[Closed] Who still hates the Olympics?

I must admit Im really enjoying it 🙂 But i like the. Olympics but i still dont like London and Never will.

Some of it is pretty grim... Like Percy and Simpson earlier today, apologising for only getting silver. "We feel so bad for everyone watching and supporting." That's a ropey state of affairs, sure they could have taken gold and maybe were expected to but any medal at this level is a huge achievement. "Sorry we're only the second best in the entire world"

I'm glad they were so devastated with Silver. It demonstrates their absolute determination and drive for success. We need more of that sort of the attitude in the UK when it comes to sport.

Whilst it would be nice to think there will be something long standing after all this, I do think this feeling of collective happiness/pride etc will come to a grinding halt once the closing ceremony is over.

well, the Olympians have "done their part" now it's up to those who want a lasting legacy to do their bit.
Mebbe take that "race face" off for the commute and smile at a few people
see if your local school, youth club, sports club etc would want a talk on cycling (or other sport/activity you're involved in - there's been plenty of cracking bike trip photo threads here for instance that deserve a wider audience)
start a local beginners bike club and lead some pootles around your local trails
if you have a half decent LBS see if they may be able to run occasional maintenance classes for kids/families
join Sustrans and help maintain your local cycleways

one thing for sure, it is probably the best opportunity we (as a society) may have for a long time to actually make a difference 🙂

(not aimed at the poster I've quoted btw, just thoughts in general)

We need more of that sort of the attitude in the UK

Shortened that for you....

It's not just in sport that we need more of that sort of attitude! 🙂

Shortened that for you....

It's not just in sport that we need more of that sort of attitude!

I agree totally.

Being disappointed with Silver is rude, churlish and offensive to all the other participants. How does that make the people in Bronze feel ? Or those that made the final but didn't get a medal ?? Michael Phelps showed the world how good sportsmanship is done !

fervouredimage - Member

I'm glad they were so devastated with Silver. It demonstrates their absolute determination and drive for success.

Disagree... Yes they should be proud to be able to aim to be the best but the bottom line is, not everyone is going to win and if you distill a sport down to first place being the only thing worth competing for, and everything else being devastating failure, then all you do is make less successes.

There's a reason that there are silver and bronze medals. To compete at the highest level of a sport, do your best, and take home bronze is an achievement so far above what most people will ever contemplate. Not something to apologise for.

Agreed, Northwind.

Prizes for all, hels? Can't have someone losing, can we?

Disagree... Yes they should be proud to be able to aim to be the best but the bottom line is, not everyone is going to win and if you distill a sport down to first place being the only thing worth competing for, and everything else being devastating failure, then all you do is make less successes.

I agree they didn't need to apologise. What has anyone here done to get them into the Olympics? It's their graft and hard work, not mine.

If you're an athlete in any sport then your aim should be to be the best. That's what makes these people stand out from mere mortals like you and I. There absolute determination and will to succeed whereby second is meaningless and first is all that matters.

To compete at the highest level of a sport, do your best, and take home bronze is an achievement so far above what most people will ever contemplate. Not something to apologise for.

And that's the point. They are not 'most' people. They are the best of the best in their discipline. Winning should be all that matters to them. It's what sets them apart.

I despair when any athlete says 'it's great just to be here'.

However, if you are defending Olympic champions, and leading the event with one race to go, maybe, just maybe, you'd feel that gold is what you wanted?
Good on them, they are bloody nice people (I've spoken to both) and were driven to WIN, not come second.

Hopefully the overwhelming positivity right now will run off on the haters, because I feel really sorry for how much they're missing out!

Are the apologies from the silver medallists due to the realisation that their sport will lose out in future funding (more appropriate for sailing and swimming than rowing or cycling). Sport England or whatever they are called now are notoriously hard-hearted if a sport does not deliver on the medal expectations.

I agree it is poor form though to appear churlish when losing to a better team.

Ffs, they are just unhappy that someone beat them. No different to 2nd place at the world cup, Wimbledon, a grand prix etc. completely understandable.

Success is the reward for hard work and sacrifice.

No it isn't, you can work as hard as the man next to you but if your genes are not as good you may end up losing out on a medal.

And that's the point. They are not 'most' people. They are the best of the best in their discipline. Winning should be all that matters to them. It's what sets them apart.

Horsecrap, suicide rates would be unbelievably high in atheletes if they were hell bent on being the best and couldn't deal with not being world number 1. What about domestiques? How do you explain their existence with your crap logic? There are hundreds of excellent tennis players and golfers who make money out of the sport but know that they will never be quite the same standard as Federer or Woods etc.

....well Bwaarp, that may be true, in which case meritocracy is a partially flawed idea since it also depends on the random distribution of natural ability!

But I think the point is that, success cannot be achieved without hard work and sacrifice, but they alone still do not guarantee it!

I can sympathise with Hunter and Purchase and frankly reactions to silvers will always depend on individual circumtances. But Roger Federer was very classy in his interview with Sue Barker today. Perhaps he has had the advantage of walking on to Centre Court so many times and reading Kipling's famous lines!

I still hate the whole farce, and especially the way the BBC 'news' channel has gone completely doolally over it. Flash floods? no. Syria, what? Oh look we've won another medal!...

And speaking of farce, the Australian news don't have much positive to say about it either (SFW, except for the snorting)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-02/sharing-the-olympic-blame-with-clarke-and-dawe/4173114

😆 ..

Ohno - winning medals is much more newsworthy than a bit of rain. Rain happens all the time, floods quite regularly, the Olympics don't.

So why not just report the facts as part of the sports news rather than the gooey saturation worship on the BBC?

I've had a thought about uses for the stadium afterwards. And it'd placate some chippy northerners. Liverpool have been banging on about moving out of Anfield into a new stadium for years. How about....

[img] [/img]

fervouredimage - Member

I despair when any athlete says 'it's great just to be here'.

Sorry if I'm taking you out of context here, but surely for some athletes just getting to the games is a massive achievement, and whilst they may have goals (getting in the top ten, making the final, whatever), getting a medal will not be a realistic aim.

To give an example - Katarina Johnson-Thompson, 19 year old heptathlete. Came and set a couple PBs in a couple of events, huge learning exercise for someone who will hopefully be a contender in the future. D'you thnk she went home thinking 'I didn't beat Jessica Ennis/win gold, so I have failed'?

Or in the real world - I enter a few CX and XC races. I'm never going to win one but I do occasionally worry the lower reaches of the top ten and am chuffed when I achieve that sorted of result. Should I be (unrealistically) expecting to win, and gutted with anything but first place?

Horsecrap, suicide rates would be unbelievably high in atheletes if they were hell bent on being the best and couldn't deal with not being world number 1. What about domestiques? How do you explain their existence with your crap logic? There are hundreds of excellent tennis players and golfers who make money out of the sport but know that they will never be quite the same standard as Federer or Woods etc.

Touched a nerve by the looks of it there Bwaarp.

I'm assuming you are shit at an awful lot of things to be satisfied with failure.

There there, never mind.

No it isn't, you can work as hard as the man next to you but if your genes are not as good you may end up losing out on a medal.

Let me guess. You're short, fat with stumpy legs, oversized head, small feet, small hands, small.....

especially the way the BBC 'news' channel has gone completely doolally over it

There was some guy on there on Friday, possibly Irish, talking utter nonsense about the cycling.

Its only sport.....

No of course not prizes for all, I'm not saying that. I just think they should show some respect for all the people that supported them in their efforts, and the other athletes, but not crying like a big baby when you don't get the bestest shiniest prize.

Of course you have to aim for gold, but somewhere in the intensive training I think they missed out the section on losing gracefully and with dignity and showing due respect for the winners.

Of course, if NZ had lost the World Cup final we were going to nuke France from orbit, just to be sure. But that's different.

it doesn't help with the media response to silver, the way the silver medal canoeist were treated when their team mates won gold was dreadful. The interviewer, after they had their arms round each others shoulder, split them apart and turned his back on the silver medalist and never asked them a single question in the end they were ushered out of shot.

Righty, I'm a bit tired so might not be as venomous as previous posts...

As I said prior to the Games starting, I wouldn't be watching the road race or TT as it would be hypocritical of me. So I didn't. What I did do was sit in traffic trying to get out of Kingston over that weekend along with about twenty thousand others - didn't see much Olympic cheer then.

I'm pleased for the sports folk who've done well and I'd imagine that stood in front of that massive crowd last night in the Olympic stadium must have been an amazing experience. Their hard work and graft has given them the results they wanted and I have nothing but admiration for them. But it doesn't affect me, doesn't change my opinion that these games are something we can ill afford and that the money should have been spent elsewhere.

I see a lot of arguments against the Olympics where numbers and facts are stated. The majority of responses to these arguments from Olympic supporters are along the lines of 'it lifts public spirit' and its for the greater good. I can't see how public spirit is going to create more jobs, or fix the NHS or lift us out of the massive debt we're currently sitting in. It really does still feel like everyone is enjoying these two weeks without considering the after effects. This, coupled with the fact that I'm told constantly that I should be 'proud' and enjoying the Games means I'm still sat in the 'waste of money and time' camp...

Sorry if I'm taking you out of context here, but surely for some athletes just getting to the games is a massive achievement, and whilst they may have goals (getting in the top ten, making the final, whatever), getting a medal will not be a realistic aim.

Slightly out of context yes. I've heard a few athletes before their event say they are 'just pleased to be there'. That reminds me of the sort of thing I used to say to my dad when I used to race motocross. If I was convinced I wasn't going to do well or didn't like the track etc I'd normally say to him " i'll be pleased if I can just get to the end of this one".

It might be unrealistic to assume you can/will win but resigning yourself to the fact you definitely can't isn't a good approach. Of course it's an achievement to get to the Olympics but now you're there have self belief. Who knows what could happen?

The talent of an athlete is the will to succeed , the will to win and the drive and work ethic that comes with that. Few people have that sort of mind-set. It's a talent as far as I'm concerned.

ohnohesback - Member
So why not just report the facts as part of the sports news rather than the gooey saturation worship on the BBC?
POSTED 14 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Because they are excited to be reporting such amazing news about our athletes?

not crying like a big baby when you don't get the bestest shiniest prize.

Wtf is the point of any of it if not to get the best shiniest prize?!

Doesn't seem like you really understand top level competitve sport, tbh. If you don't care about prizes just go for a bike ride/run/knock about in the park. As many people do, very successfully of course.

Why is that lazy?

Loving the olympics. Hard to belive not so long ago a fair few were saying it would be an embarrassment to the Country.

Isn't Yorkshire doing quite well in the medal table - 8 golds or something?

Personally, I've never spent so much time shouting at the TV.

I wonder how David Starkey's doing at the moment...

I'm not hating it but as everyone at work is always watching it I'm getting a bit sick of having it on day in day out. Have to say I am surprised it's going well so far though, thought it would all go tits up somehow. I've been enjoying bits of it, looking forward to the bmx racing this week 🙂

It is an embarrassment to see the mass of doe-eyed droolers and disturbing to see how so many can be so easily pleased by so little.

Wtf is the point of any of it if not to get the best shiniest prize?!

[i] "The most important thing is not to win, but to take part"[/i]

- Pierre de Coubertin founder of the International Olympic Committee describing "the Olympic Spirit".

As I said prior to the Games starting, I wouldn't be watching the road race or TT as it would be hypocritical of me.

you could just watch it, enjoy it, but not tell anyone...
which is what I bet you're really doing.

disturbing to see how so many can be so easily pleased by so little.

if only everyone in life was so easily pleased.

Touched a nerve by the looks of it there Bwaarp.

I'm assuming you are shit at an awful lot of things to be satisfied with failure.

There there, never mind.

Let me guess. You're short, fat with stumpy legs, oversized head, small feet, small hands, small.....

Rather unnecessary

Self edit. Double post.

Isn't Yorkshire doing quite well in the medal table - 8 golds or something?
POSTED 9 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

ohnohesback - Member

It is an embarrassment to see the mass of doe-eyed droolers and disturbing to see how so many can be so easily pleased by so little.

Are you ever, you know - happy?

At all? About anything? 😕

Happy? What on earth is that? Do you mean perhaps, less miserable?

ohnohesback - Member
It is an embarrassment to see the mass of doe-eyed droolers and disturbing to see how so many can be so easily pleased by so little.

Oh the sanctimony. Dont be embarrased, just tell us what you think we should be allowed to enjoy.

I'm having a lovely time, can't wait to go to the athletics on Friday night.