Just how good will the Olympics be?

[Jon MW]

Back to the investment figures The Camel put on the thread...

GB Swimming will have to answer questions of its relative return at these Games, when you consider the lottery funding thrown at it?

three medals, is this simply down to less talent, or can we add relatively poor administration/coaching (compared to cycling/rowing etc) to the problem here?

Many of the swimmers not only did not swim PBs, but actually swam slower than they did in the trials back in March. That means it's either a psychological thing at not dealing with pressure/big crowd or their training plans were not right so they peaked at the wrong time.

Either way, questions have to be asked at the organisation.

GB swimming is so far behind the US system. American swimmers collegiate racing, sets them up to compete under pressure.

No regular competitive team swimming, just meaningless club meets where the best are rarely tested.

British coaches do not teach youngsters the latest techniques. The world's best will have sound techniques at 15/16, GB swimmers are still catching up.

GB swimmers, with a few exceptions, cracked under home crowd pressure. This was a known possibility, but coaches didn't address the psychology. Cycling & Rowing know how to get an athlete performing, not only physically but mentally.

The GB swim team are actually a tight-nit, friendly bunch of guys & girls. I think they fell into the trap of supporting each other, & not enough thought & preparation into their own performances. You need to be selfish in many ways if you want to be an elite athlete in an individual sport.

I think Tonji gets it about right - not so sure if the supporting each other does hinder them. But despite all the extra money most of GB's success still comes from individuals having the commitment and natural talent to compete at the world level. The actual sporting set up of the sport doesn't seem to 'add' anything to it. And it starts at the grass roots, just simple things like having the 50m pools in the country actually open as 50m pools rather than almost always been closed off at 25m with a boom (which is what they spend most of their time as) would get the bottom rung more used to the long course at an earlier age and at an earlier stage of their swimming career (I don't know much technical stuff but I've seen that commented on by coaches before).

To put the medals in to context. In Beijing we got 3 in open water and 3 in the pool - and our target was 3 medals.
One of the people in the pool and 2 in open water were out of contention in this games so it's already down to 1 and 2 if we stayed at the same level. But obviously that's the problem - with all that money, they really shouldn't be staying still. A swimming Brailsford would be handy, so to speak

[redarmi]

I would love to know more about Dave Brailsford.  To a medalist they all spoke about the team and how much they all contributed to their success and it is Brailsford that is responsible for that team.  It seems to be that so much of our success in cycling comes down to him and Shane Sutton.  They have done an amazing job.

[Doobs]

Back to the investment figures The Camel put on the thread...

GB Swimming will have to answer questions of its relative return at these Games, when you consider the lottery funding thrown at it?

three medals, is this simply down to less talent, or can we add relatively poor administration/coaching (compared to cycling/rowing etc) to the problem here?

Many of the swimmers not only did not swim PBs, but actually swam slower than they did in the trials back in March. That means it's either a psychological thing at not dealing with pressure/big crowd or their training plans were not right so they peaked at the wrong time.

Either way, questions have to be asked at the organisation.

GB swimming is so far behind the US system. American swimmers collegiate racing, sets them up to compete under pressure.

No regular competitive team swimming, just meaningless club meets where the best are rarely tested.

British coaches do not teach youngsters the latest techniques. The world's best will have sound techniques at 15/16, GB swimmers are still catching up.

GB swimmers, with a few exceptions, cracked under home crowd pressure. This was a known possibility, but coaches didn't address the psychology. Cycling & Rowing know how to get an athlete performing, not only physically but mentally.

The GB swim team are actually a tight-nit, friendly bunch of guys & girls. I think they fell into the trap of supporting each other, & not enough thought & preparation into their own performances. You need to be selfish in many ways if you want to be an elite athlete in an individual sport.

I think Tonji gets it about right - not so sure if the supporting each other does hinder them. But despite all the extra money most of GB's success still comes from individuals having the commitment and natural talent to compete at the world level. The actual sporting set up of the sport doesn't seem to 'add' anything to it. And it starts at the grass roots, just simple things like having the 50m pools in the country actually open as 50m pools rather than almost always been closed off at 25m with a boom (which is what they spend most of their time as) would get the bottom rung more used to the long course at an earlier age and at an earlier stage of their swimming career (I don't know much technical stuff but I've seen that commented on by coaches before).

To put the medals in to context. In Beijing we got 3 in open water and 3 in the pool - and our target was 3 medals.
One of the people in the pool and 2 in open water were out of contention in this games so it's already down to 1 and 2 if we stayed at the same level. But obviously that's the problem - with all that money, they really shouldn't be staying still. A swimming Brailsford would be handy, so to speak

I think you fellas should realise your glass is nearly full and not nearly empty.  

Randomness suggests that even if we have an enormously succesful olympics, we were pretty much bound to underachieve somewhere.  It so happened that we did it in swimming.  

I think you should all just move on, there is nothing to see here.



  

[The Camel]

I would love to know more about Dave Brailsford.  To a medalist they all spoke about the team and how much they all contributed to their success and it is Brailsford that is responsible for that team.  It seems to be that so much of our success in cycling comes down to him and Shane Sutton.  They have done an amazing job.

Interesting article http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19174302

[Woodsey]

Back to the investment figures The Camel put on the thread...

GB Swimming will have to answer questions of its relative return at these Games, when you consider the lottery funding thrown at it?

three medals, is this simply down to less talent, or can we add relatively poor administration/coaching (compared to cycling/rowing etc) to the problem here?

Many of the swimmers not only did not swim PBs, but actually swam slower than they did in the trials back in March. That means it's either a psychological thing at not dealing with pressure/big crowd or their training plans were not right so they peaked at the wrong time.

Either way, questions have to be asked at the organisation.

GB swimming is so far behind the US system. American swimmers collegiate racing, sets them up to compete under pressure.

No regular competitive team swimming, just meaningless club meets where the best are rarely tested.

British coaches do not teach youngsters the latest techniques. The world's best will have sound techniques at 15/16, GB swimmers are still catching up.

GB swimmers, with a few exceptions, cracked under home crowd pressure. This was a known possibility, but coaches didn't address the psychology. Cycling & Rowing know how to get an athlete performing, not only physically but mentally.

The GB swim team are actually a tight-nit, friendly bunch of guys & girls. I think they fell into the trap of supporting each other, & not enough thought & preparation into their own performances. You need to be selfish in many ways if you want to be an elite athlete in an individual sport.

I think Tonji gets it about right - not so sure if the supporting each other does hinder them. But despite all the extra money most of GB's success still comes from individuals having the commitment and natural talent to compete at the world level. The actual sporting set up of the sport doesn't seem to 'add' anything to it. And it starts at the grass roots, just simple things like having the 50m pools in the country actually open as 50m pools rather than almost always been closed off at 25m with a boom (which is what they spend most of their time as) would get the bottom rung more used to the long course at an earlier age and at an earlier stage of their swimming career (I don't know much technical stuff but I've seen that commented on by coaches before).

To put the medals in to context. In Beijing we got 3 in open water and 3 in the pool - and our target was 3 medals.
One of the people in the pool and 2 in open water were out of contention in this games so it's already down to 1 and 2 if we stayed at the same level. But obviously that's the problem - with all that money, they really shouldn't be staying still. A swimming Brailsford would be handy, so to speak

I think you fellas should realise your glass is nearly full and not nearly empty.  

Randomness suggests that even if we have an enormously succesful olympics, we were pretty much bound to underachieve somewhere.  It so happened that we did it in swimming.  

I think you should all just move on, there is nothing to see here.

Moaners have to find a place to moan though, that is just life I'm afraid 

[Acidmouse]

The swimmers did pretty well in terms of getting to the finals, compared to Sydney there only what 1-2 actually finalled? I think we had like 10-12 finalling swimmers this time, sadly none stepped up. Defo something to do with the coaching setup.

[kinboshi]

Sarah Stevenson goes in the taekwondo today:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19190722

Such a sad story, with both her parents dying over the past 18 months. She said that it puts the Olympics and winning medals into perspective.

[TightEnd]

Funking for her, the family have brought pictures of both parents into the arena with them.

[kinboshi]

Funking for her, the family have brought pictures of both parents into the arena with them.

Going to be a lot of tears all round if she goes on to win.

[claypole]

I'm funking hard now - gooo on Sarah

[kinboshi]

WTF?

[claypole]

Looks like all a bit much for her - feel for her

[kinboshi]

[Tal]

Not this guy's fault but hard to funk for him.

[kinboshi]

The world number 57, Lutalo Muhammad, who is in the team at the expense of Aaron Cook (the world number 1) goes up now...