Olympic fever has well and truly taken a grip..............

A few minutes ago, at 10.55am UK time, the BBC Sport website's live Olympic diary published the word 'piddling'...........

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19083390

Why did we not have anybody for the 20km walk?

We did. He was patiently queueing at the back of the start line. It was over before he started.

.... and here we are, almost one-third of the way into the women's marathon, and the plucky Brit girls are 45th and 65th........ the third one dropped out after only 5km.........

I'm ashamed to be British......... we're useless........... we never win any medals at anything......... etc........ etc.............

Is that the stupid bum-wiggling event where they all look desperate for the loo? Who'd want to do that?

I don't know, maybe countries who have had a really crap Olympics (like, say, maybe UK after Atlanta??) and realise that they will rarely be able to compete in the marquee events any more and so set about identifying some more obscure ones to focus on (like, say, a multitude of bizarre cycling and rowing events) that they can then dominate? Third place in the medals table didn't happen by accident.

I'm just sayin'......

Synchronised swimming today............

Team GB will include Jenna Randall............

You are correct. There was certainly a shift in focus and British cycling's domination of the world scene (now on the road as well as the track) is not by accident. I think after Atlanta, we had to start again, identify potential area's and focus from the grass routes up. Cycling is an example of unmitigated success as is (i bloody hope tomorrow, Triathlon, where we have the 2 best Olympic distance triathlete's in the world, the world record holder and Ironman female world champion Chrissy Wellington who has never been beaten)

Rowing has always been a very British sport though has it not?

British Athletics are working on the grass routes level in all sports, who is to say that there isn't a 10 year old who is the new 'Bolt' at an amateur Athletics club in Brentford being nurtured and developed....fingers crossed.

As a nation we have had success in most sports over the years..Christie, Coe, Cram, Ovette, Sanderson, Edwards, Whitbread, Thomson, Redgrave, Hoy..

We are a bloody small country per capita so i think we bloody do well

Agreed about the focus strategy being correct and brilliantly executed. Also agreed about GB outperforming but on that scale surely Jamaica (population: 3million) and other Caribbean nations must be the exemplars, especially as they are doing it in the highest profile events. This is, after all, the second Olympics running where Jamaica is totally dominating the sprint medals, men's and women's (arguably Jamaica's rise goes all the way back to Linford Christie in '92 and Donovan Bailey in '96 and the perennial great nearly-woman, Merlene Ottey-Page). The Economist had a chart during the last Olympics (or maybe the one before) showing medals per population and medals per GDP. If I recall Bahamas was number 1 on both tables.

On the cycling, I am still a bit mystified about Britain's dramatically sudden rise to prominence. Road cycling has been a huge sport across much of Europe for decades. It has been a minority sport at best in the UK. The fact that Bradley Wiggins was the first British winner of the Tour de France illustrates the point - even my little country (Ireland - population 4 million) has had a TdF winner and a few others who have contended over the years. Perhaps Team GB has filled the vacuum resulting from the big drop in popularity of cycling in Europe since the 1990's following all the doping scandals. But still, from where did all this UK cycling excellence spring so quickly?

We applied our world class F1 engineering practices to the sport - and invested heavily when others did not.

Personally, I think it's great. Cycling is a great sport.

You are spot on in my opinion about Jamaica..I think its a lot to do with genetics and tradition...These guys are simply born to be sprinters. They have the gene's and in a country that sporting wise isnt really on the map for anything else, the focus is 100% on making the next 100 or 200m champion...they dont really do very well at swimming or rowing or cycling or infact anything apart from sprinting.

Cycling for me is down to investment and a vision. I totally agree with you, Sky have filled a vacuum left after the doping scandals.

Not only has Dave Brailsford put British cycling on the map, he has (fingers crossed this doesnt come back to haunt me) shown all the doubters that you can, through hard work, dedication and the best training facilities in the world CLEANLY dominate a sport tarnished by cheats.

Even for non-cyclists, there is something romantic about the TdF. Not a lot of people actually understand the tactics and what is going on during the stages, but i think anyone who has watched a stage on Galibier or Alpe D'Huez cannot fail to recognise the absolute passion and dedication and synchronisation of man and machine..

Yet, this public affection was in general lost after the Festina and Op Puerto scandals..

Well thanks to team sky, its back!!

my favourite Phil Liggett moment 1987..."and just who is that rider coming up behind, because that looks like Roche!. That looks like Steven Roche!! IT'S STEVEN ROCHE COME OVER THE LINE..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQojh-wqL04

If Yorkshire were a country, they would be 7th in the medal table, above SA and Aus.

What do you mean "if"? It is. God's own country.

Thanks a million for that Commander. I can't believe I welled up a bit remembering Rocci's annus mirablis and Irish cycling's all-too-brief golden age in the mid-'80s (a lesson for the UK there perhaps?). Pity it turns out that the oxygen wasn't the only thing Rocci was taking... He now occupies a position in the annals of Irish sport somewhere slightly above Michelle Smith (or Michelle de Bruin as she is now always described on the few occasions her name ever crops up in the Irish media even though she was married to the same bloke when she won the medals).

Funny also then over the last week to hear Paul Kimmage do commentary and analysis on the cycling for Al Jazeera!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1IS...layer_embedded

apologies if this has been posted but this for me cements the future of GB sport.

Ok, he shouldnt swear on Sky but what the hell, he is speaking so much sense.