I think the mixed relay events are genius. What took them so long?
That said, I watch as little sport as I can get away with except equestrian events (not horse racing). Happy to let others get on with it all but don't want it rammed down my throat for weeks with only dross and repeats as alternative TV offerings. Good job I have other interests and calls upon my time.
I think @Dovefromabove is right about structures within sporting competition enabling more diverse people to take part but I also agree with @pansyface that the whole thing about being better or best can be damaging for the less sportily gifted and even more so, it seems, for the exceptionally gifted reeling under the pressure of high expectations and no longer enjoying the sport itself.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I feel that I should point out here that I am not, in any way, sportily gifted ... always last to be picked for a team, plodded around the field behind all the others in my school class, a damaged wrist meant that I had no chance of being good at tennis in my teens although I loved playing it, rubbish at hockey, too heavy to jump effectively ... I might have been good at shot put ... but my school didn't do it ... I had wanted to do fencing but it meant staying after school and there were no buses to my village and Pa couldn't leave the farm ........ but my son was good at 100m in his teens and competed for a local club, and I enjoyed watching him and others compete ......... and I still do
I knew I was rubbish at sporty stuff ....... but I also knew that most of those who were good at it were absolutely no good at the creative stuff I was good at ... that's life.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
'...I think @Dovefromabove is right about structures within sporting competition enabling more diverse people to take part but I also agree with @pansyface
that the whole thing about being better or best can be damaging for the
less sportily gifted and even more so, it seems, for the exceptionally
gifted reeling under the pressure of high expectations and no longer
enjoying the sport itself.....'
But this is the Olympics. It is elite. It is for those who love sport and want to compete at the top level. No one has forced anyone to enter. They all choose to take part. It's not like school where you had to do PE. This isn't about being less gifted. They are all there because they are gifted - and someone has to come 4th in a race of more than 3. There is no disgrace in coming last in any race - it's the other way round, it's a bonus to come in the top 3 - especially as to get to the Olympics each competitor has incurred untold hardship anyway.
I would like to know though, how many kids go down the sport route because of parental pressure - and miss out on a normal kids childhood due to all the training. When you see kids of 14/15/16 and realise they've been training since they were tots, it makes you wonder. But I haven't seen many competitors complain too much about that.
Once upon a time, I played hockey, and if I say so myself, played it very well [ up to international level ] I was a candidate [ shoe in imo for a place in the GB Olympic squad ], but my career intervened. Still the biggest regret of my life, not putting my career on hold.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
It was like that doc in the women's pairs in rowing - how on earth did she fit in the time to train and deal with a covid pandemic? And her partner in the boat...just amazing. Some incredible stories of how some of the athletes struggled to just get to the Olympics eh?
Why do we ever split the genders then? I could have a best football team made of 6 men and 5 women or 7 women and 4 men or....choose a gender number combinbation. Why not have 60kg men fighting 60kg women in boxing? Why not have a relay race with 3 men, 1 woman? Or 3 women, 1 man? Or whatever combination? Why not have mixed 8's in rowing? What combinations could you get from 8? 4/4/, 5/3, 6/2, 7/1?
Not sure what that has to do with mixed teams. I'm all for more women's teams. I've just heard that the mixed events are for 'gender balance' - why not then have more women's events? Why fudge it?
For goodness sake … men and women live on the same planet and do lots of stuff together … why not athletics? No one’s saying mix it all up …. just do some new/different things. It’s not earth shattering … not for most folk anyway. 🤪
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
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That said, I watch as little sport as I can get away with except equestrian events (not horse racing). Happy to let others get on with it all but don't want it rammed down my throat for weeks with only dross and repeats as alternative TV offerings. Good job I have other interests and calls upon my time.
I think @Dovefromabove is right about structures within sporting competition enabling more diverse people to take part but I also agree with @pansyface that the whole thing about being better or best can be damaging for the less sportily gifted and even more so, it seems, for the exceptionally gifted reeling under the pressure of high expectations and no longer enjoying the sport itself.
I knew I was rubbish at sporty stuff ....... but I also knew that most of those who were good at it were absolutely no good at the creative stuff I was good at ... that's life.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.