Are Britain's olympic cyclists too good? Whingers!

[funkyrobot]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/olympics/2008/08/britai...

So the world finally realises that we are a dominant force in a sport, and what happens? They all start whining about it.

Good old bbc reporter eh? Why the hell can't people just enjoy this success?? Idiot.

[Johnny]

WTF??? That didn't take long. Jesus.

[AngryS3Owner]

Maybe someone should tell China and America they're upsetting us by winning more medals.

[Digger.]

How many of these less "dominant" countries have lotteries from which to extract funding?

[BJG1]

Ethiopians should be banned from long distances imo - although I'm not sure they get too much funding...

[97octane]

There is nothing wrong with winning as long as you don't crow about it (Australia), turn it into a religion (USA) or politicise it (China)

[ray_von]

Small part of him that was embarrassed? WTF? Typical of this country. What he should have said was: I have heard the national anthem 5 times and felt a great sense of pride that we are no longer seen as also rans. What a helmet

[Johnny]

97octane said:

There is nothing wrong with winning as long as you don't crow about it (Australia), turn it into a religion (USA) or politicise it (China)

Nicely put.

[patmahe]

The British media are SOOOooo hard on their sportspeople, they expect gold from each and every one and if you cannot deliver you barely merit a mention despite the (at least) 4 years of hard graft it took just to get there in the first place. It sickens me to hear a couch bound pundit who has done nothing more than stand in front of a camera and talk, belittle the achievements of any athlete competing at this level. Its hard and tough and in the case of British athletes thankless task, because even if you win gold you dont get the credit that you deserve because its simply what you are expected to do. Then to take it to the extent of complaining about winning too much - well thats just bullst and journalism for the sake of journalism.

I say this as an Irish citizen living in Ireland with no vested interest in team GB at all, I'm just sick of seeing the BBC undermining the achievments of it sportspeople over many years and competitions.

[RobJShe]

So, we moan about what`s wrong with this country and when we have something/someone to be proud of we moan about that too.

No pleasing some people.

[lazyitus]

ray_von said:

Small part of him that was embarrassed? WTF?

What a tit !

Surely embarassment should arise after being continually defeated, not victorious ? What a clown.

He probably promotes the idea that it's bad to win the sack race in a school race etc. etc.

[Simpo Two]

Ah well, winning by too much reminds them of the bad naughty Empire, and besides, socialists don't like anyone to be better than someone else - they call it 'elitist' which is also bad...

[Neil_H]

Well it's only a blog so hardly popular opinion, but a ridiculous thing to write nonetheless.

[Fittster]

Have people actually read the story?

A bloke from Denmark is complaining they can't compete due to less funding, where are the BBC saying there is an issue?

[wiffmaster]

RobJShe said:

So, we moan about what`s wrong with this country and when we have something/someone to be proud of we moan about that too.

That, to me, is one of the most annoying things about this country today (yes I see the irony in posting a whining post regarding whining!). But no other country is quite so self-deprecating as the UK. If we lose something, it's a case of "oh, just another thing we suck at" and when we do bloody brilliantly at something it's a case of "oh, how terribly embarrassing".

[Digger.]

Potentially, there could be a discussion to either cap the level of funding (lottery?) for individual sports, or at least spread those monies around more sensibly? It would be interesting to compare with other top nations and how much they plough into individual sports. The UK cycling model has been widely praised, and I imagine brains would be picked to introduce similar principles and methods into other sports in the run up to 2012. . .at what cost to the tax-payer though?

[ewenm]

Digger. said:

Potentially, there could be a discussion to either cap the level of funding (lottery?) for individual sports, or at least spread those monies around more sensibly? It would be interesting to compare with other top nations and how much they plough into individual sports. The UK cycling model has been widely praised, and I imagine brains would be picked to introduce similar principles and methods into other sports in the run up to 2012. . .at what cost to the tax-payer though?

The sport funding comes from the Lottery so no cost to the taxpayer who chooses not to participate in the tax-on-hope Lottery.

I can't be bothered posting the link yet again (look in the Medals per population thread) but the total funding 2006-2009 for all 27 Olympic sports was £191m.

[Twincam16]

And we wonder why so many of our nation are obese? In Australia, New Zealand, and so many areas of mainland Europe, sport is seen as an essential, mass-participatory part of culture and central to the nation's health. Most people play some sport or other. In this country, we decry sportspeople for being overpaid and smug and shout at the telly from the comfort of our revolting Lay-Z-Boy armchairs with built-in beer and snack holders.

Same with the arts. In places like the Netherlands, France, Spain and Italy, the average person on the street wouldn't think twice about going to an art gallery, a classical concert or a theatre. In this country for some reason we see these things as 'poncey' unless it's a film tie-in, a panto or the Last Night of the Proms.

Why do we whinge ourselves into a corner in this country? We're on top of anything involving a bike or a boat in these olympics, we've been pretty good in the swimming pool too, we're third in the medal table, and in the wider world, our football teams win European championships, our cricket team is getting back on track, a Brit is leading the F1 world championship and people come to British experts in order to dominate world motorsport.

It makes me proud, not smug.

[IainT]

Fittster said:

Have people actually read the story?

A bloke from Denmark is complaining they can't compete due to less funding, where are the BBC saying there is an issue?

I think very few have actually read the article.

It's neither bashing our cyclists successes nor reporting a whinge by the losers but does fairly report a concern for any sport that sees domination by one person or team - a risk of losing the competetive element that entertains and draws in supporters.

[Digger.]

ewenm said:

Digger. said:

Potentially, there could be a discussion to either cap the level of funding (lottery?) for individual sports, or at least spread those monies around more sensibly? It would be interesting to compare with other top nations and how much they plough into individual sports. The UK cycling model has been widely praised, and I imagine brains would be picked to introduce similar principles and methods into other sports in the run up to 2012. . .at what cost to the tax-payer though?

The sport funding comes from the Lottery so no cost to the taxpayer who chooses not to participate in the tax-on-hope Lottery.

I can't be bothered posting the link yet again (look in the Medals per population thread) but the total funding 2006-2009 for all 27 Olympic sports was £191m.

Point put across badly by me. Obviously Lottery funds couldnt fund any or all improvements in the pre-Olympics/Sports infrastructure in the run up to 2012. . .or could they? Guess we are lucky to have a nation who are gullible enough to have a large % of the populace pay out towards the "tax for idiots". I include myself as one of them gullibles .

Edited by Digger. on Tuesday 19th August 13:05