Olympic sport funding levels

[Stat Brother]

Er, yes. I know - I've worked in all of them. My point is that any problems in swimming can NOT be shrugged off as 'down to a lack of facilities'.

I was underlining your point, Mr Defensive

 

[Indurain's Lungs]

Er, yes. I know - I've worked in all of them. My point is that any problems in swimming can NOT be shrugged off as 'down to a lack of facilities'.

This.

Although I am obviously a massive supporter of cycling, they have an advantage over some sports -

- female cycling was targeted as it was, relatively, under performing in a world scale and was ripe for effective talent identification.

- there were technical advances to be made, which actually gave only small gains but fed massively into confidence and the next point.

- for a long time Britain were beaten before they turned up. I remember being completely overawed by the Dutch and belgian teams let alone the germans/French.

- we have been lucky with Hoy, Pendleton and wiggins, in particular, but hoy was knocking about the lower reaches of international sprint competitions until keen/Brailsford came along.

- until Peter keen came along it was a big fish, small pond mentality. They ruthlessly chopped out the people who considered selection for gb as the pinnacle and went only for medals.

 

[Simster]

- we have been lucky with Hoy, Pendleton and wiggins, in particular,

Glad you agree with me. [MENTION=435]Stat Brother[/MENTION] says otherwise.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

There is something seriously amiss with GB swimming. The expectation of any athlete is to peak for an Olympics, yet only 1 GB swimmer has recorded a PB. They are making finals often enough...many are in contention with 25 metres to go but are fading to finish 5th/6th/7th/8th. They are all dragging themselves over to Sharon Davies to be interviewed post-race and all you get is...." I underperformed and I don't know why " or " I'm delighted to have finished 5th after my 7th in Beijing "....their body language is awful....some look totally over-awed...others seem just relieved its all over.
Compare this to the positivity around cycling and rowing and you see a sport that has problems.
For the level of funding, the minimal return is frankly, embarrassing.
There seems to a physical problem as well with a lot of other swimmers much bigger than GB's. They all seem to be finishing races stronger than our swimmers. The Redgrave programme for uncovering large physical specimens needs to devote more time to swimming.

 

[Stat Brother]

Glad you agree with me. [MENTION=435]Stat Brother[/MENTION] says otherwise.

Brilliant, I've only just seen this one.

I said if you have the facilities and expertise the athletes will come.

[MENTION=16720]Indurain's Lungs[/MENTION] said we have been lucky with Hoy, Pendleton and wiggins, in particular, but hoy was knocking about the lower reaches of international sprint competitions until keen/Brailsford came along.

But he agrees with you and not me!

Pretty much the old story of a review outside a theatre:-

'....it will run and run', from the quote

'This show is so bad it will run and run'.

 

[Deleted member 22389]

Throwing money at swimming training is polishing a turd. We are never going to become a proper swimming nation until we address the lack of Olympic facilities, and I'm not sure we have the appetite for that. How many Olympic sized pools are there in the UK? I'll bet Sydney alone has more. Sydney is remarkable in that there are 50m outdoor pools all over the city, and the weather to justify them.

Your right about the facilities, but its also down to the weather as well. We don't have the climate where we can pop down to the beach for a quick swim. Winter events too, Austrians, as soon as the kids are able to walk they are given a set of Skis

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Brilliant, I've only just seen this one.

I said if you have the facilities and expertise the athletes will come.

[MENTION=16720]Indurain's Lungs[/MENTION] said we have been lucky with Hoy, Pendleton and wiggins, in particular, but hoy was knocking about the lower reaches of international sprint competitions until keen/Brailsford came along.

But he agrees with you and not me!

Pretty much the old story of a review outside a theatre:-

.

I actually think that you and Simster are BOTH right.

He is correct that British Cycling WAS a bit lucky that a fantastic amount of raw talent was there, ripe to benefit from the perfect storm that Brailsford et al produced.

But following on from their success, the program has been almost uniquely succesful in talent identification, to ensure that there is seamless succesion to the next generation of stars.

 

[ROSM]

we've had something like 18 swimmers qualify for finals so far. I believe this is the best since 1988. What we need to do is turn finalists into medals. To do that we either need to develop across the board or be ruthless and cut those we dont believe can be turned into medal winners. I believe it is cycling that says if we cant win we dont enter.

It clearly hasnt helped that there are 2-3 who underperformed.

A few years ago there was a mad australian put in charge of the swimmers. he was by all accounts ruthless and when certain swimmers quit/complained of bullying he was removed.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

we've had something like 18 swimmers qualify for finals so far. I believe this is the best since 1988. What we need to do is turn finalists into medals. To do that we either need to develop across the board or be ruthless and cut those we dont believe can be turned into medal winners. I believe it is cycling that says if we cant win we dont enter.

It clearly hasnt helped that there are 2-3 who underperformed.

A few years ago there was a mad australian put in charge of the swimmers. he was by all accounts ruthless and when certain swimmers quit/complained of bullying he was removed.

Bill Sweetenham.

I liked him when I met him. He was scary, but funny.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Gotta be realistic about the games. Some nations have far bigger pools of populations from which to draw athletes from.

China's nothing special if it only has a population of 50 million people.

 

[Stat Brother]

And swimming is a 'big' event for big Olympic nations.

But that's a lot of funding, and a long way off the medal target.
Hopefully a little nearer after tonight.

I don't think the swimmers have been helped by the commentators, jingoistic doesn't even come close.
Every GB swimmer has been a 'potential medalist, here'. Even during the event, when we can all see they are not!

Followed by their post race interviews, which they haven't seemed to 'bothered' (for want of a better word) and are already counting down to Rio.

 

[Stat Brother]

Swimming will be handing big wodges of cash over to Judo, post games.

 

[Indurain's Lungs]

And swimming is a 'big' event for big Olympic nations.

But that's a lot of funding, and a long way off the medal target.
Hopefully a little nearer after tonight.

I don't think the swimmers have been helped by the commentators, jingoistic doesn't even come close.
Every GB swimmer has been a 'potential medalist, here'. Even during the event, when we can all see they are not!

Followed by their post race interviews, which they haven't seemed to 'bothered' (for want of a better word) and are already counting down to Rio.

I definitely think the press have built the swimmers up too much. Adlington alluded to the press criticism after her race today and she had a point, although she perhaps shouldn't have suggested that 'swimming isn't like other sports, it's really hard to medal'!

The earlier points about the swimmers failing to peak is true though. They should be pulling out performances like Jamieson in the breaststroke - getting PBs and pushing their own performance. Perhaps they need a sit down with Brailsford and his team about peaking - for god's sake, Brad's sports scientist/trainer came from swimming!

 

[Southwick_Seagull]

I know it's not one of our traditional sports but £8.5m spent on basketball and the team GB men and women have a combined record of played 7, lost 7.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Swimming will be handing big wodges of cash over to Judo, post games.

They made need to. With UFC now a big thing a lot of martial artists could eye off shifting to those type promotions over the lure of the Olympics.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

The earlier points about the swimmers failing to peak is true though. They should be pulling out performances like Jamieson in the breaststroke - getting PBs and pushing their own performance. Perhaps they need a sit down with Brailsford and his team about peaking - for god's sake, Brad's sports scientist/trainer came from swimming!

There has been some crossover between the sports. Scott Gardener went across the British Swimming, when he and VP went public about their relationship, didn't he? Although he's back at Cycling now, I think.