James Box

Stephen Parry has beaten Phelps in the 200m butterfly Semi and is the fastest qualifier for the final, which is on tomorrow. Can't wait!

Taffyles

Why would you be? British athletes have virtually no help at all and they have precious few world class facilities to train. Hell they even have to run raffles and pass round a tin for donations to be able to make the trip to the Olympics alone. When I was an international athlete the only help we got from the country was a 1lb of cheese a week! Things have improved slightly since those days but not a lot. Any athlete who makes it to an Olympic final has achieved the impossible really- and those who win medals are phenomenal.
Uk has an abundance of talent but sadly, still, most of it is wasted as there are no programmes to spot talented kids and very very few facilities nationwide to train those who are found.
I remember Lynn Davies (from the welsh valleys) coming home after winning Gold with a world record in Tokyo- he was disgusted at the motorcade planned and receptions etc because when he was a college student struggling like hell financially to stay in athletics he went to the council for a grant or help and they turned him down. But when he won boy did they spend some money.

It amazes me that the UK has won as many medals as they have in the past- and we are often up there in the finals (which is a feat in itself).

Lottery money has been given to a few sports (like shooting) and immediately paid off in gold medals at the Sydney Olympics. A bit of help- even just building some Olympic sized pools and decent running tracks would make a huge difference.

The good side of all this though is that our athletes are relatively free from political interference- Prime Example was when the USA pulled out of the Moscow Olympics- the government pulled all the US athletes passports to make sure they didn't go. Maggie Thatcher asked our athletes not to attend- and they told her to sod off and went.

Yosser

valid point....I'm not bitter at the athletes, more the goverment. I trained with the GB windsurfing squad in the mid-90's, I just had to give up, couldn't afford the $$$, it wasn't how much talent you had, it was more "how much does your Daddy have in his wallet".

The most I ever got was a grant from The Princess Trust it was for £150.00, which bought me about 1/4 of a sail.

tinaflorida

Isn't this thread title an oxymoron?


*runs like hell*

doctor scrumpy

Least our athletes are not cheating bastards high on steroids & the like.

Ben

Thanks

jambo_2004

That's true...well except for Ben Johnson.
I say we force that ****** David Wilkie back in the pool for the next Olympics.
Dailey Thompson can get his arse back out there too, he's been milking the royalties from those computer games for too long.

rincewind

I think he looks a little out of shape now

Yorkieabroad

Don't want to cast undue aspersions, but didn't he eventually fade out under some dubious substance circumstances? Or was that someone else? It did seem a whole lot better a few years back with DT, Coe, Ovett and the other track guys, Fatima W and poor old Tessa S, Wilkie then Goodhew and Sharon davies in the pool, tony jacks in the judo and so on....where are todays heroes for todays kids to look up to?

Talking of cash for sports, didn't the Olympics used to be for amateur sportsmen only? Or am I talking out of my jacksy, not for the first time. If so, what are all those NBA buggers doing there? Good to see them get their a*rses kicked by PR the other day

And what cash incentives have our guys got for medals? In china at the mo, and their guys have been offered USD25k for gold, and lesser amounts for silver, bronze. Thats big wonga - especially here. And yesterday it was announced that they have upped it for one of the shooters to USD80k and more can be expected for the next few golds.

James Box

Isn't getting paid for wins the definition of being a professional? Does the IOC allow cash for medals?

Bob

Yeah, but it's China....the athletes ain't going to argue

Bob

Aye, the problem does seem to be at schools, and a lack of support. Had a mates brother who use to play tennis and beat Tim Henman all the time, but didn't have the money to take it up professionally, well he wanted to have a career with a bit more certainty

Brit'n'TX

ah ... those halcyon days of amateur sport ... those are long gone, my friend ..

we now have the likes of professional tennis players, NBA basketball stars, top professional cyclists, not to mention the amazing amounts any gold medallists will earn in sponsorship ...

I'm not daft enough to believe the good old days will ever return, but it was refreshing when the honour of representing your country was enough of a reward without expecting huge "appearance fees"

Manc

people also need to pay the bills too.

Lion in Winter

Actually, I saw an interesting program about this issue. In the time of the original Olympics there was no concept of the amateur athlete. Those who won events received huge quantities of money and other benefits - not as the immediate prize but afterwards from sponsors. They were also, paid and maintained to train full-time, which was the only way poor atheletes could get the chance to compete at this level. When the games were reinvented, the "amateur" stipulation was a class matter, so that only "gentlemen" (ie people with enough money to maintain themselves and train) could compete without competition from working class people. And of course, they did not train full time. Hang on, I'll see if I can find a link.

http://www.umkc.edu/imc/olympics.htm

Not the best, but the best I can find right now.