Is Britain the Greatest sporting nation on Earth?
Discussion
Some Gump said:
Deltona, you sound butthurt that you didn't have a better year. FDon't be. the Olympics isn't just about winning, the whole shebang is more than that.
I'd say, don't project your own feelings on others when a discussion moves into an unwanted direction when presented with answers that do not necessarily confirm the thread title. DeltonaS said:
I'd say, don't project your own feelings on others when a discussion moves into an unwanted direction when presented with answers that do not necessarily confirm the thread title.
since when does a thread title mean the content will then follow it direction. this is I expect a largely UK based forum its not therefore unusual to enjoy our success in a forum type huddle. you just seem angry because some people are enjoying themselves such a shame. Are you doping?DeltonaS said:
I'd say, don't project your own feelings on others when a discussion moves into an unwanted direction when presented with answers that do not necessarily confirm the thread title.
I never said we were the greatest sporting nation. I don't think there is one.Just for info (it's not over yet) - is womens hockey a valid sport, or is it one of the pointless ones you only play because no-one else does and you want a medal?
johnxjsc1985 said:
Thankyou4calling said:
I stopped reading your gibberish when you said Rugby is only popular in a few countries.
Couldn't be bothered after that ill informed nonsense.
He really is upset about something such a sour pussCouldn't be bothered after that ill informed nonsense.
To be honest, I'd be bitter if I were from Belgium, too.
Trabi601 said:
johnxjsc1985 said:
Thankyou4calling said:
I stopped reading your gibberish when you said Rugby is only popular in a few countries.
Couldn't be bothered after that ill informed nonsense.
He really is upset about something such a sour pussCouldn't be bothered after that ill informed nonsense.
To be honest, I'd be bitter if I were from Belgium, too.
tty comeback about someone, at least get their country of origin right you tard.mcelliott said:
If you're going to make a stty comeback about someone, at least get their country of origin right you tard.
I'd mis-remembered from his ranting in a cycling thread, where he seemed to be a big fan of Belgian cyclists.tty comeback about someone, at least get their country of origin right you tard.Wherever he's from, he's very bitter about the British cycling and hockey successes.
mcelliott said:
Trabi601 said:
johnxjsc1985 said:
Thankyou4calling said:
I stopped reading your gibberish when you said Rugby is only popular in a few countries.
Couldn't be bothered after that ill informed nonsense.
He really is upset about something such a sour pussCouldn't be bothered after that ill informed nonsense.
To be honest, I'd be bitter if I were from Belgium, too.
tty comeback about someone, at least get their country of origin right you tard.Even apart from the fact that hardly any one seems to react to actual facts.
Edited by DeltonaS on Saturday 20th August 13:36
Some Gump said:
DeltonaS said:
I'd say, don't project your own feelings on others when a discussion moves into an unwanted direction when presented with answers that do not necessarily confirm the thread title.
I never said we were the greatest sporting nation. I don't think there is one.Just for info (it's not over yet) - is womens hockey a valid sport, or is it one of the pointless ones you only play because no-one else does and you want a medal?
Thirdly that the Dutch are historically the best at a relatively small sport as field hockey actually proves the point I was trying to make a page back on most Olympic sports in general, and on for instance the Jamaican sprinters or track cycling in particular.
Edited by DeltonaS on Saturday 20th August 13:36
Delt, I'm now baffled as to what point you;re trying to make. For the record, I'm not interested in a fight.
IMO every single country, organisation or individual that is motivated by winning will concentrate on what their strengths are. In a post earlier, I took it to see you deriding GB for picking sports that they had advantages on, investing in them and ditching others. This is exactly what they did. I'm just totally baffled as to how the same criticism couldn't be leveled at every other country, e.g you have a very well funded (and brilliant to watch) hockey team, but I'm not sure I've seen the Netherlands well represented in the table tennis.
Some of this is demographics. At the risk of getting accused of vast racism, you have to accept that nations are different genetically. You lot are tall buggers, and therefore great at height sports. I doubt Fiji could mount much of an opposition to you in basketball, volleyball or highjump.
Other dividers are social (as you alluded to earlier). In the UK, as in the Netherlands, hockey is a sport. How many Indians or Chinese play hockey? In the UK, for 99% of the polulation, table tennis is a novely sport for holidays and youth clubs. In the asian countries, it's a proper sport. Like all things, it's a funnel effect. To be the best in the world, you need the people with natural aptitude, drive, and opportunity. If everyone at school plays a sport, then there's much more in at the top of the funnel. The chosen few at the end of it will be naturally higher calibre on this basis. To missquote (Alonso?) - "I'm not the best driver in the world. The best driver in the world probably drives a bus in Sao paulo. He just didn't get the chance. I'm only the best driver that had the chance".
What I don't get is that you seem to be deriding GB for playing to their strengths, as if it's a bad thing. This is competition, that's the nature of the beast. I really can't get what criteria you;re using to measure validity of achievements.
PS - I'm still not saying GB are the best sporting nation. I sill think that this concept doesn't exist. There's just no way to compare one event to another with significance weighting without resorting to opinion so the whole thing is invalid. PPS - Good game earlier, I really think you outplayed us for the first 3/4..
IMO every single country, organisation or individual that is motivated by winning will concentrate on what their strengths are. In a post earlier, I took it to see you deriding GB for picking sports that they had advantages on, investing in them and ditching others. This is exactly what they did. I'm just totally baffled as to how the same criticism couldn't be leveled at every other country, e.g you have a very well funded (and brilliant to watch) hockey team, but I'm not sure I've seen the Netherlands well represented in the table tennis.
Some of this is demographics. At the risk of getting accused of vast racism, you have to accept that nations are different genetically. You lot are tall buggers, and therefore great at height sports. I doubt Fiji could mount much of an opposition to you in basketball, volleyball or highjump.
Other dividers are social (as you alluded to earlier). In the UK, as in the Netherlands, hockey is a sport. How many Indians or Chinese play hockey? In the UK, for 99% of the polulation, table tennis is a novely sport for holidays and youth clubs. In the asian countries, it's a proper sport. Like all things, it's a funnel effect. To be the best in the world, you need the people with natural aptitude, drive, and opportunity. If everyone at school plays a sport, then there's much more in at the top of the funnel. The chosen few at the end of it will be naturally higher calibre on this basis. To missquote (Alonso?) - "I'm not the best driver in the world. The best driver in the world probably drives a bus in Sao paulo. He just didn't get the chance. I'm only the best driver that had the chance".
What I don't get is that you seem to be deriding GB for playing to their strengths, as if it's a bad thing. This is competition, that's the nature of the beast. I really can't get what criteria you;re using to measure validity of achievements.
PS - I'm still not saying GB are the best sporting nation. I sill think that this concept doesn't exist. There's just no way to compare one event to another with significance weighting without resorting to opinion so the whole thing is invalid. PPS - Good game earlier, I really think you outplayed us for the first 3/4..
Some Gump said:
Delt, I'm now baffled as to what point you;re trying to make. For the record, I'm not interested in a fight.
IMO every single country, organisation or individual that is motivated by winning will concentrate on what their strengths are. In a post earlier, I took it to see you deriding GB for picking sports that they had advantages on, investing in them and ditching others. This is exactly what they did.
I'm just totally baffled as to how the same criticism couldn't be leveled at every other country, e.g you have a very well funded (and brilliant to watch) hockey team, but I'm not sure I've seen the Netherlands well represented in the table tennis.
Hockey just happens to be a sport which is very popular, among womens sports 2nd even. It's not incredible well funded,
Some of this is demographics. At the risk of getting accused of vast racism, you have to accept that nations are different genetically. You lot are tall buggers, and therefore great at height sports. I doubt Fiji could mount much of an opposition to you in basketball, volleyball or highjump.
Other dividers are social (as you alluded to earlier). In the UK, as in the Netherlands, hockey is a sport. How many Indians or Chinese play hockey? In the UK, for 99% of the polulation, table tennis is a novely sport for holidays and youth clubs. In the asian countries, it's a proper sport. Like all things, it's a funnel effect. To be the best in the world, you need the people with natural aptitude, drive, and opportunity. If everyone at school plays a sport, then there's much more in at the top of the funnel. The chosen few at the end of it will be naturally higher calibre on this basis. To missquote (Alonso?) - "I'm not the best driver in the world. The best driver in the world probably drives a bus in Sao paulo. He just didn't get the chance. I'm only the best driver that had the chance".
What I don't get is that you seem to be deriding GB for playing to their strengths, as if it's a bad thing. This is competition, that's the nature of the beast. I really can't get what criteria you;re using to measure validity of achievements.
Deriding ? or just putting some things in perspective by replying in a cheeky, factual and critical manner (but without the tainted GB glasses!) on some of the claims made.IMO every single country, organisation or individual that is motivated by winning will concentrate on what their strengths are. In a post earlier, I took it to see you deriding GB for picking sports that they had advantages on, investing in them and ditching others. This is exactly what they did.
I'm just totally baffled as to how the same criticism couldn't be leveled at every other country, e.g you have a very well funded (and brilliant to watch) hockey team, but I'm not sure I've seen the Netherlands well represented in the table tennis.
Hockey just happens to be a sport which is very popular, among womens sports 2nd even. It's not incredible well funded,
Some of this is demographics. At the risk of getting accused of vast racism, you have to accept that nations are different genetically. You lot are tall buggers, and therefore great at height sports. I doubt Fiji could mount much of an opposition to you in basketball, volleyball or highjump.
Other dividers are social (as you alluded to earlier). In the UK, as in the Netherlands, hockey is a sport. How many Indians or Chinese play hockey? In the UK, for 99% of the polulation, table tennis is a novely sport for holidays and youth clubs. In the asian countries, it's a proper sport. Like all things, it's a funnel effect. To be the best in the world, you need the people with natural aptitude, drive, and opportunity. If everyone at school plays a sport, then there's much more in at the top of the funnel. The chosen few at the end of it will be naturally higher calibre on this basis. To missquote (Alonso?) - "I'm not the best driver in the world. The best driver in the world probably drives a bus in Sao paulo. He just didn't get the chance. I'm only the best driver that had the chance".
What I don't get is that you seem to be deriding GB for playing to their strengths, as if it's a bad thing. This is competition, that's the nature of the beast. I really can't get what criteria you;re using to measure validity of achievements.
Considering track cycling and rowing; is GB really playing to their strengths, or to the weakness of other nations ?
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-rise-of-britains-c...
Because no other track cycling nation even remotely receives the amount of funding the track cycling team of GB does (also lacking any commercial base).
So don't you think it's a bit silly that a substantial (sport) nation as GB after the Atlanta Olympics was deliberately picking out sports in which a) they could win a substantial amount of medals and b) which could be considered rel. low hanging fruit. It's a great performance, but also a bit artificial.
And given the vast and widespread number of medals Team GB won, it doesn't even need it.
Edited by DeltonaS on Sunday 21st August 20:48
The Olympics by Delt:
1 - Set targets. presumably it's "win a lot of medals".
2 - Work out which ones you think you can win.
3 - Concentrate on ones you don't think you can win, because winning ones you think you can win is hollow.
4 - Come 26th.
Brilliant.
FTR I'm still not arguing 1 bit that we're the best sporting nation on Earth. The only reason I'm in this thread is your bizarre viewpoint that Brit success is somehow less valid than other nation's success.
1 - Set targets. presumably it's "win a lot of medals".
2 - Work out which ones you think you can win.
3 - Concentrate on ones you don't think you can win, because winning ones you think you can win is hollow.
4 - Come 26th.
Brilliant.
FTR I'm still not arguing 1 bit that we're the best sporting nation on Earth. The only reason I'm in this thread is your bizarre viewpoint that Brit success is somehow less valid than other nation's success.
Its interesting to see all these comments, however if we came back with the Atlantic results or earlier Olympics my guess is that we would be looking at only a handful of medals, because Athletes now have funded facilities because of the programs being run by the sporting organisations including investment in sport science and full time training and because of Lottery funding we now have Athlete showing thier full potential.
To try and train without being funded means you get a part time Athlete juggling work family and sport, its so hard on an individual to succeed that way and often they only get part time results.
Are we the greatest sporting nation........no.........but are we a nation who can be proud of our Athletes success yes and we should be.
To try and train without being funded means you get a part time Athlete juggling work family and sport, its so hard on an individual to succeed that way and often they only get part time results.
Are we the greatest sporting nation........no.........but are we a nation who can be proud of our Athletes success yes and we should be.
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