Thetownend.com

Not sure if there is an olympics thread, but are these horses on drugs? Dressage? Surely it's just for toffs?

Watched the diving the other night. That was quite cool.

I believe dressage has evolved from the days of cavalry and showing that you could control horse even during cannon fire and gun shot, etc. Probably why the Prussians are so good at it.

Bring that back. Might liven it up a bit, shooting a cannon at a toff.

Shooting cannons at toffs should be a sport in it's own right, horses or no horses.

The green pool and the empty venues have been the most noticeable things so far for me. Jessica Ennis' arse looked nice today too

horsey dancing isn't really a sport is it. I mean, I've seen well trained parrots, dogs and mice. none of them have Olympic events.

track cycling, now that's proper.

Fucking rider cam.

Go GB.

Always good to beat Australia.

I'm more a fan of KJ-T... but yeah, your point still stands

The people of Rio have made their point....I respect them for it. Now we need to do the same for the FLT B team thing.

You know when you have been biten by the bug when your watching trampolining intensely

Fair play to Wiggins. Another gold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geHqnV4Mk_4

I wonder what he's going to do next?  There's Team Wiggins I suppose. 

One of the fascinating aspects of cycling is how some fellas, like Steven Burke and Ed Clancey, can be awesome on the track, but seemingly unable to convert it onto the road.   Whereas others like Wiggo, G, and Pete Kennaugh have.

Owain Doull, has signed up with Sky from Team Wiggins, so that means Brailsford and Brad must think he's a chance.

Watching it last night in the boozer, the topic of when did we get good at cycling came up....I was minded of watching the 2000 Sydney games, having got used to years of GB mediocrity, when Jason Queally won a gold in the velodrome  :o

It would be wonderful, if this 16 years could convert into something which engages more young kids both boys and girls into cycling.

The huge amount of funding from UK Sport has helped.
Over £30 million covering 2013-17.

To be fair, British Cycling has delivered the results over the years.

Olympic success normally leads to a spike in interest so probably more lycra in evidence over the rest of the summer.

Money well spent, in my opinion.  30 mill buys you an agent's fee for a top end footballer these days.

Dossy must be raging right now.

She's very pretty but the arse is incomparable to Ennis.

any opinions on their athletic prowess?

They are both good jumpers who I'd love a jump with.

This tennis is fucking quality.superb nadal!

Even more superb potro!

There is too much difference in KJ-Ts strong and weak events. Her throwing is woeful despite being trained by a throwing specialist, and she needs to sort out her run up on long jump. I thought she'd win a medal, but she just wasn't good enough in enough rounds.

For a small island Team GB are doing incredibly well. A great weekend for medals, dominating the velodrome along with making history in the mens individual gymnastics and also murray (love him or hate him) becoming the first player to successfully defend their title.
Too many more athletes/competitors to mention but what a great achievement.

Don't get the Murray hatred at all

I was just about to post something similar....the last few nights I've taken to watching the late night stuff in the pub, fascinating how many stray punters are versed in the technicalities of the omnium/keirin and even rugby sevens.

I like Louis Smith, up until Beijing, gymnastics was definitely something GB entered but never did well in. Smith then took a medal on the pommel horse.

Murray, has definitely matured....it will be interesting to see what he does when he finishes.

There's definitely a feel of fin de siecle with these Games, as the logic of Brexit means may well be the last of Team GB.

Think it stemmed from his throwaway line about the England team at a WC.

If that's the case,that's pretty pathetic.the guy is obviously a proud Briton,albeit a patriotic jock.

Which was a) a bloody long time ago and b) if you listen to the whole interview it was a very informal interview that he was basically encouraged to say it in.

FWIW my Father in law hates the bloke for this very reason and refuses to accept any of the points above as mitigation?

I think Murray's great. And I enjoy the fact that the Jocks have an ABE stance. It's all good fun.

What? The Patriotic Jock who was in favour of Scotland leaving the Union during the referendum?

Who cares  :hmmm: :shrug:

People that like to get into pointless arguments and :flaccid: waving on the internet.

Finger waving?

Yeah,him.Obviously not anti-British enough to refuse to support the Davis cup or carry the uj in Rio tho'

Saw an article this morning re unfavourable comparison between modern day footballers and our Olympians.
Same old shit gets recycled every four years.

Step forward Kelvin Mackenzie, what a tosser.

Congrats to Sophie Hitchon, bronze in the women's hammer throw.  I like it when someone gets a medal from nowhere.

We've had a few total left field medals so far with the trampolining one as well. Laura Trott looks very dominant in the Omnium, the elimination race is a great format, would love to see the equivalent of that with middle distance runners.

I'm sad for Greg Rutherford :(

Indeed, its not easy being ginger.....

his bronze medal existing the lie of his 'bronze-' hair

http://www.totalsportek.com/list/hottest-olympics-athletes/

Im a bit confused about jaz carlin.she sounds wiltshire,her dad sounds wiltshire but everywhere shes described as welsh?

For a while I thought I was the only person from West Wiltshire without Welsh heritage.

She moved there in 2006 for coaching and presumably funding reasons. Her mum is Welsh.

So she's really even less Welsh than Sippo.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/other-sport/who-jazz-carlin-how-wales-11722041

Based upon whats been written on here I understand she moved from Swindon due to Margaret Thatcher?

Imagine learning to swim in Swindon and then moving to Swansea.  :suicide:

Exactly... thinking you are quite good then discovering everyone you are swimming against have webbed feet?

:D
She's exactly the same age as me as well, does make me wonder if I ever swam with her.
I'm taking some credit for the medals anyway, she must have been watching me and picking up tips..

This Keirin race is a brilliant farce. DQ them all!

Watch the German win gold now.

Some wag on Twitter has pointed out that the Trott/Kenny household is now ahead of Spain in the medals table...

To get 1 gold medal is an achievement, to get 4,5 or 6 is pheomenal but wherever he is, Michael Phelps is thinking to him self, "Bitches, Please"

Coincidence we have 19 golds and the nearest EU member is way down the medals table? I think not, brexit has obviously helped our athletes.

If we competed as Eurp, like in the Ryder Cup, we'd now have 79 gold medals....that'd put the yanks in their place. 

I have always thought that there are a disproportionately high number of swimming events.  That favours the Yanks, too!

Somewhat the same with track cycling and rowing which plays into our hands really.

It's quite incredible how well we are doing these days. 1 gold medal in 1996. Fair play to lottery and government funding, it's paying off big time

Although a nod in the direction of this is justified.....uncritical acceptance of the status quo should be avoided. 

For example, funds are dished to sports that can bring in the medals at the loss to sports that cannot.  So for example the horse dancers and show jumpers got £18 mill of funds.....in 2014 basketball had its funds completely cut.

You would have thought a sport like basketball, what with its appeal to kids, should be a sport that we target to improve our performance on the world stage over the next generation or 2

I like most sports to varying degrees but horse dancing isn't a sport, might as well have ballroom dancing in the Olympics

Horse dancers dont need handouts i would have thought

The Brexit campaign, made a great deal of the UK's soft power and sport is one area we have it in spades. I don't particularly begrudge horse dancers their dosh, as it is there and obviously is going to be pricey,  but we are still a society massively split by class and poverty, and sport can help. 

Money shouldn't be pointlessly wasted, but a decent investment into inner cities can pay dividends....my mind harks back for example to the Haringey Cricket Academy, which was set up by an old West Indian, Reg Scarlett in 84. 

His money came from getting young most black lads on YTS schemes.  I saw a feature once, and the facilities were very basic,  a shed, with some nets. A dozen of his kids went on to play county cricket, some to play for England.  One of the most successful was Mark Alleyne...who now teaches cricket at Marlborough College.

I do presume Sutton was joking given that we have not 'brexitted' yet and the leave campaign has had fuck all to do with a 4 year process between Olympics.

 I did like the interview with Amy Tinkler (great Carry On name) on getting GB's first ever medal in the gymnastcs floor event, explaining that she'd just be getting back home in time for her GCSE results. Balding nearly exploded.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-37105796

And this for the headline alone http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-37103648

I think that you're looking at this the wrong way. 

Yes of course the preparation for the Rio Olympics started maybe even before London 2012 for some people and certainly straight after for most of our athletes. 

However it is indisputable that the Brexit vote has been a major factor in inspiring our team to our best ever overseas performance.  This is in sharp contrast to our European counterparts who have, as usual, fallen away at the wayside once faced with genuine world opposition rather than an artificial EU playing field.   

Indisputable? Come on fella

You cant claim its indisputable.  Seriously have you spoken to any of the athletes?  Or are you just putting your views on to them? 

They tend to thank their coaches, their families and partners and sometimes God.  Not Nigel Farage.

This is trolling right?

All y'all just got whooooooshed

Being grumpy, if you win $25k its income and probably should be taxed?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37099066

The prize money probably should but taxing the value of the medal itself is a bit much.

I'm not sure why a US thing is of any interest grumpy or not.  But if you want to be grumpy over tax, then the fact that the new Duke of Westminster can inherit £9 billion, and not pay any inheritance tax, might be a starting point.

Good shoehorning there... Not sure whether it warrants a pint or not?

Incidentally the £3.6bn saved (entirely legally) is over 50% of what its going to cost the government each year to match the subsidies which will be lost on Brexit. (Source Private Eye)

I thought we paid more in to the EU than we received back in subsidies, etc. So we'll be a net gainer and there will be no "lost" cash on Brexit...

We do (I think the figure is roughly £191m a week net once rebates etc are taken into account, not the £350m banded about), I think the point is ignoring whatever we save by leaving the EU, to match the subsidies as Hammond has suggested is going to mean the Government splashing out c.£6bn a year be that from the savings made from not paying the EU (I won't mention that already having been earmarked for the NHS). To be honest I think PE were merely pointing out its a fair few quid the Duke of Westminster has saved and used a figure in the media this week to illustrate it?

True, anecdotally it seems that many were taken in by the Tory lies that £350 a week would go to the NHS.

Areas like the NE, Cornwall and South Wales who voted for Brexit, and are large recipients of EU cash, will now have to hope that the Tories fire some of the largesse their way, rathe than vanity projects for London.

I suspect that Gisela Stuart at the very least would be offended at the suggestion it was a Tory lie and Nigel Powell didn't counter it until he was forced to post referendum by the cutting questioning of Susanna Reid?

We all know you think the Tories are bleeding the NHS dry, Reg, but come on now, only "£350 a week"? 

 :pint:

What's a missing mill between friends?

Last time I looked this fella was in the Tory party...

Yeah fine  ::), he was the only one who made the statement, you are completely right that it was an entirely Conservative conspiracy and no Labour MP's stated likewise, I blame Thatcher.  :girlgiggle:

 :pint:  :pint:  :pint:  :pint:

I think calling it a Tory lie because a Tory used it is stretching it a bit there Reg.

The lie was an Outist lie. Some Outists were Tory, some Labour, some UKIP.

There were Tories on the innie side as well. Were they spouting Tory truths?

Is there such a thing....  :D

Those guys in the badminton!I have to say that's my favourite british medal so far.seem like brilliant lads

John Inverdale is currently reporting from the boxing arena.  Hopefully, a passing boxer will give him a right upper cut.  ;D

That would be the greatest moment of these olympics.utter cunt

the BMX seems to be carnage

                                                                                                                                                                                Please let this happen !!

What's John Inverdale done to piss everybody off?

Exist

Really sorry but i cant take adults on bmx bikes seriously

BMX reminds me of Skidmarks on the Amiga

really gutted for Adam Gemilli

I think if you got skidmarks on your Amiga, you might not have read the operating instructions correctly :)

guru meditation followthrough

It reminds me of three things.

- BMX Bandits - one of the greatest films of all time.
- California Games. The game on the master system.
- spokey dokeys

Nick Skelton, 58 years old, superb.
The horses should get medals as well, probably have to make do with some sugar cubes or a carrot.

Whats all this" 1/2/3/4 point game" bullshit?

California games was ace. Surfing was impossible.

Why is it that both semi finalists get a bronze in some events (eg judo)  but not in others (eg tennis)?

Some of those hockey birds are pretty fit.

The Dutch team's manager seems to be Pauline Quirk.  :sherlock:

Tends to be the martial arts that do two bronzes as the losing semi finalists are quite often injured in the loss I think. Does seem uneven though.

The hockey was great, Maddy Hinch the keeper was unbelievable, I don't know masses about hockey but she was the best player on the pitch by miles.

Jolly hockey sticks.

The penalty shootouts are interesting.
Wouldn't mind seeing the same format adopted for football, without the sticks though.

Tried in MLS when it started out wasn't it?

Yes, I remember Rodney Marsh winning a shootout for (I think) Tampa Bay Rowdies many years ago.  What a tosser that guy was.

Marsh used to always bang on about the NASL shoot-out (which was to determine the winner after a draw) being the way forward. No.

based on yesterday, hockey shootouts are the opposite of football shootouts.

in football you wait for someone to miss. in hockey you wait for someone to score.

tense game, we were probably second best, but we had 'the wall' in goal.

Speaking of Hockey.. Sam Quek is hot..

I've not watched any of the Olympics, but I should have watched her in the Hockey.

It was like none of the penalty takers actually knew what to do. Our keeper was fabulous, the Dutch miles the better team but we took our chances and got the luck in the end.

Hurrah!

Did anyone watch the Water Polo final ?
I'm sure there's a bit of history between the Serbs and the Croats, but Jesus........

Are there actually any rules ?
Seems to be a constant battle between the "centre half" and "striker", to see who can punch/kick/drown the other guy

A good watch mind

Possibly the worlds biggest understatement