Rio Olympics

Please post video.

A+ rant Rhys.

Yes Rhys, very good. You really get me.

A++ rant, would read (and LOL) again.

Also - has anyone else noticed the LOL-roll pinzo has been on lately. If it was an olympic sport, I’d argue my tax dollars would happily fund it.

QFT
This thread is soon becoming a new favorite and I cant stand the olympics :slight_smile:

im trying to understand the irrational hate, is it one of those things where its just cool to hate on?

i dont know whats greater than representing your country in a sport that you love.

politics aside, or is it the politics itself that makes it unbearable?

either way, i dont get it. Im just happy to watch it, maybe feel a bit of a pride in getting behind athletes who are at a level i can only dream of.

I like the olympics. I think they cost too much though (the spectacle, not the athletes). I don’t mind, née - I support, the funding of athletics in Australia. I’d like to see greater equality in our funding for female athletes and increased funding for the less commercialised sports as well. I like to think that we come together as a nation and support our representatives in competition without malice or bigotry. I even don’t mind the swimming.

Haha I’m with you Jase. Track cycling at the Olympics is grouse.

This^
I love sports, I love to watch sports people of all types.
I think the Olympics is a bloated waste of money that involves sports.

Look I dont particularly mind the money spent on athletes etc. But i find nationalism and what goes with it utterly useless. How does me coincidentally being born in the same rich country as someone who is good at a sport mean I should be proud of them.

ftfy

I think you can support athletes from the same nationality as you without being a nationalist. Equally you can love your country’s geography, landscape, artists, thinkers, writers etc. This is part of a shared culture, and we are embedded in it, but this doesn’t mean that we have to accept anything/everything that is a product of that culture.

I guess the important thing is to keep being critical of what happens in your country/culture and not fall in the excess of believing that whatever your country does is good. But I also reckon that systematically rejecting what comes out of your country just because it’s from you country is not gonna do you any good.

Or, maybe you don’t buy into nationalism and tribal pride at all, but just like watching people ride bikes really fast.

Don’t confuse “nationalism” with “reflected glory” either

I’m getting kinda excited about the mens road race. Tough course, looks wide open. I’m tipping Australia’s Scott Bowden.

Who? Yeah, I had to look up his name too… http://www.bicyclingaustralia.com.au/news/meet-scott-bowden-the-new-face-in-the-australian-olympic-men-s-road-race-team

Good luck to him and I read elsewhere he’s a likely prospect as a roadie in due course…however given the team limits and all that I’d have put Bobridge in the RR

Olympic sports that should be scrapped #001: race walking.

I had a discussion about this last night, I think we decided any team sport and any sport you need equipment you can’t make yourself is out.

So you’d be left with track and field, swimming, martial arts and weight lifting.

^ My criteria is any sport that needs to be judged is out.

But that means no diving!?

Get rid of it: tennis & golf