I am really enjoying these fantastic Olympic games and the brilliant performances from all Athletes of all countries. The great sportsmanship, desire, hard work and enormous dedication shown by these guys wanting to be the best in their sports is a humbling experience. Our overpaid prima donna footballers would do well to take some lessons from some of these athletes. I have been watching the Olympic Boxing at the Excel Arena and the atmosphere has been phenominal. I have been lucky enough to watch Agogo in his last fight and I would just like to wish the Suffolk born fighter all the best in his quest for a Gold medal. Go on Agogo make Suffolk proud! As for our motley crew of mercenaries who represented team GB in the football I have always thought that football has no place in the Olympics. If football is to be played then the teams should be consisted of all Amateur footballers and not the multi millionaires who couldn't give a toss!
i have to agree with you - in fact, what a phenomenal effort being shown by ALL british athletes, EXCEPT the footballers typically! by the way, you do realise agogo's a season ticket holder at carrow road?
If he is a Norwich supporter than fair enough! He is from Lowestoft so I wouldn't be suprised! I don't want to have local rivalry distract from the main point which is that these Olympics have provided us with an amazing illustration of how powerful and inspiring sport is when it is performed at this level of intensity. It puts football into perspective!
Spot on Dave I wonder how many kids this week have got on a bike for the first time in ages after watching Bradley Wiggins et al? Surely these are the types of role models we need in this country to inspire our kids! Not the Wayne Rooneys and John Terrys of this world. The amazing dedication shown by our rowers in training flat out for 4 years for just one shot at a medal. The poor guys that gave everything on Saturday only to finish second and then couldn't speak through sheer exhaustion afterwards. These guys are the ones that we should be celebrating, not the multi millionaires who only have to kick a football around for 90 minutes!
too true. this olympics has put footballers to shame (on the whole). by the way, i was just pointing out that he's a city fan - i wasn't suggesting you should stop supporting him for that reason!
Poor Sod! SPOTY should be interesting this year! I know we moan about the footballers, but if one should come out with any credit it should be bellamy, i hate to say it but even i was starting to cheer for him because every time he got the ball he produced something. To me even from the opening ceremony it has been a credit to Great Britain, on what we can produce and the spirit we have in this great country of ours!
I havent watched more than about 20 minutes of the games so far so cant really comment about your first paragraph but I think you make an interesting point here. The Olympic spirit always used to suggest it was about amateurs showing their best and it was an ideal that was somehow more honest and respected. I used to wonder why the football was different and used to agree with you but these days its moved away from that and for me is as corporate and money orientated as any other sporting show. The likes of Murray vs Federer, the rumoured £5m sponsorship earnt by Ennis so far etc etc. Not taking anything away from the sporting ability and the hard work and dedication that they have all put in but for me it is no different than a world cup final/ wimbledon or anything else. Everyone there has gone through qualifying to get to the olympics just the qualifying progress hasnt gone through the same tv build up so you dont get to hear about those that fall by the wayside. In a similar way there are probably 1000's of 100% dedicated footballers out there its just that the spotlight always falls on the idiots whereas outside of this island any drugs failure in athletics rarely makes the national news. As I have said, not knocking any olympic competitor. They have all earnt the right to compete but sometimes I feel that we are too quick to paint a negative picture of footballers and too quick to say how great everyone else.
STB, I am mainly referring to the guys that despite the limited funding and having to hold down a full time job at the same time manage to compete at such a high level of sport often for little or no reward. The Olympic ideal has been lost to a greater extent with the professionals now taking part but there is still the amazing stories of self sacrifice and endeavour that you don't see in other sporting competitions. Football and Tennis have no place in the Olympics but if they have to be included they should only have amateurs competing. The Olympics is an amazing showcase for the "lesser" sports that hardly get any coverage in the media. These Olympics are a massive opportunity for this country to grasp the nettle and start funding other sports at grass roots levels and stop the mindless selling off of school playing fields for a start. I also hope that this socialist inspired dogma of everyone should be winners is finally ended once and for all. Life isn't fair and our kids should learn this through sport and competition. Football has become a rich man's sport and has begun to detach itself from all real life experience of the public that support it. Just a pause for thought
I have to say that I had little enthusiasm for the Olympics at all - until it started. I have been watching sports that I would never have dreamed of watching before and thoroughly enjoyed them. All except the football - I can honestly say that this is the first time I have ever not been bothered about watching it or whether we win or not. There is a huge gulf between watching very well paid footballers merely going through the motions and athletes who have dedicated themselves solely to performing to their best - whatever the result - for themselves and their country. There are very few footballers nowadays who play for their country or even a modicum of pride. They are driven by money, lifestyle and status alone. This is all very understandable - I would love to be playing the game I love and for as much money as I could get - but they cannot be possibly be compared to the athletes involved in these Olympics who are prepared to put everything on the line and do whatever it takes - often failing but always ready to come back and try, again and again. Agree with you completely JWM.
Ogogo is from my hometown of Lowestoft, my parents knew him when he was a kid. I found the men's football very disappointing, but I thought the woman did much better. Don't fault them for being well paid though, Andy Murray is too and nobody is disowning him!
Why would we disown Andy Murray, he is a 4 time grand slam finalist & a gold & silver medal winning Olympian.! Like most people I have found the GB mens footie team very disapointing, they could sure take a leaf out of the rest of the GB Olympic Team for taking pride in representing your nation..I am sure many will benifit financially as an outcome of their world beating performances & TBH why should'nt they..!
Not disowning Andy Murray but the important principle remains that the Olympics should be kept the sole preserve for amateur sport. Thousands of unsung sports men and women competing for nothing accept glory!
I am not really sure that "amateur" sports persons exist anymore at the Olympic level in this country, if they do not have an income from competing in their chosen sport they will enjoy sponsorship or lottery funding so they do not have to support themselves by having a "day job". It would really surprise me if any more than a small handful of our finalists/medalists have got a full time job they have to return to once the Olympics are over, for those that do return to a day job, (Heather Stanning, army) she had been given around 18 months leave to train for these Olympics..!
you only needed to see how much it meant, not only to murray, but all the others - del potro was so emotional. they adored representing their nations at their game and although i understand why some feel, like football, it shouldn't be in the olympics, i don't think the athletes themselves would agree! extraordinary scenes at wimbledon, unforgettable, and not one of them was paid to take part. ok, they aren't amateurs but as said above, the majority aren't these days. had the footballers won their competition, i doubt it would have had anywhere near the same effect.
The only sad thing is that instead of building on this the investment in school sport is being slashed. Wouldn't it be fantastic tho for GB to be the world leaders in sport with it driving us to defeat the obesity crisis and put an end to crap food. There is nothing more positive than the Olympics IMO for so many reasons.
As for the amateur sport thing - when China and Kazakstan pay their medalists huge sums of money I think the only argument would be that it's even more fantastic that Andy Murray is competing for the medal alone. Why should it matter whether he is paid for his sport all year round - when he competes in the Olympics he's doing it in the Olympic spirit. On the other hand, a lot of the competitors for Team GB are so priveliged they can afford to be 'amateur' and someone like Usain Bolt earns a fortune from sponsorship and advertising. The whole amateur argument makes no sense in the 21st century. There are thousands of people slogging to compete and that's incredible, but being paid for your sport should not be a barrier to competing.
Agree with this completely. To fund the olympics the government have taken a considerable amount of money away from the 'health promotion' sector which is strange considering the idea of having a legacy of the games. It appears people are suddenly wanting to ride a bike or take up a new sport but it's difficult to see this being a real success because the structure isn't in place infact it has got worse in the past couple of years!!! I think the games have been more successful so far than anyone could've imagined its great how over the years I've contuiously had arguments with people about the Olympics with many saying it's a waste of space etc,I always thought we would put on a great games, we are good at putting on these kind of things and I knew people would get sucked in. And they have I've not really heard anyone be negative about it, infact I would now say people are going to far the other way and getting a little carried away by it all!! One thing I didn't expect however was the medal haul, unbelievable!! I was concerned that we'd set ourselves up for a fall after the successes at Beijing, how wrong I was!! To put a slight negative on it however, expect us to do an Australia in the next few years and slowly go down the rankings, we've invested heavily in our athletes recently due to us being hosts and I don't really expect that to continue for many years after. The thing I take most from the games so far is, the inspiration to do better for yourselves and to not just roll over and accept the situation you find yourself in. I really hope people in this country takes this message on
