Rio Olympics & Paralympics 2016 (Page 1 of 2)

Whilst I like the Olympics, this 'Team GB' thing is utter nonsense.  It's the UK competing not just England, Scotland & Wales which is what 'Great Britain' is.  We must not forget Northern Ireland who have athletes competing as part of 'Team GB'.  It is the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team and we should call it that or just United Kingdom'.

No offence intended, but our marketing & media people are getting more like the Americans every day. 

Most of it is good TV though.

More good news for Team GB & NI http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/rio … rn-ireland

.... and it is expected more medals to come today!!

Hi @johnreadon - i hear your point - but lets not get too hung up on what we call ourselves here - It's not why i started this subject,  OK?
I do however have my own views on either the name "Team GB" or "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland"
I'll just say...no comment, and move on.

I really don't care which is used I use UK when I'm in the States and on official documents, almost never us GB and NI at all. No biggee really.
To me it comes in the correct order. Yorkshire first, England second, then UK. But to settle it hopefully for once and all. It is inappropriate to refer to the United Kingdom as Great Britain or England. Remember, United Kingdom (or U.K.) is the country, Great Britain is the island, and England is one of the U.K.'s four administrative regions.
Yorkshire is just God's country so far more important. Hope this helps.
And getting back to the original by Brack, yes it's brilliant compelling awesome skills and efforts from all the team. Even with the good weather I keep getting drawn back to the tv.

You never know what you're going to learn next on this forum, do you?  I never knew that about GB, UK .... but to get back on track (not literally though)...

I am so, so impressed by the GB/UK performances.  Seeing Max Whitlock win not one but TWO gold medals in the gymnastics was a personal highlight, Andy Murray winning his second tennis gold was another, cheering on the brilliant, brilliant cyclists and rowers ... the list just gets longer and longer.  Forget all your £80 million transfer fees or whatever it was, these guys and girls give up so much to live, eat and breathe their sports, some with very little funding or recognition.  So it's very disappointing to see all these brand new sporting facilities in Rio half empty.  Maybe it's the ticket prices or simply other concerns that are keeping people away, but such a shame.

Watching when I can. Berlin focus is on the German performances which have been pretty good.
Loved watching the Brazilian win the gold in Pole Vault. Good for the home country.
Rick

It is good to see the country patting itself and the backs of the athletes for a job well done in Rio. The Paralympic team may even register similar performance.

So what put the gold into our efforts in, first London, and then Rio? Well....er...gold actually, financial gold, as in hard currency. Filthy lucre.

Strange, that as we have poured more money in, others have had to take it out and the results are there for all to see. Money wins........eventually. Cycling is a good example. While our cyclists have had a budget of 34 million since 2012, expert coaches and trainers, the mighty USA Team only has one full time staff member.

With a 5 million quid budget before the Atlanta games, Sports UK and Team GB had no chance of winning anything and pretty much didn't.

Between 2013 and then end of this year 350 million quid will have been invested in Olympic and Paralympic sport.

It has been a long time coming. For a few weeks every 4 years we can feel good about ourselves and our country and apparently it only costs every person 1.09 Pounds. I think it isn't a bad deal, especially when you consider these athletes are winning and competing at championships in between olympic games anyway.

We have the National Lottery to thank for this upturn in fortunes. Without it, the money would never have been available. It is a contentious issue to some. Such astronomical sums could be divided amongst even more deserving causes and charities, and that may, at some point in future have to happen. But for now, it doesn't hurt for the national morale to be boosted and that we can all take pride in the achievements of these athletes ( I do hope to God they are all clean).

But maybe it isn't all money. For if it was our national soccer teams would be similarly succesful. No, there is always of course, the magic ingredients of desire, ambition, sacrifice and dedication that it takes to be a champion............

and money can't buy those.................Footballers take note!

Got to watch quite a bit, I love it. My wife's cousin raced in the triathlon, she got 7th which is a good result considering she had a stomach bug.

What am I going to watch now it's all over ?!