That's what I did after failing on the first two attempts, I was determined to be part of it somehow! £300 each is bit much, even for a nutter like me! I just have a feeling that the Para's will be as good if not even more atmospheric than the main games, anyway what ever happens we will be part of it!!! ILD OTBC
If it can motivate me to think about biking to work, it can do anything. This Olympics is a huge success. We now have to seize the opportunity we've been given to promote sport (and through it, respect social responsibility etc..) and just general fitness and wellbeing in this country. We're a sporty nation, it's easy to say we are a nation of overweight slobs but fact is we do love sport and we're quite good at it. We tend to be "quietly good" at things in this country (engineering, my field, is guilty of this. We have some of the finest engineers and engineering ability but we keep it very quiet) Maybe it's time we puffed our chests out as a nation and said "we are GREAT Britain and this is how we roll"
i think you could be right about the paras, certainly it will keep that party atmosphere going right into September. when does the premier league kick off again ? wonky, it's a great thread well done for kicking it off ( and it hasn't been ruined)
i built a new shed the other day. i'm pretty proud of it. sort of ties in with the olympics and engineering don't you think...
Develop your Shed building process and use it to produce top of the range "High-Reliability" sheds and this recession is history.
I remember in my last years of school which were over a decade ago there was hardly any inter class or house sports and I went to a school which prided itself on sports the rugby players Steve Thompson and Courtney Lawes both attended and also a lesser known Olympian in our sixth form. We had great PE lessons and opportunities to join sports teams, however there was very little in the way of competition we had an inter class sports day which was basically athletics, I was fortunate to be in the top set of PE but I often found kids that were **** at sports were actively discouraged rather then found a sport they could be good at. As for people being disadvantaged it's down to the parents and the atmosphere the kids are brought up in, a lot of lazy parents or unsporty parents won't encourage their kids to take sports. If it fails on that basis hopefully those kids have inspiring PE teachers and a decent network of friends who are into sports, also they hopefully have that self belief that you can be what want so long as you put in the effort and practice. Not going to get in a monarchy debate with you but it's their duty to attend these events if they don't it's a poor show.
Well said. This school PE debate really is an interesting one. It's not just the divide between private and state. It's the different schools. I went to both private and state schools. At my state school, there was a required number of hours of PE we had to do each week but we were split into sets. Despite my love of sport and eagerness to get involved I was put in the lower set due to my health problems meaning I wasn't really challenged. We also had a small choice of sports. But the teachers were dedicated and taught us well. Somehow I eneded up as the vice-captain of the school's after school swimming club. At my private school the teachers were just as dedicated but there was a much wider choice to choose from and it was completely up to us what we did. The less sporty people were able to avoid the sports they disliked like football and rugby and could play badminton instead. They still had a set number of hours of PE to do a week but there was a choice to do something else instead. Also, the teachers were far more accomodating to my health conditions and I felt I could challenge others more. We had inter-house competitions and inter-house sports day. I even ended up second to last (quite an achievement for me) in the inter-house cross country and the teachers were initially unsure about whether to include me, but they allowed me to choose and I took part. Now I'm at uni there is a lot less sport going on. There are very few sport clubs but the main one is rugby and I am banned from playing that due to my health conditions. The last couple of years I have been unable to participate in too much sport anyway but next year I hope to do a lot more cycling, as it's cambridge, swimming. My uni has the option to join socities at the other uni as well where the sports clubs are far more established so I intend on joining one or two of those next year.
These Olympic games will inspire a new generation to take up sports that will not have been on their radar before these games! Walking round where I live I have noticed many kids now out on bikes tearing down the street pretending to be Wiggo! If the poor bastards don't get mown down by a car I hope that they will continue to cycle. It's far better for them than loitering around the shopping arcades menacing people!
Our boxers look set for big succes as well which will create yet another group of winners to inspire the next generation and perhaps get them to join boxing clubs to use that medium to channel their aggression rather than ending up on the wrong side of the law. If just one kid avoids going to prison and uses the inspiration of our Olympic boxers to choose the right path in life then again it will have been a success. In 2004 17-year old Amir Khan was not the only GB medallist at the games, he was the only boxer in our entire squad!! Four years later we sent eight boxers, three of which came back with medals and this year we have a full squad of ten - including two women - and we've already guaranteed five medals with another one to possibly come tomorrow. That is absolutely incredible progress, on a par with that of our rowers and cyclists and surely is a product of the success of Khan in Athens inspiring kids to take up the noble art. James de Gale has said that he'd have definitely ended up in prison if he hadn't got into boxing, but instead he is the proud owner of an Olympic gold medal and well on the way to a promising professional career, perhaps even a world title. If that isn't inspirational and something to aim for then I don't know what is.
Interesting points there I've been through both education systems too but I only spent one year at private school due my parents work hours, it wasn't the biggest school but it was massive on sports due to it's size and likewise we were encouraged to play a variety of sports. I found with my state school experience we put a lot of emphasis on sports but it wasn't done in the right way, it was purely up to your teacher what sport was done so you'd have kids with zero agility doing gymnastics we also used to have a quarterly fitness test which usually involved running miles around a giant park or if you pissed off your PE Teacher we had to do the dreaded levels run which used to be so bad. I won't knock my school too much as the facilities were excellent, we had countless pitches, we had two gymnasiums and a swimming pool. PE needs to be tailored correctly if some kids struggling at a certain exercise then it's up to the teacher to help that kid discover a sport their good at. Parents need to take responsibility though and it's going to be difficult after a hard weeks work but showing some interest and enthuasm in their kids sporting interests. As Warky has pointed out hopefully the next generation realise that it's not all about the traditional sports! I'd love to see our leisure centres or empty spaces being used more for sports, leagues being set up, people in general being more active, because it's our time now...
Anthony Ogogo had trials at Norwich. Boxing has done superbly I feel it is a bit ignored at times for a 9.5 million investment we have 5 guaranteed medals, Stalker is to box later in the Welterweights for a bronze. Compare that to the swimming team who had an investment of 25 million.
though i agree that the swimmers didn't deliver to the extent hoped for, you have to remember that their investment is relatively new and hasn't really reached its ultimate stage as yet - not to mention that the competition in the swimming is far greater than anything the boxing has to contend with, as good as they've been
