The Olympics - 2021

Just watching the highlights of the opening ceremony.    Not really sure of where our hopes lie for gold medals, but I’ll taken a guess at cycling.  Anyone have any ideas of where our chances lie?

Cycling is a bit of an unknown really.

There's only two 'road' races for men and women and I can't see us winning those Ganna of Italy (if he's there?) will be the man to beat on the Time Trial and I would imagine that it will be one of the big four (Pogacar and Roglic both Slovenia, Van Aert - dutch and van der Poel Belgium for the road race (which I think is being raced tonight (out time).

The dutch girls usually win the women's races.

I don't follow BMX and there's hardly been any indoor racing since Covid started so it's hard to know the form of anybody.

Some old names like Bolton's Jason Kenny and his wife Laura will be going for gold again - but of course they are another four/five years older than Rio.

Adam Peaty in swimming must be our standout hope for a gold or two and we usually pick up a few in rowing and sailing but I don't follow those sports either.

I think we will win a lot less fewer medals than the last two Olympics but it is all a bit random with Covid still around and I guess anything could happen.

Can't say I've caught the Olympic bug yet, maybe I'll get more into it as the days go by.

I love the Olympics but really haven't seen or heard much about it this year other than who has dropped out and won't be competing for one reason or another. Seems like it gets less coverage here in the US.

I also hate how the medals are reported here. If the US has most golds then it will just be a gold medal table shown. If they don't have most golds but have most gold, silver and bronze combined then they'll only show a most medals chart. However they can top the table is how they will report and it irritates the shit out of me.

i was up late last night watching some unusual sports, womens softball and skateboarding mixed in with rugby 7's and swimming.

We've had a good morning so far, 3 Gold medals 

Boris seems to be loving it!!!

Golds in the pool for Adam Peaty, Tom Daley and Matty Lee and another for mountain biker Tom Pidcock! What a fantastic day for @TeamGB and British sport! #TeamGB

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) July 26, 2021

To be fair though he was Mayor of London for the 2012 Olympics and we put on a good show both in the games themselves and the overall organisation which as a visitor to the games throughout that summer, were brilliant.

I've not seen any of it, and I'm very happy. Let me know when the leg shaving qualifiers start though.

Always good for a laugh. Did you know town planning used to be an Olympic sport?

boltonbonce wrote:I've not seen any of it, and I'm very happy. Let me know when the leg shaving qualifiers start though.

Always good for a laugh. Did you know town planning used to be an Olympic sport?

Me too, Boncey. I'd normally be glued to it but I can't work up any interest at all this time round.

I got my TV licence renewal recently. It says:

Please renew your licence and enjoy another year of great TV


Bullshit!!! The Beeb's just been getting worse with every year that passes and now they are threatening to send the boys round for 'customer care visits' to folk who've had enough of it.

I have been watching a bit live in the early hours, but the time difference to watch it live is the problem. We seem to be doing ok so far:

4 golds
5 silvers
1 bronze

Ten Bobsworth wrote:
Me too, Boncey. I'd normally be glued to it but I can't work up any interest at all this time round.

I got my TV licence renewal recently. It says:

Please renew your licence and enjoy another year of great TV


Bullshit!!! The Beeb's just been getting worse with every year that passes and now they are threatening to send the boys round for 'customer care visits' to folk who've had enough of it.

I think I can honestly say I could happily live without the BBC. Never in my life did I ever think those words would come out of my mouth.
Whatever the product, quality control is vital, and I'm afraid the BBC has lost the plot in that respect.
The tail, or 'talent' as they like to phrase it, is wagging the dog.

We keep fucking it in the taekwondo in the final seconds. 3 times now!

Vic is ticked off about certain 'sports'.

I watched the BMX cycling.

I quite enjoyed it because we did really well in it but I probably wouldn't have bothered in we didn't have medal chances.

It kind of seemed like The Hundred is to test match cricket if you compared BMX to the Tour de France, to me.

One builds over time and there is thought and strategy throughout, the other is 'crash, bang, wallop' and over in seconds.

Great fun to see the 'sixes' or cycle crashes but it is all kind of random and in the lap of the Gods rather than the best athlete or team, triumphing in the end.

Not to take anything away from the youngsters who won gold and silver but both the men's and woman's current number one rated cyclists crashed out in the semi-finals (the men's one even had enough points in the bag to be in the final - his lane was left empty).

Would they still have come first and second if those had been in the final - who knows.

You can only compete with those that are there and both youngsters did very well - obviously talented at their sport but as I say not for me thanks.

I enjoyed their success and I enjoyed the crashes - and I enjoy the randomness of cycling anyway - but this was all just a bit too random and luck of the draw for me.

i enjoyed the BMX and think its a good sport for the Olympics. At the other end of the scale is Dressage, what exactly is the point? Most boring sport i've ever seen.

Norpig wrote:i enjoyed the BMX and think its a good sport for the Olympics. At the other end of the scale is Dressage, what exactly is the point? Most boring sport i've ever seen.

I agree.

I guess dressage shows off the skills of training an animal but you might as well have a medal for sheepdog trails in that case!

I enjoyed the BMX but probably because we did well in it, if we had crashed out in the first round then I'm pretty sure I would have enjoyed it as much as I did.

I'm been following the boxing, I always do enjoy that but I can't and won't watch women box - I don't want to see that even if we win 100 gold medals in it.

I see our women's football team got knocked out - another overhyped sport imo.

I'm all for women playing football but adapt the game to their physique - make the pitch and goals proportionally shorter for a start if nothing else.

The rowing was a disaster - how can you 'forget' to steer the boat ffs!!!

I've been enjoying the swimming but I'm not sure I will get into the athletics, I can't think of anyone I really would like to win!

Maybe winning a few golds might perk up my interest but I doubt we are going to win many if any at all!

Cycling to look forward to but I've no idea if we will do good or bad, with Covid there's hardly been any meets to judge people against.

Fingers crossed we do well though.

I like Vic's idea of lawnmower racing. I'd watch that.

I have a used broom for sale - only used once, to sweep the Women's 100m Final. 

Keegan wrote:I have a used broom for sale - only used once, to sweep the Women's 100m Final. 

That was a record time too. Some talk about them not getting on, but I don't know the story behind it.

Keegan wrote:I have a used broom for sale - only used once, to sweep the Women's 100m Final. 

Well done Jamaica!

Jason Kenny - Wow!!!

Sluffy wrote:Jason Kenny - Wow!!!

Wow indeed. Absolutely brilliant.

Real losers are those who whinge in defeat. The real winners are those who are gracious win or lose and get up and go again when they have a setback.