London Olympics Panic! - Britain's Useless Athletes Unable to Win Gold

Sapphire

smamst wrote: »

Things now getting bad for Team GB, they didn't win a jot in the Athletics this evening, back to normal now.

The athletics generally seem to be dominated by people of non-European origin, with a few exceptions – particularly by athletes of African origin, certainly in the running events. I guess it may come down to physique, strength and stamina in these events? Some of those guys (and women) seem quite unhealthily muscle bound.

I may be wrong, but don't think there are many countries that could go higher than our position. (If there are, I sincerely hope it is not the French.)

I reckon we could get a few more golds – for cycling, mainly. Not sure about others, though we will probably gain more overall than we did in Beijing.

Stunning performances in rowing, cycling and Ben Ainslee, though.:T

chucknorris

A good day for Team GB yesterday! Sporting Index's GB gold medals market price increased from 26.3 - 27.8 (yesterday morning) to 28 - 29.5 (this morning)

vivatifosi

Sapphire wrote: »

I reckon we could get a few more golds – for cycling, mainly. Not sure about others, though we will probably gain more overall than we did in Beijing.

We've still got Hoy, Pendleton and Trott to go at track cycling; Reade in the BMX; the Brownlees in triathlon; Farah going for double on the track; Idowu in the triple jump if he pulls things together; dressage... What else have I forgotten? I am soooooooooooooo excited! Though this working when I could be watching cycling lark is a bit annoying.

michaels

You missed canoeing and sailing...

JonnyBravo

and boxing...

RenovationMan

Windsurfing may bring in a Bronze or Silver if he really goes for it. Last time for this event as it's being replaced by Kite Surfing.

JonnyBravo

Speaking of the boxing..... great punch from Anthony Joshua last night to put the Chinese fella on the canvas. Hope he makes it to the final. Got tickets for that session. Would be good to see him try to get revenge on the worlds no.1.

JonnyBravo

And another thought...

Is it time to start to talk about finishing third in the medal table?
What's left that's massive for Russia? They were underwhelming in the gymnastics and can't expect too many individual golds can they? They were poor in the swimming.
I can't see them catching us.

chucknorris

JonnyBravo wrote: »

And another thought...

Is it time to start to talk about finishing third in the medal table?
What's left that's massive for Russia? They were underwhelming in the gymnastics and can't expect too many individual golds can they? They were poor in the swimming.
I can't see them catching us.

Betfair have a Gold Medals match bet between GB and Russia market:

http://sports.betfair.com/olympics-2012/market?id=1.105701410

There isn't much liquidity in it but at the moment the you can back Russia at 12.5/1 but I suspect that the true price is closer to double that.

There is also a France V GB market where GB are again the overwhelming favourites.

Kennyboy66

vivatifosi wrote: »

Or the 100m limited to one Jamaican. Could you imagine? The Olympics is about people at their pinnacle, providing they achieve strict qualification. It's so cool when a country manages a clean sweep in the medals, why not allow 3 per country?

As much as I like to see GB crushing the opposition in the velodrome, I have a little sympathy with the UCI (who decided the one per country rule).

It will be a little monotonous to see one country sweep the medals and it doesn't encourage the long term growth of the sport.

It's sad to say, but most people want some domestic representation to watch an event - how many would be watching the diving without Tom Daley ?

A good example of this is womens golf - which has got progressively less airtime in Europe and the USA as asian countries have started to dominate. 10 of the top 25 players are Korean alone (5 of top 11).

USA viewers (and sponsors for their domestic market) just won't engage.

It becomes a self fullfilling belief that only people of West African descent can sprint (may be true) or that only East African's can win the middle / long distance races (almost certainly not true as Seb Coe is still 3rd fastest man of all time at 800m)