The 2016 Olympic Games

[Big D]

Couple of medals in the pool. Jazz Carlin only beten by a freak. Adam Peaty is a freak and drops his new world record by another 0.4s, making a drop of the best part of a second in a couple of days.

Lizard, in terms of medal tables, are you of the All medals, scaled medals or gold medals school?

Peaty is a beast. To be near 56.xx when no one else has a time in the 57s is phenomenal.

[Which Tyler]

Peaty is a beast. To be near 56.xx when no one else has a time in the 57s is phenomenal.

Please gods, be clean.
Please gods, be clean.
Please gods, be clean.

Usain Bolt:
Please gods, be clean.
Please gods, be clean.
Please gods, be clean.


etc etc. I'd love to think these guys are just freaks of nature.

[Eugene Wrayburn]

Peaty is a beast. To be near 56.xx when no one else has a time in the 57s is phenomenal.

Please gods, be clean.
Please gods, be clean.
Please gods, be clean.

Usain Bolt:
Please gods, be clean.
Please gods, be clean.
Please gods, be clean.


etc etc. I'd love to think these guys are just freaks of nature.

I'd be astonished if Peaty was doping. He's still coached by his swimming club coach from way back. What seems most striking about him is his mental strength.

[Which Tyler]

Peaty is a beast. To be near 56.xx when no one else has a time in the 57s is phenomenal.

Please gods, be clean.
Please gods, be clean.
Please gods, be clean.

Usain Bolt:
Please gods, be clean.
Please gods, be clean.
Please gods, be clean.


etc etc. I'd love to think these guys are just freaks of nature.

I'd be astonished if Peaty was doping. He's still coached by his swimming club coach from way back. What seems most striking about him is his mental strength.

Those 2 particular examples, I'd be a little surprised if either were (as in, I'm not actively suspicious; even though my natural cynicism calls me naive for that). I agree, having the same coach since age-grade brings a level of trust that he hasn't rapidly improved with an addition to the medical side.
Equally, Bolt is just a different shape for 100m runners - 15 years ago he'd have simply been considered too tall to get the acceleration up in the first place; but would look to be better at maintaining a top speed; so he's re-written the book on that; so it's perfectly conceivable that he's just a physical freak.
Others like Jonathon Edwards in triple jump were essentially the first to become fully professional, with all that entails to a minor discipline like triple jump; and so pushed the records, and the competition along with him.

Other athletes (who I'm not going to name) seem to be basically nowhere, and then rapidly improve over the course of a year or two to become world leaders when nothing about their time as a junior, or early years as a senior would have led anyone to suspect - often associated with a change in coach, who can be conveniently (and accurately) creditted with changes on training regimes.

However, and IMO, elite sport has quite a lot of doping involved; and I will be naturally suspicious of anyone coming along smashing records - especially in disciplins where the records were set by dopers (often in the 80s)

[Big D]

Again not to sidetrack fully to drugs, but Gatlin ran 9.80 at the US trial (+1.8 wind) at 34 years old to become the oldest man to make a US sprint team. There's a red flag as to the long term effects of performance enhancing drugs.

[Numbers]

Please gods, be clean.
Please gods, be clean.
Please gods, be clean.

Usain Bolt:
Please gods, be clean.
Please gods, be clean.
Please gods, be clean.


etc etc. I'd love to think these guys are just freaks of nature.

I'd be astonished if Peaty was doping. He's still coached by his swimming club coach from way back. What seems most striking about him is his mental strength.

Those 2 particular examples, I'd be a little surprised if either were (as in, I'm not actively suspicious; even though my natural cynicism calls me naive for that). I agree, having the same coach since age-grade brings a level of trust that he hasn't rapidly improved with an addition to the medical side.
Equally, Bolt is just a different shape for 100m runners - 15 years ago he'd have simply been considered too tall to get the acceleration up in the first place; but would look to be better at maintaining a top speed; so he's re-written the book on that; so it's perfectly conceivable that he's just a physical freak.
Others like Jonathon Edwards in triple jump were essentially the first to become fully professional, with all that entails to a minor discipline like triple jump; and so pushed the records, and the competition along with him.

Other athletes (who I'm not going to name) seem to be basically nowhere, and then rapidly improve over the course of a year or two to become world leaders when nothing about their time as a junior, or early years as a senior would have led anyone to suspect - often associated with a change in coach, who can be conveniently (and accurately) creditted with changes on training regimes.

However, and IMO, elite sport has quite a lot of doping involved; and I will be naturally suspicious of anyone coming along smashing records - especially in disciplins where the records were set by dopers (often in the 80s)

What looks good for Bolt is the fact he was breaking records throughout his youth, 52 seconds for the 400m on a grass track at age 12 for instance, that leans my thinking towards him being a special athlete rather than a drugs cheat, he also won the world junior championships 200m aged 15.

[Stom]

I'd be astonished if Peaty was doping. He's still coached by his swimming club coach from way back. What seems most striking about him is his mental strength.

Those 2 particular examples, I'd be a little surprised if either were (as in, I'm not actively suspicious; even though my natural cynicism calls me naive for that). I agree, having the same coach since age-grade brings a level of trust that he hasn't rapidly improved with an addition to the medical side.
Equally, Bolt is just a different shape for 100m runners - 15 years ago he'd have simply been considered too tall to get the acceleration up in the first place; but would look to be better at maintaining a top speed; so he's re-written the book on that; so it's perfectly conceivable that he's just a physical freak.
Others like Jonathon Edwards in triple jump were essentially the first to become fully professional, with all that entails to a minor discipline like triple jump; and so pushed the records, and the competition along with him.

Other athletes (who I'm not going to name) seem to be basically nowhere, and then rapidly improve over the course of a year or two to become world leaders when nothing about their time as a junior, or early years as a senior would have led anyone to suspect - often associated with a change in coach, who can be conveniently (and accurately) creditted with changes on training regimes.

However, and IMO, elite sport has quite a lot of doping involved; and I will be naturally suspicious of anyone coming along smashing records - especially in disciplins where the records were set by dopers (often in the 80s)

What looks good for Bolt is the fact he was breaking records throughout his youth, 52 seconds for the 400m on a grass track at age 12 for instance, that leans my thinking towards him being a special athlete rather than a drugs cheat, he also won the world junior championships 200m aged 15.

The Hungarian swimmer, Katinka Hosszu lopped 2 seconds off the 400m medly WR. My wife didn't like my suggestion that she's probably doped, but considering her "performance" at London, who knows. She could be. If she isn't, then she's found a big improvement from somewhere over the past 3 years.

[Sandydragon]

Those 2 particular examples, I'd be a little surprised if either were (as in, I'm not actively suspicious; even though my natural cynicism calls me naive for that). I agree, having the same coach since age-grade brings a level of trust that he hasn't rapidly improved with an addition to the medical side.
Equally, Bolt is just a different shape for 100m runners - 15 years ago he'd have simply been considered too tall to get the acceleration up in the first place; but would look to be better at maintaining a top speed; so he's re-written the book on that; so it's perfectly conceivable that he's just a physical freak.
Others like Jonathon Edwards in triple jump were essentially the first to become fully professional, with all that entails to a minor discipline like triple jump; and so pushed the records, and the competition along with him.

Other athletes (who I'm not going to name) seem to be basically nowhere, and then rapidly improve over the course of a year or two to become world leaders when nothing about their time as a junior, or early years as a senior would have led anyone to suspect - often associated with a change in coach, who can be conveniently (and accurately) creditted with changes on training regimes.

However, and IMO, elite sport has quite a lot of doping involved; and I will be naturally suspicious of anyone coming along smashing records - especially in disciplins where the records were set by dopers (often in the 80s)

What looks good for Bolt is the fact he was breaking records throughout his youth, 52 seconds for the 400m on a grass track at age 12 for instance, that leans my thinking towards him being a special athlete rather than a drugs cheat, he also won the world junior championships 200m aged 15.

The Hungarian swimmer, Katinka Hosszu lopped 2 seconds off the 400m medly WR. My wife didn't like my suggestion that she's probably doped, but considering her "performance" at London, who knows. She could be. If she isn't, then she's found a big improvement from somewhere over the past 3 years.

I like to give athletes the benefit of the doubt, but with all the recent scandals thats becoming very hard to do.

[Eugene Wrayburn]

Those 2 particular examples, I'd be a little surprised if either were (as in, I'm not actively suspicious; even though my natural cynicism calls me naive for that). I agree, having the same coach since age-grade brings a level of trust that he hasn't rapidly improved with an addition to the medical side.
Equally, Bolt is just a different shape for 100m runners - 15 years ago he'd have simply been considered too tall to get the acceleration up in the first place; but would look to be better at maintaining a top speed; so he's re-written the book on that; so it's perfectly conceivable that he's just a physical freak.
Others like Jonathon Edwards in triple jump were essentially the first to become fully professional, with all that entails to a minor discipline like triple jump; and so pushed the records, and the competition along with him.

Other athletes (who I'm not going to name) seem to be basically nowhere, and then rapidly improve over the course of a year or two to become world leaders when nothing about their time as a junior, or early years as a senior would have led anyone to suspect - often associated with a change in coach, who can be conveniently (and accurately) creditted with changes on training regimes.

However, and IMO, elite sport has quite a lot of doping involved; and I will be naturally suspicious of anyone coming along smashing records - especially in disciplins where the records were set by dopers (often in the 80s)

What looks good for Bolt is the fact he was breaking records throughout his youth, 52 seconds for the 400m on a grass track at age 12 for instance, that leans my thinking towards him being a special athlete rather than a drugs cheat, he also won the world junior championships 200m aged 15.

The Hungarian swimmer, Katinka Hosszu lopped 2 seconds off the 400m medly WR. My wife didn't like my suggestion that she's probably doped, but considering her "performance" at London, who knows. She could be. If she isn't, then she's found a big improvement from somewhere over the past 3 years.

Isn't it her own record? And 2 seconds off something that lasts over 4 minutes is mighty impressive but not innately suspicious.

[Stom]

What looks good for Bolt is the fact he was breaking records throughout his youth, 52 seconds for the 400m on a grass track at age 12 for instance, that leans my thinking towards him being a special athlete rather than a drugs cheat, he also won the world junior championships 200m aged 15.

The Hungarian swimmer, Katinka Hosszu lopped 2 seconds off the 400m medly WR. My wife didn't like my suggestion that she's probably doped, but considering her "performance" at London, who knows. She could be. If she isn't, then she's found a big improvement from somewhere over the past 3 years.

Isn't it her own record? And 2 seconds off something that lasts over 4 minutes is mighty impressive but not innately suspicious.

Last one was set in London by Ye Shiwen.

And to me, unfortunately, they're all suspicious now

[Galfon]

Calm shooting by Ling of Taunton..Bronze in the Trap.Full set for GB now...

[Galfon]

Daley/Goodfellow bag a bronze too in Synch. dive..China different ckass to be fair.

[Lizard]

Lizard, in terms of medal tables, are you of the All medals, scaled medals or gold medals school?

Depends what makes NZ look best...

Seriously, I have traditionally been a gold medals, second-place-is-the-first-loser kind of guy. How can a bronze possibly be given equal credit to a gold (especially given the bullshit that goes on in boxing where they don'e even have a 3/4 play-off and hand out two bronzes willy-nilly)? However, the scale method "points table" does have some merit. The main problem is deciding on a proper weighting.

You?

So I'm currently favouring the "All Medals Per Capita" table, which has NZ (2 silver, 4.5m people = 0.44 medals/million) in second place behind Kosovo (1 gold, 1.8m, 0.56). UK and USA would both be about 0.06, Russia slightly more. China less than 0.01.

[bruce]

Calm shooting by Ling of Taunton..Bronze in the Trap.Full set for GB now...

Nynehead, it's closer to Wellington than Taunton. I've had a shooting lesson off his missus, who's not bad herself.

[bruce]

Enjoyed the Judo last night. Good atmosphere, which is not something you can say about most venues, albeit a little too partisan (booing of anyone playing against a Brazilian).

[Numbers]

Well Japan have beaten NZ in the 7s, who'd of thought.

[Numbers]

Well Japan have beaten NZ in the 7s, who'd of thought.

Rumours are that Sonny Bill is out of the tournament.

[Eugene Wrayburn]

Well Japan have beaten NZ in the 7s, who'd of thought.

Rumours are that Sonny Bill is out of the tournament.

His mates might be joining him presently...

[canta_brian]

Well Japan have beaten NZ in the 7s, who'd of thought.

Rumours are that Sonny Bill is out of the tournament.

His mates might be joining him presently...

Achilles apparently. Probably out for the season. Must be a big loss in 7s.

[kk67]

Jameison and Moorehouse ... have been quality.
It has been fantastic listening to them doing continuous coverage on the red button.

[Lizard]

Well Japan have beaten NZ in the 7s, who'd of thought.

The entire NZ Olympic team appear to have collectively shit the bed overnight.

Half the rowers got knocked out.
Mark Todd blew a near certain medal for the horsey team.
The men's hockey side lost in the last minutes of their match.
The 7s team suffered that humiliating upset.

I can't even bring myself to check the sailing results. (And the Black Caps are making hard work of it against Zimbabwe, too).

Fuck this. When does the Rugby Championship start?

[Galfon]

I'd just like to point out that Tarzan won the 100m freestyle gold in both the '24 & '28 Olympics, and David Wilkie is the only person to have held British, American, Commonwealth, European, world and Olympic swimming titles at the same time.That's what I call synchronised swimming.
Also, my pool of choice was Warrender Baths back in the day, Wilkie's home turf, rather than the grander Meadowbank facility.
I didn't realise at the time I was sharing the great man's waters..

[WaspInWales]

Team GB are gonna need more than Yorkshire to save us this time around!

[Eugene Wrayburn]

Team GB are gonna need more than Yorkshire to save us this time around!

Really? We're going pretty well actually.

[Galfon]

Team GB are gonna need more than Yorkshire to save us this time around!

The swimmists have got something to show for their endeavours this time round..phew; lottery funding secured.Siobhan-Marie O'Connor deserves it anyhoo - good work.