Olympics daily thread

Dan man · 09-08-2016 03:57PM

Light winds today at the sailing venue, not good news for Annalise's hopes as she really struggles in light wind conditions.

Dan man · 09-08-2016 04:02PM

Oldira wrote: »

He is 14th so too far back to get a medal.

8th of 13 is disappointing for the Team Event. They were 5th in London and had started so well with their traditional weakest Day in Dressage. Totally fell apart on the tough cross country course sadly.

Another disimprovement from what was acheived in London.

Perhaps I am too pessimistic but I feel Team Irelands medal chances are narrowing every Day. Paddy Power may be correct after all with 3.

It's a fair and accurate reflection to be honest, it's been a disappointing Games for our eventing team, even more so given the strong start we made in what is always our achilles' heel in dressage.

Chivito550 · 09-08-2016 04:03PM

Oldira wrote: »

He is 14th so too far back to get a medal.

8th of 13 is disappointing for the Team Event. They were 5th in London and had started so well with their traditional weakest Day in Dressage. Totally fell apart on the tough cross country course sadly.

Another disimprovement from what was acheived in London.

Perhaps I am too pessimistic but I feel Team Irelands medal chances are narrowing every Day. Paddy Power may be correct after all with 3.

Only 3 times in our history have we achieved 3 medals (I refuse to acknowledge 1996, although we've been cheated out of medals in other Games namely Sonia in 1992). Those Games were: London 2012 with 6, Melbourne 1956 with 5, and Beijing 2008 with 3. If we manage 3 it is a good result for us. We are not a strong Olympic nation compared to other countries our size. We take a hammering from GAA, Soccer and Rugby, and Olympic sports are chronically underfunded and get little exposure.

Some of the predictions on this forum for 7-8 medals were mad. I'd gladly sign for 3 medals right now, though I'd like at least one not to be in boxing.

Ososlo · 09-08-2016 04:03PM

GOAL!!!!!!!!! I can't stand hockey normally, but sure ya know, it's the Olympics so you gotta watch it!
GO IRELAND!!!!

Joe_ Public · 09-08-2016 04:06PM

“When it’s light winds everything has to be perfect. Make one small mistake and you will be punished. Rio is light winds and that’s the challenge. It’s something I’ve been working on for three years,” she says.

Read that line in an old Murphy interview this morning. Obviously there's not much you can do to change physiological factors, but she's known and understood the prevailing conditions for years, has been to Rio many times (no different to her rivals of course) and has had time to adjust. It's not beyond her surely. Just hang in on the lightest days, no disasters or mistakes as she says, and if she's lucky, there's a windy day or two down the line. That's my spiel anyway. I'm staying positive!

Oldira · 09-08-2016 04:11PM

Joe_ Public wrote: »

“When it’s light winds everything has to be perfect. Make one small mistake and you will be punished. Rio is light winds and that’s the challenge. It’s something I’ve been working on for three years,” she says.

Read that line in an old Murphy interview this morning. Obviously there's not much you can do to change physiological factors, but she's known and understood the prevailing conditions for years, has been to Rio many times (no different to her rivals of course) and has had time to adjust. It's not beyond her surely. Just hang in on the lightest days, no disasters or mistakes as she says, and if she's lucky, there's a windy day or two down the line. That's my spiel anyway. I'm staying positive!

And in fairness to her she looks like a twig compared to 2012 so she obviously has worked really hard.

If I could pick only one person to medal it would be her after 2012.

Joe_ Public · 09-08-2016 04:19PM

Oldira wrote: »

And in fairness to her she looks like a twig compared to 2012 so she obviously has worked really hard.

If I could pick only one person to medal it would be her after 2012.

Same here. Just purely what I know of her character and personality alone, there's something hugely impressive about her and her attitude to performance. Top 10 would be very good but I think she'd still be disappointed with it herself.

Oldira · 09-08-2016 04:19PM

Chivito550 wrote: »

Only 3 times in our history have we achieved 3 medals (I refuse to acknowledge 1996, although we've been cheated out of medals in other Games namely Sonia in 1992). Those Games were: London 2012 with 6, Melbourne 1956 with 5, and Beijing 2008 with 3. If we manage 3 it is a good result for us. We are not a strong Olympic nation compared to other countries our size. We take a hammering from GAA, Soccer and Rugby, and Olympic sports are chronically underfunded and get little exposure.

Some of the predictions on this forum for 7-8 medals were mad. I'd gladly sign for 3 medals right now, though I'd like at least one not to be in boxing.

Fair points and all true but New Zealand takes a hammering from Rugby and Cricket and yet their target is 24 medals! They seem to target certain sports and all but ignore othes (eg Boxing,Swimming).
You are correrct on the underfunding though as every gob****e of a TD wants to go back to his consituency with 50k here or 30 k there for fences or lighting for the local GAA or Soccer club. There is no votes in giving 50k to Keran Behan so that he can train properly and not have to work on building sites to fund himself. I say this as a GAA man by the way.

Joe_ Public · 09-08-2016 04:26PM

Funding is not a straightforward topic though. You can't knock money given to GAA or soccer clubs when you analyse the broad nature of what that money is going to achieve. I wish we could give more money to athletes to pitch for medals, but in the climate we have here it'll never happen. In fact, the good days as regards funding Olympic sports is probably over, it seems to decline a little bit every year. Still I'm not sure we do so badly in relative terms. Are the UK all that better funded than us? In the US athletes don't receive any state assistance at all, only what their own often impoverished federations can give them. Australia are generous but I read a piece in one of the Aussie dailies last week, basically telling the athletes to go to Rio and justify all the money they were given and that kind of pressure woudln't sit right with me.

All in all, I think we are doing ok, could do better and could do worse. I think 4 medals might be the return and that would be a very acceptable Games.

HeidiHeidi · 09-08-2016 04:29PM

Can anyone get that sailing.org tracker link to work?

I had it working briefly - the only time it worked - on the Finn race, but everything I click on just sticks on "connecting to server", both yesterday and today :mad:

Dan man · 09-08-2016 04:31PM

Oldira wrote: »

Fair points and all true but New Zealand takes a hammering from Rugby and Cricket and yet their target is 24 medals! They seem to target certain sports and all but ignore othes (eg Boxing,Swimming).

New Zealand have a great swimmer in Lauren Boyle too.

HeidiHeidi · 09-08-2016 04:37PM

Laser radials are in sequence, according to FB - still can't get tracker to work or find any coverage on the telly :mad:

Mr.Prodston · 09-08-2016 04:37PM

It's all about the canoe slalom!

C1 semi final now with final about 7.

Strazdas · 09-08-2016 04:41PM

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Laser radials are in sequence, according to FB - still can't get tracker to work or find any coverage on the telly :mad:

RTE Radio have just said they expect Annalise's first race to get underway at around 7pm (it has been delayed)

HeidiHeidi · 09-08-2016 04:43PM

Strazdas wrote: »

RTE Radio have just said they expect Annalise's first race to get underway at around 7pm (it has been delayed)

They need to catch up then - they're half way up the first beat!

Finally got the tracker working - although it's fairly useless for close-quarters racing like this - but better than nothing!

Chivito550 · 09-08-2016 04:47PM

Oldira wrote: »

Fair points and all true but New Zealand takes a hammering from Rugby and Cricket and yet their target is 24 medals! They seem to target certain sports and all but ignore othes (eg Boxing,Swimming).
You are correrct on the underfunding though as every gob****e of a TD wants to go back to his consituency with 50k here or 30 k there for fences or lighting for the local GAA or Soccer club. There is no votes in giving 50k to Keran Behan so that he can train properly and not have to work on building sites to fund himself. I say this as a GAA man by the way.

You've explained the reason for the first paragraph in your second paragraph. We will never compete with NZ down to attitudes endemic in this country.

HeidiHeidi · 09-08-2016 04:47PM

She's around the 1st mark in 7th according to the tracker

HeidiHeidi · 09-08-2016 04:51PM

Hungary, China, Belgium 123 around mark 2 - Annalise still 7th.

NabyLadistheman · 09-08-2016 04:52PM

trying to watch swimming on rte website...rubbish, buffering constantly

HeidiHeidi · 09-08-2016 04:52PM

Denmark, USA,Turkey 4,5,6

juke · 09-08-2016 04:54PM

According to the commentators, the Finns race has about 4 minutes more racing, so hopefully they'll switch to the women's race on player immediately after

Strazdas · 09-08-2016 04:55PM

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

They need to catch up then - they're half way up the first beat!

Finally got the tracker working - although it's fairly useless for close-quarters racing like this - but better than nothing!

Crikey, they're a bit off the ball here then

HeidiHeidi · 09-08-2016 04:59PM

Irish hockey match now over, but RTE staying with hockey :mad:

HeidiHeidi · 09-08-2016 04:59PM

Around mark 3 in 6th, Hungary still in the lead

Strazdas · 09-08-2016 05:00PM

Annalise's brother is tweeting via her account, she is 6th/7th at the moment :

http://twitter.com/Annalise_Murphy

spock. · 09-08-2016 05:01PM

Nicholas Quinn wins his heat in 200m breaststroke

Strazdas · 09-08-2016 05:01PM

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Around mark 3 in 6th, Hungary still in the lead

That's not bad then (depending on where her big rivals are)

HeidiHeidi · 09-08-2016 05:02PM

Breeze building according to her FB/twitter - she's up to 4th now.

ETA - 2nd! while I was typing!!

Mind you, it is on the beat, which the tracker was crap at monitoring yesterday evening - so to be taken with a pinch of salt......

Strazdas · 09-08-2016 05:03PM

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Breeze building according to her FB/twitter - she's up to 4th now.

ETA - 2nd! while I was typing!!

Go Annalise! She did this late charge in Race 1 yesterday too!

juke · 09-08-2016 05:04PM

Looks like player is sticking with the Finns

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