I used to powerlift, former rugby player so it was part of our training. I lifted for about 15 years.....the snatch was always something I was absolutely uesless at. Non dymamic lifting I was fine, standard squats and deads I could lift heavy weights. I could clean ok, but snatch was just something I couldn't master. I couldn't imagine much of the British population being able to make olympic level. I've watched quite a fair few European level powerlifting comps and those boys and girls are incredibly strong and dynamic.
In terms of shooting clubs being on their backsides.....I'm not surprised. I tried to join two this year. The first three months you have to be accompanied, when it suits the chair person/instructor. Attitudes to new members was disgusting. It was my dad, me and my brother trying to join. At both clubs the person doing the 3 month assessment was retired, so we could attend during the weekday or not at all. Incredibly unhelpful attitude.
What sort of shooting clubs were they @w00dster?
Going straight into firearms clubs (proper bullets) is usually met with some caution - they are under such tight regulation they have to be very careful.
It's much easier if you start with airgun only clubs (and field target ones are easier to find) or clay pigeon shooting. Get to know people and they will know people who can recommend you.
I couldn’t imagine much of the British population being able to make olympic level.
Nowhere close. The problem is that pros make it look easy, the TV doesn't portray the speed, precision and power effectively so you end up with some couch potato stuffing their face with crisps who reckons they could do that.
There was a swimming video where an Olympian gave a bunch of swimming club folk a head start over 50m breaststroke - the all dived in and set off like the clappers and he casually strolled up to the blocks, waited another moment, dived in and overtook them before the end of the length. They'd had about half / two-thirds of a length head start!
I'd be (at best !) 50:50 to win a match sprint against Emma Finucane if she gave me a 2.75 lap head start. If it was equal start, I'd be dropped within 20m. More likely 10m.
Nowhere close. The problem is that pros make it look easy, the TV doesn’t portray the speed, precision and power effectively so you end up with some couch potato stuffing their face with crisps who reckons they could do that.
So much this. Cavendish reckoned that a good club racer, 1st cat, wouldn’t even last the neutralised start at the tour.
lifting twice your own body weight in a deadlift and 1.5 x for a squat is maybe something I could do when seriously training and younger. I am pretty far away from deadlifting 200 kgs now and I use the gym pretty regularly.
The one event I think people could have a chance at, if they could be bothered, and have some talent, is 10m air pistol. Little kit is required (just the pistol and a target), you practice indoors, and you can just about do it in a garage. Of course you’ll need five hours per day to train, but it’s doable.
I think my tactic would be to start out with the 10m air pistol and if it was looking good, move to the Isle of Man and take up 25m pistol . You'd have less competition to make the UK squad!
I used to do a fair bit of sporting clay shooting when I was a teenager. I did get spotted by the UK skeet coach at the time, who said he reckoned I could make the Olympic skeet team if put in the practice. My parents decided concentrating on school was a better plan. I do still wonder if I won the lottery tomorrow, whether it would be feasible to jack in work and see if I could make it - guess that puts me in the 27%!
Find yourself an adopted nation and the dream of a major international games probably isn't beyond alot of folks if you choose the right sport
As a bang average mid 40s bloke I can confidently say I wouldn't have come last, or even close to last, at the time trial at the commonwealth games in Birmingham. And given I qualify for a Mauritian passport my ears pricked up when their competitor rolled on to the start ramp. Turns out he wasn't actually awful, but if my grandad had been from St kitts instead, I'd be a fully fledged international athlete by now
Tbh you don't even need to look for a passport. Take a shortcut and move to the Falkland Isles and a spot on their commonwealth team is yours..
Nowhere close. The problem is that pros make it look easy, the TV doesn’t portray the speed, precision and power effectively so you end up with some couch potato stuffing their face with crisps who reckons they could do that.
My daughter had ambitions to be an event rider, she's a good rider and nothing much fazed her. For the last four years she's worked as a groom for a double olympic silver-medal winning event rider and seen first hand the work that goes in, the skill involved and the slightly un-hinged balls-of-steel required!
She's now reigned* in her ambitions somewhat and is concentrating on other aspects of an equestrian career.
(*pun intended!)
For example.. sailing
There can't be any sport that have had such a radical overhaul as 'sailing'* over the last few Olympic cycles. Very much for the better I'd say. It's going to bring different people to the top.
But yes, I'd imagine BC's track cycling's budget is going to be torn a new one you'd imagine. I do hope they don't 'borrow' from the mountain biking success and put it the way of the track because in theory TP should have earn BC a few pennies of lottery funding.
My philosophy on the funding is probably not elitist and medal hungry enough (I've lost my competitive mojo) - but given that 99.9% of all people who start the move from recreational participants, through levels of elite, before becoming GB Olympians fail in their endeavours my priority for the funding would be that the journey has been a fulfilling one with lifelong benefits. And habits. All those early morning starts and poolside mums and dads - the vast vast majority are wasting their time if it's only about trying to be the one that goes to the Olympics. If you are one of the 99.9% that get spat out or just give up because you know it's not going to be you - you really want them to do something with it - sustain an active lifestyle, promote sport as a way of life, become a coach. Something. If I was a dad of a potential Olympian sproglet, I'd far prefer it if their chosen sport was something that you could revert back to doing recreationally or the physical and mental attributes could be repurposed. And I guess if you stay in it long enough to get to the top it does not damage your body for the rest of your days.
* - sailing. Not sure it's quite the right word anymore. I know no kite boarder that regards themselves as a sailor. 'Wind sports' maybe.
So much this. Cavendish reckoned that a good club racer, 1st cat, wouldn’t even last the neutralised start at the tour.
I suspect that's utter bollocks from cav.
The average power over an 'easier' entire tour stage is about 250 watts, which obviously includes all the surges and uphill bits as well. So the neutralized bit will be significantly less than 250 watts
Any cat one racer could easily keep up with that
10mm Air Rifle is easier
I think most people would be able to hit the 'bullseye' at 10mm!!!
I used to be fairly handy with a rifle, 20 years or so ago I won a bronze medal in a competition at Bisley, but taking it to the next level requires hours of practice, not to mention all the travel to competitions. You have to dedicate your life to it, and I enjoy other stuff (cycling, canoeing, family time) too much, so I just stopped.
Air pistol postal competitions used to be a bit of fun and you can see how you measure up to the competition.
I do still wonder if I won the lottery tomorrow, whether it would be feasible to jack in work and see if I could make it – guess that puts me in the 27%!
the thing the proper events is that they require peak athletic ability - the fact that we're simply too old (people on here anyway!) means none of us would be able to compete! So shooting etc, disciplines would be the obvious ones to target (as proven by Yusuf Dikec 🙂 )
Co-incidentally the subject of the latest Freakonomics podcast is exactly this - why most of us (even those with exceptional talent) will never be elite/olympic athletes.
It's a tough one.... the commitment to not only start the journey to success is long and hard.. and can be very disappointing.
My own, personal, experience was in kayak racing (not even a team sent to Paris this year). Started early teens and won a lot of marathon races across the country, won the junior Descenso del Sella in Spain in1965, became K1 and K2 National Champion at 500 metres, did a few international sprint races and got into the GB training squad as a potential for the1968 Olympic team (Mexico). My K2 partner got badly injured in a cycling accident so that was a bit of a blow. Competed in all the knock out Olympic trials and never made the team. Whilst this was disappointing, it was fair.
I carried on training and made the team for the 1969 European Sprint Championships in Moscow. Then I got the call so say they never had enough funding and they were cutting the team right back and they couldn't send me. I disappeared with my girlfriend (now my wife) to watch the European ATHLETIC Championships in Athens instead.
At that time I pretty much walked away from kayaking. I was holding down a full time job, training around 3 to 4 hours a day and what for... I needed to think about my future and my job.
Cavendish reckoned that a good club racer, 1st cat, wouldn’t even last the neutralised start at the tour.
At an evening event a number of years back, David Miller opined something similar. He thought any climb or sudden increase in speed, and you'd be spat out the back in very short order. I think given the speed of the modern peloton, the difference would be even more obvious
It's been said before and I still think it would be a fun ide to have an 'average Joe' take part in some events just for comparison, so that everyone's quite clear about what it is they're watching
Cav's comment about the neutralised zone was related to all the jostling for position, avoiding road furniture etc that takes place more than power outputs of the riders.
Bouldering and lead climbing are good for this: most decent walls have problems of a broadly equivalent standard these day. I'm sure that there are better climbers than me on here (Spin and generalist for starters!) but when I'm in decent shape and not time poor, I'd climb/train 3 times per week minimum. Obviously not properly structured training etc and I probably drink more in a week than most athletes drink during their career! I'm not too shabby though, most casual observers would think that I was good. Bouldering: can't get off the ground, like literally won't be able to hold the starting position.....the first move may as well be in a different postcode it'll seem that far away. Lead: very very unlikely to get off the floor, not out of the realms of possibility, but literally no chance of making the first clip.
It’s been said before and I still think it would be a fun ide to have an ‘average Joe’ take part in some events just for comparison, so that everyone’s quite clear about what it is they’re watching
think they did that with the breakdancing this year :/
think they did that with the breakdancing this year :/
Less Joe, more Joey!
How is she going to go back to work after this! I just hope her students give her a bit of leniency (after mercilessly ripping the piss for a week or so as she richly deserves). Given her job, you'd think she'd have a vague idea of the standard and what a fool she was going to make of herself!
Sidenote - Forget about it's Olympic relevance - is breaking still a popular thing? Did it not die off in the 80's?
I'm calling out the Aussie break dancer as a social experiment.....in her videos from 2022, whilst not amazing, she's much better than the standard of what she did in the Olympics. She wasn't dressed as a PE teacher either! Cultural Politics of Break Dancing is her research area..... she's probably now got enough material to work on for the next decade.
I’m calling out the Aussie break dancer as a social experiment
I have seen that theory, and you're right - other videos of her do show slightly better "proper" breakdancing, but still no power moves like windmills etc (which she obviously cannot do) hence trying to win points via the "creativity" route instead (which in fairness is one of the judging/scoring categories). The tracksuit does make it look like a Chris Lilley sketch though!! Who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I was a handy sprinter a long time ago (sub 11s) then ran against Jamie Henderson (a decent national and Commonwealth level runner) at schools level. And the 0.8s that he beat me by was massive on the track.
Even though I was in the mix at 50m my physiology/height played against me in the "cruise" phase.
A was decent off the base of a scrum though.
My Olympic 'journey' was karate. Back in the late 90s the carrot of the Olympics was being dangled along with all the suddenly available lottery money that would come along with that.
Several years of training 20 to 30 hours per week with little to no official funding. I was still starting to do OK at international level but the problem was you were competing against people who were fully funded and able to train full time. Eventually the news came through that karate wasn't going to be included in 2004 but maybe in 2008.
Round about 2002 I realised I was killing myself to train and work and the best I could ever realistically hope for was a medal at a European championships if the stars aligned. And I would most likely end up being a 30 year old with lots of experience in a sport that still wasn't getting any lottery funding and little recognition or respect from anyone in Scotland.
It was nice to see karate finally get a shot in 2021 but the fact it was already decided that it wouldn't be in 2024 felt like a cruel trick. Breakdancing at least came into it with the mentality that 'the Olympics needs us more than we need them'. The sport of Karate turned itself inside out to get into the Olympics for almost 3 decades.
It seems really unfair because the sport formed itself in a mould that would be most compelling for the Olympic committee and, imo, it wasn't always the best thing for the sport itself. Something I'm sure a lot of other sports can relate to.
I suspect that’s utter bollocks from cav.
The average power over an ‘easier’ entire tour stage is about 250 watts, which obviously includes all the surges and uphill bits as well. So the neutralized bit will be significantly less than 250 watts
Any cat one racer could easily keep up with that
As mentioned above, it's less about power and more to do with being able to ride in a bunch, as part of a team.
At the National Road Race Champs, the general format is that the WorldTour and domestic pro riders smash it for 2 laps to get rid of the dead wood - half the field of the best amateurs in the country go out the back instantly.
Then there'll be a lull for a lap or two, then they'll actually start racing. At that point, any amateurs who have managed to cling on will also vanish.
Cav (and Millar) were entirely correct in their statement.
Remember when Richard Hammond tried to drive an F1 car? They started him off on a baby F1 but even he, experienced at driving supercars around tracks, could not compute the extra speed and quicker reaction times required.
https://twitter.com/ChrisChavez/status/1822271331271954898?t=zh7D1r54NOEZ2q5TRXk-MQ&s=19
Some data there from a couple of the marathon runners. Interesting thread showing the difference between club runners and pros!
Heart rate at 164 doing 5 min miles. [insert shocked face emoji here], those are just mad numbers. They're essentially doing sprint speeds, at (admittedly pacey) leisure running heart rates for 2 hours...Genetic freaks
I did just LOL on R5, where they're doing a call or text in on what sport people think they can get to Olympic standard in within the next 4 years. A guy had texted in reckoned he could probably get to track cycling's level, and in fact reckoned it wouldn't take as long as 4 years. His only concern was whether he had to supply his own motorbike or is that provided by the organisers
well he can train at Reading as we’re short of Derny riders. None of that electric nonsense either!
It’s been said before and I still think it would be a fun ide to have an ‘average Joe’ take part in some events just for comparison, so that everyone’s quite clear about what it is they’re watching
There are a few things on Youtube where a large treadmill is set at speed of 2 hour marathon runner and even fairly good runners can't hold it for long so an average Joe wouldn't even be able to get to the speed at all.
For anyone that has tried very high fitness speed/endurance sports we know full well that we could never come close. I still stand by shooting though, if I practised for many hours a week for 4 years I would absolutely be very good at air pistol shooting. Whether I would qualify is another matter but I would be in with a very good chance.
I reckon back in the day with a load of training and application I could have run a 3 hour marathon or close to.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c990yd94j7eo
Not with a ****ing broken leg though
I chose 10m air pistol for a reason. You can practice at home. With no more than a pistol, pellets and a target. No need for a trip to a club, special clothing, or all that extra stuff. Just a pistol and a garage with decent lighting. And four hours a day practice. That’s a LOT of pellets and paper targets (invest in an electronic target if you are very serious about those Olympics (a lot less walking too and fro). About £3k in total plus pellets. I think it’s doable. Any 25m distance needs a dedicated range, so training, sign off, travel to and from range etc…. There are very few Olympic sports you can do at home to really get the hours in.
Did the beeb do a highlights package as part of the closing ceremony? Preferably one that wasn’t just GB + Biles + Marchand?
Last week I was watching the pros race for Olympic medals. This morning I was out on my bike in the hills of Northumberland. I'm sure those guys are good, but they didn't have to choose between wading an icy stream and getting nettles on their legs crossing a rickety footbridge, did they? And they had folk handing them proper snacks, not carrying a pocket full of Lidl knock-offs. So chapeau to the Olympians, but it's important to see these things in their proper context.
Anyone else go through their bookshelves looking for Harry Potter books to burn after reading the news this morning ?
Anyone else go through their bookshelves looking for Harry Potter books to burn after reading the news this morning ?
Firstly I'm 52 so about 30ish when the first one came out.....no HP books ever made it into the house!
But secondly, yeah - not good. I was always on the side of feeling JRR (and Navratilova and Sharon Davis) had a right to an opinion as we all got our heads around it (arguably more right than me as a man) but those words I've (now) seen are not good. As a professional wordsmith she can't be forgiven any miss-placed nuance - she meant to inflame.
TiRedFull Member
I chose 10m air pistol for a reason. You can practice robbing the post office
https://ibb.co/4Y7cxn4
https://ibb.co/vsr7R3r
+1 Edukator & Convert, was willing to allow JKR to make her comments but that was just plain wrong & clearly lands her on the wrong side of the argument.
Nothing will come of it though
The law suit is in France, the barister admits he hasn't got a clue beyond UK law. The lady isn't trans and the IOC is happy so there is no ambiguity, she's a woman. The tweets are factually wrong and cyber bullying.
I disagreed with Mark's stance and Hannahs piece which was about trans and flew in the face of what seems to me a fair compromise by the IOC and many federations.
In this case Imane has competed within the IOC framework and does not deserve the OTT abuse from Musk and JKR.
So Raygun.......if you ever go on any form of social media, you'll no doubt have seen some of the bazillions of mentions of it - copycat 'dances', memes, sketches - you name it.
Turns out she's not loving it. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/articles/cq82yjw5xelo
Not sure I would either to be honest - but I'm enough of an introvert I wouldn't have been 'breaking' on stage in front of millions in the first place.
My thoughts:-
1. Surely she knew enough about the scene to know what she was going to be doing was surely going to get some piss taking.
2. Gunn said she didn't realise her appearance would "open the door to so much hate". To be honest I've not seen any hate. I've seen seen lots of people ripping the piss, but I think everything I've seen could be described as joyous leg pulling, not hate. It's like the world has had a big post Olympics smile at her expense. Raygun or the bloke with the brick in the plums - toss up (he won't be doing any of that any time soon) which has made me smile the most and lifted my mood. But I guess it's not my leg that's being pulled by half the planet.
Some of the stuff on SM is hateful. Obviously given that she's female there's the inevitable misogynistic twist that these things take. There's a petition with 50+ thousands signatures on demanding that she and Anna Mears apologise for bring shame to the nation....just can't quite imagine it happening if it was two males as the breaker and head of olympic team.
Raygun's performance was massively disrespectfull to actual athletes that have trained hard for the olympic ganmes, and all the talented dancers that wanted to represent Australia, but lost somehow to her limited talents that managed to get her selected. That's the reason she's got the hate, not some misogynistic reasons.
And for Imane Khelif, the simple solution is just for them to publish their chromosomal tests to show that they are indeed XX and don't have any 'male advantage', or if they are XY then why they do not have 'male advantage'. The rules for gender identity in society and for gender identity in sport cannot be the same, you cannot have females with 'male advantage' competing against females without 'male advantage'.
male advantage
Is that a technical term ?
Cheers for that gravedigger, very enlightening (facepalm emoji)
Do you get all your news from change.org petitions?
