Road to Rio 2016 - Irish Olympic News

Chivito550

Dodge wrote: »

Her coach (James Nolan) was quoted in the Irish Times as saying she was working hard and 'on course' for Rio despite not running yet this year

It's a big ask, but keeping the fingers crossed for her.

Oldira

This comparative stuff is nonsense. One can win Gold in the 100 after running a total of 40 seconds while a marathon winner has to run for over 2 hours. The Olympics is no longer just a two week competition for most sports it's now at least a two year process culminating at the Olympic Games. All medals are hard won and deserve equal credit.

Chivito550

Oldira wrote: »

This comparative stuff is nonsense. One can win Gold in the 100 after running a total of 40 seconds while a marathon winner has to run for over 2 hours. The Olympics is no longer just a two week competition for most sports it's now at least a two year process culminating at the Olympic Games. All medals are hard won and deserve equal credit.

Some events are more glamorous than others. There's no point in denying it. I'd swap 3 golds in shooting or canoeing for 1 bronze in the 100m or 1500m personally. I say that as a fan. Maybe I'm biased because I'm involved in athletics, but I'd guess that an Irish person winning a medal on the track would be remebered more than winning a medal in a more fringe Olympic sport. People remember Coghlan finishing 4th, but only us Olympic anoraks remember Eoin Rheinish.

Dodge

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&nv=1&rurl=translate.google.ie&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://nos.nl/artikel/2117214-noc-nsf-laat-alleen-luiten-naar-rio-gaan.html%3Fnpo_cc%3Dna%26npo_rnd%3D97198114%26npo_cc_skip_wall%3D1&usg=ALkJrhiRTNGGn7vqIAViUZ9YMd8LaEEwxg

Dutch team aren't sending their women golfers. That will bring Stephanie Meadow into the last qualifying spot

NiallBoo

Chivito550 wrote: »

People remember Coghlan finishing 4th, but only us Olympic anoraks remember Eoin Rheinish.

Coghlan who?

Maybe the topics to relative difficulty of qualification and winning deserve a thread of their own?

Joe_ Public

Chivito550 wrote: »

Some events are more glamorous than others. There's no point in denying it. I'd swap 3 golds in shooting or canoeing for 1 bronze in the 100m or 1500m personally. I say that as a fan. Maybe I'm biased because I'm involved in athletics, but I'd guess that an Irish person winning a medal on the track would be remebered more than winning a medal in a more fringe Olympic sport. People remember Coghlan finishing 4th, but only us Olympic anoraks remember Eoin Rheinish.

And only for Father Ted who'd ever remember Sean Drea

Chivito550

NiallBoo wrote: »

Coghlan who?

Maybe the topics to relative difficulty of qualification and winning deserve a thread of their own?

What harm to be honest? It's not a hugely active thread relatively speaking. Discussion should be welcome. Lets not go down the golf route where people aren't allowed to have opposing views.

Strazdas

Anyone find McIlroy's comments about the Olympic golf rather bizarre? Saying he won't even bother to watch it and will concentrate on the 'important' sports like athletics and swimming seems a bit insulting to his Irish team mates who are heading over there.

Dodge

Dodge wrote: »

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&nv=1&rurl=translate.google.ie&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://nos.nl/artikel/2117214-noc-nsf-laat-alleen-luiten-naar-rio-gaan.html%3Fnpo_cc%3Dna%26npo_rnd%3D97198114%26npo_cc_skip_wall%3D1&usg=ALkJrhiRTNGGn7vqIAViUZ9YMd8LaEEwxg

Dutch team aren't sending their women golfers. That will bring Stephanie Meadow into the last qualifying spot

This should be confirmed today.

Cosmo Kramer

Dodge wrote: »

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&nv=1&rurl=translate.google.ie&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://nos.nl/artikel/2117214-noc-nsf-laat-alleen-luiten-naar-rio-gaan.html%3Fnpo_cc%3Dna%26npo_rnd%3D97198114%26npo_cc_skip_wall%3D1&usg=ALkJrhiRTNGGn7vqIAViUZ9YMd8LaEEwxg

Dutch team aren't sending their women golfers. That will bring Stephanie Meadow into the last qualifying spot

That's madness from the Dutch if you ask me. There's no reason why a golfer outside the top 100 in the world can't medal in the Olympics, it's very much an on the day/weekend event. But of course it works to our favour so we'll take it.

walshb

Chivito550 wrote: »

I understand that. But an Irish boxer only has to beat 1 Cuban, 1 Russian, 1 Mongolian. An Irish athlete must beat 3 Jamaicans, 3 Ethiopians, 3 Americans. If the 3 best boxers in the world are from one country, only one will be there winning a medal, leaving 2 medals free (actually 3!) for others to win. In things like the Steeplechase, the 3 best all come from the one country, and all 3 are at the Olympics. Is this really hard to understand?

Ok, I understand where you are coming from, but boxing and qualification and entrants requirements are completely different. You cannot compare the sports. Races need racers. They need a lot more of them to make up races. Boxing and its set up cannot work like that, hence one boxer per weight per country. Otherwise they could not run the tournament with any efficiency. That is why I think you need to get past this kind of arrogant view that you espouse regarding T&F having it more difficult to medal. When all the facts are considered it cannot be proved. Wining a medal in any Olympic sport means that at that time you were one of the top 3/4 in the world. It's that simple.

Regarding Rory. The problem with Rory is that he was never that interesting to begin with, and now he won't shut up with his cranky-contrived nonsense.

Joe_ Public

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

That's madness from the Dutch if you ask me. There's no reason why a golfer outside the top 100 in the world can't medal in the Olympics, it's very much an on the day/weekend event. But of course it works to our favour so we'll take it.

It does seem insane alright. If every NOC followed that rule, there'd only be 30 competitors in the mens and around the same in the women's. I guess they knew the rules, but I'd imagine those Dutch golfers will still be fuming.

finbarrk

Strazdas wrote: »

Anyone find McIlroy's comments about the Olympic golf rather bizarre? Saying he won't even bother to watch it and will concentrate on the 'important' sports like athletics and swimming seems a bit insulting to his Irish team mates who are heading over there.

Indeed. He would be better off not bothering to make any more comments.

marienbad

Chivito550 wrote: »

The biggest thing for me is the restriction of one boxer per nation per weight. Imagine how many nations that would have steeplechase medals by now if the Kenyans could only enter one athlete.

I can never understand this attitude , reminds me of the time Eamonn Coughlan said on the telly 'now the real Olympics starts , when Track & Field events started , thus with such a glib dismissal and patronising attitude rubbished the likes of Steve Redgrave Mathew Pinsent etc .

But seen as you brought it up I think it should be impossible to win 4 and 5 medals at one Games as athletes and swimmers usually do . The boxer gets just one shot .

clairewithani

marienbad wrote: »

I can never understand this attitude , reminds me of the time Eamonn Coughlan said on the telly 'now the real Olympics starts , when Track & Field events started , thus with such a glib dismissal and patronising attitude rubbished the likes of Steve Redgrave Mathew Pinsent etc .

But seen as you brought it up I think it should be impossible to win 4 and 5 medals at one Games as athletes and swimmers usually do . The boxer gets just one shot .

And gymnasts can get 5 or 6 too I think.
4x individual events
1x individual overall
1x team overall

walshb

clairewithani wrote: »

And gymnasts can get 5 or 6 too I think.
4x individual events
1x individual overall
1x team overall

The men have 8 events I believe.

Chivito550

marienbad wrote: »

I can never understand this attitude , reminds me of the time Eamonn Coughlan said on the telly 'now the real Olympics starts , when Track & Field events started , thus with such a glib dismissal and patronising attitude rubbished the likes of Steve Redgrave Mathew Pinsent etc .

But seen as you brought it up I think it should be impossible to win 4 and 5 medals at one Games as athletes and swimmers usually do . The boxer gets just one shot .

How can a track athlete win 4 or 5 medals? If you are a sprinter you could maybe do 100, 200 and both relays, or you could do 100, 200, LJ and a relay, but this is rare. Distance runners can manage 2 at most. Field eventers 1 only.

I don't mean to put down other sports. I love the entire Olympics and wouldn't agree with Coghlan's stance at all. I just think our track and field athletes get a raw deal in the media because people don't understand how deep the fields are in the sport. It's one of the two truly global sports out there, along with football. I believe medals are much harder to come by in it. It's my opinion and I am entitled to it.

Here's another example of how not all medals should be viewed equally. Iceland have won 4 medals in their history. 3 of them have come in individual sports. The other one was silver in Handball in 2008. In my mind, the silver in handball is the greatest achievement. A small country can produce a freak athlete every now and again, but to be the second best in the world in a team sport is an astonishing achievement for a country of 330,000. Of course, I'm sure if I posted that on an identical thread on the Icelandic equivalent of boards there'd be some oversensitive soul who would lynch me for it.

metaoblivia

I think some people view the track and field events as "classic" Olympics - going back to the days of the ancient Olympics - and that somehow makes those events more "pure" and "true" to the spirit of the Olympics. I don't agree with it myself.

As for some sports having more medal opportunities, I'm fine with it. It's rare enough that it happens anyway and when it does, that's when you know you're watching someone great. Usually the medals in gymnastics are well spread out, but there's one girl who could win 5 of the 6 gold medals this year. That would be unheard of (in women's gymnastics) if it happens and would make her a legend if she manages it. In some sports, you need only win one gold medal and you're a legend. In others, it takes a few.

Chivito550

metaoblivia wrote: »

I think some people view the track and field events as "classic" Olympics - going back to the days of the ancient Olympics - and that somehow makes those events more "pure" and "true" to the spirit of the Olympics. I don't agree with it myself.

As for some sports having more medal opportunities, I'm fine with it. It's rare enough that it happens anyway and when it does, that's when you know you're watching someone great. Usually the medals in gymnastics are well spread out, but there's one girl who could win 5 of the 6 gold medals this year. That would be unheard of (in women's gymnastics) if it happens and would make her a legend if she manages it. In some sports, you need only win one gold medal and you're a legend. In others, it takes a few.

I find there's a disproportionate amount of medals in swimming. The way the schedule is set up helps too, with heat in the morning, final that evening. Recovery times are a lot less for swimming than for running. You'd never see a T&F athlete win 8 medals. Another thing that stands out is that the same swimmer could win over a range of distances. Phelps won gold over 100m (Butterfly) and 400m (IM). You'd never see a track runner win the 200m and 800m in the same championships for example. I don't like the way one poster lumped in athletics with swimming in terms of number of medal opportunities. I don't believe that is fair.

metaoblivia

Chivito550 wrote: »

I find there's a disproportionate amount of medals in swimming. The way the schedule is set up helps too, with heat in the morning, final that evening. Recovery times are a lot less for swimming than for running. You'd never see a T&F athlete win 8 medals. Another thing that stands out is that the same swimmer could win over a range of distances. Phelps won gold over 100m (Butterfly) and 400m (IM). You'd never see a track runner win the 200m and 800m in the same championships for example. I don't like the way one poster lumped in athletics with swimming in terms of number of medal opportunities. I don't believe that is fair.

I enjoy many sports outside of gymnastics, but I don't care enough about them to develop many opinions on them. Swimming has four strokes I think and many different distances plus the relays. There's a lot of Olympic swimming and it seems to pull in a big audience, so I doubt we'll see any events culled any time soon.

walshb

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Yeah, I mean the thing is boxing is restricted in numbers by the IOC, as far as I know anyway, to the extent there's still only 12 in Katie Taylor's weight division. One fight, probably, and she's already got a medal. I can't agree that should be the case.

But that's just how it is. Regardless of how difficult qualifying can be, I don't think anyone should dispute that winning a world (amateur) boxing title is a far more challenging proposition than an olympic one, yet the latter will always hold sway simply because it's the olympics.

I don't agree that the WCs are tougher than the Olympics to medal in. When you go through the whole Olympic journey to end up with a medal, I think that is tougher to achieve. The real difference bring the dream, the want and desire to just get to the games. What boxer, or any sports competitor for that matter answers that their dream is to go the world championships? It's always the Olympic Games. Of course, some sports are not in the Olympics, and hence the WCs is the pinnacle. The whole process to get to the games and then win 3-4 fights for a medal is tougher than the WCs.

Chivito550

walshb wrote: »

I don't agree that the WCs are tougher than the Olympics to medal in. When you go through the whole Olympic journey to end up with a medal think it's tougher to achieve. The real difference bring the dream, the want and desire to just get to the games. What boxer, or any sports competitor for that matter answers that their dream is to go the world championships? It's always the Olympic Games. Of course, some sports are not in the Olympics, and hence the WCs is the pinnacle. The whole process to get to the games and then win 3-4 fights for a medal is tougher than the WCs.

Yep agree here. In theory the calibre of opponents is the exact same in a Worlds as it would in Olympics, but people are more likely to be at their very best in Olympic year, the Olympics are only every 4 years, and the pure pressure of the Olympic cauldron can get to athletes more so than anything else. It is the ultimate test, and you don't get a chance to rectify a bad performance for another 4 years.

Joe_ Public

walshb wrote: »

I don't agree that the WCs are tougher than the Olympics to medal in. When you go through the whole Olympic journey to end up with a medal, I think that is tougher to achieve. The real difference bring the dream, the want and desire to just get to the games. What boxer, or any sports competitor for that matter answers that their dream is to go the world championships? It's always the Olympic Games. Of course, some sports are not in the Olympics, and hence the WCs is the pinnacle. The whole process to get to the games and then win 3-4 fights for a medal is tougher than the WCs.

It's highly debatable. How many chances does a boxer get to qualify for the Olympics? Four or is it five? It's still a great achievement to get there of course. But put it this way, do you think it's significant that Ireland have more Olympic boxing medals than world championships (excluding Katie Taylor anyway)? Should it not be the other way round?

walshb

Joe_ Public wrote: »

It's highly debatable. How many chances does a boxer get to qualify for the Olympics? Four or is it five? It's still a great achievement to get there of course. But put it this way, do you think it's significant that Ireland have more Olympic boxing medals than world championships (excluding Katie Taylor anyway)? Should it not be the other way round?

WCs began 1974 I believe. Much richer and deeper history to Olympic boxing. Anyway, the talent and boxers in both tournaments are pretty equal; the difference being that in the Olympics you truly are getting the best boxers from every corner of the earth. Everyone wants it.

Joe_ Public

walshb wrote: »

WCs began 1974 I believe. Much richer and deeper history to Olympic boxing. Anyway, the talent and boxers in both tournaments are pretty equal; the difference being that in the Olympics you truly are getting the best boxers from every corner of the earth. Everyone wants it.

It's true they've diluted the WCs with the advent of WSB & Pro boxing which is sad for an old traditionalist like me. But there was always a feeling that the WC was the more daunting physical challenge (why wouldn't the best boxers from every corner of the earth have been there or not wanted it??), while the Olympics carried all the prestige. Still holds true for the women's section I believe.

Dodge

Joe_ Public wrote: »

It's highly debatable. How many chances does a boxer get to qualify for the Olympics? Four or is it five? It's still a great achievement to get there of course. But put it this way, do you think it's significant that Ireland have more Olympic boxing medals than world championships (excluding Katie Taylor anyway)? Should it not be the other way round?

You now have to qualify for the World Championships too

The only question you have to ask a boxer is would he prefer to win a medal in the Olympics or in the World Championships? Every single one of them would say Olympics.

For that reason, it's the hardest because everyone wants it.

Chivito550

Any of you guys see the final 4x400 rankings? I'm so glad we didn't run a small bit faster now and have the lads think they qualified. Japan, Venuzuela, Colombia and India all improved their time on Sunday. We were 1.04 seconds off making it in the end, not 0.07 as initially thought. You'd assume the High Performance Director should be on top of all that. Could have been very embarrassing.

Dodge

Most of the 0.07 talk was from pundits and not from AI head brass.

We needed 3.03.28 to be in top 16.

Chivito550

Dodge wrote: »

Most of the 0.07 talk was from pundits and not from AI head brass.

We needed 3.03.28 to be in top 16.

I was out there. The High Performance Director hadn't a notion. Trust me on this.

Dodge

Chivito550 wrote: »

I was out there. The High Performance Director hadn't a notion. Trust me on this.

Fair enough. That's pretty embarrassing alright. Would have been a helluva lot worse if they scraped past the "old" standard thinking they had done enough and it turned out they weren't going to Rio