Olympic cycling medals musings.

[coffeejo]

This is either an interesting or an incredibly grumpy opinion on one aspect of the Olympics.

This Olympics hysteria shows that Britain has turned Soviet

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/17/olympics-hysteria-britain-turned-soviet-team-gb

 

[srw]

There's a bit on road cc about the other nations repsonse to GB & NI success, focusing on Anna Meares initial comments and mentioning Australian cycling budget was £18.6 million to UKs £30.2

Pound for Pound GBNI 11 medals come in at £2.75 million each vs Australia 2 medals at £9.3 million each is very good VFM comparatively.

But the amount of precious metal you could buy for £2.75 Million...

As ways of buying success go, spending money on developing home-grown talent is rather more productive and ethical than, say, buying in athletes and giving them passports...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...1dd982-5e6f-11e6-8e45-477372e89d78_story.html

(Readers with a long memory will recall that the UK did that once upon a time - and it was a complete failure.)

 

[shouldbeinbed]

Haha yep. I'm sure the upturn in cycling is more than the upturn was in barefoot running.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Problem is, no matter how you look at it, it all appears to be run like a business these days, and the lifeblood of the business is medals.

 

[srw]

This is either an interesting or an incredibly grumpy opinion on one aspect of the Olympics.

This Olympics hysteria shows that Britain has turned Soviet

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/17/olympics-hysteria-britain-turned-soviet-team-gb

I read it and thought it was complete tosh.

It's historically inaccurate - competitors have always competed representing their nations, and the whole paraphenalia of national teams entering in the open ceremony is at least 104 years old rather than the introduction of nationalism being associated with Hitler's games (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_Summer_Olympics#Opening_ceremony). It also forgets that the BBC have been cheerleaders for British success for a long time - I remember the hysteria around Steve Redgrave's potential 5th medal in 2000 - it's just that there is more success now.

As for the argument that public subsidy of elite sport is somehow Soviet - this is the same Simon Jenkins who was a member of the (state-sponsored) Millennium Commission and who deputy chaired the (then state-sponsored) English Heritage. As @swansonj points out, the parallels between elite sport and elite culture are inescapable.

 

[swansonj]

Problem is, no matter how you look at it, it all appears to be run like a business these days, and the lifeblood of the business is medals.

Aspects are businesslike. But I've been party to various modest successes in business terms and none have brought tears to the eyes in quite the way an Olympic medal does. The activity that is the focus of the businesslike approach is not a business.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

I read it and thought it was complete tosh.

It's historically inaccurate - competitors have always competed representing their nations, and the whole paraphenalia of national teams entering in the open ceremony is at least 104 years old rather than the introduction of nationalism being associated with Hitler's games (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_Summer_Olympics#Opening_ceremony). It also forgets that the BBC have been cheerleaders for British success for a long time - I remember the hysteria around Steve Redgrave's potential 5th medal in 2000 - it's just that there is more success now.

As for the argument that public subsidy of elite sport is somehow Soviet - this is the same Simon Jenkins who was a member of the (state-sponsored) Millennium Commission and who deputy chaired the (then state-sponsored) English Heritage. As @swansonj points out, the parallels between elite sport and elite culture are inescapable.

I wouldn't say that it is quite like it was/is in Communist countries, but things have definitely changed, and like I said earlier, it is like it is run like a business these days with the business being to win medals through churning out athletes as if they are on a conveyor belt.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Aspects are businesslike. But I've been party to various modest successes in business terms and none have brought tears to the eyes in quite the way an Olympic medal does. The activity that is the focus of the businesslike approach is not a business.

I'm not saying it is a business as such, all I am saying is that the way it often seems to be done these days appears to be very hard nosed and tough at the top.

Of course, only funding the best is all very well, but it seems that money and funding is absolutely everything these days - We are paying our way to the top at the expense of the 'normal' people, and we mere mortals can but watch.

 

[srw]

I'm not saying it is a business as such, all I am saying is that the way it often seems to be done these days appears to be very hard nosed and tough at the top.

Of course, only funding the best is all very well, but it seems that money and funding is absolutely everything these days - We are paying our way to the top, and we mere mortals can but watch.

It's what we've been doing in other spheres of human endeavour for ages.

I'd prefer a system which funds both the absolute world-class and the interesting or challenging, and I'd prefer a system which doesn't make the payment of subsidy contingent on absurdly artificial "community engagement" and the completion of reams of paperwork, but it's a decent system.

I would also prefer the similarities between culture funding and sports funding to be drawn out more explicitly by those providing the funding, but that's just me...

 

[nickyboy]

I'm not saying it is a business as such, all I am saying is that the way it often seems to be done these days appears to be very hard nosed and tough at the top.

Of course, only funding the best is all very well, but it seems that money and funding is absolutely everything these days - We are paying our way to the top at the expense of the 'normal' people, and we mere mortals can but watch.

It's interesting that other countries such as Australia have adopted a similar regime without similar success. So there is more to it than just chucking money at elite sport. What is happening is money is being chucked at extremely focused, managed and organised elite sport.

Gymnastics is an interesting example. Money was chucked at elite gymnastics about 10 years ago but the medals didn't materialise. So the funding was cut. Gymnastics management took a long hard look at their talent ID, selection, coaching and competition systems and rebuilt them from the bottom up. With the aim of winning medals. Fast forward to Rio and GB gymnastics has had its most successful Olympics. So presumably more funding will follow.

So what the funding actually follows is top quality management and administration of elite sport. The assumption is that if you give these folk the money, the talent will appear.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

It's interesting that other countries such as Australia have adopted a similar regime without similar success. So there is more to it than just chucking money at elite sport. What is happening is money is being chucked at extremely focused, managed and organised elite sport.

I'm fairly sure that the Aussies are chucking money at focused, managed and organised elite sports.

 

[nickyboy]

I'm fairly sure that the Aussies are chucking money at focused, managed and organised elite sports.

They are and they have freely admitted to following the British model of funding for elite sports. But their returns in terms of medals per £ spent is nowhere as good as GB so in that respect they are not as successful

 

[iandg]

Conversation over dinner started something like this -

'What's on tele tonight?'
'Olympics closing ceremony?'
'The Olympics finished then?'
'Well it was the Marathon today'
'I don't think it's over until all the gold medal competitors have been put into an arena and told to fight to the death with last standing being the ultimate Olympic Champion'
'Swimmers wouldn't do too good at that'
'Nor the Rhythmic Gymnasts'
'Shot Putters 'ld have a chance'
'American shooting bods would do better'.......................

Some great conversation when the boys are home

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Conversation over dinner started something like this -

'What's on tele tonight?'
'Olympics closing ceremony?'
'The Olympics finished then?'
'Well it was the Marathon today'
'I don't think it's over until all the gold medal competitors have been put into an arena and told to fight to the death with last standing being the ultimate Olympic Champion'
'Swimmers wouldn't do too good at that'
'Nor the Rhythmic Gymnasts'
'Shot Putters 'ld have a chance'
'American shooting bods would do better'.......................

Some great conversation when the boys are home

Those guys with the rifles should be in with a chance of winning the ultimate Olympic Championships then.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

I'm fairly sure that the Aussies are chucking money at focused, managed and organised elite sports.

Unfortunately our swimmers were focused too much on partying, and Michelle Jenneke was focused too much on jiggling, to the detriment of their competition results.