Brazil Olympics

[Steve Boyd]

They are adults after all!

Are they? Plenty of teenagers have competed in gymnastics and swimming to name only two sports.

At what age do you start giving your kids steroids and growth hormones to make sure they can be champions in their twenties?

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Since I last posted GB did overtake China into second place.

A great effort but i still think China will regain second over us.

A great result for Brownlee, Jon Brownlee who got silver in the Triathlon behind Brownlee, Alistair Brownlee.

[Storm]

The swimmers and their fake robbery is getting way too much attention....just some idiots who tried to cover up their own mistakes...easy to blame crime and all the "crap" in Rio right

just watched badminton finals, Sindhu was excellent but lost the final, at least a silver and she'll hopefully keep getting better.
MSNBC thought it would be nice to start the final 1 hr late, and then cut most of the match in the breaks. While f**kin 20km WALK, Golf and horse jumping !!!! was going on live for hours.

seriously, at least badminton is a sport and watchable for the most part...what the hell is WALKING when you also have RUNNING?

[Brown, Jon Brow]

@Storm

How has a country the size of India managed to win so few medals?

Is cricket literally the only sport people play there?

[Rollo]

How has a country the size of India managed to win so few medals?

Is cricket literally the only sport people play there?

India/GDP per capita 1,498.87 USD (2013)

There are loads and loads and loads of very poor people in India. The actual proportion of the population who would be able to divert their life into the non-income producing demands that training to be an Olympic athlete demands is tiny.


Find me those stats.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

That's a higher GDP per capita than Kenya with 10 medals.

Uzbekistan $1,800 per capita - 8 medals.

North Korea $500 per capita - 7 medals.

Ethiopia $500 per capita - 6 medals

Vietnam, Ivory Coast both have gold medals.

Countries that are just as poor as India but with far, far smaller populations achieve moderate success.

200-300 million Indians that have moderate wealth might be a minority in India, but is significant number compared with other nations. In India it seems a cultural thing as well as an economic thing.

[steveaki13]

India used to be good at Hockey didnt they?

Anyway I have been loving the Olympics but unable to post as my laptop has stopped me getting on sadly. It is suddenly better again...... very weird.

[gadjo_dilo]

Finally Brazil managed to get the gold at football with the lovely Neymar dramatically scoring the last penalty.

Following my good ol' tradition I slept during the match and woke up in time for penalties.

[Storm]

India used to be good at Hockey didnt they?

Used to be the Brasil of Hockey a long time ago. Now more like England of football

I came home with 111' in the match and watched the penalties..glad to see Neymar and Rafinha score and get the gold.

JBJ, it could be a long discussion over a few pints as to why India do so badly. But yes, cricket is the main culprit. Along with poverty, lack of opportunity, lack of infrastructure, corruption at every level of sports, and a viable career path in any sport other than cricket. It already killed hockey.

While many sports have a huge following (football, hockey, tennis etc) , our attitude to sport is usually one of lower priority in life than other things deemed more important (education for one - but even that as a means, not necessarily for learning!)

Things are changing at very slow pace, but at least this generation has a few heroes like Saina Nehwal/PV Sindhu in badminton and a few boxers/wrestlers that did manage to win a little. Hopefully my generation will help change attitudes and help our children achieve better in sports than we ever did.

[gadjo_dilo]

Hey Storm..... I thought kabaddi is a popular sport in India. At least that's what I saw in some tv series. But it's not a olympic sport.