Athletics

Cern said:
WTF, crowd boo'ing Lavillenie during the medal ceremony. Brazil should be ashamed. No respect.
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Yes, it's pathetic.

The sport has been great this Olympic games, but the atmosphere has been seriously lacking. I don't know whether it's because the prices are too high for there to be good crowds, or Brazilians take little interest in sports that are not football or volleyball. At a few events, even if there are good crowds, they boo rivals nations and if their countrymen competing get lowish scores because they aren't very good in that particular sport.

I don't know about anyone else, but in my opinion this should be the first and last time Brazil hosts the Olympic games.
 
Marsman said:
I don't know about anyone else, but in my opinion this should be the first and last time Brazil hosts the Olympic games.
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In a number of ways it hasn't been great - the road race was dangerous, the water in the sailing venue is arguably unsafe, the diving pool went green (minor perhaps and some people seem to think it helped the divers but it wasn't intended), some of the venues and accommodation weren't finished properly in time for teams arriving. I'm sure there's more but those are the first points to mind.

Then there's a number of things which have gone wrong although they might not be specifically the fault of the organisers - a number of athletes have been robbed, the scoring for the boxing has been questionable (might be the fault of AIBA), judging for the weightlifting has also been a bit shonky, the men's keirin yesterday highlighted that they need cameras in the right place for assessing rule breaks, the tennis, sailing and rowing have been massively disrupted due to weather issues (not necessarily the organisers fault but by not being more flexible about scheduling they caused more issues). As mentioned the crowds have been variable, I'm not always convinced that all the customs and habits for certain sports should be observed but in a number of events they've been downright disrespectful to competitors.

The sport has been great for the most part and I think it has been good to have Brazil host it but like you I'd be leaning towards them not hosting it again unless they can sort out those sorts of issues and even then there are probably other considerations that would be better addressed with the money it costs to host an Olympics.
 
Yep Id be happy if Brazil dont host it again - do the World Cup there by all means.

I will be surprised if the country feels anything long-term post-Olympics - perhaps theyll take better care of the surrounding waters?

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
Maybe Mo did not have enough sleep to keep out their way - apparently (5live) he could not bring his hyperbaric(or low pressure) sleeping chamber into the village.

About Brazil venue - The UCI participated in the bike course design so it was not Brazil's fault, I think those and other non-stadium based competitors are going to remember the wonderful location and ambiance of Rio longer than they will London - no ?
Equally given that London was 10x the cost whether it was genuinely 10x the value (negligible legacy etc)
It is a pity events required staying up overnight though.
 
jpaul said:
It is a pity events required staying up overnight though.
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This is something I keep hearing and seeing people complain about. Unless the Olympics is held in our time zone (or +/- 1 or 2 hours) there's always going to be some form of disruption to a regular British sleep pattern in order to watch blanket coverage, whether that be getting up earlier or staying up later. Expecting it to be different seems rather arrogant.
 
semi-pro waster said:
In a number of ways it hasn't been great - the road race was dangerous, the water in the sailing venue is arguably unsafe, the diving pool went green (minor perhaps and some people seem to think it helped the divers but it wasn't intended), some of the venues and accommodation weren't finished properly in time for teams arriving. I'm sure there's more but those are the first points to mind.

Then there's a number of things which have gone wrong although they might not be specifically the fault of the organisers - a number of athletes have been robbed, the scoring for the boxing has been questionable (might be the fault of AIBA), judging for the weightlifting has also been a bit shonky, the men's keirin yesterday highlighted that they need cameras in the right place for assessing rule breaks, the tennis, sailing and rowing have been massively disrupted due to weather issues (not necessarily the organisers fault but by not being more flexible about scheduling they caused more issues). As mentioned the crowds have been variable, I'm not always convinced that all the customs and habits for certain sports should be observed but in a number of events they've been downright disrespectful to competitors.

The sport has been great for the most part and I think it has been good to have Brazil host it but like you I'd be leaning towards them not hosting it again unless they can sort out those sorts of issues and even then there are probably other considerations that would be better addressed with the money it costs to host an Olympics.
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and we've probably not even had the biggest scandal yet, you just know the Paralympics are gonna be a shambles!

The Rio organisers have already been robbing Peter to pay Paul taking money from the Paralympics pot to cover the shortfall in the Olympic budget.

Tickets sales are apparently dire (which isn't surprising considering the Olympics has as well!)

All these little cut corners here and there are gonna really stand out when you've got thousands of disabled athletes to cater for and look after.
 
Psycho Ned said:
and we've probably not even had the biggest scandal yet, you just know the Paralympics are gonna be a shambles!

The Rio organisers have already been robbing Peter to pay Paul taking money from the Paralympics pot to cover the shortfall in the Olympic budget.

Tickets sales are apparently dire (which isn't surprising considering the Olympics has as well!)

All these little cut corners here and there are gonna really stand out when you've got thousands of disabled athletes to cater for and look after.
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The Paralympics is a real worry.

It was to be expected and prudent that Rio wouldn't try to match London in overall spending on the Olympics. But to skimp on the Paralympics to prop up the main Olympics has the potential to end up really hurting Rio 2016's reputation and legacy.

Obviously London 2012 had a ridiculously and controversially huge budget, but one thing that really stood out was how the Paralympics in London weren't treated as 2nd class. They were fantastically well supported officially and by the public. I hope that's the case in Rio, but fear it won't be.
 
Only 12% of tickets for the Paralympics have been sold. The atmosphere is going to be awful, can't help feeling sorry for the competitors, biggest competition of their lives and no one bothering to turn up.
 
To be devils advocate, outside of the London 2012, how good has the Paralympics attendance been in previous 'Olympics'?

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
jpaul said:
About Brazil venue - The UCI participated in the bike course design so it was not Brazil's fault, I think those and other non-stadium based competitors are going to remember the wonderful location and ambiance of Rio longer than they will London - no ?
Equally given that London was 10x the cost whether it was genuinely 10x the value (negligible legacy etc)
It is a pity events required staying up overnight though.
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If the UCI signed off the course then sure, they can take a share of the blame as well. That doesn't excuse the organisers in Brazil though, it just means that there's more people at fault for this.

I don't know about whether the location and ambiance will be more or less memorable than London. The 2012 Games were pretty well thought of as far as I could tell and London, for all its faults, is a pretty cool city for visitors.

How are you judging the legacy? If it's in terms of sporting success then Rio 2016 is already the most successful "away" games that Team GB has ever had. If it's about using the arenas then it appears that is being done mostly, West Ham recently moved into their new ground and the non-temporary stadia are being used in some form or another. If it's about the numbers participating in sporting activity then it seems to be quite variable by sport with some winners and (more?) losers. If it is as it seems that overall sporting activity has gone down then that's disappointing but it is difficult to say whether it would have gone down even more sharply without the efforts after London 2012.

The time zones thing is unfortunate perhaps but it's inevitable that someone will be inconvenienced in a global event, this time round it's those who aren't in the Americas.

Psycho Ned said:
and we've probably not even had the biggest scandal yet, you just know the Paralympics are gonna be a shambles!

The Rio organisers have already been robbing Peter to pay Paul taking money from the Paralympics pot to cover the shortfall in the Olympic budget.

Tickets sales are apparently dire (which isn't surprising considering the Olympics has as well!)

All these little cut corners here and there are gonna really stand out when you've got thousands of disabled athletes to cater for and look after.
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I suspect you're right but really hope you're wrong and that the Paralympics are well supported and managed.

ps3ud0 said:
To be devils advocate, outside of the London 2012, how good has the Paralympics attendance been in previous 'Olympics'?

ps3ud0 :cool:
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Not particularly great if memory serves although it's a much later development than the Olympics so it's almost bound to be further behind in the public consciousness with the capacity for greater growth in interest and participation than the Olympics. It would be a real shame if the progress that has been made in terms of treating both competitions as of equal worth was to lose momentum.

//edit oh and not forgetting there has been some sport on - well done to Lynsey Sharp in qualifying for the 800m semi-finals, Dina Asher-Smith for squeaking through in the 200m and Mo Farah for getting through the 5,000m.
 
To continue my line of thinking Im worried that the 2012 Paralympics will end up being the aberration, perhaps we are too close to the subject but that games was the equal of the Olympics regards organisation, attendance and viewership. Personally I think that games has created a better legacy than the Olympics themselves (maybe I mean it fulfils the Olympics message better)...

It needed to be the foundation for future Paralympics to follow and that the bids/organisation were considered with such a purpose. I dont see that happening at all at Rio and with that reduced impetus down the line.

Anyway I think this is worth talking about in another thread, this one has been taken on a tangent too long - unfortunately I was trying to boycott these because of all the IOC rubbish but Bolt was the final straw, I will try my best to watch as much Paralympics as possible to see how 2012 has improved our athletes. Thank god for iPlayer ;)

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
Yes with respect to legacy prinicpally the latter of your comment : At the grass level I do not see an increase in people at my local swimming pool or out running (selfishly it is not crowded - great) but such facilities, I previously, regularly used in Europe, are overused.
The government removed funding for free pool use for over 65's (lottery money should be there) and the obesity problem is not being addressed.

We have addressed the legacy with respect to sustaining medal count by maintaining the financing from the lottery/government which has kept the many foreign coaches in the UK (Australians in particular) to help with development of a golden process (side benefit it disadvantaged those countries)


For time zones, yes my complaints are ridiculous - I just want a mechanism where the results are not spoiled (should be like the football scores) so I can watch the race without knowing the result.


For the para-olympics I was curious about ticket prices and yes in the uk

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) today published its prices for Paralympic Games tickets. In total, approximately two million tickets will go on sale for the Paralympic Games from 9 September 2011.

*** * 50% of tickets priced at £10 or under
*** * 95% of tickets priced at £50 or under
*** * All tickets include Travelcard


Pasted from <http://www.wheelpower.org.uk/wpower/index.cfm/news/paralympic-games-ticket-prices-announced/>
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but In RIO most seem >$20 [see here as an example.] so I do not think that is affordable.

From a quick google I thought this was a telling commentary on the paraolympics too, and am sure that much of this is still valid - we need to decide what our commitment is, since I think it is hypocritical at the moment.
I think the two events could be interleaved.

... Anyway that will not fix the looming problem where I think the Russian barring was not helpful.
 
WTF? I thought it was bad that the two girls representing GB in the 100m hurdles are American and only representing us because they didn't qualify for the US team but another American girl also failed and is now representing Puerto Rico.
 
Pigeon_Killer said:
WTF? I thought it was bad that the two girls representing GB in the 100m hurdles are American and only representing us because they didn't qualify for the US team but another American girl also failed and is now representing Puerto Rico.
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Well, both Tiffany Porter and Cindy Ofili have had joint American and British citizenship from birth, via their British mother. So it's not a 'flag of convenience' situation. But whether they might have chosen to compete for the USA had their trials gone better we can only speculate. The 'Plastic Brit' tag is likely to always stick though, as Greg Rusedski will attest despite having won BBC Sports Personality.
 
Bolt in the 200m semis

Insane Bolt and Degrass having a chat in the last 10m, Bolt was slowing down in the last 75m if not more...

EDIT: Wow Gemili through, Gaitin and Blake out!

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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No Gatlin :D or Blake :eek:

Edit: Really not sure if this is a fast track or not. Earlier in the week it was slow, tonight it's fast but none of those times suggest a fast track.
 
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