NFR Olympic Medals

[sipwell]

No ambition to sound jingoistic but let me say I am proud this is the current "medal board". I am sure - and I sincerely hope -  Team GB will gather a lot of medals in the weeks to come but where are they now??



Look at Belgium! Ha!

PS. How many medals do you expect for England and for Amurica?

[Berserker]

Mr B is very depressed at the moment, probably not as much as Mark though : (

[clintclintdeuce]

USA 115 total medals

38 total for the UK

[sipwell]

Mr B is very depressed at the moment, probably not as much as Mark though : (

I don't see how anyone would have thought Cav had a chance. He was the only real sprinter so everyone would have tried to get away on beforehand and no-one would have helped team GB anyways...

[Berserker]

Yep Chris Boardman indicated he wasn't really surprised by the result. Just hope Bradley Wiggins won't be too knackered to be able to get a medal in his time trail after putting his all in today to help get a result for Mark  :001:

[sipwell]

Yep Chris Boardman indicated he wasn't really surprised by the result. Just hope Bradley Wiggins won't be too knackered to be able to get a medal in his time trail after putting his all in today to help get a result for Mark  :001:

Don't think he'll win... but I do hope so :)

And yes, Boardman is right. He must be Belgian :)

[Mr_Moon]

Time to cash in the chips eh

eh eh

[RidgeRider]

Mr B is very depressed at the moment, probably not as much as Mark though : (

I don't see how anyone would have thought Cav had a chance. He was the only real sprinter so everyone would have tried to get away on beforehand and no-one would have helped team GB anyways...

Exactly. The Box Hill climbs eliminated the chance of a bunch sprint so Cavendish was NEVER going to win this race. He is a "one trick" pony in cycling terms and with the entire Team GB trying to keep the race together they killed themselves tactically. This was always going to be won by a puncheur type rider. Nice going by Vino!

[HatterDon]

I HATE MEDAL TABLES
                                 IT'S WHY I DON'T WATCH THE OLYMPICS

[sipwell]

Go to bed old man! :)

[The Bronsons]

I HATE MEDAL TABLES
                                 IT'S WHY I DON'T WATCH THE OLYMPICS

Me too. The Olympics would be more fun to watch without the continual obsessing about how many medals we have and they have and blah blah blah. Personally I like it when smaller, unfashionable and less prominent countries do well - and if they end up with just a handful, what's wrong with that?

Congratulations, Sipwell.

[Berserker]

Do we the British expect to get alot of medals, is it like the world cup in as much as we think our team is better than it is?

[Burt]

The danger we have is the over-hype of our medal chances, caused partly by our 4th placing in Beijing, the celebrity status afforded to some of the "stars", and the supposed "home advantage" that we have.

I would not be surprised if we don't collect as many as we did in Beijing. I just hope that there is some cracking competition along the way.

[clintclintdeuce]

I think I speak for the majority of Americans in saying I just hope we beat the Chinese

[Holders]

Do you know, I really don't care about the table. So long as the games are a success and pass off peacefully will be the greatest credit to our country.

[ImperialWhite]

I HATE MEDAL TABLES
IT'S WHY I DON'T WATCH THE OLYMPICS

Why? Just curious!

[sipwell]

I HATE MEDAL TABLES
IT'S WHY I DON'T WATCH THE OLYMPICS

Why? Just curious!

because sports should end like in communist era China: competition but always a draw. No winner (equality and all that).

[Burt]

Since our silver we are now 11th! Ooh...

Time for a union jack smiley, Mods?

[HatterDon]

I HATE MEDAL TABLES
IT'S WHY I DON'T WATCH THE OLYMPICS

Why? Just curious!

because sports should end like in communist era China: competition but always a draw. No winner (equality and all that).

Ignore the Belgian, please.

The answer is that, when I was a kid, all the local newspapers and television stations were getting us excited because a local athlete was going to Melbourne for the Olympics [yes, I'm very old]. It was inculcated in me that the point of the Olympics was being selected, living in the village, hanging out with athletes of other nations and competing. I've still never lost that.

Medal tables -- at least over here -- foster a totally different concept. Unless you win a medal, you're doing nothing for your country. If you're at or near the top of your particular sport, a SILVER medal is abject failure. In an effort to increase our medal count, we came up with "the dream team" a bunch of NBA superstars who not only beat their opponents for 50 points while showing off, also refused to live in the Olympic Village or to associate with other athletes.

Television over here is ALL about the medal tables. I'm sick of it and sick of all the nationalism that comes of it. The Olympics were supposed to be about internationalism, and it's not within a mile of that anymore.

[sipwell]

I HATE MEDAL TABLES
IT'S WHY I DON'T WATCH THE OLYMPICS

Why? Just curious!

because sports should end like in communist era China: competition but always a draw. No winner (equality and all that).

Ignore the Belgian, please.

The answer is that, when I was a kid, all the local newspapers and television stations were getting us excited because a local athlete was going to Melbourne for the Olympics [yes, I'm very old]. It was inculcated in me that the point of the Olympics was being selected, living in the village, hanging out with athletes of other nations and competing. I've still never lost that.

Medal tables -- at least over here -- foster a totally different concept. Unless you win a medal, you're doing nothing for your country. If you're at or near the top of your particular sport, a SILVER medal is abject failure. In an effort to increase our medal count, we came up with "the dream team" a bunch of NBA superstars who not only beat their opponents for 50 points while showing off, also refused to live in the Olympic Village or to associate with other athletes.

Television over here is ALL about the medal tables. I'm sick of it and sick of all the nationalism that comes of it. The Olympics were supposed to be about internationalism, and it's not within a mile of that anymore.

That is indeed not really fun. In Belgium the experience is a lot more important than the medal: we are small, we won't win a lot. I am happy to support all of my Belgian compatriots regardless of how they fare.