The Rio Olympics

[strak33]

Including warm ups , range etc. A golfer would be outside on an old swamp for 30+ hours.

Even if they are using zika/health issues as an excuse i think its fine.

[arbboy]

Anyone else think the Olympics generally has lost it's spark and isn't anywhere near such a big deal in the sporting world as 30 years ago?  I am not remotely excited about it happening this year at all tbh.

i look forward to it, but athletics, swimming, rowing etc more than the multi-millionaire professional sports

i do think doping etc takes the gloss off the whole thing in many sports. we as a viewing audience are less naive and it doesn't have the corinthian feel of watching when we were younger....

Think they are factors but Athletics as a sport doesn't have anywhere near the profile it had 25 years ago before Sky sports came on board.  We are also saturated with top class sport on our screens on a weekly basis now whereas when we were kids there was no such thing. 

[atdc21]

Anyone else think the Olympics generally has lost it's spark and isn't anywhere near such a big deal in the sporting world as 30 years ago?  I am not remotely excited about it happening this year at all tbh.

Deffo, some of the sports seem ' boring ' now compared with the wealth/variety of sports available for our viewing.

[JohnCharver]

Yeah it's boring when gb actually win medals lets go back to the glory days of 20 years ago lol

[arbboy]

Yeah it's boring when gb actually win medals lets go back to the glory days of 20 years ago lol

 Yes watching ginger hold all 4 major medals at the same time whilst jumping distances that wouldn't have got him in finals 20 years ago is so exciting to watch.

[JohnCharver]

Yeah it's boring when gb actually win medals lets go back to the glory days of 20 years ago lol

 Yes watching ginger hold all 4 major medals at the same time whilst jumping distances that wouldn't have got him in finals 20 years ago is so exciting to watch.

He's a national treasure bud. Do you think winning is something the edge has been taken off by our success in lots of areas? We did just hold the last one so we are hardly going to be as excited and Brazil are hopeless at organising things. We are used to cheering flawed heroes vs big bad USA and Russia but lottery money has made us the dominating force in cycling, sailing etc. Is it a bit less special when we get gold now?

[teddybloat]

i've never been interested in athletics at all.

who can run faster, longer etc etc.

may as well issue gold medals for being the tallest or most symmetrical - its sport in the same way body building is a sport (still more of a sport than motor-racing, granted).

i know there are a lot of other sports, but if eg judo was interesting to watch it'd be watched outside of the olympics, innit

huge swerve for me.

[Skippy]

My reason for golf not being in the Olympics is that they already cost enough to host without the hassle of getting people to build a world class golf course. It's not like Archery where all you need is a patch of grass.

[Skippy]

i've never been interested in athletics at all.

who can run faster, longer etc etc.

may as well issue gold medals for being the tallest or most symmetrical - its sport in the same way body building is a sport (still more of a sport than motor-racing, granted).

i know there are a lot of other sports, but if eg judo was interesting to watch it'd be watched outside of the olympics, innit

huge swerve for me.

Winter Olympics > Summer Olympics imo.

[aaron1867]

i've never been interested in athletics at all.

who can run faster, longer etc etc.

may as well issue gold medals for being the tallest or most symmetrical - its sport in the same way body building is a sport (still more of a sport than motor-racing, granted).

i know there are a lot of other sports, but if eg judo was interesting to watch it'd be watched outside of the olympics, innit

huge swerve for me.

Every sport could be classed as boring, depending on many people's views. Who can run faster doesn't sound too exciting, but I suspect that people find people kicking a "bag of wind" on grass for 90 minutes or throw a ball in a net, just as boring.

It'll be something different, whilst there is a poor to schedule...

[vegaslover]

Have little interest nowadays tbh. Probs due to how much sport you can actually watch on a daily basis on sky.

Much prefer the winter Olympics tbh

[TightEnd]

Milos Raonic, the Wimbledon finalist, is out of the Olympics. The reason? The Zika virus.

Click to see full-size image.

[TightEnd]

a good look at UK Sport/lottery funding by sport and medal forecasts/requirements

Click to see full-size image.

[arbboy]

Amazing how much cash goes into posh boy sports from lottery money.  Sailing gets as much funding as Athletics!  gtfo!

[Jon MW]

Amazing how much cash goes into posh boy sports from lottery money.  Sailing gets as much funding as Athletics!  gtfo!

Some of the funding is related to success (I think) - the more success we've had in the past the more funding goes to keeping it up. Sports that start off with more money 'could' get an advantage from this; but I don't think it's the only criteria.