So excited about the Olympics

[BigPete33]

How many of them were severely annoyed fairly quickly?

But yes, it's pretty much a given that most people will watch at least a bit of it simply because it's huge and it happens to be on.

[maccatak11]

One of the EX-B&G'ers, (is it Matt?), has done sports science - i'd be interested in his opinion on the matter...

If their plan is to direct more money to top level sport then this does not have to be done at the expense of lower leagues and "grassroots" sport.

It has been shown that throwing money at the top level in fact DOES have a positive effect at the lower levels. Rcon, why do you think there was all those kids playing soccer at para hills when you drove past?

Without the millions they have thrown into finally getting a decent national competition established then thousands of kids would be playing soccer. (yes world cup qualification helped also, but the A-league being so good has had a major effect)

For the same reason, its no wonder why nobody plays European Handball in theis country. Its an entertaining sport that we could probably be really good at, but without the cash at the top level, there is no hope of it improving at the lower level.

I also think its probably a bit of a myth that top level athletes are actually getting paid that much. Some do really well, but most sailers, archers, judo players and the like are certainly not professional and have to work full-time as well as train as hard as any other athletes.

There was a story in the paper last week of a professional swimming coach (the guy who sold his training methods to the chinese) recieving a mere $5000 a year from the AOC for all his hard work and time.

I think the answer is that money at the top level IS what is required, and as long as this isn't at the expense of existing funding for lower leagues, it DOES have a flow on effect to all levels.

Where will Australian basketball, and our national team be in 5 years if a few million isn't thrown at the NBL in the next year? If there is no NBL and the boomers are carp, the basketball at all levels suffers.


I WANT my taxpayer money being spent on sport (i may be biased here) because if we don't remain at the top of the per-capita adjusted medal tally i will just be devastated. (I hope Togo or the Central African Republic don't snag a gold in speplechase in the next few days)

[bennymacca]

how many olympic athletes can you name off the top of your head?

10?
20?
50?

how many of those people you named do you think would be fully professional as an athlete? half?

you might know that we have sent 433 athletes to these olympic games.

so you expect all of these people to work full time, train 5-8 hours a day, travel to competitions etc, without some help from the government?

i think that any athlete that represents australia at the olympics should AT LEAST be compensated for loss of income that they could have earnt if they were not training. i doubt much of them would want more than that.

[bennymacca]

how good are the US in the b'ball? you could tell it was a matter of time before they clicked up a gear.

still good to watch, bogut would have made a difference, but not enough to win

[Scotty]

It has been shown that throwing money at the top level in fact DOES have a positive effect at the lower levels. Rcon, why do you think there was all those kids playing soccer at para hills when you drove past?

Without reading the rest of your post (and I won't till tomorrow 'cause I'm lazy ), this is what I was getting at in terms of the intrinsic value the AOC, government etc place on a successful Olympic games campaign.

[Nevah play JJ]

Did anyone watch the weightlifting in the 105kg class?

I absolutely cried when I saw the German weightlifter take out the gold medal.

Apparently his wife died last year in a car accident after they had been married for 3 years.
He dropped his first lift, lifted his second, I think it was in the 240kg weight, and needed to lift his heaviest weight to take out the gold.

He did it. You could just see the emotion on his face as he had achieved his goal.

It truly is what the Olympics is about.
To me personally anyway.

[Bacon]

Did anyone watch the weightlifting in the 105kg class?

I absolutely cried when I saw the German weightlifter take out the gold medal.

Apparently his wife died last year in a car accident after they had been married for 3 years.
He dropped his first lift, lifted his second, I think it was in the 240kg weight, and needed to lift his heaviest weight to take out the gold.

He did it. You could just see the emotion on his face as he had achieved his goal.

It truly is what the Olympics is about.
To me personally anyway.

That was pretty emotional jj i'll give u that. But it's the back story, not the event that did it. Yeah he could've done that still but because of the tragedy he went thru it make it more spectacular.

[Des]

Did anyone watch the weightlifting in the 105kg class?

I absolutely cried when I saw the German weightlifter take out the gold medal.

Apparently his wife died last year in a car accident after they had been married for 3 years.
He dropped his first lift, lifted his second, I think it was in the 240kg weight, and needed to lift his heaviest weight to take out the gold.

He did it. You could just see the emotion on his face as he had achieved his goal.

It truly is what the Olympics is about.
To me personally anyway.

That was pretty emotional jj i'll give u that. But it's the back story, not the event that did it. Yeah he could've done that still but because of the tragedy he went thru it make it more spectacular.

Sorry his wife died, but it doesnt affect his ability to lift a weight.

Kinda like... i won a poker tournament once - no big deal

My cat died and i won a poker tournament 10 weeks after - still no big deal

Maybe if his wife died like a few days ago then I could give him extra credit, but it happened last year.

Anyway, still an awesome lift, but the fact his wife died has nothing to do with it.

[krunchie]

I couldnt disagree with you more des

How sombody copes with loss is completly individual

you have no idea what effect the loss of his wife had on this man and his ability to train, compete etc etc

I saw this event as well and I lost it like JJ, and I believe it was the back story that made it so special, you could see the emotion on the mans face, he was carrying that burden with him.

the best storys in sport have a back story and this was one of them

[bennymacca]

edit: krunchie you beat me to it

des, would you really feel like training every day to prepare for the olympics while you are mourning the loss of your wife? get real

My cat died and i won a poker tournament 10 weeks after - still no big deal

pretty sure this is the stupidest thing i have ever heard you say des.

Anyway, still an awesome lift, but the fact his wife died has nothing to do with it.

it has everything to do with it.