass us, it's a home games so minimal funding required (they've paid for all training and other expenses themselves anyway, so it's not like the BOA/Lottery got a bad investment).

Mean, mean, mean. I hope we haven't heard the last of this.

[TimberWolf]

If New Labour were still in power those girls would be going to the Olympics. Together with 90% of the population, 80% of whom would get a Gold**.

[EricBartlett]

Is this the right place/time to question if rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in the first place?

Or any other form of gymnastics, or any activity where the winning/best is decided by subjective opinion rather than objective fact.

Don't get me wrong - gymnasts of all types are obviously fit, dedicated and all that good stuff.
But anything where you have to rely on someone else to tell you who has won is not sport.

Who did it fastest, threw it furthest, hit the target more, scored more etc etc.

[AtW]

But anything where you have to rely on someone else to tell you who has won is not sport.

It's a sport for us to see how far would you get before getting banned yet we rely on someone else's view for it to happen

[d000hg]

They are not so bad that they would embarass us

Based on what? Don't you agree a "pass mark" is reasonable - and if so that it should be upheld? Hundreds of hopeful athletes train very hard and fail to make the squad in their field, just because you paid for your own training doesn't change it.

[d000hg]

Is this the right place/time to question if rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in the first place?

Or any other form of gymnastics, or any activity where the winning/best is decided by subjective opinion rather than objective fact.

So boxing is also not a sport? Or any martial art - they all rely on someone to do the scoring. Even football, rugby and cricket rely on a subjective referee, whose judgement often determines who wins.

All these sports have objective scoring systems, it is NOT a judge just deciding how much they like it. Small margins of error are accounted for by having multiple judges.

[Arturo Bassick]

I dont think there should be a barrier to entry where there are no other candidates.
I dont give a tulip if they do embarrass us. If they are the best we have got then they should go.
Any sport.
We should support their effort even if they are crap.

Only where we have too many candidates should there be any need to qualify.

[Pogle]

I think this is very unfair on them. They are not so bad that they would embarass us, it's a home games so minimal funding required (they've paid for all training and other expenses themselves anyway, so it's not like the BOA/Lottery got a bad investment).

Mean, mean, mean. I hope we haven't heard the last of this.

WZS