Olympics daily thread

FrKurtFahrt · 22-08-2016 02:37AM

I could be very wrong, but is it not traditional for some IOC person to declare, on the podium, 'this is the best Olympics ever'? It might come yet - I hope not though.

Strazdas · 22-08-2016 02:58AM

FrKurtFahrt wrote: »

I could be very wrong, but is it not traditional for some IOC person to declare, on the podium, 'this is the best Olympics ever'? It might come yet - I hope not though.

They would have been lying anyway

The_Kew_Tour · 22-08-2016 09:09AM

I saw on Rte and it been mentioned on sky that it cost Australia 8m for every medal they won and Great Britain was 5m

Croatia a similar size country to us apparently have fantastic structures in place, but while no official figures it's about 1-1.5m per medal

I doubt Ireland is anywhere near that

Joe_ Public · 22-08-2016 09:43AM

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

I saw on Rte and it been mentioned on sky that it cost Australia 8m for every medal they won and Great Britain was 5m

Croatia a similar size country to us apparently have fantastic structures in place, but while no official figures it's about 1-1.5m per medal

I doubt Ireland is anywhere near that

Well I guess the maths would say it cost Ireland €20m per medal given the figure quoted for athlete funding is €40m and we won two medals. That Croatian figure would imply their Olympic funding was in the region of €10-15m. I suppose there are several different angles from which you can weigh up these things.

ahlookit · 22-08-2016 10:22AM

Stheno wrote: »

Thanks to you all fellow posters for a fantastic thread which truly enriched my experience of these Olympics

Just want to add my thanks to everyone who kept updates going here and tried to explain finer points of sports I hadn't a notion about. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Skid X · 22-08-2016 12:30PM

It looks we made it to the end!

17 days of joy, disappointment, amazement, anger, tension, relief, agony, glory, pride and most other emotions you can think of.

Thanks to everyone who joined in on this thread, you were all great company along the way. A fine mix of news, discussion, debate, humour, and camaraderie. If only every thread on Boards was as good!

The Road to Tokyo 2020 starts now (with a diversion up ahead to Pyeongchang 2018 for the Winter Olympics) Lets hope for great things for the Irish Athletes who are already aiming for great things there.

Here's the RTE closing montage, hope to see you somewhere else around Boards soon!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4ppodx_rec2214_fun

Strazdas · 22-08-2016 01:10PM

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Well I guess the maths would say it cost Ireland €20m per medal given the figure quoted for athlete funding is €40m and we won two medals. That Croatian figure would imply their Olympic funding was in the region of €10-15m. I suppose there are several different angles from which you can weigh up these things.

We definitely underachieved at these Games. Two silvers was not a great return for a country with a number of high performance structures in place.

Having said that, we need to invest more more money than we do. I suspect we must be one of the lowest funded countries in the developed world.

Joe_ Public · 22-08-2016 01:36PM

Strazdas wrote: »

We definitely underachieved at these Games. Two silvers was not a great return for a country with a number of high performance structures in place.

Having said that, we need to invest more more money than we do. I suspect we must be one of the lowest funded countries in the developed world.

Boxing underachieved to be specific I think. I guess people will see the huge sums GB are throwing at their athletes and asking why can't we do the same. But I think you just have to be smart with whatever you get. As previously mentioned Croatia made do with €10-15m before Rio and still got 10 medals. Australia spent hugely and spectacularly under-achieved. Funding brings no guarantees of success. And, interestingly, in the US there is no state funding of Olympic sport at all.

walshb · 22-08-2016 01:53PM

Strazdas wrote: »

We definitely underachieved at these Games. Two silvers was not a great return for a country with a number of high performance structures in place.

Having said that, we need to invest more more money than we do. I suspect we must be one of the lowest funded countries in the developed world.

It's just too simple to say that we underachieved. We are not a real medal favourite in any Olympic sport, at least not in any consistent sense. We never were. So, not getting medals in sports is not a case of us underachieving. We have done well here and there, but when was there ever consistency with Ireland and medals being won? It's just not there in recent memory. And it is NOT down to a lack of want and passion and effort. Our boxers are the most successful, but again, plenty of games where we never got medals.

You are pinning all your hopes on the boxers, who pretty much won the bulk of the medals of the medals in the last 3-4 games.

We got two silvers in Rio. Compare this to Athens and Sydney. A result in my view.

When Gaelic Games gets let in then we can talk about underachieving.

bob skunkhouse · 22-08-2016 02:25PM

Here, I know it's all done and dusted but I'm at my wits end with this one! At a couple of events (mostly gymnastics) I noticed (if my memory serves me well) a black and white flag flying by someone in the crowd. It was black and white horizontal lines with a black star in it. I'd be fairly familiar with country flags and don't think it's a country's flag, and it's not a state flag of Brazil. Anyone got any ideas?

The_Kew_Tour · 22-08-2016 02:53PM

Look at History of Irish Competitors in games gone by, even most recent. You see lot of "did not qualify from heat".

You could count on 1 hand how many performances were not great in this games . Yes Boxers underachieved, but when you consider they have go through many opponents before Games starts it puts things into perspective.

We had lot of top tens, came very close in 2-3 events and 3 boxers within a medal. Conlon was robbed and in my view would have won at least a silver.

We won 1 medal between 1996 and 2004. I do think we should be doing better, or at least trying to achieve 5-8 medals

Funding might not guarantee success, but it will in long run. Australia had poor games by their standards but I bet it will pay off in next couple.

I'm not saying pumping in millions and millions but decent structures and decent coaching for any potential out there. The Modern Pentathlon pair are example. They have to be given backing as they have the quality for 4 years down the line.

Strazdas · 22-08-2016 04:52PM

walshb wrote: »

It's just too simple to say that we underachieved. We are not a real medal favourite in any Olympic sport, at least not in any consistent sense. We never were. So, not getting medals in sports is not a case of us underachieving. We have done well here and there, but when was there ever consistency with Ireland and medals being won? It's just not there in recent memory. And it is NOT down to a lack of want and passion and effort. Our boxers are the most successful, but again, plenty of games where we never got medals.

You are pinning all your hopes on the boxers, who pretty much won the bulk of the medals of the medals in the last 3-4 games.

We got two silvers in Rio. Compare this to Athens and Sydney. A result in my view.

When Gaelic Games gets let in then we can talk about underachieving.

On the other hand, there has been a great levelling off in standards in the Olympics and smaller countries like ourselves would be expected to a little better these days compared to fifteen or twenty years ago. 42 different countries medalled in athletics for example.

mickmackey1 · 22-08-2016 05:35PM

Portugal only got one bronze, altho their footballers are pretty decent I suppose

marienbad · 22-08-2016 06:16PM

What a brilliant thread this has been, thanks to everyone who elucidated all the arcane bits of the sports we would be not too familiar with .

In particular stheno and Heidi Heidi in the sailing events , I gave up following them on TV and just used this thread instead , much more knowledgeable and exciting .

For me the Games were definitely a success ,both for my own sport ( rowing) and for Ireland . It may seem like two silver medals is a poor return but I don't remember any games where we had so many athletes in so many sports still involved in their event in the latter stages .

Another noteworthy point is that our most successful athletes are so young ,The O'Donovan brothers are 22 and 24 , Claire Lambe is 26 or 27 , Annalise Murphy is 26, Thomas Barr 24 , Arthur Lannigan O'keefe 24 ( don't you just love typing that name , like something out of G.B.Shaw )a great future ahead of them if they so choose .

A brilliant two weeks - thanks everybody

Strazdas · 22-08-2016 07:22PM

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Look at History of Irish Competitors in games gone by, even most recent. You see lot of "did not qualify from heat".

You could count on 1 hand how many performances were not great in this games . Yes Boxers underachieved, but when you consider they have go through many opponents before Games starts it puts things into perspective.

We had lot of top tens, came very close in 2-3 events and 3 boxers within a medal. Conlon was robbed and in my view would have won at least a silver.

We won 1 medal between 1996 and 2004. I do think we should be doing better, or at least trying to achieve 5-8 medals

Funding might not guarantee success, but it will in long run. Australia had poor games by their standards but I bet it will pay off in next couple.

I'm not saying pumping in millions and millions but decent structures and decent coaching for any potential out there. The Modern Pentathlon pair are example. They have to be given backing as they have the quality for 4 years down the line.

I should emphasise that when I said "underachieved", I meant purely in relation to our position on the medal table and the fact that the total dropped below that of Beijing and London.....that's not a reflection on our performances though.

As an actual team, we acquitted ourselves very well across a range of sports and we seem to have unearthed a number of potential medal prospects for Tokyo. The two pentathletes were brilliant as were Thomas Barr and Ciara Mageean looks like she can improve in years to come.

Oliver Dingley did superbly in the men's diving and even someone like Ellis O'Reilly who might never medal looks like she can improve a lot in four years.

FrKurtFahrt · 22-08-2016 10:58PM

I miss my daily fix. I miss this thread - see you all in Tokyo.

Steve · 22-08-2016 11:15PM

Special thanks to all that contributed and made the mods life so easy, really, it's been mostly a pleasure reading this!!! see y'all in 4!!

Stheno · 22-08-2016 11:17PM

FrKurtFahrt wrote: »

I miss my daily fix. I miss this thread - see you all in Tokyo.

I'm surfing the telly wondering why there is nothing on, and wondering why boards is quiet!

Steve wrote: »

Special thanks to all that contributed and made the mods life so easy, really, it's been mostly a pleasure reading this!!! see y'all in 4!!

Fab thread, real example of what boards can be

I'm slightly embarrassed to be even mentioned as someone who contributed, given how many questions I asked of others more knowledgable, but if even one person got a bit of a intro to sailing as a result of my posts, I'd be delighted.

Btw Gary O'Donovan has won his heat in the rowing world champs, what a guy!

Strazdas · 23-08-2016 12:21AM

Seems we might even be back here in two year's time with this new event

http://europeanchampionships.com/

A seven sport European Championships and it looks like it will be given extensive coverage on RTE and the BBC, as the coverage will come via the EBU. Around 7000 athletes will compete and the plan is for the Games to be expanded even further in 2022.

The Golden Miller · 23-08-2016 12:25AM

Mo Farah has been extremely fortunate that the greatest distance runner of all time has been struggling with injuries for the last 5 years or so. He would have never won a gold in the last two Olympics otherwise

CassieManson · 23-08-2016 12:26AM

FrKurtFahrt wrote:

I could be very wrong, but is it not traditional for some IOC person to declare, on the podium, 'this is the best Olympics ever'? It might come yet - I hope not though.

Absolutely ridiculous that rte took an ad break at one of the most important parts of the closing ceremony the point where they declare the games over call upon the youth of the world to meet in Tokyo in 2020.

Joe_ Public · 23-08-2016 12:30AM

Strazdas wrote: »

Seems we might even be back here in two year's time with this new event

http://europeanchampionships.com/

A seven sport European Championships and it looks like it will be given extensive coverage on RTE and the BBC, as the coverage will come via the EBU. Around 7000 athletes will compete and the plan is for the Games to be expanded even further in 2022.

Really good idea that and looks like it's going to be very well marketed. I'd replace golf with badminton, my new favourite sport, and put sailing in there somewhere just to have the tracker back again!

dulpit · 23-08-2016 11:54AM

bob skunkhouse wrote: »

Here, I know it's all done and dusted but I'm at my wits end with this one! At a couple of events (mostly gymnastics) I noticed (if my memory serves me well) a black and white flag flying by someone in the crowd. It was black and white horizontal lines with a black star in it. I'd be fairly familiar with country flags and don't think it's a country's flag, and it's not a state flag of Brazil. Anyone got any ideas?

Flag of Brittany?

brooke 2 · 23-08-2016 12:34PM

Annalise has arrived home! Part of her interview with Newstalk will be aired soon.

HeidiHeidi · 23-08-2016 12:57PM

brooke 2 wrote: »

Annalise has arrived home! Part of her interview with Newstalk will be aired soon.

Soon, as in the next few minutes, or the next few days??

And what about the other part of it???

brooke 2 · 23-08-2016 01:03PM

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Soon, as in the next few minutes, or the next few days??

And what about the other part of it???

Just heard Jonathan Healy say she is being interviewed by someone who I think might be in the Sports department of Newstalk. He said we would hear part of that interview 'later' in his programme which is on at the moment - until 1.30.

khc · 23-08-2016 01:18PM

was she on? just tuned in but not sure if i missed it!

Strazdas · 23-08-2016 01:21PM

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Really good idea that and looks like it's going to be very well marketed. I'd replace golf with badminton, my new favourite sport, and put sailing in there somewhere just to have the tracker back again!

And the important thing is that they have the European Athletics Championships at its core, which would be a flagship event for any European Games. According to the website, the BBC are already on board so we should be getting a ton of live events while the Games are underway (and RTE already show the European Athletics live).

brooke 2 · 23-08-2016 01:24PM

khc wrote: »

was she on? just tuned in but not sure if i missed it!

On now

brooke 2 · 23-08-2016 01:24PM

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Soon, as in the next few minutes, or the next few days??

And what about the other part of it???

On now - for about one second!

Olympics daily thread

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