Positives & Negatives of the London 2012 Olympics...So Far !!

[saturdaynighter]

I reckon all Olympic champions should be given a wild card (additional) entry to the next Games - if they want it and think they can still compete.

This would provide the additional benefit of us seeing more representative section of the world's greatest sporting athletes - GB cycling, USA swimming....

[Silver Fox]

What a good idea!!

[BIGBrian]

Originally Posted by saturdaynighter

I reckon all Olympic champions should be given a wild card (additional) entry to the next Games - if they want it and think they can still compete.

This would provide the additional benefit of us seeing more representative section of the world's greatest sporting athletes - GB cycling, USA swimming....

Unfortunately though, there are plenty sports (sailing and boxing being two) where the number of competitors is restricted to one per country in each category. If the defending champion gets it, it doesn't give the other competitors in that sport from that country much to aspire to.

[saturdaynighter]

Originally Posted by BIGBrian

Unfortunately though, there are plenty sports (sailing and boxing being two) where the number of competitors is restricted to one per country in each category. If the defending champion gets it, it doesn't give the other competitors in that sport from that country much to aspire to.

Hi BigBrian

I was suggesting that exactly the same one-per-nation (or two-per-nation etc) rule applies BUT that there is an additional berth for the defending champion - that's a huge advantage to the defending nation and likely to make Gold even more valuable than currently.

It could lead to some countries being dominant in an event for longer than current, but if it stops, for instance, Missy Franklin from keeping 3 or 4 world class competitors out of the pool for a decade, it seems like a positive to me.

[comeondarlo]

Originally Posted by saturdaynighter

I reckon all Olympic champions should be given a wild card (additional) entry to the next Games - if they want it and think they can still compete.

This would provide the additional benefit of us seeing more representative section of the world's greatest sporting athletes - GB cycling, USA swimming....

I see a problem with the sentence in bold above.

What if they are no longer up to it or injured and just wont accept it.

The GB Triple Jumper spring to mind, he clearly wasn't fit enough but wouldn't accept it.

[selkie]

Athletics uses the wildcard entry system like that for its World Championships every two years, and it generally works quite well. The individual federations still have to approve the entries, and they typically don't want to send athletes who got fat or injured in the interim, (USATF requires automatic wildcards to still compete in their selection meet to show reasonable current fitness) so you get a few additional Ethiopian and Kenyan distance runners and Jamaican and American sprinters, and most people are happy.

Some events are problematic though. Outside of a few like Beth T. and the Soviet-German mum, the competitive career of many female elite artistic gymnasts is roughly as long as the lifespan of a fruit fly, and 'one and done' is common. 2008 all-around champ Nastia Liukin tried a comeback this year, and it was outright ugly.

[saturdaynighter]

Originally Posted by comeondarlo

I see a problem with the sentence in bold above.

What if they are no longer up to it or injured and just wont accept it.

The GB Triple Jumper spring to mind, he clearly wasn't fit enough but wouldn't accept it.

No problem - if they don't want to take the place, fine - it's not transferrable. It would, though, allow an athlete who's fallen out with their NGB/government/etc to compete still.

I don't think too many athletes would compete from an untrained/injured background and potentially look very foolish. With Phillips Idowu - he was unstoppable from the current system and probably looks a bit foolish now.

[Slid]

Originally Posted by comeondarlo

I see a problem with the sentence in bold above.

What if they are no longer up to it or injured and just wont accept it.

The GB Triple Jumper spring to mind, he clearly wasn't fit enough but wouldn't accept it.

How about the GB marathon runner who did it twice? 2008 and 2012. Stopped Hayley Haining from running in the Olympics on little more than a half-forgotten memory.

[saturdaynighter]

Originally Posted by Slid

How about the GB marathon runner who did it twice? 2008 and 2012. Stopped Hayley Haining from running in the Olympics on little more than a half-forgotten memory.

Did we have an Olympic Marathon Champion in 2008 and 2012.

If we had, you'd have made my point perfectly - that a Paula Radcliffe 'personality' shouldn't keep the next-but-one athlete out of the Olympics - in the same way that a Phelps, or Franklin should knacker the amazing athletes that ride in their wake.

[Slid]

Originally Posted by saturdaynighter

Did we have an Olympic Marathon Champion in 2008 and 2012.

If we had, you'd have made my point perfectly - that a Paula Radcliffe 'personality' shouldn't keep the next-but-one athlete out of the Olympics - in the same way that a Phelps, or Franklin should knacker the amazing athletes that ride in their wake.

"Did GB have an Olympic Marathon Champion in 2008 or 2012"

Hell no. Our marathon runners, other than Paula, ironically, have been less than world class since the early 1980's group of Steve Jones, once the richest Corporal in the RAF, et al.

Steve still holds the British record with the 2:07:13 he ran in Chicago in 1985, a single second slower than the (then) world's best.

I remember Hayley in particular because she used to work as a vet in Bolton about 16 years ago and I ran with her a few times, mainly on dreary, wet monday evenings. (She was a classy runner then, but raced too often and trained too little. And not fast enough for 10k, hence moving up to the marathon.)

[Silver Fox]

Anyone seen anything of Prince Charles at the Olympics or Paralympics? Many of the royal family have been present but I have not seen Prince Charles at all...where has he been?