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............. i keed, i keed, but seriously does the UK win stuff in the summer olympics?
More than we do in the Winter Olympics...
............. i keed, i keed, but seriously does the UK win stuff in the summer olympics?
On the other hand squash is apparently not an Olympic sport yet so maybe a more disinterested and less morally dubious move would be to right this wrong and get it recognised - seriously, how can joke games such as synchronised swimming or basketball be counted and squash not? The medallists in those events must be embarrassed every time they remember that they are taking up space and time that could be used for real athletes.
Wasn't it the Spanish basketball team that entered a load of able bodied players to the Para-Olympics? If I remember rightly the coach had to tell them to stop winning so easily because people were getting suspicious.
I've just taken up squash. To prevent weight gain (or cause weight loss). However, it turns out it's a brilliant game, I'm completely addicted and I'd play every day if I could, I almost like it more than football."Squash isn 't a real sport, it's what middle-aged blokes do prevent weight gain. You may as well have medal for Best Atkins diet."
I've just taken up squash. To prevent weight gain (or cause weight loss). However, it turns out it's a brilliant game, I'm completely addicted and I'd play every day if I could, I almost like it more than football.
One of my friends is a pretty good player and he said something along the lines of "You can't play squash to get fit, you have to get fit to play squash" - apparently getting that the wrong way round is what leads to so many heart attacks. It's not just about fitness though, it's a really tactical game with so many ways to win points, plus it's really satisfying the way you can whack the thing so fucking hard without it going out. Makes me wonder why I wasted so much of my youth playing tennis really, I think squash is way better, I'm actually getting withdrawal symptoms 'cause my partner/opponent has gone on holiday. From what I've read it's the historical difficulty of televising the game and its weakness as a spectator sport that have prevented it from achieving the ubiquity of tennis. You're right though, it seems to be a game that is only played by executives which is a shame, I certainly never played it at school. I think it's time to right the wrong and give it Olympic status."My dad played until he knacked his ankle falling out of a tree just short of his 60th birthday. It was a blessing - he'd have had a heart attack by now if he'd carried on."
Wasn't it the Spanish basketball team that entered a load of able bodied players to the Para-Olympics? If I remember rightly the coach had to tell them to stop winning so easily because people were getting suspicious.
crackerjack said:They were pretending to be mentals, iirc. Just how tacky is that? The conspiracy must have involved a dozen or more people, all just for the prestige of a medal. At least when sprinters et al cheat, they do so knowing there's a pot of gold for the successful. Buut all they'd have is a medal which they can't boast about or display to their friends without having to explain that they're not 'special'.
Seems a bit weird to me - in Spain (but nowhere else) a load of people without any mental disability claimed to be disabled and entered sports as diverse as table tennis and swimming and it was in no way down to a systematic attempt by the Spanish team itself to increase their medal quota.The Spanish sports world took a jolt last week when Carlos Ribagorda, a member of the country's gold medal-winning intellectually handicapped basketball team in Sydney, claimed that he and other medal winners were not mentally disabled.
Ribagorda, who made the allegations in Capital magazine for which he works as a journalist, said up to 15 members of Spain's Paralympic team, in categories such as track, table tennis and swimming, were not disabled.
Martin Vicente told EFE that "the process of psychological evaluation is very difficult because there are no amputations nor obvious physical defect. If someone wants to cheat, it's difficult to detect. It's easy to pretend you have little intelligence, but the opposite is difficult."
The Australian Paralympic Committee's chief executive Brendan Flynn earlier said he was suspicious of Spain's intellectually disabled basketball team. He said some of the Spanish players were so talented they could play in Australia's National Basketball League.
And the gold medal for wishful thinking goes to those within the Olympic Games hierarchy who thought this morning's meeting between Georgia and Russia in the women's beach volleyball tournament would send a message to the world that sport, even the silliest sport of all, has the power to transcend international conflict.....
But what was to be made of the music choices blared out during the many pauses in this morning's play: Blitzkrieg Bop, by the Ramones? Burning Down The House, by Talking Heads? Sex Bomb, by Tom Jones? If there is a gold medal for crass insensitivity this week, then the rest of the field might as well pack their bags and go home.
I think that's a bit much, I bet I can think of a hundred sports I would ban from the Olympics before beach volley - although it is a bit weird to have that as well as volley ball and it is more than a little strange that one of the rules governs the maximum size of the competitors' bikinis."would send a message to the world that sport, even the silliest sport of all"
Rich's manifesto to save The Olympics says ban the following:
1. All sports that are decided by judges (synchronised swimming, dressage)
2. All sports where a new category is created for people who aren't very good at it or for people who deliberately choose to handicap themselves (this covers light-rowing, all swimming except free-style, walking races etc)
3. No sports that need loads of equipment and that are thus unfairly weighted towards more prosperous countries (bye-bye to archery, horse stuff, sailing, rowing, the winter olympics in its entirety etc)
4. All sports where the Olympics is not the most (or almost the most) illustrious competition in the sport (football, tennis etc)
5. No really stupid sports (softball, basketball, triple-jump, dressage etc)
My friend sent me an email this morning suggesting sports that should be banned from the Olympics and I've added my own things to attempt to create a comprehensive list. Is there anything I've missed out?
Is there anything I've missed out?
What's left in? Even athletics has the world championships which some consider superior. I read an interview with Linford Christie saying he was more pleased with his world champ medals than the olympic gold he won.
I just have to say that again YOU CAN WIN AN OLYMPIC MEDAL FOR SOFTBALL!
Well, that's why I said "All sports where the Olympics is not the most (or almost the most) illustrious competition in the sport " - I'm pretty sure that the Olympics is either the greatest or almost the most illustrious competion for your average 100m runner. In general my impression is that nowadays the Olympics is considered the greater prize although this was not necessarily the case in previous years when countries boycotted the Olympics more than the World Championships. Even if I'm incorrect in that last assertion I'm sure it's right to say that the differential between World Championship gold and Olympic gold is far smaller than that between winning the (fooball) Wolrd Cup and Olympic football gold."What's left in? Even athletics has the world championships which some consider superior. I read an interview with Linford Christie saying he was more pleased with his world champ medals than the olympic gold he won."