The Olympic Thread

[Jatz]

Bring back some grit and determination by showing that we aren't just happy with competing. We are no longer a sporting nation really.

Rugby league dominant but not as big a gap as there used to be

Rugby union we are bog average

Soccer we are the best of an ordinary continent

Swimming we are just ok

Cycling we aren't close to best anymore

Cricket flat track bullies

Rowing see cycling

Even sports like beach volleyball didn't we win gold in that when it first came in? And the long distance swims?

It's truly a farce

Publicly shaming them won't help with that.

You can list all those sports (apart from Rowing which I think we did alright in considering expectations) but other countries have caught up. If you don't have the athletes, you don't have them.

It goes against the Aussie thing but I personally love that athletes all over the world can win any event on any given day. I watched a young lad from Singapore claim gold ahead of Phelps in the Butterfly the other day. Tell me that isn't great for the sport?

 

[HolyRioli]

Is it really that surprising?

Population wise, we are a small country.

And that's before we even look at the fact that most olympic events aren't close to top of the tree for participation of sports in Australia. AFL, rugby, netball and cricket are dominant.

So if it gets the point where larger nations start putting more time, money and development into their population, they should be making up ground on us

 

[chef]

Maybe I'm alone here, but I couldn't really care that much about how Aussies go I just want to watch the best compete.

 

[jd2010]

Publicly shaming them won't help with that.

You can list all those sports (apart from Rowing which I think we did alright in considering expectations) but other countries have caught up. If you don't have the athletes, you don't have them.

It goes against the Aussie thing but I personally love that athletes all over the world can win any event on any given day. I watched a young lad from Singapore claim gold ahead of Phelps in the Butterfly the other day. Tell me that isn't great for the sport?

Won't help these lot but maybe the next generation and the coaches that coach won't just accept mediocrity anymore if we don't say oh well done we thought we'd medal but 8th is fantastic

 

[jd2010]

Is it really that surprising?

Population wise, we are a small country.

And that's before we even look at the fact that most olympic events aren't close to top of the tree for participation of sports in Australia. AFL, rugby, netball and cricket are dominant.

So if it gets the point where larger nations start putting more time, money and development into their population, they should be making up ground on us

Let's not use the population card. Massive cop out. We used it when we punched above our weight. Massive cop out to use it when we fail

 

[Jatz]

Won't help these lot but maybe the next generation and the coaches that coach won't just accept mediocrity anymore if we don't say oh well done we thought we'd medal but 8th is fantastic

8th is fantastic. They are the 8th best person in the world for that sport.

It's hardly accepting mediocrity either btw. Not one under performing swimmer tried to blame anyone else but themselves. Just because the media blows smoke up their arse, doesn't mean the athletes are happy with it.

 

[jd2010]

8th is fantastic. They are the 8th best person in the world for that sport.

It's hardly accepting mediocrity either btw. Not one under performing swimmer tried to blame anyone else but themselves. Just because the media blows smoke up their arse, doesn't mean the athletes are happy with it.

8th when the opals should finish 2nd?

Countless times we've had expected 1-3 finishers finish outside the top 5. That's failure

 

[Jatz]

8th when the opals should finish 2nd?

Countless times we've had expected 1-3 finishers finish outside the top 5. That's failure

So they got beaten. First time since Seoul they missed out on a medal. They're human, at some point they'll slip up.

So? Nothing you've suggested fixes that. They are selected due to qualifying. We take the best qualifying athletes. From there, they have to do it against others that are up there in the 'best of the world' category.

 

[HolyRioli]

Let's not use the population card. Massive cop out. We used it when we punched above our weight. Massive cop out to use it when we fail

Honestly don't see it as a cop out, it's a relatively straight line numbers game of probability

Resources and development will certainly generate some marginal gains, but it's a similar story to the Australian's playing football, we're hamstrung by other sports having the highest participation rates

 

[jd2010]

I just don't see how you can be so ok with abject failure. A non Australian prediction website had us down for 11-20-8 which is pretty good in my books but still well done on 2000-2008. I accept that we've dropped off since then but how much we look like missing the 39 medals by and possibly the 11 gold too is just poor and constitutes a failure in my eyes.

I get our media blow up our prospects to be more than they are and probably had us down for an even better haul than that. But this site and other countries expectations of Australia have us down to for more than we'll achieve. We seem to be great in a few sports at smaller meets and go in as 2015 world champ winners/medalists but have bombed here. Now it could be the coaches fault for preparing them to peak too early. Something a commentator here in NZ mentioned in the cycling was that team GB have been building for this past 10 days and the results in the lead up over inflated both Aus and NZ medal chances

 

[HolyRioli]

I just don't see how you can be so ok with abject failure. A non Australian prediction website had us down for 11-20-8 which is pretty good in my books but still well done on 2000-2008. I accept that we've dropped off since then but how much we look like missing the 39 medals by and possibly the 11 gold too is just poor and constitutes a failure in my eyes.

I get our media blow up our prospects to be more than they are and probably had us down for an even better haul than that. But this site and other countries expectations of Australia have us down to for more than we'll achieve. We seem to be great in a few sports at smaller meets and go in as 2015 world champ winners/medalists but have bombed here. Now it could be the coaches fault for preparing them to peak too early. Something a commentator here in NZ mentioned in the cycling was that team GB have been building for this past 10 days and the results in the lead up over inflated both Aus and NZ medal chances

Not saying I'm OK with failure, there's certainly some teams / athletes who didn't have the performances that they would've hoped for (men's hockey for example), but then we pick up surprising medals such as Chalmers.

As mentioned above, a lot of the "smaller" nations, particularly Asia, seem to be putting a lot more resources into their Olympic funding. As someone mentioned earlier, swimming used to be where Australia could count on medals, yet over the last 5 games (including Sydney), the amount of nations winning medals in the pool has increased. China's number of swimmers from 2000 (21) to 2016 (45) has more than doubled. Wikipedia doesn't have the numbers for this year, but in 2000 there were 150 nations competing in the pool, up to 166 in London.

Is this because Australia has gotten complacent in their development, or have other nations been putting more resources, which has balanced the field somewhat?

Not trying to excuse any under performance, but context is important.

I could keep typing but I've got work to do

 

[jd2010]

I get others have stepped up and that's why we can't hit Sydney or Athens figures anymore. But when an international website looks at recent results, world rankings etc. and has us down for 11 gold and 20 silver and we are looking like getting a couple short in the gold column and 6-8 short in the silver column it's hard to be buoyant about our games campaign.

Throw in us not actually being the best in the world in at much anymore and it's a sad time to be an Aussie sports fan. Hate using the size or us playing other sports as an excuse as it makes the kiwis look like super freaks!

 

[HolyRioli]

I get others have stepped up and that's why we can't hit Sydney or Athens figures anymore. But when an international website looks at recent results, world rankings etc. and has us down for 11 gold and 20 silver and we are looking like getting a couple short in the gold column and 6-8 short in the silver column it's hard to be buoyant about our games campaign.

Throw in us not actually being the best in the world in at much anymore and it's a sad time to be an Aussie sports fan. Hate using the size or us playing other sports as an excuse as it makes the kiwis look like super freaks!

Agree it's a hard time to be an Aussie sports fan. Our biggest / most followed teams are struggling, our best tennis player is a douche, and some seriously talented athletes over a lot of sporting disciplines have retired / declined in recent years without leaving behind many replacements

 

[Doctor Bojan_]

Surprised nobody has posted this yet....


Apparently the irishman won all 3 rounds convincingly but the judges gave a unanimous decision to other bloke who got battered....

 

[moomba]

Honduras will be lucky to keep 9 or 10 on the pitch today let alone 11.

 

[moomba]

You reckon that was a dive?

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Think the other mid tier nations like Japan, Italy, France and Germany have stepped up their game and we've stood still. Not to mention the massive increase in funding to team GB

We used to have the best coaches and then a lot of them got poached. I think if we wish to succeed at Olympics etc then funding needs to be increased for AIS and athletes to develop. I wouldn't be surprised if that's one area we are falling behind other nations.

 

[Art Vandelay_]

I honestly dont respect any cyclists. Drugs are RIFE in that business. I think almost everyone is on them. Track and TDF.

I mean even the greatest of all time ending up being a huge drug cheat.

That sport is broken.

Would be staggered if Meares was on the roids....

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Time to be cut throat and what? Publicly shame them? How does that help exactly?

I think sportsmen/women in this country get pumped up far too early.

We could do worse than give praise when it is truly earned.

 

[jod23]

This girl though has brightened my Olympics up.

 

[jod23]

Also the Boomers are really on fire. They have crushed France, Serbia and now Lithuania in the QFs too. Into the semi's now and will face the winner of Serbia v Croatia.

To put our tournament into context. We thrashed France by 21 points. France are ranked 5th in the world and have blokes like Tony Parker, Rudy Gobert, Nicolas Batum and Boris Diaw running about for them.

Then we beat up on Serbia by 15 points who are ranked 6th in the world and have blokes like Jokic, Bogdanovic and Raduljica.

We only lost the US by 10 points but with just two minutes to go we were only by 2 points or so and we led that game by as much as 7-8 points in parts and Melo had to get unconscious from deep to get them back in the game.

We were expected to beat China and Venezuela and did so comfortably by 25 points both times.

Then into the QFs against Lithuania who are ranked 3rd in the world. They are led by Sabonis and Valanciunis and we just dicked on them by 26 points.

We've been super impressive and are into the semi-finals. We are a big chance to make it to the gold medal game against the Yanks. We've already beaten Serbia by 15 points earlier in the tournament and if they should get past Croatia then I'd back us in.

Croatia have NBA talents like Saric, Hezonja and Bogdanovic but earlier in the tournament they lost to Nigeria?? We are a huge chance in the semi's to get a win and have a crack at the US for gold.

Having said all that, Australia have underwhelmed all Olympics so I wouldnt be surprised if we somehow finish 4th from here.

 

[UnitedWarrior93]

Boomers will choke and finish 4th.

 

[jd2010]

Considering the Boomers were ranked 11th going into the games this will be the one side that can be proud of their efforts regardless of medal here.

Will be tough to get past Serbia or Croatia. Hopefully their game is a lot more intense than our big win today and they're spent otherwise it'll most likely be a bronze medal game

 

[jod23]

Considering the Boomers were ranked 11th going into the games this will be the one side that can be proud of their efforts regardless of medal here.

Will be tough to get past Serbia or Croatia. Hopefully their game is a lot more intense than our big win today and they're spent otherwise it'll most likely be a bronze medal game

It will be tough but really doable. As I said earlier, we beat Serbia already by 15 points and were well in control of that game. Croatia on the other hand actually lost to Nigeria. Nigeria are ranked 25th in the world and are quite frankly, pretty rubbish.

Nigeria are ranked below Venezuela, a team we beat to the tune of 25 points.

Huge chance to make the Gold Medal game!

 

[WealstoneRaider]

I'm pledging my support behind the boomers. Would love to see you guys at least get to the final and give the US a game. Only a dodgy five minute spell in the 3rd when your shooting when to s**t cost you a possible victory against them in an earlier game.

On your struggles generally, reckon it's just a down cycle you are experiencing. Happens to everyone who is not the US. Probably needs a bit of a rethink on how you get your sportsmen performing to acceptable levels again. Apparently you are still well funded so I can't see why it won't happen