Road to Rio 2016 - Irish Olympic News

Chivito550

Dodge wrote: »

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

Yeh, it would have been a massive PR disaster really. Had the lads ran say 3:03.7 or something they'd have been jumping around the place thinking they made it. They'd have come through the mixed zone and chatted to all the journalists thinking they made it. They'd head out celebrating that night thinking they made it. All because the HP director didn't do his homework to find out if any other national teams were competing elsewhere.

Joe_ Public

Dodge wrote: »

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.

Fair enough. I'd still hold that all of Katie Taylor's world champs were harder won than the gold, but I also know which one she cherishes most. I wouldn't start a war over it!

walshb

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Fair enough. I'd still hold that all of Katie Taylor's world champs were harder won than the gold, but I also know which one she cherishes most. I wouldn't start a war over it!

The Taylor example is a poor one. 2012 being the first time for the women. Boxing at WCs was already 7-8 years old.

Dodge

walshb wrote: »

The Taylor example is a poor one. 2012 being the first time for the women. Boxing at WCs was already 7-8 years old.

And to be fair, she had to get to top 8 in the world just to make sure she got to the Olympics, so it was like fighting the same girls over again for the medals

Joe_ Public

walshb wrote: »

The Taylor example is a poor one. 2012 being the first time for the women. Boxing at WCs was already 7-8 years old.

Yeah, look, fair enough. If there was a smiley face guy waving a white flag, he'd be appearing here right after the next full stop. I'm not expecting to convince anybody. I remember listening to the Carruth fight in 92 on the radio with a crowd congregated outside Carrolls shop on Westmoreland Street, it's a very special memory, but personally I'd have Conlan's gold last year not far behind. And I think Kelly Harrington's silver at the recent WCs meant as much to me as Taylor's gold in London. Admittedly, not many will share that view.

Chivito550

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Yeah, look, fair enough. If there was a smiley face guy waving a white flag, he'd be appearing here right after the next full stop. I'm not expecting to convince anybody. I remember listening to the Carruth fight in 92 on the radio with a crowd congregated outside Carrolls shop on Westmoreland Street, it's a very special memory, but personally I'd have Conlan's gold last year not far behind. And I think Kelly Harrington's silver at the recent WCs meant as much to me as Taylor's gold in London. Admittedly, not many will share that view.

In no way were the worlds harder to win for KT than the Olympics. She needed to reach the semi finals of the 2012 World’s just to qualify for the Olympics. So that’s 3 fights in the Worlds before selection was assured, followed by another 3 fights in London. That’s 6 fights. To win the 2012 World gold she had 5 fights! Simple maths there. And that’s before you even take into account the fact that everyone is peaking for the Olympics.

Joe_ Public

Chivito550 wrote: »

In no way were the worlds harder to win for KT than the Olympics. She needed to reach the semi finals of the 2012 World’s just to qualify for the Olympics. So that’s 3 fights in the Worlds before selection was assured, followed by another 3 fights in London. That’s 6 fights. To win the 2012 World gold she had 5 fights! Simple maths there. And that’s before you even take into account the fact that everyone is peaking for the Olympics.

Yeah, that's fair enough. I'd already waved the mythical white flag!

I'm open to correction but I think the basis of qualification in 2012 was being among the top 4 Europeans. She could have lost her q/f and, theoretically, still qualified. As it happened, she got a w/o, the Kazakh she beat in the last 16 got the 4th spot and the Romanian who gave the w/o subsequently got an invitation spot. I don't think there's any doubt that Taylor was going to be in London whatever happened, but anyway that's bye the bye. She's my favourite Irish sportsperson of all time and I value all her titles equally.

feargale

Ok, guys, it's fair to say that each of you has well and truly made your point.

feargale

_______________________________________________________ QUALIFIED FOR RIO. ( Total 76 ) ____________________________________________

Athletics

We have qualified a team of 17.

Mark English - 800m
Ciara Everard - 800m
Ciara Mageen - 1,500m
Thomas Barr - 400m hurdles
Kerry O'Flaherty - 3,000m steeplechase
Sara Treacy - 3,000m steeplechase
Michelle Finn - 3,000m steeplechase
Fionnualla McCormack - 10,000m, marathon
Alex Wright - 20k walk, 50k walk
Rob Heffernan - 20k walk, 50k walk
Brendan Boyce - 50k walk
Tori Pena - Pole vault
Lizzie Lee - marathon
Breege Connolly - marathon
Kevin Seaward - marathon
Mick Clohissey - marathon
Paul Pollock - marathon
The following have been named as reserves for Rio in the marathon; Gladys Ganiel, Barbara Sanchez, Sergiu Ciobanu, Sean Hehir. Ciobanu wasn't happy about the decision. It is likely Fionnuala McCormack will run the marathon and not the 10k.

Badminton:

Men's individual - Scott Evans
Women's individual - Chloe Magee

Boxing:

Paddy Barnes - Light fly (49kg)
Brendan Irvine - Fly (52kg)
Michael Conlan - Bantam (56kg)
David Oliver Joyce - Light (60kg)
Steven Donnelly - Welter (69kg)
Michael O'Reilly - Middle (75kg)
Joe Ward - Light Heavy (81kg)
Katie Taylor - Light (60kg)

Cycling:

Men's road race - Dan Martin
Men's road race -Nicholas Roche
Track cycling - Women's Kierin - Shannon McCurly

Diving:

Men's 3m spring-board - Oliver Dingley

Equestrian:

Clare Abbott - 3 Day Eventing
Jonty Evans - 3 Day Eventing
Mark Kyle - 3 Day Eventing
Padraig McCarthy - 3 Day Eventing
Greg Broderick - Show Jumping
Judy Reynolds - Dressage

Golf:

Padraig Harrington
Seamus Power
Leona Maguire

Gymnastics:

Men's individual - Kieran Behan
Women's individual - Ellis O'Reilly

Hockey:

Men's team (16 players)

Modern Pentathlon:

Arthur Lannigan-O'Keeffe - individual
Natalya Coyle - individual

Rowing:

Lightweight double sculls women - Sinead Jennings/Claire Lambe
Lightweight double sculls men - Paul & Gary O'Donovan
Women's single sculls - Sanita Puspure

Sailing:

Annalise Murphy - Laser Radial
Finn Lynch - Laser
Ryan Seaton & Matt McGovern - 49er
Andrea Brewster & Saskia Tidey - 49er FX

Swimming:

Fiona Doyle - 1oom breaststroke
Shane Ryan - 1oom backstroke
Nicholas Quinn - 200m breaststroke

Triathlon:

Men's individual - Bryan Keane
Women's individual - Aileen Reid

marienbad

Chivito550 wrote: »

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.

Swimming and Gymnastics are just ridiculous but I included Track & Field because there is a long history of athletes winning multiple medals at a single games . Granted not as common as the aforementioned sports but common enough all the same .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_multiple_Olympic_gold_medalists_at_a_single_Games

Chivito550

marienbad wrote: »

Swimming and Gymnastics are just ridiculous but I included Track & Field because there is a long history of athletes winning multiple medals at a single games . Granted not as common as the aforementioned sports but common enough all the same .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_multiple_Olympic_gold_medalists_at_a_single_Games

Ah here, 1924 is hardly relevant to the modern day. The only ones who have a chance to win more than 2 medals in athletics are those who run the relay.

Joe_ Public

I haven't been paying attention to the rowing scene lately. Great to see Sinead Jennings there. I don't know what her expectations would be, but if this is her first Olympics, then it's a long overdue honour for a brilliant athlete.

walshb

Let's end this nonsense. I'll pick a random event. It's every bit as great and significant and difficult for a swimmer to win the 100 freestyle as it is for a sprinter to win the 100 metres. Anyone arguing with any kind of certainty for one side or the other is just wrong!

Another. It's every bit as great and significant and difficult for a 64 kg boxer to win gold as it is for a runner to win the 1500 metres. Again, anyone arguing with certainty for one or the other is just wrong!

Chivito550

walshb wrote: »

Let's end this nonsense. I'll pick a random event. It's every bit as great and significant and difficult for a swimmer to win the 100 freestyle as it is for a sprinter to win the 100 metres. Anyone arguing with any kind of certainty for one side or the other is just wrong!

Another. It's every bit as great and significant and difficult for a 64 kg boxer to win gold as it is for a runner to win the 1500 metres. Again, anyone arguing with certainty for one or the other is just wrong!

Is Michael Phelps a greater Olympic legend than Steve Redgrave? He has 18 gold medals to Redgrave's 5. After all, each gold medal is valued the same in terms of difficulty so he has to be a much bigger legend eh?

walshb

Chivito550 wrote: »

Is Michael Phelps a greater Olympic legend than Steve Redgrave? He has 18 gold medals to Redgrave's 5. After all, each gold medal is valued the same in terms of difficulty so he has to be a much bigger legend eh?

Both legends. Matter of preference. Both are eclipsed by the GOAT. Teofilo Stevenson!

Btw, your question has nothing to do with my very precise post.

Chivito550

walshb wrote: »

Both legends. Matter of preference. Both are eclipsed by the GOAT. Teofilo Stevenson!

Btw, your question has nothing to do with my very precise post.

It does. You say all Olympic medals are equally difficult to win. In that case Phelps has to be far ahead of Redgrave as he is 18-5 in Olympic golds.

NiallBoo

Chivito550 wrote: »

Is Michael Phelps a greater Olympic legend than Steve Redgrave? He has 18 gold medals to Redgrave's 5. After all, each gold medal is valued the same in terms of difficulty so he has to be a much bigger legend eh?

Ah yeah, but how many Community Games medals do they have?

walshb

Chivito550 wrote: »

It does. You say all Olympic medals are equally difficult to win. In that case Phelps has to be far ahead of Redgrave as he is 18-5 in Olympic golds.

Read my post again. It's very precise. Your question is discussing greatest Olympian. At least that's how it reads. My original post that you quoted has nothing to do with that. It compares winning a gold medal in one sport compared to winning a gold in another sport.

To further qualify it. Anthony Nesty's 1988 100 butterfly gold is every bit as significant as Carl Lewis's 100 Seoul gold.

Separately: Carl Lewis is without doubt a greater Olympian than Anthony Nesty.

gordongekko

ANY IRISH OLYMPIC NEWS?

marienbad

Chivito550 wrote: »

Ah here, 1924 is hardly relevant to the modern day. The only ones who have a chance to win more than 2 medals in athletics are those who run the relay.

Ah here yourself , you keep moving the goalposts and Lewis ,Griffith-Joyner, Brisco-Hooks ,Felix , Bolt are hardly 1924 now are they ?

walshb

gordongekko wrote: »

ANY IRISH OLYMPIC NEWS?

You may find post 1780 insightful. I did!

marienbad

Joe_ Public wrote: »

I haven't been paying attention to the rowing scene lately. Great to see Sinead Jennings there. I don't know what her expectations would be, but if this is her first Olympics, then it's a long overdue honour for a brilliant athlete.

Yes it is her first Olympics and delighted for her , an honour long overdue . She could have qualified as a single sculler in the two previous Olympics but as she would have been a lightweight competing in an open event the Rowing Union would not countenance sending her .

Now she has a great partner in Claire Lambe in the double they are on their way and who knows .

An extraordinary women , world champion in 2001 , silvers and bronzes all over the place ,represented Ireland in Cycling , a qualified Doctor with 3 kids and in her late 30's finally fulfilling her dream . Married to an Olympian as well .

Chivito550

marienbad wrote: »

Ah here yourself , you keep moving the goalposts and Lewis ,Griffith-Joyner, Brisco-Hooks ,Felix , Bolt are hardly 1924 now are they ?

I said that the only people who can win more than 2 gold medals in athletics are those who do relays. And even then it is not very common. It happens every single Games on multiple occasions in swimming.

gordongekko

walshb wrote: »

You may find post 1780 insightful. I did!

But the next 20 arent

Chivito550

gordongekko wrote: »

But the next 20 arent

Is debate not allowed here? It's not as if there are hourly updates to the status of our Olympic team. The alternative to this discussion would have been nothing at all!

Joe_ Public

marienbad wrote: »

Yes it is her first Olympics and delighted for her , an honour long overdue . She could have qualified as a single sculler in the two previous Olympics but as she would have been a lightweight competing in an open event the Rowing Union would not countenance sending her .

Now she has a great partner in Claire Lambe in the double they are on their way and who knows .

An extraordinary women , world champion in 2001 , silvers and bronzes all over the place ,represented Ireland in Cycling , a qualified Doctor with 3 kids and in her late 30's finally fulfilling her dream . Married to an Olympian as well .

Absolutely, a legend. I don't know the full details, just doesn't seem right that such a talent could only be making the Games in her late 30s. I'd love to see them make a final at least!

And no pressure, but those 3 kids are going to have serious expectations to cope with, no escape. We're in serious by Frankel out of Dawn Run territory here

welchy

gordongekko wrote: »

ANY IRISH OLYMPIC NEWS?

Men's Hockey squad has been finalised for Rio

http://www.rte.ie/sport/olympics/2016/0711/801666-ireland-name-16-man-olympic-hockey-squad/

gordongekko

Chivito550 wrote: »

Is debate not allowed here? It's not as if there are hourly updates to the status of our Olympic team. The alternative to this discussion would have been nothing at all!

could ye not just set up a different thread and have this discussion elsewhere as your argument has nothing to do with the thread title

Dodge

Chivito550 wrote: »

Is debate not allowed here? It's not as if there are hourly updates to the status of our Olympic team. The alternative to this discussion would have been nothing at all!

In fairness it's a Road to Rio thread not a general 'which sport is better' thread and there's hundreds of posts on it that are very much on topic

As has been said there's nothing wrong with discussing your views on the sports but they don't fit with Irish qualification for Rio so without a mod splitting those posts out, feel free to start a new thread

Chivito550

Dodge wrote: »

In fairness it's a Road to Rio thread not a general 'which sport is better' thread and there's hundreds of posts on it that are very much on topic

As has been said there's nothing wrong with discussing your views on the sports but they don't fit with Irish qualification for Rio so without a mod splitting those posts out, feel free to start a new thread

True, but it's the nature of online forums that topics tend to meander. It's fairly natural.