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They are surprisingly strong, at least to me. It's the best result for GB since 1920 by far and the Olympics aren't ever over yet. :shock: A sign of things to come in London ?
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Re: GB at the Olympics
You're not alone. To us too!Originally posted by croflash -
Now that you mention it, seems like GB has been popping up in Oly news a lot. Looks like they are picking up steam right in time for '12.Comment
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We absolutely cleaned up in the track cycling with Romero, Hoy (who will be 36 in 2012 but intending to compete), Wiggings etc and we also won two medals on the road and the sailing, rowing etc are always our strong events plus we are also making inroads in our weaker sports e.g. gymnastics. Louis Smith won bronze in the pommel horse, which was our first medal since 1912 (?) and Beth Tweddle, who is retiring before 2012, was fourth on the asymmetric bars. It's not worldwide dominance but it's a start.
And in athletics, virtually every athlete has risen to the occasion. So many athletes have set season's bests, personal bests and have reached finals etc.Comment
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great britain is 3rd so far in the gold medal count with 16, behind only leader china which has 43, and the usa which has 27 (with 8 by phelps). usual sport superpower russia has only 10 so far, so if great britain can upgrade their sports program, and china falls apart like after 1993 + 1997, then great britain could be contending for the most golds as phelps supposedly will try new events (swim sprints) in 2012 and not as many events..Comment
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USA and Russia's loss is the Brit's gain. China will capture the most Golds and if you think they're going to go backwards in 2016, you're sadly mistaken. They're just scratching the surface in some sports. They have a billion people and this is their new zenith. I think by 2016, they'll win the overall medal race in addition to the gold count.
USA will bounce back in 2016 too - this has been a bad Games (especially if you take away Phelps). But we'll still end up with about 100 medals which is basically what we had the last five Games (even Atlanta). The problem is we'll have far fewer Golds this time around (especially if you somehow take Phelps out of the equation).
Russia is having its worst Games ever. They've been at 27 Golds (92 medals), 32 Golds (88) and 26 (83) the last three Olympics. I'd give the best three grades to Great Britain, Australia and France (and maybe Australia is doing the best since their population is a third that of GB and France). All three countries are at 29-35 overall medals as of right now. Much of China's gold count and overall medal count is directly attributable to home cooking but I still think they'll just get better and better. They have a number of new facilities in place to support their training programs.Comment
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Re: GB at the Olympics
I was amazed that Britain had three high jumpers in the final. I didn't think anybody from Great Britain was any good in the high jump.Originally posted by marknhjComment
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Re: GB at the Olympics
And we have a 2.30m jumper who was left off the team and a brace of others in the low and mid-2.20m range.Originally posted by bambamComment
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we had nearly £25m put into cycling
the danes who finished runners up in pursuit-team said they only had little money & put it nearly all into that event, leaving little for other events
but it got them silver
if a little country can do that, it does indicate that if you are a decent sized western-european country of say 40 million+ population & you are willing to put in enough money into the sport, you have a big enough population pool to dominate an event
if spain/france/germany/italy had lottery funding poured into sports at our level, we'd probably only have hoy as a champ
addly is a good champ but got ohugo's luck in the 400 - she was only 4th fastest there & those above her choked - especially hoff
she can win 800 again in '12, but i think she'll get swamped in 400 next time ( too many quick 200 gals around )
laters - some swimming on ...Comment
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We've just added two more medals (silver and bronze) in the inaugural 10km open water swim.Comment
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I've loved the track cycling - first time I've seen a whole competition (my teenage memory drags up the name Nelson Vails from 84, it seemed a cool name at the time, still does, but that's it). I'd heard the Brits were winning WCs, but this has been otherworldly.
Chris Hoy is a bull - never seen thighs like that, and I know a couple of speedskaters. He also seems to be an outstanding talent, a leader and an Olympic great. Trois chapeaux
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Edit - dupe.Comment
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Obviously i am over the moon about this but as usual the tabloids are going OTT just like they did when England won the rugby world cup and England beat the Aussies in the ashes a few years ago.... People became Sir this and MBE that... Papers making underhand comments about the Aussies, everyone lost their hunger and we got smashed in the following years.
Its ok to celebrate the glory but keep things in perspective.... Yes, job well done but we need to keep the ball rolling and not bask in the glory too long and forget the future.Comment
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I can't BELIEVE the amount of support the Irish are giving the Brits and vice versa. I never though I'd see the day when my dad would say "go on the Brits" :shock:
Times have definitely changed, and this is a new era. 8-)
Ireland's boxers have done exceptionally well, 3 guaranteed medals-Two of them will take on Brits in their quest for the Gold medal match! :lol:
Go on the Fighting Irish!
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very interesting comment on bbc
they were interviewing one of the brit gals in modern pentathlon ( who actually won bronze in wc this year - & shoud go close here as it is basically 4 mickey mouse events with a 3k run to finish & brit gals usually run down any deficit to win, even if they are absolute last going into it )
& she said something very pertinent -
she was only competing in the event because of the luxury of lottery funding - if not, she wouda carried on with her physio job
this pretty much does indicate money can buy you golds
other countries need to take heed...Comment
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