The AH Tokyo 2020 Olympics/Paralympics Thread in 2021

Cosmo Kramer

I would agree with that. I was talking to someone yesterday who's son is involved in Rowing in the UK at junior level. He was saying that it's pretty much all self funded by the clubs and by well off middle class parents at that level. But once the rowers get to 16 or 17 years old UK Sport come in and pick out the very best rowers and throw millions at their development in search of Olympic medals. None of that feeds back to the local clubs that initially developed them though.

That's really all UK Sport is - millions for medals. They don't actually care about grass roots sporting development and improving public health, because that's not what Team GB is really about when it comes to it - it's about buying medals as a method of promoting British nationalism and so that they can have Gabby and Clare on the BBC couch telling everyone how great Britain is.

So yes, we need to improve funding of minority sports, but I wouldn't want to see us go down the British route either. The long term goal of all of this needs to be accessibility of a wide range of high quality sporting facilities to the general public. If we get that in place, alongside appropriate top level coaching for our elite competitors, the medals will follow in a sustainable way.

Joe_ Public

I think it was posted earlier in this thread, total government expenditure on sport & rec in this country is around 0.4%. That's barely half the EU average. The UK, as point of comparison, is even lower. We just don't make the case well enough for the benefits, both moral and practical, for investing in grassroots sport. Sweden, for example, invests over four times as much as we do and then we wonder why they've got such a better health system than we do. They simply understand how joined up the whole thing is better than we do.

ArmaniJeanss

There was some minor crowing in UK circles (I shouldn't read the DM/Express, but hey) about how well they did vis a vis France. 22 Golds UK v 10 France, and 65 v 33 medals in total.

It's quite interesting when you look at the medals though.

Great Britain at the 2020 Summer Olympics - Wikipedia

France at the 2020 Summer Olympics - Wikipedia

France Gold in Men's Volleyball, Gold in Men's and Women's Handball, Silver in Men's Basketball (silver is arguably what everyone is fighting for behind USA). So lots of team sports medal, which only count as one in the table but they do mean that 15 team members will forever have a gold medal in their possession. Presumably France invest reasonably heavily in those sports for kids, even though in the best case scenario it can only translate to one Olympic medal.

The GB medal total is by and large made up of individual medallists - even when they won as a team it tended to be relay/medley events in sports which are traditionally individual.

Now whilst it may not happen that way in 2024 (GB may get back to winning in Hockey, and Volleyball/Handball are so competitive France may well be beaten in the quarter finals), I just thought it gave a nice perspective on why the medal table isn't always a good guide to who is 'sporting better'.

yerwanthere123

Posted it in the athletics thread but should give it a mention here too.

After all the sneering and thinly-veiled accusations of the British press towards the Italian sprinters, it's one of their own who's doping. CJ Ujah provisionally suspended after testing positive for two banned substances. Looking likely they'll be stripped of the medal.

NIMAN

You have to laugh at the brits, like they haven't got a history of dopers.

Always try to play the whiter than white card , when they obviously dope like everyone else or else they wouldnt be doing well in the medal count.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117744293#Comment_117744293

And when our greatest Olympian Michelle Smith won a few medals, what did our local media do? Tear her down in subsequent years and accuse her of doping........ Whitewashed since out of public view and off official media. The hypocrisy would make you retch.

Furze99

And I agree re the excessive funding given to the horse & greyhound racing industries. 'Sports' that have very little to do with sport for the masses and which largely exist for the needs of a betting industry.

Sport Ireland is the main vehicle for funding sports that are both participatory and which lead to excellence. That should be the focus of sports funding.

Some reservations about funding boxing and other sports which have a split 'amateur' / 'professional' structure.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117744373#Comment_117744373

But they're also employers and generate revenue for the country through the export of horses (an estimated €230m a year is generated in racehorse exports). 40% of racehorses in the entire EU are Irish born. There's a bit of a misunderstanding of how horse racing operates and how it is funded. Yes, the state pumps tens of millions of Euros into the industry (mainly prize money) but it's a continuous circular process - every year thousands of new horses come into training in Ireland and owners pump back much of the prize money into buying more and more new horses. So it's far from the case that the state is just throwing money at horse racing with no return.

yerwanthere123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117744341#Comment_117744341

Michelle stop embarrassing yourself 😥

Joe_ Public

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117744470#Comment_117744470

There's also some very basic misunderstanding that funding of racing is somehow taking away from the general sports pot, which isn't the case. As already pointed out, racing is funded as an industry by the Dept of Agriculture and is judged on that subvention by the returns it delivers. The idea that if this money was removed, more funds would flow into other sports as a consequence is simply naive. It would go to beef or dairy or maybe some form of organic sustainable farming. Some other facet of agriculture anyway.

I think most of us agree here that Irish grassroots support is underfunded and deserves better, but that's nothing much to do with racing, it's a red herring.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117744529#Comment_117744529

Indeed and I'd say most horse racing people are sports fans just like the rest of us and would love to see more funding going into Olympic sports.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117744470#Comment_117744470

Well then it should be considered as some other type of commercial activity. Take it out of 'Sports Funding' and let the IDA or whoever subsidise it from their budget.

Christy42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117744293#Comment_117744293

I saw Jacobs said he smiled when he saw the news since the British press have taken a few shots at him. Not saying he is clean but as he said they possibly should have been looking closer to home first.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117747763#Comment_117747763

As far as I know, they are funded by the Department of Agriculture and none of their funding comes from Sport Ireland. So it's a bit of a myth that they are impacting on sports or Olympic funding in any way.

deise08

New search function is crap, or I just can't seem to work it properly. Goes straight to oldest, can't find newest post.

Edit: new tagging function is brilliant.

If somewhere more suitable for this please move it.

Did Anyone else see this tweet from paralympian Patrick Flanagan?

His wheelchair was made unusable somehow between getting on the plane and ollecting it in Heathrow.

https://mobile.twitter.com/PatrickFlan/status/1426403040102342656

fryup

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117744293#Comment_117744293

and who the hell are we to talk...

michelle smith, martin fagan, stephen roche, michael O'reilly, that horse in athens 04

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117752061#Comment_117752061

In fairness, the vast or overwhelming majority of our Olympians were probably not taking drugs. We've won a tiny number of medals on the athletics track (and none in the swimming pool outside Michelle Smith). There doesn't appear to be a strong doping culture here, thank goodness.

Ha Long Bay

Just catching up on the days events on +1 tonight. Congrats to Ellen Keane on her gold medal today a brilliant achievement.

Watched some of the basketball yesterday it's really not the same without Timmy "downtown" McCarthy commentating.

robinph

I'm sure we really shouldn't be laughing, but the S5 butterfly swimming, which is those with no arms, was hilarious. I thought the fundamental thing about the butterfly stroke was the both arms going around your head at the same time thing, but with no arms you can't do that obviously so they were just swimming like fish wriggling through the water. Then part way through the race you realise that they have no arms to touch the end of the pool and stop the clock...and sure enough they just keep going until they headbutt the end. :D

robinph

Now they have blind long jump happening. One person stood just on the take off board and shouts at the jumper who runs straight at them, then the shouting guide has to leap out of the way at the last second as the jumper goes flying over them and hopes that they land in the sand pit. I've done some guiding of blind runners in races, but that is a whole heap of extra trust in the assistants shouting at you and guiding you to leap literally into the unknown.

Silver for the girls on the track, delighted for them. Even held the world record for 10 minutes.

Morris Garren

Watching highlights today- lots of great performances, not least from the RTE analysts who bring a fair degree of expertise and excellence.

However, during the wheelchair rugby highlights, the RTE voice-over told us (I had to replay it to be sure) that one of the British para-athletes climbed the 'worlds highest mountain - KILIMANJAIRO - on his hands and knees....' having been amputated 'in his yooot' - Christ almighty, do RTE get junior cert work experience kids to do this thing? Serious disrespect and lack of proper professional standards from the broadcaster, in contrast to the real athletes themselves.

Morris Garren

Have to say, once again, the quality of RTE coverage lies in the excellent insights of Mark Rohan and Catherine Walsh; they have to cover lots of disciplines but they have done their research and are really on top of their game.

Contrast this with the muppetry and nonsense of the GAA coverage yesterday-- Pat Spillane shouting and ranting like a drunkard; not sure why RTE retain these dinosaurs for years when you compare them to the more genuine contributors who actually know what they are talking about

siblers

You'd really have to question some of the classifications, was watching one of the 200m final in running and the one who won seemed to have minimal impairment while others couldn't even fully sprint due to their impairment. Seems to be across the board for a lot of the track and swimming events

robinph

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117821285#Comment_117821285

In some events just down to the numbers for the event they might have a couple of categories merged together to create a full field. The number of competitors for some events is just so few that it exaggerates the range of standards between the best from each country.

robinph

Then you get other categories like the T64 100m and four athletes finishing the final within 3 100ths of a second and unable to separate 3rd place.