The AH Tokyo 2020 Olympics/Paralympics Thread in 2021

Highlight of the last Olympics for me was watching Thomas Barr win his semi final in the hurdles.

I'd watched loads of the athletics at that stage and I was very surprised to see an Irish fella lining up, I hadn't seen many, or any, Irish track and field athletes at all. Fair play to him, it's good to make it that far I thought. But I didn't anticipate him bothering the eventual qualifiers.

And then the race started. And he was doing alright you know... better than alright, doing well... no, he was leading them, he was beating them... Holy ****!! he was actually going to win the race!

It was probably all over in less than a minute, but my initially slow and then suddenly rapid real time realisation that this guy was going to do it was genuinely one of my personal favourite sporting moments ever and turned those few seconds into what felt like a subjective emotional mini epic. My complete ignorance helped transform into a totally thrilling surprise.

Unfortunately we didn't get anything as brilliantly shocking as that tonight, but eighth in the world is pretty damn special.

Jerry Kiernan is a massive loss, such a character. The type of guy that wouldn't turn up on the BBC or elsewhere.

The hair alone would have catapulted him into the annals of sports broadcasting history, but the opinionated attitude and his endless information about everything made him into a pure legend really.

It makes me very sad that we won't see him again back in the studio.

He and Jacqui Hurley seem to be the two main Olympic presenters this year. It's not that unusual though to use a former sports star to front up the entire Olympics coverage - I think I remember Gary Lineker doing it for the BBC in the past.

I miss Jerry. 😔

Jesus, the fkn ads on RTE are a disgrace. It's like they're aiming for maximum interruptions at the most crucial moments possible - is anyone even thinking about the timing of the breaks??

And don't get me started on a medal winner from the last games competing in an event, the last day the cameras would be on the course, and they not only don't show it live, I haven't seen any replays either (Annalise Murphy yesterday).

😡😡😡😡

He passed away during the last year sadly.

Anyone a rough figure on how much funding is given to Irish Olympic athletes ?

Also anyone find it strange the Irish attitude that sure taking part is all that counts, I know we aren’t on the level of other countries but it comes across its only bonus if we get a medal.

I think it depends on the athlete and the sport. Katie getting anything other than a gold in 2012 would have been a disappointment. Rio boxing wasn't just about the taking part and we expected more medals. However if someone went out of their skin just to qualify then you can't expect a medal. People in the sport frequently have a good idea of where they expect different people to finish and generally we want people to do better than expected. The funding depends on the sport and the athlete and will vary quite a bit. Boxers will get a decent bit (with the exception of the one with the story of the credit union) and more importantly have facilities, coaches etc. No idea if Mona gets anything but it seems like she relies on facilities abroad to train going to the university of Tennessee and I would not be surprised if the facilities were why she moved to help her sports career.

Bigger countries have so many medal hopefuls that the non medal hopefuls either can't get through to the olympics since countries are limited in the quota for an event or are simply glossed over (due to time as opposed to malice). We have 116 athletes including two teams. So if anyone is competing for us they get plenty of time dedicated to them even if they are not a medal hopeful. There is a large part of team USA or team GB etc. that are there just to compete and hopefully put in their best performance. However they have so many athletes and medal hopefuls that they just don't get talked about as much.

I don’t think that attitude exists anymore. Only the complete ignorant couch potato would think like that.

We are not talking about after school games.

Try saying it to one of the athletes who didn’t get a medal and see what response you’d get. Years of hard work and they are happy just to compete?

No it comes across as realistic to see a medal as a bonus. The sports Ireland funding list gets published every year and details how much each sport gets in government funding and is based on participation numbers I think. Also individuals can get funding based on their level. Can't remember how much each gets but I have seen studies done on money to medal ratios and Ireland are about where we should be.

Its pretty interesting the whole money thing for instance despite all their "top tier nation" crap England and the UK down the years were exactly where all the experts said the should be which is about 1/4 final in soccer. There has been a huge shift thanks to extra money pumped in for 2012 and they are still reaping that benefit and the English FA have finally copped on to the fact that long term investment works.

Here in Ireland we are having that problem now where people are looking down on the "smaller nations" we are losing to without understanding how those countries are doing well and the long term work that got them there

McSharry is over in the University of Tennessee now, in a training programme. I heard her and another swimmer/commentator whose name escapes me right now talking about it the other day. Supposed to be fantastic. But she also credited her coaches and team in Sligo as well.

I watched the men's triathlon and they were bigging Brownlee up as a potential medalist, maybe even gold. He said it himself he felt he had a chance. He ran a good race and didn't medal and wasn't close by the end but did come 5th. He was happy with the race and the BBC was complimentary of his race even without a medal.

If you have an event with 90%+ participants being unhappy at the end you will quickly stop having an event. Players of course feel strong emotions in the moment but many will be happy without a medal even if it isn't their preference.

I didn't see Mona's final but realistically her achievement was qualifying for the final which is what she gets congratulated for. Probably would have hoped for better once there but all she can do is to try and put in a good time and see where it ends up.