Rio Olympic Games 2016

[Jon Crofts]

If you take out their two main sports from GB and USA then you end up with GB winning 18 golds against USA 14 golds

Yes, the British spread across different events is incredibly impressive.

I've just read that Britain will officially finish ahead of China in second place. That's absolutely nuts.

Yep an unassailable lead over China, bonkers.

[TopDeck113]

Delighted as I am with the achievements of British athletes, I'm finding the obsession with the medal table just a little bit disconcerting.  I don't recall the same focus when we weren't winning anything but a handful of medals in the Olympiads of the late twentieth century. 

I've had a family member post on Facebook, "...just surprised no one seems to be suggesting joining up with 27 other European nations as a super team to ensure our future success..." To which my response was:

(1) Now there's an idea as to how to catch the runaway leaders who are a federation of fifty states with a single currency.

(2) Who are you going to follow in next month's Ryder Cup?

(3) Now that we've supposedly got our country back, how do you feel about celebrating the "British" gold medal success of, amongst others, on the athletics track a Somalian refugee based in Oregon, in the velodrome cyclists who were Belgium-born (with an Australian father) and German-born (with a German-mother), and on the rowing lake a men's coxless four that contained the sons of Moroccan and Greek fathers (coached by a German)?

I've yet to get a response.

[spangley1812]

All the highlights are on BBC1 from 8.00pm tonight

[four fornicholl]

Good luck Joe. This is going to be good.

[Villa in Denmark]

It's coming home,
It's coming home,
Handball's coming home.

I'd be impressed if I knew the rules.

Although beating France who apparently had won the last 10 Olympic/European/World championships sounds quite good.

[PaulWinch again]

That French bloke stole that and he appears to be a cock.

[LeeS]

That French bloke stole that and he appears to be a cock.

It's hardly a surprise. Aren't all boxing judges either blind or corrupt?

[Villa in Denmark]

Delighted as I am with the achievements of British athletes, I'm finding the obsession with the medal table just a little bit disconcerting.  I don't recall the same focus when we weren't winning anything but a handful of medals in the Olympiads of the late twentieth century. 

I agree. I can just about remember Montreal in '76 and clearly remember Moscow in '80 and can't remember anything of that nature until Seoul in '88, where after, with each passing Olympiad  it's become an almost pernicious yardstick for whether it was worth turning up.

Everything in life is reduced to a business analyst's ROI and ROCE metrics  these days, including human life itself.

As for the impressive medal haul itself, an effect in partsof so many Russians (quite rightly) missing?

[Whiney MacWhineface]

I remember the medal table being rammed into our faces every Olympics back to 1960:

USA 1,000
USSR 999
East Germany 50
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.
.
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.
.
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GB  2 Gold, 3 Silvers (due to cheating judges), 5 (plucky) bronzes

[paul_e]

Yeah, I remember the medal table being a source of shame in 96.  I don't see a problem with celebrating it, remember what it really represents is that we have absolutely mastery of 1 sport (track cycling) but more importantly we have found a formula to achieve success in a vast number of events.  Being proud of that is perfectly reasonable.  What we need to start looking at now is finding ways to improve in the sports/areas where we've failed or at least not had much success.  We've done very little in field athletics for example.

[Jon Crofts]

Boxing judges are a fucking disgrace to the games.

[ACVilla]

We've done very little in field athletics for example.

Agreed, I love watching field athletics. Oh for the glorious failures of Dalton Grant and Steve Backley. And the perennial eigth place for Mick Hill.

Does anyone know what happened to Steve Lewis?

[Jon Crofts]

We've done very little in field athletics for example.

Agreed, I love watching field athletics. Oh for the glorious failures of Dalton Grant and Steve Backley. And the perennial eigth place for Mick Hill.

Does anyone know what happened to Steve Lewis?

The American sprinter?  I vaguely remember him in Seoul I think.

[ACVilla]

We've done very little in field athletics for example.

Agreed, I love watching field athletics. Oh for the glorious failures of Dalton Grant and Steve Backley. And the perennial eigth place for Mick Hill.

Does anyone know what happened to Steve Lewis?

The American sprinter?  I vaguely remember him in Seoul I think.

GB pole vaulter, looked very good at one point.

Carl Lewis is no better than Ben Johnson.

[Exeter 77]

We've done very little in field athletics for example.

Agreed, I love watching field athletics. Oh for the glorious failures of Dalton Grant and Steve Backley. And the perennial eigth place for Mick Hill.

Does anyone know what happened to Steve Lewis?

According to Wikipedia he finished 29th at the World Championships last year.