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BC wrote: I don't want to sound like a kill joy here but these Olympics have been a fiasco from start to finish both in terms of results for Australia but also organisationally. From unfinished athlete accommodation to muggings, green pools, armed holdups, riots by locals and the list goes on. The IOC should look long and hard at awarding Olympics to non first world countries as clearly some don't have the capacity to stage them.

This has been the worst all round Olympics in my life time BC. If not for the performances of all time greats like Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Mo Farah it would have been completely forgettable even for a sports fanatic like myself.

anchorman wrote: Where does Ron Clarke fit in the chokers category Grassy!!!!!Remember him?
We are very harsh on our athletes.Actually getting to swim in the races with the other best six swimmers in the world is no mean feat.

Bit rough on Ron Clarke.

He was never a big stage runner as can be seen by his results in the Olympic and Empire games.

Down the track this was found to be a result of his low Systolic/Diastolic heart rates meaning he couldn’t get excited enough to push testosterone/hormones thru his body. His resting heart rate (systolic) was 20 with bpm @ 35. The average person beats per minute are 60 to a 100.

He always called Mexico City the Altitude games and declared the IOC were idiots in holding races 1500m and over there.

He suffered heart complications, said to be caused by Mexico City which shortened his life by 5 to 10 years.

Britain on track for another big haul tonight...

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/15/get-...gets-six-gold-medal/

BC wrote: I don't want to sound like a kill joy here but these Olympics have been a fiasco from start to finish both in terms of results for Australia but also organisationally. From unfinished athlete accommodation to muggings, green pools, armed holdups, riots by locals and the list goes on. The IOC should look long and hard at awarding Olympics to non first world countries as clearly some don't have the capacity to stage them.

I agree mate the biggest disappointment for me has been the empty venues, ticketing was poorly organised and priced, London was outstanding crowds wise and atmosphere and the organisation, venue quality, accommodation and safety were miles ahead of Rio,

Rio s games coincided with the collapse of the economy, hopeless corrupt govt. sacked president and general collapse in law and order, if they ever had any.

But the biggest fiasco as been our performance..

I was watching BBC World yesterday and apparently there is a lot of angst in Germany about that nations poor performance, they dropped funding hugely about 8 yrs ago and directed it to social services and the results have suffered.

BC wrote: I don't disagree AR...I was in Qatar in May and the place is a desolate sand pit. Not only that, they enforce sharia law to a large extent so that females need to cover up and getting a drink is problematic at best and very expensive as a result. I can just see rampant pommy soccer fans being denied a pint on a 45 degree day....it'll be chaos. the only redeeming feature is that the Qataris are cashed up so hopefully we won't see the inferior facilities currently being experienced in Rio.

Awarding Qatar was outright corruption , we know that, no one in their right mind would award to a stupidly inappropriate host nation like that in a million years.

Super hot, no venues, no local hospitality, sharia law, etc...

My guess BC is that games will be played in front of largely empty stands, very few will bother making the journey to a dive live that.

I've started to enjoy the games much more once I accepted that we aren't going to perform to rankings expectations.

Just watching athletes perform for their talent rather than barracking.

The true champions don't slip up often. If they lose it's because an opponent pulled something out of the hat.

Really enjoyed the women's discus. Superb effort by the Polish woman and the Australian delivered under pressure which has been rare for us this tournament.

The African runners are marvels. Van Niekerk is going to be one of the greats.

Enjoy seeing some of the lesser profile nations win. The pole vault was great and that Brazilian kid will be a hero for life for winning a rare gold for his country.

Going back a bit the effort of that country Vic girl to win the gold in the shooting was pretty good considering she wasn't ranked as a chance. Then, several times when she called for the clay target to be pulled, there was a malfunction. It only happened to her. Nobody else. Then to miss two early targets in the final and to come back and win was great viewing.

Those Asian's must have amazing reflexes. I quite liked the table tennis and they play it damn well.

But yeah, Australia needs to take stock and needs to take action now. It shouldn't be that we need to finish 35th or so before the alarm bells ring. Now is the time.

As others have said, lets get our african kids on the bloody track for goodness sake. The rest of us just aren't as fast. That's a fact. Bring the swimming trials closer to the games. 6 months out is too far. Give a little more financial support to other sports. We can't keep relying on swimming and yet in many cases field absolutely no competitors at all in some sports. Only 2 weightlifters qualified for the games for example and that is one sport we I feel we could be a force if we invested in it.

Also something I read which surprised me about the Brits. If I can find it I will post it.

But apparently for the last 8-10 years they started to identify kids from an early age, who weren't even playing sport but had some unusual athletic quality that could be harnessed. Much like the Chinese have been doing for decades.

I mean some people are better suited to certain sports naturally.

Short arms, powerful build - weightlifting...etc etc

It wouldn't be a case of forcing them to join a program but at least offering them an opportunity to do so.

Speaking of the Chinese identifying "athletes" to play certain sports, when they started playing cricket not so many years ago. Mei Hua was identified specifically to bowl fast even though she had never seen the game before and she went on to be the captain and become a good player.

Yes, I know, I'm a tad eccentric and go off on tangents but I'll get back to the olympics in a moment and anyway who doesn't love Mei Hua. She has quite a few fans around the world.

LH thats defently the Eastern European coaches to identify potential Athletes at a very young age.

I guess the question which immediately springs to my mind is just how much cash do we splash at athletes so that they can win medals and we as a nation can collectively feel good about ourselves? That's really all it achieves. At days end, should we be concerned if we finish 15th instead of 5th if it means we can divert funding from a select few athletes to more deserving causes back here in Oz? I'm not convinced either way but do think there comes a point when we have to say..is it all worth it?