20 years on from the Atlanta games, what's changed?

[Captain Sensible]

Absolutely it's the lottery funding, what were once amateur athletes training in out of work time. Are now well paid professionals with fabulous facilities and coaches.....long may it reign, and I'll try to consider that when I'm groaning in misery every Wednesday and Saturday evening.

So the olympics being professional is a good thing?

 

[spring hall convert]

Money and to a lesser extent it being spent in a wise/ cynical (delete as appropriate) way in order to maximise medal yield perhaps at the expense of usefulness to the community at large.

We're the 'plucky Bournemouth' of the Olympics.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I also think that hosting 3 major tournaments in 10 years has helped immensely (Commonwealth Games Manchester 2002 and Edinburgh 2014 plus London Olympic 2012).

This has resulted in modern, top class sporting facilities that are accessible to elite athletes. Furthermore, the British public are more interested and more knowledgeable about a wider range of sports, so the athletes get greater support and the market place for advertising and sponsorship is a lot more attractive to businesses.

The other thing is the concept of 'Team GB', with all of the Olympic athletes pulling in the same direction. It is very clear that the "team" ethic is a big driver in performance; when we did medal pre-2000 is was often in solo sports like shooting, long jump, middle distance running but now we're hovering up team rowing, cycling, rugby 7s, swimming relay, diving pairs etc.

 

[Seagull58]

Years ago, the limited success we had was purely down to a very talented sportsperson, here or there. The bulk of the medals often came in track and field. Four golds in Tokyo, the Coe/Ovett/Thompson era etc. There was the odd shooting, swimming, equestrian medal but that was about it. In 1960, a long distance walker called Don Thompson trained in his steam filled bathroom to try and replicate the humidity of Rome. David Hemery trained in the States off his own back, learned new ideas and smashed the 400m hurdles world record but by and large, the lack of funding and facilities generally produced meagre results.
The one sport that kick started this country into a different mindset was rowing. The governing body brought in Jurgen Groebbler, a world class coach, who transformed the whole sport from within and in next to no time, we were winning medals and many kids, previously unattracted to rowing or ignorant of it, were begging their parents to take them down to the local club.
Cycling followed suit and now we dominate the world`in both sports. More funding + top class coaches + better facilities = success. Success results in lots more kids want to take up the sports we are doing well in and you have the raw material to work with. Its a numbers game. The more kids interested in sport, the more the chance of unearthing the special ones. It has a snowball effect. Bjorn Borg resulted in lots of Swedes taking up tennis. Usain Bolt has ensured that Jamaica will produce top sprinters for decades to come.

I partially agree about Groebbler (honorary knighthood in the new year honours please) but he didn't become UK rowing coach till 1990 and, before that, the 8 won in 1984 and Redgrave and Holmes won Gold and Bronze in 1988. That was the incentive for Groebbler to come in and build on the success that had already been achieved.

 

[KZNSeagull]

Brexit obviously.

Other way around:

[h=2]Brexit to be huge success ‘because Britain is good at the pommel horse’[/h]
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/...in-is-good-at-the-pommel-horse-20160815112298

As Team GB’s pommel horse ‘jockeys’ took gold and silver on the greatest day in British history, pro-Brexit politicians stressed it was not only evidence of the nation’s almost extra-terrestrial abilities, it would also form the basis of the UK’s negotiating stance with the EU.
Foreign secretary Boris Johnson said: “The EU will play hardball over the single market and freedom of movement, but I will not hesitate to remind them that we are better at the pommel horse than all of them put together.
“We’re also better at rowing, especially if it involves at least eight people, and we’re so good at cycling that it will inevitably become the largest sector in the post-Brexit economy.”
Johnson added: “When we combine our Olympic success with the existence of the Duchess of Cambridge and our world-beating payment protection insurance industry, we come to an obvious conclusion…
“Britain could easily form its own planet from bits of asteroid and then rule the galaxy.”

 

[Elvis]

Glad to see the late Don Thompson getting a mention.

He practised to compete at the Olympics Games in Rome in 1960 by exercising in a steam-filled bathroom at home, with the heating turned up and wearing a heavy tracksuit. After exercising for about half an hour, he would feel faint. At the time, he attributed his light-headedness to the effects of heat and humidity, but later realised that it was carbon monoxide fumes from the paraffin heater. His mother made him a hat like a képi to keep the sun off his head and neck during the race; together with his sunglasses, he was nicknamed "Il Topolino" (Italian: "Mickey Mouse", literally "little mouse").

A great sporting story from the London Maths teacher.

 

[Gwylan]

Success results in lots more kids want to take up the sports we are doing well in and you have the raw material to work with. Its a numbers game. The more kids interested in sport, the more the chance of unearthing the special ones.

I wish it were a genuine numbers game. If we really want to increase our chances then we'd get more kids from state schools taking part - about a third of our Olympic squad is privately educated, about a similar number from the last Olympics. Even that well-known bastion of revolutionary socialism, the Daily Mail, has commented about this.

It would be great if there could some efforts put in to attract more of the 93 percent of kids who don't go to private school but given the lack of provision for sport at state schools, I'm not holding my breath on it.

But how good could we be if we rose to the challenge - perhaps we could even overtake the US.

 

[beorhthelm]

I wish it were a genuine numbers game. If we really want to increase our chances then we'd get more kids from state schools taking part - about a third of our Olympic squad is privately educated, about a similar number from the last Olympics. Even that well-known bastion of revolutionary socialism, the Daily Mail, has commented about this.

It would be great if there could some efforts put in to attract more of the 93 percent of kids who don't go to private school but given the lack of provision for sport at state schools, I'm not holding my breath on it.

But how good could we be if we rose to the challenge - perhaps we could even overtake the US.

i think i runs deeper than simply having provision at state school, you need the middle class affluence to commit to the training, the life style, years and years of going to meets all across Europe. In the US they take athletics and any sport very seriously at high school and college level, so students with a mediocre academic ability can get scholarships to pay for education. if you want to emulate the US you'd have to look at that, and probably look at academies building sporting related centers of excellence. (they also have a population of 318million so simply have a larger pool of potential talent)

 

[Gwylan]

i think i runs deeper than simply having provision at state school, you need the middle class affluence to commit to the training, the life style, years and years of going to meets all across Europe. In the US they take athletics and any sport very seriously at high school and college level, so students with a mediocre academic ability can get scholarships to pay for education. if you want to emulate the US you'd have to look at that, and probably look at academies building sporting related centers of excellence. (they also have a population of 318million so simply have a larger pool of potential talent)

My remark about overtaking the US was a bit tongue-in-cheek, I'm aware of their larger pool of talent (in fact you could say that the US is under-performing given their money and population).

We are beginning to see more sports scholarships introduced but we're not really seeing the facilities being built. There was a thread on here a few months ago about the Brighton cycle track being in such a state of disrepair that it was dangerous to use. I think they cobbled together the funds for it but it does speak volumes that at grassroots, sport is living hand to mouth.

And yes, sport is taken very seriously at school level in the US (and other countries) while, outside private schools,.it's treated as a bit of a nuisance. I'd love that attitude to change but, if anything, there's even less time devoted to sport

 

[Stat Brother]

It's not as simple as just saying 'lottery funding'.

It's one thing having the money, but spending it properly is more important.

Cycling and swimming pretty much mirror each other in facilities and funding, but the similarity ends there.

 

[Hillian1]

So the olympics being professional is a good thing?

I stand to be corrected here, but I thought nobody gets anything (other than good exposure to potential sponsors) for competing in The Olympics.

Has this changed or am I talking out my arse.

 

[Triggaaar]

The success now is down to Brexit, apparently

I think the point was more simply that the UK isn't a failed little country that can't do well on its own, nothing more than that really.

 

[Triggaaar]

When you look at Jessica Ennis Hill with personal net worth estimated at £4m you can see what the sposts are now attracting

Not really. When I look at Jessica I don't think about other athletes at all.

 

[Triggaaar]

All, or most of the druggies are not competing.

Dream on. It's up to each country to test their own athletes and ban them, and needless to say there's not a great incentive to ban your own athletes.

 

[Hillian1]

Not really. When I look at Jessica I don't think about other athletes at all.

You see, I just don't see the hype myself. Looks more like the girl next door without the tits.

 

[Triggaaar]

You see, I just don't see the hype myself. Looks more like the girl next door without the tits.

I like the girl next door.

 

[melias shoes]

Lottery funding, so facilities can be built, and athletes devote full time to training.

Is the correct answer

 

[fat old seagull]

So the olympics being professional is a good thing?

What! are you stuck in £.s.d land? There hasn't been 'amateur sport' for donkeys years. Which is why there is no more FA Amateur Cup and the likes of Neymar, Murray, Bolt ....and in fact pretty near everybody else in the games are allowed to participate. If you like the thought of watching not very good sports people perform... perhaps the park is the place to view.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Lottery funding, so facilities can be built, and athletes devote full time to training.

Yup, this. The number of winners who thank the lottery has been quite remarkable, not something I think that would occur to me in those circs, unless the affect has been huge for them.