Off Topic Thread 3.0

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

bilston wrote: »

It's happened again!!!

Kiwi_knock wrote: »

This is hilarious

What's this? Boxing again?

errlloyd

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

What's this? Boxing again?

I think they were talking about the false starts in the Kerin cycling event.

irishbucsfan

Deleted User wrote: »

Shocking decision in the boxing and I'd love to see something constructive done to raise a serious stink. But giving the judges the finger and blasting people on twitter are not going to rally anyone to the cause.

I don't think he really cares in the slightest about rallying anyone to the cause. I think he cares about going pro and getting his share out of the sport now, and giving judges the finger and blasting people on twitter is only going to increase his value in that world!

This whole thing is why I'll be much happier watching the MMA on Saturday night. Whatever about the merits of the mechanics of the sport itself, the judges are far less relevant over there at least.

Buer

Teferi wrote: »

So how juiced up is Bolt? The circumstantial evidence seems to be building up - of the 30 of the fastest times in the 100m 21 of the racers have tested positive for drugs and the other 9 times are Bolt, his coach has had dodgy dealings in the past, former juice doctors have said that all the sprinters are juiced, Jamaica have been accused of being a bit lacks on testing etc. At the same time, you have to wonder if it matters because if they're all juiced to the gills and he is still winning, does he have an advantage? Personally, I'd like to believe he runs clean.

There's significant circumstancial evidence to suggest he's worthy of suspicion. The fact is though that he's the Wall Street of the Olympics i.e. too big to fail. The IOC/IAAF could not have Bolt found guilty of doping. It would destroy the icon they've built their organisations around his profile over the past decade.

Jamaica have had major issues with their testing over the years and have fallen foul of WADA. A large number of their athletes have tested positive. They have coaches who have been banned including those who trained Bolt.

But most damning is that Bolt employed Angel Heredia. This is the guy who is a professional doping chemist. He shipped Gatlin, Montgomery and Jones in a plea bargain and provided multiple athletes with their drug cocktails and was the star witness in the BALCO scandal.

I think we'd all like to believe but the sport has been so damaged and corrupted at this point, it's hard to do so.

awec

It is strangely dark this morning here in Dublin but it doesn't look like it's going to rain soon, very odd. When I opened the curtains about 9:30 it looked like a December morning.

molloyjh

awec wrote: »

When I opened the curtains about 9:30...

:mad:

awec

molloyjh wrote: »

:mad:

Sorry molloy!

Even now though it's dark outside and the sky has a weird glow.

bilston

Feck sake at 9.30am I had been in the office for 2 hours.

Just watched Thomas Barr's run last night in the 400m hurdles. Quality effort.

awec

bilston wrote: »

Feck sake at 9.30am I had been in the office for 2 hours.

Just watched Thomas Barr's run last night in the 400m hurdles. Quality effort.

Pfft, get a real job bilston!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

bilston wrote: »

Feck sake at 9.30am I had been in the office for 2 hours.

Just watched Thomas Barr's run last night in the 400m hurdles. Quality effort.

Yeah, they were saying before it he needed to go .2 under his PB to qualify as a fastest loser, I thought maybe there was a small chance he might do that, and then he bloody wins it

Anything can happen in a final, if you have a lane you have a chance, as they say. Good to see it's in the morning session too, about 4pm Irish time. I'm not a devout track and field watcher but I've never heard of any of the other guys in the final. Barr ran the 3rd fastest time of the finalists, so you never know.

Would be nice to get a track medal. Was Sonia the last person to win us one?

sydthebeat

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Would be nice to get a track medal. Was Sonia the last person to win us one?

yes, but the last sprint medal was bob tisdall in 1932 !!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Apparently Pat Hickey has been arrested in Rio this morning.

It's typical, we're actually having a not too bad Olympics, in terms of what people are achieving, if not actual medal count, and it's all going to be overshadowed by the clowns at the OCI.

thomond2006

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Apparently Pat Hickey has been arrested in Rio this morning.

It's typical, we're actually having a not too bad Olympics, in terms of what people are achieving, if not actual medal count, and it's all going to be overshadowed by the clowns at the OCI.

Cowboys, Ted! They're a bunch of Cowboys!

irishbucsfan

If the OCI are going to be corrupt they could at least have bought Conlan a medal while they were at it.

Buer

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

It's typical, we're actually having a not too bad Olympics, in terms of what people are achieving, if not actual medal count.

I really don't think we are.

There's a few people who have performed but I suspect the majority of Irish athletes are going to be experiencing varying levels of disappointment as they return home.

sydthebeat

outside of the boxing i think we have performed very well to be honest.

Buer

sydthebeat wrote: »

outside of the boxing i think we have performed very well to be honest.

The rowers, sailors, Oliver Dingley, Scott Evans and Thomas Barr have gone well.

I don't think anyone else will be returning home overly pleased with their showings. Possibly Shane Ryan who broke the NR in his backstroke heat which was great but was the only event a swimmer made it out of their heat.

Our boxing was a disaster. We had a solid chance of a medal in the golf but finished 15th and 21st in a really weak field. The equestrian team didn't go well. Athletics was pretty mediocre, Barr aside. Hockey, cycling, gymnastics...all just making up numbers in fairness.

sydthebeat

Buer wrote: »

The rowers, sailors, Oliver Dingley, Scott Evans and Thomas Barr have gone well.

I don't think anyone else will be returning home overly pleased with their showings. Possibly Shane Ryan who broke the NR in his backstroke heat which was great but was the only event a swimmer made it out of their heat.

Our boxing was a disaster. We had a solid chance of a medal in the golf but finished 15th and 21st in a really weak field. The equestrian team didn't go well. Athletics was pretty mediocre, Barr aside. Hockey, cycling, gymnastics...all just making up numbers in fairness.

well "making up the numbers" is probably best that could have been expected of some of our competitors. The hockey team will be disappointed but one win was probably the best they could have expected.

india, germany, netherlands and argentina are all top 7 ranked countries while we are 12th.

Fionuala mc cormack finishing 20th and PBing in the marathon was brilliant.
Dingley making the final and finishing 8th was also an excellent return based on pre competition expectation.

fiona doyle was very disappointed in herself but a semi and PB was best she have expected.

our mens golfers were alright, power doing better than most would have though. Paddy battled bravely and both should be proud.

Our equestrian team was weird, they choose not to bring Allen for some reason, who would have been a better rider than rutherford (allen was ranked 10th, rutherford 252nd).. so something was going on there.

annalise Murphy was brilliant, delighted for her.

on the gymnastics, felt for kieran behan, has been though so much and got injured again. cant consider his performances disappointing as he PBed on the horse.

Boxing a disaster. track and field a bit poor apart from barr as you say, hopefully heffernan in the walking can medal again, but hes pushing on in years now.

I am more than fine with some of our athletes making up the numbers.

Simply getting on that plane is an achievement beyond the realms of belief.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Buer wrote: »

The rowers, sailors, Oliver Dingley, Scott Evans and Thomas Barr have gone well.

I don't think anyone else will be returning home overly pleased with their showings. Possibly Shane Ryan who broke the NR in his backstroke heat which was great but was the only event a swimmer made it out of their heat.

Our boxing was a disaster. We had a solid chance of a medal in the golf but finished 15th and 21st in a really weak field. The equestrian team didn't go well. Athletics was pretty mediocre, Barr aside. Hockey, cycling, gymnastics...all just making up numbers in fairness.

Some of our athletes are never going to compete for medals though. Making SF's or setting PBs are the most they can hope for. You could argue should we bother sending them, I'd argue this with our pole vaulter tbh.

Golf, in my opinion, is such a random sport, anyone can win on any given day, regardless of how stacked the field is, or isn't. Some of the cycling road race guys might feel bad but it was a ridiculously tough course this year. Equestrian, I don't know enough about to comment.

Gymnastics, yes, we're making up the numbers but if you look at it in terms of promoting the sport we did well. Nobody for years, one guy in 2012, 2 people in 2016.

I suppose how you measure success is down to an individual but I don't think we've done too badly.

Buer

I suppose there's a case for saying it hasn't been too bad but I'd struggle to say that the tournament has been anything above average/mediocre for us. It'll probably be our worst performance since 2004 unless things go our way in the next few days.

I think Harrington will be massively disappointed as a side note. This is a one off event that he was clearly very pumped for, had been playing decently and was in a very mediocre field but couldn't finish top 20 out of 60. That is poor for him. Power can be happy with his showing.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

So, Pat Hickey's been charged with "Ticket Touting, Forming a Cartel & Illicit Marketing"

CatFromHue

but not flashing??

awec

I for one am delighted to see a ticket tout dragged through the courts.

Hope an example is made.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

awec wrote: »

I for one am delighted to see a ticket tout dragged through the courts.

Hope an example is made.

Was watching the press conference on RTE News Now and the Communications Officer for the IOC was being asked a lot of questions about it. One interesting one from a Canadian journalist asked if there was any chance that other NOC's had been doing the same as the Irish, or intending to, and could that account for the large number of empty seats at a lot of events. Apparently there's reports in the local media about local people trying to get tickets for events but the websites saying they're sold out. They've been asked about the empty seats all week but don't seem to be able to give an answer. The other guy at the presser was even saying that they were just ripping tickets at some events rather than scanning them so they can't really tell if people are getting in with tickets that they shouldn't have.

thomond2006

awec wrote: »

I for one am delighted to see a ticket tout dragged through the courts.

Hope an example is made.

The irony is Ticketmaster own a secondary website (seatwave) which allows people to sell over face value and nobody seems to care.

molloyjh

I have to say I struggle to give a damn about the Olympics. If there's a more crooked international event in world sport I'm not aware of it. Between the doping and the corruption the whole thing just seems a total shambles to me.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

molloyjh wrote: »

I have to say I struggle to give a damn about the Olympics. If there's a more crooked international event in world sport I'm not aware of it. Between the doping and the corruption the whole thing just seems a total shambles to me.

It certainly seems that way, this year in particular. I don't know if it's just since the rise of social media as a valid news source that everything is easier to expose or if it has always been this way.

Even a lot of the individual sporting bodies are crooked at worst, incompetent at best. It's hard to enjoy any sport even outside the Olympics.

awec

awec wrote: »

I for one am delighted to see a ticket tout dragged through the courts.

Hope an example is made.

To be honest, he has done far far worse as IOC president. You will struggle to find current or former Olympic athletes that would have a single positive word to say about how the IOC treats athletes. It's been a sham for a long time and I really hope there is a long hard fall from grace here.

molloyjh wrote: »

I have to say I struggle to give a damn about the Olympics. If there's a more crooked international event in world sport I'm not aware of it. Between the doping and the corruption the whole thing just seems a total shambles to me.

Couldn't agree more. The games are horrendously tarnished and the last two days have pulled a small bit of curtain a small way back revealing just a fraction of the corruption that actually goes on.

Drugs have killed many sports but corruption has buried them all.

irishbucsfan

Deleted User wrote: »

To be honest, he has done far far worse as IOC president. You will struggle to find current or former Olympic athletes that would have a single positive word to say about how the IOC treats athletes. It's been a sham for a long time and I really hope there is a long hard fall from grace here

It's amazing that people in these positions last so long, can't say I know too much about the organisation though.