cockney pommy

aahhhh but do you realise that about 3 times more aussies actually play sport? regardless of the population difference?
in that respect the poms have kicked their asses

Wilgar

I think all this back biting is missing the point of the Olympics.The Brits have done brilliantly and should be congratulated for their immense efforts.Ditto the Aussies, Chinese,Russians, Germans etc right down to Team Togo. What an effort and obviously the best athletes won. Most of us will never get as far. End of story.
Enjoy the closing ceremony this eve.

Hutch

Tell you what - this is going to piss the Aussies off.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7578555.stm

The honours system will recognise the achievements of Britain's successful Olympic team, Gordon Brown has said. Mr Brown suggested Britain's medal winners, including Scotland's triple gold medal-winning cyclist Chris Hoy, and double gold-winning swimmer Rebecca Adlington, would receive honours. He told the BBC: "It is not for me to make these decisions but there have been such spectacular successes that the honours system is bound to recognise them and will do."

moneypenny20

So why have I heard the British National Anthem a few times then? I'm obviously watching different TV from you. I've watched stacks of these olympics and yes, guess what, the commentators get loud, excited and proud when the Aussies are doing well. However, many many times over the past two weeks I've heard the commentators get just as excited over the victories and sheer skills of other nations and that includes the Brits.

If you're (general) looking for national slurs I guess you'll find them, if you're listening with an open mind I think you'll hear different stuff. Just my opinion, don't expect a lot on here to agree, after all it's much more fun to take the piss.

I don't read the newspapers so I've missed the jingoisms. I imagine the UK tabloids are stacked full of British jingoism but then I'm not reading them either.

cockney pommy

what i really want to see is the boxing gold they got, but it hasn't been shown yet(it's only 12 minutes duration)
fingers crossed they will show it
i hope your right cos the only gold i saw was when an aussie got silver in the same event

moneypenny20

I understanding wanting to see British golds being won, but would you expect to see Australian golds being won in Britain if Britain weren't involved? I think the main reason you've always seen lots of other nations winning golds on British TV in the past was because Britain were so useless because of no funding. This year and hopefully 2012 etc there will be far less other nations being shown because of them having more British medals.

Don't know if that makes sense, it's sort of how it came out of my brain

Hutch

That they are - pissing and whining about cheating Russians and Germans amongst other things.

moneypenny20

And I'm sure The Sun is coming out with some really 'clever' headlines No doubt Hitler and Stalin's faces are fairly prominent

St.Georges Girl

Britain were far from 'useless' in any games. Remember Steve Ovett, Seb Coe, Linford Christie, Daley Thompson, Kelly Holmes? I could go on as well. I have to say that I have watched quite a lot of this Olympic games and not once have I heard the British Anthem being played. Maybe they show different things in different states?

PS. That's not to say that I don't get a tear in my eye when I see any nation up their on the podium, because I do. I just love sport.

Hutch

I went round to my mum's for tea yesterday and, as always, she was glued to the 'lympics. I was watching it (I haven't seen much of it believe me) and two things caught my attention. First - they have little red remote control cars for returning the thrown javelins to the staging area which is, frankly, genius. Secondly - it didn't matter who won a particular contest - the predominantly Chinese audience stood for their national anthem. So I asked my mum if the Australians and Greeks had shown similar respect and she said no, most people mainly got up to go for a piss or became suddenly engrossed in their mobile phones. Will be interesting to see what happens in London in four years time.

moneypenny20

I could as well but those (and others) athletes were more the exception than the rule - the quality rising above the lack of funding.

cockney pommy

i never heard the anthem either(exept victoria pendletons, cos an aussie won the silver), i did however see countless re runs of australian gold medals
the most gracious thing i saw though was when they actually showed(sbs), the brit boxer win a gold, although they only showed the last 1 and a half rounds (to make way for 1 hour of handball with no aussies involved - kind of makes you a bit suspicious eh?)
the anthem on the other hand was totally ignored

cockney pommy

i must say however that i felt really good for the young aussie who won the gold in the diving

St.Georges Girl

Did you know that the Chinese were told to do that? No, ordered to do that. Even so, it was good to see and I did enjoy last nights closing ceremony.

I don't think they were the exception. Every good sporting country has their 'off' years, including Australia.

cockney pommy

yes look at the americans who kept dropping the baton in the relays, and stepping in the wrong lanes
the relays were a big disappointment in athletics