The Olympics Thread

[hugonaut]

As Ken Earley said on Twitter: "the closing ceremony is what i feared the opening ceremony would be like"

Love the conspicuous consumption angle ... not.

[Dave Cahill]

I'm puzzled, I can't think why we haven't heard of Beady Eye since songwriter Noel Gallagher left Oasis.

[TerenureJim]

Wow I really wish the olympics lasted for a month, it would have kept this monstrosity off the tv for longer.

[Peg Leg]

Wow I really wish the olympics lasted for a month, it would have kept this monstrosity off the tv for longer.

Can't say it's any different to what was expected, an english artist extravaganza & Freddie Mercury! That said, I'm a sucker for flashy lights!

[ror]

Like Charlotte Dujardin won here second gold in horsey stuff yesterday and it has not taken over the UK air waves.

In fairness, that's one of 25 golds for GB in these Olympics alone - it's our first legitimate one in 20 years!
Also, dancing horses is just a bit silly...

Totally agree Dancing horses is ridiculous! But there are so many cr@p sports there now. Boxing with headgear on seams to me to defeat the purpose, hence why I just don't get it. Also the neck of the athletes not to want a homecoming considering we fund all of them with grants... Only in Ireland

[TerenureJim]

the athletes not to want a homecoming considering we fund all of them with grants... Only in Ireland

Have to agree on this one, fair enough they want to get home to families etc. but so do pro sports people (e.g. Leinster) yet we see them turn out for the fans/sponsors as that's who pays the bills.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Is this row just about the medal winners or the whole team? I wouldn't really have an issue with someone who didn't win anything being embarrassed and not wanting to be paraded in front of people tbh.

[Broken Wing]

This homecoming row is just pathetic bandwagon jumping. They did well so people want to be seen with them. How dare the athletes we've ignored for years decide that after months away from home they'd rather see the people who have supported them through the long hours of training and preparation and travel instead of us. We watched them on TV! And they've been funded out of the public purse so we own them. Katie Taylor got €40K last year. The other boxers didn't get that much but they still got money so they can put off seeing their families for another day and come out so that we can show them how much we appreciate them.

[cormac]

Check out the funding that team GB receives. This is just for its Olympic athletes and doesn't include grass-root funding of sports.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympi ... Games.html

[Hornet]

Check out the funding that team GB receives. This is just for its Olympic athletes and doesn't include grass-root funding of sports.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympi ... Games.html

Your point is? This country had the chance to adequately fund it's potential olympians during the good times, but failed to do so. We cannot begrudge a country who invests in it's sports men and women. The UK lottery has played a major part in that. Perhaps thought needs to be given to see if we could get, for example, those promising cyclists, sailors and rowers, into the elite programs run by GB. There seems to be no problem in GB sending their athletes to the USA for high performance training. Or are we content to watch Ireland's finest struggle. As for Peter Taylor, the poor guy seem's to be getting it in the neck from some quarters, which is quite disgraceful. The gloss for him seem's to have been taken off Katie's win. Peter, you did a great job with your daughter. Be proud for her and ignore the hangers on. I'm sure you also took some pride in you native county winning so many golds!

[waterboy]

As for Peter Taylor, the poor guy seem's to be getting it in the neck from some quarters

Whats that about?

[Broken Wing]

There was a statement from an OCI spokesperson that Pete Taylor had been the one to scupper the homecoming. Today's Metro quotes him as saying the homecoming would not happen without his sanction. Billy Walsh (who coaches our boxers on a salary of about €30K since funding was mentioned) said the comments were nonsense and was, quite rightly, annoyed by the suggestion. I believe Pete Taylor, who was not in the room when the homecoming was discussed, was more than a little annoyed. The OCI have since said it was nothing to do with the Taylors.

[cormac]

Check out the funding that team GB receives. This is just for its Olympic athletes and doesn't include grass-root funding of sports.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympi ... Games.html

Your point is? This country had the chance to adequately fund it's potential olympians during the good times, but failed to do so. We cannot begrudge a country who invests in it's sports men and women. The UK lottery has played a major part in that. Perhaps thought needs to be given to see if we could get, for example, those promising cyclists, sailors and rowers, into the elite programs run by GB. There seems to be no problem in GB sending their athletes to the USA for high performance training. Or are we content to watch Ireland's finest struggle. As for Peter Taylor, the poor guy seem's to be getting it in the neck from some quarters, which is quite disgraceful. The gloss for him seem's to have been taken off Katie's win. Peter, you did a great job with your daughter. Be proud for her and ignore the hangers on. I'm sure you also took some pride in you native county winning so many golds!

My point was to contrast the meagre amounts we spend on Olympic sports compared to GB. Clearly we can't afford the kind of government funding that Britain can sustain so perhaps we should be looking at other ways to get sponsorship of athletes by individuals/companies. Providing incentives based on levels of funding.

[Hornet]

Wrong quote!

[Hornet]

As for Peter Taylor, the poor guy seem's to be getting it in the neck from some quarters

Whats that about?

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 02151.html

[waterboy]

Cheers for that, OCI in clusterfuck shocker!!! Shame none of the jurno's could be arsed actually asking Mr Taylor if this was true before running off creaming their pants thinking up a headline for their "story".

[ronk]

Check out the funding that team GB receives. This is just for its Olympic athletes and doesn't include grass-root funding of sports.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympi ... Games.html

Your point is? This country had the chance to adequately fund it's potential olympians during the good times, but failed to do so. We cannot begrudge a country who invests in it's sports men and women. The UK lottery has played a major part in that. Perhaps thought needs to be given to see if we could get, for example, those promising cyclists, sailors and rowers, into the elite programs run by GB. There seems to be no problem in GB sending their athletes to the USA for high performance training. Or are we content to watch Ireland's finest struggle. As for Peter Taylor, the poor guy seem's to be getting it in the neck from some quarters, which is quite disgraceful. The gloss for him seem's to have been taken off Katie's win. Peter, you did a great job with your daughter. Be proud for her and ignore the hangers on. I'm sure you also took some pride in you native county winning so many golds!

There are no issues preventing that except money.

Cycling, sailing and rowing each received more funding than all 58 Irish national governing bodies put together. And that included motor sport, pitch and putt, scuba diving, tug-of-war, cricket, camogie, community games etc.

There are some very good people getting good results, but we can't even try to copy them with 1/100th the budget for some sports.

[Sauvignon Blank]

There are some very good people getting good results, but we can't even try to copy them with 1/100th the budget for some sports.

There is a tiny percentage getting excellent results. Apart from the boxers the rest are pretty average to poor at Olympic level. And if it was simply down to funding then i'm sure some philantropist or notable sponsors would have come on board long ago.

[ronk]

There are some very good people getting good results, but we can't even try to copy them with 1/100th the budget for some sports.

There is a tiny percentage getting excellent results. Apart from the boxers the rest are pretty average to poor at Olympic level. And if it was simply down to funding then i'm sure some philantropist or notable sponsors would have come on board long ago.

That's not true though. We got a non boxing medal too. There were some strong placings in sailing too. Annalise Murphy was very unlucky, she could have won gold. The Star had a best ever finish in their event. Men's and women's hockey have improved hugely and almost qualified for the tournament.

I've seen the difference, i've seen some of the facilities and resources available to other countries. We do well with what's available when it's well spent (which it often isn't).

[Darce]

Absolute shambles for this welcoming home event