RugbyRebels

Digby wrote:

OptimisticJock wrote:

Digby wrote:
So any sport which has participants which consider they should be an Olympic sport gets to partake?

Next you'll be trying to say horse dancing isn't an Olympic sport.

The dressage strikes me as an odd event, I guess it's hardly as key given the time we live in that horses perform to commands as once was the case. But just because I like tennis and consider tennis makes a brilliant TV sport, and have little interest in any equestrian event, doesn't alter my view that the Olympics is the pinnacle for the horse people in a way that the Slams, Olympics and perhaps the Davis and Fed Cup are for tennis.

Donny osmond wrote:

OptimisticJock wrote:

Donny osmond wrote:As if Steve Redgrave couldn't ve anymore of a hero, just reading that he's had an on air falling out with Invertwat. Some are born great.

I was about to launch into a rant about sportsmen being "heroes" but if he's ripping the pish out of Invertwat that's fine.

Good point, well made. Replace "hero" with "legend"?

OptimisticJock wrote:

Digby wrote:

Eugene Wrayburn wrote:
It looks like the tennis players don't agree with you, which rather resolves the argument.

So any sport which has participants which consider they should be an Olympic sport gets to partake?

Next you'll be trying to say horse dancing isn't an Olympic sport.

Which Tyler wrote:

Digby wrote:

OptimisticJock wrote: Next you'll be trying to say horse dancing isn't an Olympic sport.

The dressage strikes me as an odd event, I guess it's hardly as key given the time we live in that horses perform to commands as once was the case. But just because I like tennis and consider tennis makes a brilliant TV sport, and have little interest in any equestrian event, doesn't alter my view that the Olympics is the pinnacle for the horse people in a way that the Slams, Olympics and perhaps the Davis and Fed Cup are for tennis.

FTFY

Digby wrote:Not so much fixed as adding the word Olympics, and I had purposely skipped the Olympics, much like some players have skipped the Olympics seeing instead a chance to gain some ranking points which will be more beneficial to their career. And they have got events to play in away from the Olympics, there's nearly always a satellite event going on somewhere, but at the moment the Cincinnati Masters is on amongst other things and that's one of the big tournaments going.

Which Tyler wrote:

Digby wrote:Not so much fixed as adding the word Olympics, and I had purposely skipped the Olympics, much like some players have skipped the Olympics seeing instead a chance to gain some ranking points which will be more beneficial to their career. And they have got events to play in away from the Olympics, there's nearly always a satellite event going on somewhere, but at the moment the Cincinnati Masters is on amongst other things and that's one of the big tournaments going.

Yeah, you're right; top players forgoing ranking points and cash in order to chase the dream of an olympic medal is definitive proof that the olympics has no real prestige within the sport... Erm...

Mellsblue wrote:Yorkshire is currently sitting 13th in the medal table. Not sure where they sit in the per capita version; but, I doubt anyone's bothered as that's only really for those with low ambition.

Lizard wrote:Women's Black Sticks through to the semi final. An excellent opportunity for Team NZ to continue its run of 4th placings.

Mellsblue wrote: Slowly falling in love with Laura Trott, utterly class act.

Mellsblue wrote:

Lizard wrote:Women's Black Sticks through to the semi final. An excellent opportunity for Team NZ to continue its run of 4th placings.

Looks like you'll be up against our girls. The way they are playing you will be playing for fourth.

Is it ok to be cocky when supporting GB or is it still English arrogance?

Galfon wrote:..Got silver, but seems gutted at not golding.Did well - even sent the winner on his pants in the crash but to no avail.Probs. will do Gold Coast for Man but unlikely to Olympiate in 4.

Donny osmond wrote:

Galfon wrote:..Got silver, but seems gutted at not golding.Did well - even sent the winner on his pants in the crash but to no avail.Probs. will do Gold Coast for Man but unlikely to Olympiate in 4.

He did well but I wouldn't have much sympathy for him not getting gold, he made too many mistakes, watched too many attacks go away. I'm talking about that final points race, didn't see the other 5 events.

WaspInWales wrote:Slightly off topic but considering all the accusations about 'state sponsored' doping by the Russians, does anyone think there was anything a little suspect with the US team in the 1984 games?

83 gold medals and a total of 174 medals is staggering, even with home advantage. That's almost double the golds they managed in Atlanta. I've read that prior to the games, one third of the US cycling team received blood transfusions which is highly suspicious.

Just seen this which is a few years old and relates to 1988 to 2000:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2003/ ... ncanmackay

114 positive test results allegedly covered up.

WaspInWales wrote:Slightly off topic but considering all the accusations about 'state sponsored' doping by the Russians, does anyone think there was anything a little suspect with the US team in the 1984 games?

83 gold medals and a total of 174 medals is staggering, even with home advantage. That's almost double the golds they managed in Atlanta. I've read that prior to the games, one third of the US cycling team received blood transfusions which is highly suspicious.

Just seen this which is a few years old and relates to 1988 to 2000:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2003/ ... ncanmackay

114 positive test results allegedly covered up.

Sometimes photographs deceive. Take this one, for example. It represents John Carlos and Tommie Smith’s rebellious gesture the day they won medals for the 200 meters at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, and it certainly deceived me for a long time.

I always saw the photo as a powerful image of two barefoot black men, with their heads bowed, their black-gloved fists in the air while the US National Anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” played. It was a strong symbolic gesture – taking a stand for African American civil rights in a year of tragedies that included the death of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy.

It’s a historic photo of two men of color. For this reason I never really paid attention to the other man, white, like me, motionless on the second step of the medal podium. I considered him as a random presence, an extra in Carlos and Smith’s moment, or a kind of intruder. Actually, I even thought that that guy – who seemed to be just a simpering Englishman – represented, in his icy immobility, the will to resist the change that Smith and Carlos were invoking in their silent protest. But I was wrong.

Thanks to an old article by Gianni Mura, today I discovered the truth: that white man in the photo is, perhaps, the third hero of that night in 1968. His name was Peter Norman, he was an Australian that arrived in the 200 meters finals after having ran an amazing 20.22 in the semi finals. Only the two Americans, Tommie “The Jet” Smith and John Carlos had done better: 20.14 and 20.12, respectively.

...

Lizard wrote:

Mellsblue wrote:

Lizard wrote:Women's Black Sticks through to the semi final. An excellent opportunity for Team NZ to continue its run of 4th placings.

Looks like you'll be up against our girls. The way they are playing you will be playing for fourth.

Is it ok to be cocky when supporting GB or is it still English arrogance?

To be fair, I've not watched any teams other than those playing NZ but we've drawn with the world #1 and easily beaten the world #3.

It's English arrogance if the team has no more than one non-English in the starting side. Otherwise it's just your garden-variety twattery.

I hope the match is on at a somewhat reasonable hour in NZ.