The Olympics should be the pinnacle for the amateur sportsman that will later, if he chooses, look for the higher platitudes in professional sport.
:s mokin:
The Olympics should be the pinnacle for the amateur sportsman that will later, if he chooses, look for the higher platitudes in professional sport.
:s mokin:
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrJan
Agreed. Certain events aren't fit for the Olympics.Quote:
Originally Posted by MrJan
Cycling is an odd one. Like motorsport there are a number of disciplines and specialisation. Ask Sir Chris Hoy how important the Olympics are? Does track cycling have blue riband events?
South American countries take it rather seriously.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark
Uruguay won the first Olympics football sanctioned for pros which set the template for the World Cup.
Brazil has never won a gold medal.
This is correct.Quote:
Originally Posted by wedge
They always send as strong squad as they can. This time Brazil will probably send Neymar for one, who is not a second rate player.
Also on Uruguay they won those earlier Olympic tournament and firmly regard them as World Championship victorys in all but name.
To there credit the South Americans take any tournament they play in seriously. I hope one of those two win the tournament.
Indeed, that's why I differentiated between road and velodrome in my original post :) Track cycling has a world championships, however it's my impression that the 'lympics is the one they want.Quote:
Originally Posted by wedge
South American teams may take it seriously, but do they really take their strongest squad? I'm not sure on the rules of the Olympic tournament but shirley there is still a second rate element to the team? I mean, there may be seriously good players involved, but not all 11 will be of the standard that they send to the WC?
My guess is that many of you were too young to have experienced the Olympics in the days where it was for amateur athletes. The all pro's started in 1992.Quote:
Originally Posted by race aficionado
Before that the only "professionals" were mostly the the Soviet block athletes, where according to their political system, the professional athlete did not exist.
So according to saint Google, The soviet system would provide a very comfortable living for these athletes, but since they were not "paid" they were still classified as amateurs.
And even though there was a great differential in age and experience between, for example, a boxer from Cuba and a boxer from my home country Colombia,
It was always a treat to see if our man could knock the lights out, or actually survive the bout with the experienced contender.
This of course happened in other sports
So for Basketball for example, we were bringing college kids to face guys 5 - 10 years older who were bigger, strong, and more experienced. It was never a level playing field.
So I blame the Commies. ;)
so I should stop bithin'. I'm getting to be an old geezer, it is what it is, and I still enjoy the competition.
And this year we have the added bonus of olympic golf :p :
:s mokin:
The Olympics falls in the middle of WC qualification - which is different format which us Europeans take for granted. Instead of groups the S Americans qualify in a mini league.Quote:
Originally Posted by MrJan
In effect its a no brainer for the S Americans send a strong squad because the Olympics works as a stepping stone for the WC.
You're allowed 3 over-age players for the Olympics - dependent on willingness of the clubs. In Beijing Argentina had Mascherano and Riquelme
I suppose it depends what sports you enjoy watching. We like cycling in our house and watch coverage of races four or five days a week. To be fair, we dont always watch the full days stage due to their length and us haveing to watch them after work but we'll probably watch the last 50km at least. Yesterday I watched the time trial stage of the Criterium du Dauphine. It was won by Britains Bradley Wiggins who is also currently winning the race and holds the yellow jersey. He also has two bronze medals, one silver and three gold olympic medals from the last three Olypic games. Coverage is out there, I suppose its up to each individidual as to whether its something they like and whether they actually want to watch it.Quote:
Originally Posted by wedge
There are world championships for both track and road cycling. Mark Cavendish won the world road championship race in Copenhagen last year. Great Britain really dominated the race and there was a seriously impressive ride from Bradley Wiggins. It's quite a feat to give your everything in a world championshipjust just so some other bloke can come through at the end and take the gold medal. You dont get that in many sports. Interestingly Mark Cavendish won BBC's Sports Personality award with 49% of the votes last year. Admittedly 2011 wasn't an olympic year or a year with a major football tournament. Maybe it was an easy year for a cyclist to win it.Quote:
Originally Posted by MrJan
As far as track cycling is concerned the world championships are far more harder to win than the olympics. Due to Great Britain being so dominant in Bejing the rules were changed so that this year there will only be one entrant from each country in each race. The best two or three riders in a particular event might come from the same country. Many riders have already voiced their opinion that the world track championships are far harder to win as you are competing with the best of the best and not the person who might have been the best on a particular day when team selections were taking place.
How big is your house? :eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by GridGirl
From all interviews I've read I'm surprised at how much tennis players want to win Olympic gold. It seems extremely important to them.Quote:
Originally Posted by MrJan
If you're due to play in the Olympics and an interviewer asks how important it is you're hardly going to reply "Meh, I'd rather win the NBA" ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by theugsquirrel