The AH Tokyo 2020 Olympics/Paralympics Thread in 2021

Muahahaha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117722221#Comment_117722221

ah geography does matter with snowsports because big mountains are typically inaccessible places. For some of the big French resorts you are talking a 3 hour flight followed by a 4-5 hour transfer to the ski resort. It is between 8 and 10 hours of travel door to door. As a result most people from Ireland or the UK go to the mountains for only one week a year because it is both expensive and time consuming to get there. Between flights, transfers and extra fees to transport sporting equipment the return journey is typically costing around 300 euro and thats before youve spent another 300 on a one week ski pass or anything at all on food, accomodation or drinks.

Whereas for people living on the continent they can buy a season pass which covers several mountain resorts, sometimes they are interconnected with hundreds of kilometres of pistes available. They'll spend a full week at one of them but then also do several weekends at other mountains throughout the season. They still have to do a lot of driving but they can finish work Friday, get in the car and have two full days on the slopes before heading back ready for work the next day with no holidays lost.

The more hardcore among them buy campervans to sleep in the ski resort car parks, cooking and sleeping in them to avoid the high resort costs. Or they will stay in a town 15km or 20km away with cheap lodgings and then drive to the ski lifts in the mornings. Theyll do this almost every weekend throughout the season while still working Monday to Friday back at home. Its possible for them to get 40-50 days on the slopes every season doing it this way. Whereas if you are living in Ireland or the UK that is just not feasible and most people have 6 days on the slopes per season or 12 at best if they pony up for a second trip. The difference in access and costs is always going to translate when it comes to competition levels because countries near big mountains have a much higher percentage of the population going there and they go a lot more frequently.

The_Kew_Tour

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117722491#Comment_117722491

Yes every time we meet Brazil we beat them. Soccer and all.

Oh wait..

Say Your Number

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117722472#Comment_117722472

US pulling away in the third quarter, Japan played some good stuff, might have had a chance but for the stark difference in height.

Say Your Number

Like the polite applause from the crowd when Japan score, Griner is a very good player.

Das Reich

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117722497#Comment_117722497

Like England when they play against Italy.

Not been biased but watched the full fight on youtube and it seems the Irish did nothing other than hugs.

Montage of Feck

All that remains to be decided is the mens water polo gold, roll on Paris at least we only have three years to wait.

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117722410#Comment_117722410

Kelly Harrington is a very clever fighter ,her opponent was a pure brawler, all brawn ,aggression but no tactical nous, in effect the Brazilian wasn't too bright

lawrencesummers

Water polo is the most entertaining form of attempted murder by drowning that ive ever seen.

Brendan Bendar

Dezzie will be signed up for ‘de partie’ by now.

Will give his business class seat to Kellie.

jojofizzio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117722497#Comment_117722497

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117722491#Comment_117722491

big Bang of the sour grapes from that particular Brazilian equating what that mentally disturbed priest did with what Kellie achieved this morning 😳😳

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117722488#Comment_117722488

Was class when they hugged as soon as the bell went and I think Kellie went straight to the Brazilian corner after too.

It was all very genuine which was the best thing

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117722677#Comment_117722677

Brazil is a big country so plenty of idiots in abundance

AMKC

Awe I felt sorry for the Brazillian. I think she gave it her all and was the better boxer. Kelly kept giving the Brazilian hugs and kept moving back into the ropes and letting the Brazillian dominat and control the flow of the match. Kelly did get some nice punches in to the head alright but the Brazilian got some nice punches in too. Anyway well done Kelly Harrington but I stl think Katy Taylor is way better and if the two were to fight that Katie would win.

irishguitarlad

Great win by Kellie and I'm absolutely delighted for her. To think a few pages back on here some fúcking shítehawk was saying that we need to invest less in boxing, tool.

davetherave

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117721390#Comment_117721390

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117722417#Comment_117722417

65 medals, and as far as I can tell, four of them to people who were born outside England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland.

• British-Japanese skateboard who has British citizenship by way of her father.
• Two gymnasts born in Dublin, to parents of Azerbaijani origin, who were living in the UK
• A sprinter born in Anguilla, which as a British overseas territory, is not recognised by the Olympics Committee.

Unless you are judging a book by its cover and they can only represent Team GB if they look like Laura Muir, Chris Hoy, or Jessica Ennis and not Linford Christie or Dina Asher-Smith?

KaneToad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117722727#Comment_117722727

Most boxers go to the opposition corner before & after the fight result. Nothing that unusual for Harrington to do it.

Delighted that she won. She's a brilliant athlete and, from what I see of her on TV, she seems like a nice person too.

Didn't see the fight live. Went to the RTE player to see what that had. To say it was pi$$ poor would be an understatement. It was 2 mins of incoherent highlights that ended abruptly at the second the result was announced.

Cosmo Kramer

I think I actually preferred today's win to Taylor's one. I'm not saying Harrington would beat Taylor in a fight but Taylor was a poster girl for the first women's boxing outing at the Olympics and was always expected to win gold, whereas while Harrington was always expected to win a medal this feels like a bit of a bonus gold as she was definitely the underdog going in to that fight, albeit she was the first seed in the division.

Probably our first "upset" gold since Carruth in 1992 as Taylor, the rowers and even Smith were all heavily fancied going into their various Olympic games.

Probably a decent chance Harrington will turn pro now - I'm not a huge pro boxing fan but a Taylor v Harrington fight would potentially be a big earner for all involved.

The good news is that Amy Broadhurst is waiting in the wings to take over from Harrington at this weight if she doesn't stay on for Paris.

Morris Garren

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117722830#Comment_117722830

'Smith' !!! Heavily Fancied.. ? A bit of revisionism there perhaps. I wonder how she is feeling today actually

appledrop

Absolutely amazing performance by Kellie absolutely delighted for her + inner city Dublin.

Hopefully she will inspire the kids in her community to stick with sport.

I'm personally not a big fan of boxing but we have had huge success in this area over various years and it's about time they really pumped money into this area.

Some of the boxing training centres are still in old freezing buildings. It's also a sport that a lot of tougher kids are drawn to + it can keep them on straight and narrow so it has benefits from a youth justice point of view aswell.

Well done Kellie, up the dubs!

Cosmo Kramer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117722834#Comment_117722834

Maybe forgetfulness more than revisionism but my recollection was that, off the back of the 1995 European Championships, she went into Atlanta as a big favourite in at least two of her events, albeit suspicions were already being raised about the extent of her improvements since the previous Olympics.

Gary Scrod

Great to see the US beat China for most gold medals and most medals. Those Mao supporters should have been disqualified.

CrabRevolution

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117722871#Comment_117722871

If you think boxing and criminality can't be combined, Daniel Kinahan would like a word!

jojofizzio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117722834#Comment_117722834

I wonder if she’ll put out another statement to tell us all how she feels about her achievements 25 years ago…..coz it’s what we all want to hear….

Jimi H

Fantastic from Kellie. What an inspiration.

Overall what do people think of our performance?

fryup

haven't seen the fight or any of the coverage yet

but please tell me there was no "Olé, Olé, Olé"... if one thing grates my gears is hearing irish sport fans chanting that😬

Montage of Feck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117722982#Comment_117722982

We are falling behind in athletics, but hey we are 39 in the medals table which isn't bad for a country our size.

Richard Hillman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117722982#Comment_117722982

Considering we've only won 2 gold's since the last Tokyo Olympics, a big improvement. But 2 gold's, 2 bronze should be what we are accustomed to. We are generally poor in the Olympics, hopefully this is the new standard.

KaneToad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117722982#Comment_117722982

We had a very big team but very few of them were ever going to be competitive. We don't invest enough in sport. We're content to be the plucky underachievers.

I think all the athletes are honest and try their best. But, when we consistently have competitors who can't surpass/match their personal bests, there is something wrong. I think it's the funding, they don't have the financial freedom to totally commit to the sport for the 4 yr cycle.

hahashake

If there was an award for mental gymnastics then Ireland would surely medal based on some of the posters in this thread.

appledrop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117722898#Comment_117722898

Ah you know what I mean, it does stop some kids going down that road because they have a purpose are training and keeping busy.