Just how good will the Olympics be?

[Delboy]

http://blog.perpetuelle.com/watches/yohan-blakes-watch-richard-mille/

Bolt doesnt run with his on though does he!

yes

[MintTrav]

http://blog.perpetuelle.com/watches/yohan-blakes-watch-richard-mille/

Bolt doesnt run with his on though does he!

yes

He looks younger with it on.

[kinboshi]

Yeah, from memory he appealed and they cut it short so they must've thought the original length was too heavy a penalty for the charge. 100m scene hasn't been clean since at least the 50's. I just enjoy the performances regardless. Would love to have seen Ben Johnson (cut off in his prime) v Bolt....

Second First offence should have been lifetime ban, but was reduced because he was "assisting" them.

Farce.

FYP

Oh, I agree in principle - but I was referring to the actual system in place. First time gets a ban of a determined period (e.g. 2 years), and if they're found guilty again the ban is then a lifetime one.

Gatlin escaped the lifetime ban through his "cooperation" with the authorities and instead it was reduced to 8 years. 6 years later he is on the podium receiving a bronze medal...

[Woodsey]

Had a day round London yesterday soaking up some of the atmosphere. Going to watch the triathlon today 

[Tal]

Fairly good chance we break the Beijing good record today: Hoy, Pendleton, Brownlee(s), Grabarz.

The office has changed all their display screens to BBCHD, which means I have a great view of this week's action, by working in an office standards anyway.

Have fun if you're there today.

Is it true that the stadium was designed to be the loudest ever?

[TightEnd]

Is it true that the stadium was designed to be the loudest ever?

this is true, though they realised their colossal mistake when claypole turned up and they realised the acoustics actually needed no amplification at all.

[shedboymuff]

Fairly good chance we break the Beijing good record today: Hoy, Pendleton, Brownlee(s), Grabarz.

The office has changed all their display screens to BBCHD, which means I have a great view of this week's action, by working in an office standards anyway.

Have fun if you're there today.

Is it true that the stadium was designed to be the loudest ever?

Laura Trott got great chance also

[The Camel]

Couple of interesting articles on the BBC website:

How much does a medal cost?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19144983

All your questions answered:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19047586


Most interested in people's views on article one.

While Team GBs success has been stunning in Rowing and Cycling, as pretty exclusive sports do they really justify more funding than the most accessible to sport for everyone - Athletics?

Sailing seems way overfunded too imo.

EDIT: My real question is: should lottery money go on the relentless pursuit of gold medals or should the money go on making young people in general more interested in and more likely to participate in sport?

I'd rather spend £500k on buying 10,000 kids a pair of decent running shoes than buying Ben Ainslie a new yacht.

[neeko]

Couple of interesting articles on the BBC website:

How much does a medal cost?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19144983

All your questions answered:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19047586


Most interested in people's views on article one.

While Team GBs success has been stunning in Rowing and Cycling, as pretty exclusive sports do they really justify more funding than the most accessible to sport for everyone - Athletics?

Sailing seems way overfunded too imo.

Depends how cynical you are - if the policy was to buy as many medals as possible then concentrating on events that have  large financial costs in bringing a team together - thus excluding most of the world as competitors then it is a huge success. Lots of gold medals = worth having the games in the uk.

Given we talked a lot about the inclusively of the games and broadening participation, and given that talk is usually inversely proportionate to action then I guess we are not worried about the lack of athletes, in the real world kids want to be footballers not 3000m steeplechasers.

[AndrewT]

Without extra funding, the exclusive sports are always going to remain exclusive. To get rowers from non-posh backgrounds you have to go to state schools to find them, and that costs money. Sailing is obv not going to be cheap - those boats are expensive.

We've still spent less on the Olympic funding than Man City have on players in the past few years.

[TightEnd]

It can happen, Anna Watkins' Mum responded to a Sport England asking for tall girls, Kat Copeland was introduced to Tees rowing by a friend and was "useless"

Basically though lots of lottery funding has enabled athletes to train full time, pay coaches full time and that added to talent and in some cases background (enabling some of the guys to row or sail from an early age) has led to a transformation in medals across some of these sports

[TightEnd]

Meanwhile

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/07/christian_sites_ban_on_g_word.html

[TightEnd]

I think also, does lottery funding not rise or fall from one games to the next per sport according to success achieved

So for a sport like cycling, initial success leads to £ up leads to more success....its self sustaining

For swimming, fewer medals in 2012 leads to a cut for 2016 funding?

A shooting gold medal meanwhile transforms the £2.5m budget, I think, upwards for Rio 

[Acidmouse]

good start for the Brownlee brothers, pack broke away after the swim.

[TightEnd]

Colin Jackson's athletics punditry really grinds my gears. By far the worst of the athletics comentators and pundits

Discuss.