So, if you dedicated the next 4 years of your life to a sport with the aim of being at the 2016 olympics representing GB what would be the best sport to give a try?

Got to be something obscure, but with relatively high equipment costs?

Got to be something obscure, but with relatively high equipment costs?

Have you considered taking up mountain biking?

Have you considered taking up mountain biking?

We’d have to get someone to build some mountains first. 😕

Pole Vaulting?

A mate of mine was in the top 10 in the country when we were kids… there were only 10 people in his age group.

Initially I thought I’d give the shooting a go but then I remembered a clay shoot on a stag do in Scotland a few years ago. It was pretty poor – I couldn’t hit a Death Star at 20ft.

Can we include the Winter Olympics? If so I’d be a middle gimp in a four-man bobsleigh team.

There isn’t one.

Didn’t the lass who won gold in rowing only start 3 years ago? Got the feeling I’d be terrible at pole vaulting

DD – you really did forget to put your pants on when you played beach volleyball, didn’t you?

Your best bet would be to be born an undiscovered genetic freak then take up a strength / stamina sport (rather than skill like Tennis / shooting) as it could be possible to get enough training in 4 years to stand a chance of competing.

Can we include the Winter Olympics? If so I’d be a middle gimp in a four-man bobsleigh team.

Is that to aid the bobsleigh’s gravitational pull?

😀 Taylor, playing to my strengths.

something on a horsey?
you just have to stay on don’t you?
oh and you need a posh name and some big teeth.
call yourself Piggy Templeton-Farkit or Marcus Mandarin-Spaff.

Can we include the Winter Olympics? If so I’d be a middle gimp in a four-man bobsleigh team.

Have done bobsleigh a few times and it’s incredibly hard work. The level of fitness required is far higher than you might think. Just stopping your head from hitting the floor of the thing is bloody hard work !

The brake man I used to know was 2.5″ shorter after 3 years of training runs.

(I’m only 5’6″ now, can’t afford to lose any !!)

If/when they make “arguing on internet forums” a recognised sport, there’d be a few strong contenders on here… Maybe you could go in for that?

Alternatively, try sailing or rowing? Lots of different classes and sub divisions in all of those so if you find you’re rubbish at one, you can always try a different branch and it’s an excuse to have loads of kit so should suit most MTBers. 😉

By the looks of it, Badminton would be the best bet. In fact, they would be positively queueing up to play you.

I was watching the archery earlier and thinking “how hard can that be?”

Also the Brit who won gold in clay pigeon shooting has only been at it for 4 yeas so there’s another option.

Maybe you could discover a long lost relative in an obscure and under-represented country and compete in whatever you like for them?

Just to add, I do appreciate that archery is almost certainly very difficult.

You need something where you can train technique and fitness, easy enough to get good at those sort of sports with dedication to training and time. Anything with a high degree of skill to even compete requires a lifetime to get good. Hence the rower who came from no-where in 3 years, dedication to training and good coaching on technique. Obviously to get medal worthy requires a particular level of skill which training alone may not provide.

It would help if you’d attended an “independent” school

“It tells you that 50 percent of the medals came from 7 per cent of the population,” Moynihan said. “It’s one of the worst statistics in British sport.
“It is wholly unacceptable that over 50 percent of our medallists in Beijing came from the independent sector.”

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/unacceptable-elite-schools-dominate-uk-medals-193623966–spt.html

yeah it does help if your school still has a playing field.

5’6″ is a problem as it rules out quiet a few sports we’re not that good at (and you’d therefore stand a chance a quickly progressing).

Tall is needed for the rowing and is a hell of a help in the cycling (long legs = long levers etc.)

On the other hand one of the team GB men running the marathon has only ever competed in one elite level marathon – he won Berlin in 2hrs 10min and therefore qualified. He’s had a “gentle” go round the london marathon course (also being used for the games) to learn it but otherwise thats it! (by the way “gentle” in this context means he did a sub 3 hours!)

So some of the running events and the field events might be a possible…. how’s your shot-put?

Got to be something obscure, but with relatively high equipment costs?

3 day eventing*.

Being able to buy the right horses will help, you’ll need someone to help train, look after and exercise them for you. Not a huge number of countries do it. Also if you don’t succeed you can keep going into your fifty’s for more attempts.

*I ride a bit and it might not be all that easy…

Modern Pentathlon is probably the easiest, a shoe in for those who have access to horses and fencing tuition and a swimming pool and a gun

of course you could chop a leg or arm off and go for one of the paralympic events… although I think the paralympic committee might look badly on self mutilation in order to get to the games…. and you’d still have to find a sport we’re crap at and then dedicate everyday for the next 4 years to training to stand even a snowflake in hells chance of getting selected!

If anything we have even more astoundingly good atheltes in the paralympics!

5’6″ is a problem as it rules out quiet a few sports we’re not that good at (and you’d therefore stand a chance a quickly progressing).

If it were me, I would be looking at the winter Olympics anyway.

I used to race Super G a good few years ago. But only the weekender club races in Austria.
And wasn’t ever into training enough to get good (by Austrian standards)

Way over the bill now though at 39 🙁

cross country skiing and shooting event?
Not sure we have many in that and it’s air-rifle shooting which is easier as you’d be able to train the shooting in the UK (unless it’s a very powerful air rifle?).

Also you could do basic training on a good cross trainer and need to hit the snow less often…. actually thinking about it, unlike downhill, slalom etc. you’d be able to train on snow in cheap – non ski based resorts in the winter as its on the flat (ish)… so no paying through the nose for months in Val d’isere at the height of posh people holiday season!

curling, do the brush people get a medal cos i’m a pretty good with the ol’ broom.

You could pretend to be disabled .Was it the Spanish wheelchair basket ball team who tried this and got found out a few years ago ?

Spanish basketball team for a certain specified level of mental disability…. which they faked…. and got found out!

Doh! So they were not mentally disabled…. just stupid!

Windsurfing would be my suggestion. Though before you commit make sure it will be at the 2016 Olympics, you wouldn’t want to do all the training and not be able to go as they don’t class it an Olympic sport anymore. 🙂

Spanish basketball team for a certain specified level of mental disability…. which they faked…. and got found out!

Doh! So they were not mentally disabled…. just stupid!
Not classy. 🙁

Thanks Badger I thought I hadnt dreamt it

Darts. Well if golf can be in it, surely darts and dominoes must have a chance?!.

Sofa rugby as played by Mendip caving clubs

Rules ,there are no rules but the object of the game is to get the sofa against the wall behind your opponent any number can play teams dont need to be even being totally pi**ed as compulsory

Was thinking this earlier today, i`m 45 and the only thing that I could think of that I have never ever even heard of anyone try is fencing, must be 0.1% or less of the world competing so its got to be worth a shot!!

nobeerinthefridge…. Golf was in the 1900 (and 1904) games, along with croquet, ballooning, boule and lifesaving!

Hmm maybe we should have a campaign to get croquet back… would be very amusing in Rio!

Personally I think Kabaddi should be in before golf. 🙂

Bring back the Equestrian Long Jump!!!

I was born in Sharjah – do the UAE need any mountain bikers I wonder? 🙂

Ski jumping, the next eddie the eagle!

Mmm hard choice, 3 day eventing might seem ok but given that 1 of the riders is in hospital with a broken sacrum and a few years ago lots of eventers died after the horse fell on them, I may give that a miss. Besides have you actually seen the size of the cross country jumps, they re mahoosive.

Weightlifting could be a possibility, spend a while on steroids to bulk up and then start competing. Run risk of testicles shrivelling and massive mood swings.. Most others r too technical to progress quickl