Olympic Games Paris 2024 - AH Thread [Thread banned posters listed in first post.]

agree - this is the account I read

But Kerr said he had no second thoughts. “And I’m pretty sure Shelby was in the same mindset, because we just looked at each other,” he said. “And it was pretty simple. We both just nodded and off we went.”

Well, McEwen was a bit more willing to consider alternatives, he admitted afterward. “At some point, I kind of got fatigued,” he said with a smile. “I might have shared it with him. But I agreed to it and it was all good.” He added, “I wasn’t gonna go back and forth and argue with them or talk to him. He just wanted to jump off and I was all in for it.”

FFS, wind your neck in. Best medal haul ever and you're calling Irish athletes Brits. What misery.

Could be cool. Fencing.

The boxing thing was a bit of a farce in 2024.

You had the Uzbekistan super heavyweight guy going back to amateur to do the Olympics.

He was twice the size of the Spanish guy he was fighting in the final.

The Spanish guy was lucky to get out of there alive.

Then we had the gender thing as well which was totally unfair to women fighters.

If it’s about medals then I would target women’s cycling: low technique sport that anyone can do to an elite level once you can generate high wattage with leg power. The winner of the women’s road race couldn’t ride a bike 9 years ago. Funnel strong stamina female athletes into cycling would be one idea. Not having a velodrome will probably make it more difficult. 2027 seems a very long target date to have one built.

But we should be doing more than just targeting medals.

I thought the coverage for major Irish athletes was very good if you were just tuning in for specific big events where they had actual production values and logical times for breaks. But if you were just watching a random event in the afternoon or evening the coverage was destroyed by the poorly timed ads, length of the ad breaks and unnecessary cuts back to the studio, often just for the formality of a presenter to sign off and show an outro and for the next presenters intro in the exact same studio.

It was actually impossible to get immersed in most events with the frequent cuts and then not properly catching the viewer up when they return because they don't have director control. It's live sport you can't just show it in 12 minute chunks with 3 minute breaks on either side and expect it to make sense.

The choice of which sports to show was also bizarre. I don't know how many times I knew there was basketball or soccer on and hoped to see it live but RTE were showing something like diving or canoe slalom.

The commentators and panelists were mostly good but it felt like the producers were being driven by AI with no idea what the audience wanted or how to correctly present it.

I was at the home-coming for the first half, and then caught the second half on TV, so I may have missed something, but was there any reference to Adeleke at any stage? I didn't hear her being mentioned. I'm not that surprised if she wasn't there (flew back to the US maybe?), just seems odd if there was no mention at all - Paul O'Donovan got a call-out or two, and he wasn't there either

We probably should be looking more towards Brisbane in 2032 to focus on results. We may have take step back to take two forward.

We need to look at this as long term benefit and look at what it does to country as whole. Yes we ain't going solve the obesity crisis as needs be looked at serperate, but good habits will yield better results anyway.

It takes a lot longer than 4 years to "focus" on something.

I won two golds for the discus in Secondary School sports days. Actually, I think 2028 will be the 40th anniversary of my second gold, so maybe I should be training to see in I can bring back the glory!! 💿️ 😂

I’m a bit bereft today without the Olympics. Hopefully RTE will give more coverage to athletics over the next few years with the improved performance of our athletes. Back in the 90s they broadcast the diamond series or wherever it was called then. I think there would be an audience for that again

Aye, it's not like we're even competing for bragging rights at the very top of the medals table, or there's major prize money for winning golds that can be re-invested (e.g. like winning premier league).

Virgin Media already had stuff planned.

https://www.athleticsireland.ie/virgin-media-television-announces-major-expansion-of-live-athletics-coverage/

16x events in Wanda Diamond League – 20th April – 14th September

Not saying we shouldn't be looking at ’32, but we as a nation have being saying the same thing after every Olympics.

Surely the plans for 28 have been put in pace years ago?

Lots of talk again yesterday and today about future investment etc and of course it's to be welcomed, but it's more or less the same conversation after every Olympics.

Its great to hear the budget is increasing, and more money for capital projects. But there's a lot more to success than money.

Aot of people on this thread have spoken about things that should be happening at grassroots, and id agree. The biggest issue that has been spoken about in my circle, is the lack of volunteer's. Without volunteer's willing to help out at underage levels, coach's at training sessions are only proxy babysitters. I know some sports have a reasonable good coach education program (certainly not without it flaws), but all these programs are pretty useless if people aren't willing to help out. It might seem the be only a small thing, but it's were grassroots start.

A few posters have also pointed out that a better talent ID system should be put in placee.and some NGB are very proactive it putting these in place. And yes, on the face of it talent ID is a great thing. But again it's not without its drawbacks. It can place a lot of pressure on young individuals to live a lifestyle so they can meet the expectations placed on them. It also needs to be remembered that early specializing usually has more chances of young people leaving the sport than it does of producing champions.

Another thing to point out ,is that Al lot of work DOES actually happen behind the scenes. I was involved as a coach for a few years with a national junior academy, which was a feed to the high performance squad. Unfortunately this more or less fell away after a new CEO came in.

TLTR, loads being done, loads could be done better.

I’d love an Olympics for oldies. I’d watch that

Eamon Coughlin would still come fourth in that one.