So excited about the Olympics

[Matty Norwood]

opening ceremony! was it cool or below par? I thought parts of it was brilliant while other parts were kinda dull.

[BigPete33]

-1 for the soccer in the olympics

all the other team sports are players at the top of their game striving for excellence, in soccer its the junior teams with a couple of over age players, needs to go

Do you mean... like how the Olympics are supposed to have AMATEUR athletes only but they changed it all around partly because nobody cared anymore?

[BigPete33]

Very interesting discussion on the money factor, I've had several drinks since I heard this but it may have been rcon who mentioned to me something about Australias spend per athlete (or something) meant our results were fricken amazing when compared to other countries.

If we do happen to lose to England, it'll suck dogs balls, but I'm not sure I can support the idea of $100k per athlete!

[Chelsea4thewin]

-1 for the soccer in the olympics

all the other team sports are players at the top of their game striving for excellence, in soccer its the junior teams with a couple of over age players, needs to go

Do you mean... like how the Olympics are supposed to have AMATEUR athletes only but they changed it all around partly because nobody cared anymore?

amateur athletes hey, basketball, tennis, road cycling all have pro athletes, to me the whole point of the olympics is for individuals/teams to represent their countries at the highest level, soccer just doesnt cut it imo

[BigPete33]

I think maybe you're just not old enough

Now they do have pro athletes, you are absolutely correct.

They never used to.

You couldn't compete in the Olympics if you were a professional in whatever the sport is, I think boxing still sticks to this?

Basketball was a great example, used to be USA college players from the NCAA vs the Russians equivalent (where's Tony G when you want him?) and then there were the rest of the plebs like us, but then the rules got changed (and it was a huge deal at the time) and we got to see the likes of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and David Robinson all in the same team and absolutely dominating.

If we go back to the example of football, the World Cup is bigger than the Olympics so whilst it's never going to be as much of a spectacle to watch it's REALLY good for our younger players to get some international exposure at a high level. They still allow a small amount of overage players (3?) to try and draw the crowds in or something.

I guess my point is it's not really football's fault the Olympics went from being amateurs only to having pro's allowed, and I'm kinda glad they've stayed away from it.

[Nevah play JJ]

i think he knows that david, but it was a pretty easy question JJ.

No it isn't
I have asked heaps of people...
Even people that are in the Horse work situation...

MOST have picked Shooting as the sport..

Maybe one or two have picked Riding.

[Nevah play JJ]

opening ceremony! was it cool or below par? I thought parts of it was brilliant while other parts were kinda dull.

Did you find that it was very much how you would have expected the Chinese to do it?

By that I mean that very much about the light and show.... The way they really got me was it wasn't over the top and gawdy, with heap of loud banging, over the top costumes... etc...

Yeah.. I thought it was awesome, but some parts got a little bit ... "Been there seen that"

[maccatak11]

i think he knows that david, but it was a pretty easy question JJ.

No it isn't
I have asked heaps of people...
Even people that are in the Horse work situation...

MOST have picked Shooting as the sport..

Maybe one or two have picked Riding.

well, it is an easy question for about 96% of people who follow sport.

Cmon, where is the real sports trivia lol

[rcon]

Very interesting discussion on the money factor, I've had several drinks since I heard this but it may have been rcon who mentioned to me something about Australias spend per athlete (or something) meant our results were fricken amazing when compared to other countries.

If we do happen to lose to England, it'll suck dogs balls, but I'm not sure I can support the idea of $100k per athlete!

Here is the story on calls for our athletes/coaches to be paid more
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/st ... 02,00.html

I'll see if I can find a link to the breakdown of medals per $ spent from the 2006 commonwealth games somewhere.

I personally think spending on sport should be focused more directly on participation rather than on trying to inspire kiddies to sign up to little athletics from watching Cathy in Sydney.

[bennymacca]

just watched the 4x100 mens relay in my lunch break

the yanks beat the previous record (which was set in the heats) by 4 seconds!!!!

the top 5 teams were all under the previous mark, which i think is pretty crazy.

australia bronze, we have had a good start to the games, with most medal chances actually medalling