The Dew Drop Inn Virtual Games of the XXX Olympiad Pub, Stratford

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The Dew Drop Inn Virtual Games of the XXX Olympiad Pub, a place where you can come in for a sly beverage and discuss whatever's on your mind, or just eavesdrop on the regulars if you fancy a break from all the rugby chat.

This week the pub has set up in the heart of the Olympic Precinct at Stratford, where we can watch the world's greatest athletes do their thing and strut their stuff during the best Modern Olympics Games ever.

"Citius, Altius, Fortius" has been the motto for the modern Olympic Games since their beginning in 1896 - and let's hope it stays that way.

The only rule in this pub is one of mutual respect for everyone in it, oh and no tampering with the pictures of Jessica Ennis, Kieran Behan, Oscar Pistorius, Bradley Wiggins, Leryn Franco, Michelle Jenneke, Victoria Pendleton, Aaron Cruden, Katie Taylor, Misty May, Usain Bolt, Mo Farah, Krisztián Berki (on that horsey thingy) and the the Winner of the Gold Medal at Wimbledon - Andy Murray.




Last Pawb: https://www.606v2.com/t33138p1000-the-dew-drop-inn-virtual-games-of-the-xxx-olympiad-pub-london

Thomond wrote:Why are our boxers successful? They get a lot more money than the rest of the sports get and well there is always some talented boxers in Ireland. We have some great coaches and the High Performance squad do a magnificent job there.


Are the facilities great? Yes and no, but boxings one of those sports where you can overcome that ,coaching is what matters and we have some great workers there.

For our size we compete well in the Olympics, could we do better? Not for another 10 years I think people have forgotten that our country is feiced!

Thats the key points there for me Thomond. I think other sports could do a lot better. Others forget it, we aren't going to dominate swimming, sprinting, track cycling, rowing, Gymnastics etc. I accept that, but we definitely are underperforming in many sports.

We have great natural resources for watersports and the models used in boxing can be applied to wrestling, Judo etc.

Rodders, sailing we came 4th in Laser Radial, quite unlucky. Two other lads finished around 10th, top 15 I think. Judo we had only one competitor I'm pretty sure, she lost to someone ranked in the top 10 in the world.

Kayaking, well Rheinisch seemed to have been incredibly unlucky, his boat hit the bottom of the course and he lost control and missed a gate. Bad luck that happens in sports.


We have underacheived in one or two areas but not a lot. We have a medal shot with Rob Heffernan in the 50k walk, he came 9th in his weaker event the 20k, with a seasonal best. O'Rourke also produced the goods in the toughest heat and is now in a semi. Another personal best, whatever about the other athletes, the Cork people can produce on the track when it matters.......


Wrestling and Judo are incredibly minor and we have absolutley no money in the Olympic Council. Can we do better yes but we don't have the cash at the moment and no private investor will invest in a minor Olympic Sport ahead of say golf.

Yeah, but to have those top coaches, they need to be paid. To be able to pay for top coaches in other sports, you'd have to cut the funding to the boxing coaches.

Thomond I agree totally. I think Ireland have done ok, but its so far been at the lower end of expectations (which were modest/low anyways) overall. one sport has delivered and the others probably haven't.

Is it wrong to say that? Will fiec it I just did.

Money is a problem, luck is a problem, facilities are a problem. I'm not denying that but that doesn't mean that you can't look at a range of sports -identify the controllables- and say that the performances should be better.

The first thing to change imo is expectation, because if you don't have expectation you have nothing.

I think you're being overly optimistic though Rodders, for a country of our size we are 40th in medals per capita of all time. We're ahead of Australia and Russia as well as Germany.

The biggest change needs to be the emphasis on sports in school. Physical Education needs to be taken seriously, where the teachers must offer and wide range of sports over the years, exposing the children and building interest, whether that be street dance or bowles.

I think that happens Munsty, in secondary school, we played Badminton, Table Tennis, Basketball, track and field (hurdles, javelin, endurance running) and Volleyball, it does seem to happen but most lads won't join a club as one they don't know if there is one around and two, if there aren't a load of them doing it they won't bother.

Thomond wrote:I think you're being overly optimistic though Rodders, for a country of our size we are 40th in medals per capita of all time. We're ahead of Australia and Russia as well as Germany.

I don't think that means a lot though thomond, if you consider India has a billion people, and 800 million has little access to first world facilities.

In SA we may be 50 miilion, but I doubt 10 million even gets close to modern facilities, and even then no money goes into sport from government. you've seen how poor we are at the Olympics.

Medals per capita shows how well you achieve for the people you have. I think it is very important to determine how successful you are. We are good but can be better but not without government investment and that won't happen or increase any time soon.

Thomond,

It very much depends on the school and the teacher/teachers you have. And the problem is in a lot of schools, kids don't get the experiences you had.

It is also the quality of the experiences that count. You may do table tennis or basketball, but there needs to be a strong emphasis on it and teachers need to make options available to the students afterwards if it is something that they enjoyed.

I also think they should make PE an exam subject, so that students can have the opportunity to learn about things like physiology, psychology and dietary stuff.

Something else I've always thought, is we should have sports clubs in Ireland, rather than having different soccer, GAA, rugby and athletics sides. This way, if someone shows a talent for something, it would be easy enough to maybe transfer them to another sport, which might suit them more or may be something they'd like to do, but never had the option of doing.

There was talk of P.E. as an exam subject but I think it's died for a while. I think it's standard for all schools now to do a health and fitness module as part of the P.E. programme, you learn about Dieting and excercising certain muscles and things like that. I know a fair few schools stop doing P.E. during 5th and 6th year, mine did. I think it's wrong (in my school's case especially we had Religion but not an exam in it!) we were constantly told about how exercise is a great stress reliever and how it produces Endorhpins but then it was cut. I was grand as were a fair few as we played sport outside school but others didn't get the exercise they needed.


I think there's a certain apathy torwards P.E. in school among students, the guys who play sports tend to take it handy at times unless it's something they are interested in while those are unfit and not interested don't tend to participate or just don't care. Not good to see.

Thomond wrote:Medals per capita shows how well you achieve for the people you have. I think it is very important to determine how successful you are. We are good but can be better but not without government investment and that won't happen or increase any time soon.

I think medals per capita merely indicates the level of investment in sport.

Thomond wrote:There was talk of P.E. as an exam subject but I think it's died for a while. I think it's standard for all schools now to do a health and fitness module as part of the P.E. programme, you learn about Dieting and excercising certain muscles and things like that. I know a fair few schools stop doing P.E. during 5th and 6th year, mine did. I think it's wrong (in my school's case especially we had Religion but not an exam in it!) we were constantly told about how exercise is a great stress reliever and how it produces Endorhpins but then it was cut. I was grand as were a fair few as we played sport outside school but others didn't get the exercise they needed.


I think there's a certain apathy torwards P.E. in school among students, the guys who play sports tend to take it handy at times unless it's something they are interested in while those are unfit and not interested don't tend to participate or just don't care. Not good to see.

For our year, they brought back the option of doing PE in 5th and 6th year. You either did that or LCVP.

On the apathy part, that is where the quality of teaching comes in. A PE teacher should be able to challenge all students, whether, they struggle to swing the racquet or can hit the ball 150 KM/H. Setting different targets and pushing each student is what makes a top teacher. Hopefully something I can be.

Biltong wrote:

Thomond wrote:Medals per capita shows how well you achieve for the people you have. I think it is very important to determine how successful you are. We are good but can be better but not without government investment and that won't happen or increase any time soon.

I think medals per capita merely indicates the level of investment in sport.

Yes and no really, Ireland's investement isn't exactly outstanding in a lot of areas but we have talented sportspeople. New Zealand I imagine don't invest a lot either compared to the numbers in rugby yet they overachieve.


It has a lot to do with funding but not all.

Thomond wrote:Why are our boxers successful? They get a lot more money than the rest of the sports get and well there is always some talented boxers in Ireland. We have some great coaches and the High Performance squad do a magnificent job there.


Are the facilities great? Yes and no, but boxings one of those sports where you can overcome that ,coaching is what matters and we have some great workers there.

For our size we compete well in the Olympics, could we do better? Not for another 10 years I think people have forgotten that our country is feiced!

I don't think the boxers get any more funding than anyone else. Katie Taylor's gym didn't have a shower (until very recently when some sponsor came in and put one in for them) and they used the toilet in the pub next door.

All the elite boxers are on similar grants to other elites (€40K - Derval O'Rourke is on the same grant money as Katie, Paddy Barnes) and all their coaching is probably more down to gifted semi-amateurs than anything else). Katie's father coaches herself and Adam Nolan.

I just had a look at the Junior world athletics championship medals tables.

SA does very well at Junior level, we have entered two championships less than the other countries and yet lies 13th on the overall table, in the early 2000's we did very well, in 2000 we came 3rd, in 2002 8th, in 2004 6th, the other times we lie between 12th and 16th mostly.

Now when you consider our schools systems produce outstanding athletes and yet as soon as they leave school our medal hopes go to virtually zero, it indicates money is a real issue.

The problem is the enviroment. If you are surrounded by people winning Olympic medals then you are more likely to feel you can win one too.

That is why the boxers are doing so well, there is a culture of success. If you are sharing a gym with a world champion then you won't feel as overawed when you go into competition. Everyone believes they can do the best too.

The trouble is getting those 1st few athletes to break the mould and be trailblazers for the rest. The important thing is to expose young athletes to the highest levels at an early age so they don't develop the inferiority complex that comes with being in a small country.

Howya Sin? Some have got greater grants, and the facilities that most of the men have are superb (Katie is not part of the High performance team AFAIK) our grants are distributed unevenly. The Boxers are nearly all likely to get the 40k or more while the triathletes and smaller ones will not get anywhere near as much.


There is more money in boxing in Ireland, they do get decent private sponsorship too.

I heard the coach of all those great Kenyan runners talking about it (he is a priest/teacher from Cork - most successful athletics coach in the world) and when asked why the Kenyan's were so successful, he said that their diet, lifestyle, climate, living at altitude from a young age were all major factors. It also said it was a way out of poverty for them (just like it is in Brazil).

He talked about athletes coming to Kenya to train at altitude never being able to catch up on what the Kenyan's had through their environment from the moment they are born.

Munsty's made the most important point here: that ultimately it comes down to how talented an athlete is. Governments can provide funding so that that athlete has all the advantages he'd have in any other country, but that won't turn him into a gold medal winner if there are better athletes than him in the world.

All the boxers seem to train in Dublin for 3/4 days a week ok, but the fact remains that Katie (through talent and determination) achieved on her own. Jonas is a fine boxer as well and is way better looked after than Katie, I'd imagine, but Katie still managed to beat her (training mainly in a gym with no shower).

Pervert!

But surely if the country doesn't invest money is sport then you are losing athletes that you never knew you had, I mean, i find it hard to believe that given similar chances and facilities that Irish athletes wouldn't do comparitively as well as many other countries. We just don't have the sponds, and that's fair enough, that's not a critisism, that's just the way it is.

Katie is one of our finest sportspeople ever, no doubt about that. The altitude training thing and living there is one of the reason why the Africans thrive in long distance. Some Irish Athletes have these Oxygen Houses now or some have these kind of domes they sleep in at least. Won't do a lot of good compared to living there. It's like being on EPO or something like that for nearly al your life.

Absolutely right, Mick - it's possible for a more naturally gifted athlete to miss out because he doesn't have the advantages that a less naturally gifted athlete in another country has; but all you can ask for is a 'level playing field', to use a cliche. All the advantages in the world won't make an average athlete a world-beater.

True, but Katie does still go to see sports scientists twice a week and the rest of the training doesn't require a ridiculous amount of top level facilities.

I think its more down to gaa not being an Olympic sport!

I remember Jack O'Shea (one of the greats) recalling that when he was in school football was banned by a teacher and the school took up athletics instead. He came 2nd to John Tracy (Irish Silver Medalist) in a Munster championship race. He continued to play football with his club and ended up with 7 all Ireland medals. Pat Spillane did pretty good in the triathlon as well when he retired from gaelic football.

GAA players like John Mullane & Lar Corbett would have made great sprinters.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:Absolutely right, Mick - it's possible for a more naturally gifted athlete to miss out because he doesn't have the advantages that a less naturally gifted athlete in another country has; but all you can ask for is a 'level playing field', to use a cliche. All the advantages in the world won't make an average athlete a world-beater.

Totally agree.

Thomond wrote:I think you're being overly optimistic though Rodders, for a country of our size we are 40th in medals per capita of all time. We're ahead of Australia and Russia as well as Germany.

You're kidding aren't you?
Australia is 6th in the per capita for all medals in London and 13th All Time, Ireland 23rd.
Also 13th for Gold, Ireland 30th.

Lar would be a decent at the 400m I'd say, Sweetnam should be good for some sort of racing long distance given how he is in the Munster setup and Cork team.

GAA guys would be good at some sports as we have seen some skills are transferable to rugby etc.

LB, looked at it again, was Australasa that were down that low (don't know how it's on the list not a country) I found my info elsewhere, stats can be miselading, as our buddy Sin é will tell you

Sin é wrote:I think its more down to gaa not being an Olympic sport!

I remember Jack O'Shea (one of the greats) recalling that when he was in school football was banned by a teacher and the school took up athletics instead. He came 2nd to John Tracy (Irish Silver Medalist) in a Munster championship race. He continued to play football with his club and ended up with 7 all Ireland medals. Pat Spillane did pretty good in the triathlon as well when he retired from gaelic football.

GAA players like John Mullane & Lar Corbett would have made great sprinters.

Look, lets not kid ourselves, no GAA players are going to make "great sprinters", for one simple reason, they're white. They could be good middle distance runners, but sprinters, nope.

I like what mechanics wear... overall.
People call me a hypocondriac, which really hurts.
My father was a man oof few words, he said to me, "Son..."
In university I was going to join the debating society but someone talked me out of it.
My uncle was killed by a falling piano. The funeral was very low key.
I can't leave on that note.

Thomond wrote:Lar would be a decent at the 400m I'd say, Sweetnam should be good for some sort of racing long distance given how he is in the Munster setup and Cork team.

GAA guys would be good at some sports as we have seen some skills are transferable to rugby etc.

LB, looked at it again, was Australasa that were down that low (don't know how it's on the list not a country) I found my info elsewhere, stats can be miselading, as our buddy Sin é will tell you

You must having been looking at Australia-New Zealand combined team which was for the first 2 Olympics.

Stewart Francis jokes Munsty well played sir

Hard to believe anything you say now...

Mickado wrote:

Sin é wrote:I think its more down to gaa not being an Olympic sport!

I remember Jack O'Shea (one of the greats) recalling that when he was in school football was banned by a teacher and the school took up athletics instead. He came 2nd to John Tracy (Irish Silver Medalist) in a Munster championship race. He continued to play football with his club and ended up with 7 all Ireland medals. Pat Spillane did pretty good in the triathlon as well when he retired from gaelic football.

GAA players like John Mullane & Lar Corbett would have made great sprinters.

Look, lets not kid ourselves, no GAA players are going to make "great sprinters", for one simple reason, they're white. They could be good middle distance runners, but sprinters, nope.

Well, as good as Derval anyway. John Mullane is really explosive. A lot of the GAA lads (like Jack O'Shea) would have made good middle distance/distance runners.

I totally agree with Sin e .

Can I just add that I categorically do not believe that the abolition of the GAA would lead to Irish world dominance in middle distance and 400m running.....

It would be a start though.... ....

Seeing as we dominate the GAA, I think Cork dominating 400m would be alright.

Thomond wrote:Seeing as we dominate the GAA ....

... so you regret missing your opportunity to dominate Kilkenny next weekend!

Cork may 'dominate' the gaa, but not always in a good way (though you do provide endless amusement for the rest of us)! Cork & Dublin are the most entertainment GAA counties in Ireland - everything is either a big drama or just an average soap opera.

We doinate the GAA as we are the most usccessful county in both codes, that's just facts. Nothing's ever good enough for us and that keeps the teams motoring along in a good way.

Cork were poor at the weekend though, an average enough performance. I wouldn't hold out much hope for the hurlers, but Galway's could have been a one off. Hurlers have outdid any expectations I had of them this year by getting as far as they have.


Tipp's football team will be one to watch in a couple years time.

The bottom line is it costs money to win Olympic medals. As I said yesterday, judging by the Chinese investment, lots of it ($40m per medal).

If Ireland adopted the same model as the UK - using lottery funding, there would be about 1/16 th available (assuming the same take-up for buying lottery tickets in both countries as pop. of Ireland is about 1/16th that of the UK). Following this logic, getting 1/16th of the number of medals that the UK gets is success especially when the UK was expecting the home crowd to be a factor.

However there is more that could be done in Ireland. It is 25 years since ireland won the TdF. Look at the talk there has been about Bradley Wiggins winning both the TdF AND the Olympic time trial. When Stephen Roche won the TdF in 1987, he also won the Giro d'Italia AND the World Championship road race. This is the "Triple Crown" of professional cycling. How many of the Irish people on here knew that he had won this? Did you also know that he is only one of two people ever to have won the Triple Crown. The other was Bernard Hinault (I think, one of the famous continental riders anyway).

Did cycling take off in Ireland afterwards? Even though Sean Kelly, another very very successful Irish rider gives loads of real support to develop it?

I wonder how much is the mentality that Roy Keane whinged about during the Euro 2012 competition when the fans were singing The Fields after the Irish football team were disgraced. The reality is that there is an element of cosy comfort in the Irish psyche in being a loser - Sure we're only a small country ...

Yet we CAN produce top class athletes (in many sports). Annalise Murphy came fourth in the Laser sailing yesterday. This was her first Olympics. Bless her, she was in tears being interviewed afterwards. How much REAL support will she get to prepare for Rio. The commentators on the Beeb were praising the efforts of Alison Young, the British competitor. It was also Young's first Olympics. And there they were saying about how she can now look forward to Rio - and we KNOW she will get financial support, good coaching and funding to gain experience racing in many regattas over the next four years. Will Annalise get the same?

It really is time that Irish people got totally fed up with being plucky losers. It should not be acceptable. If an athlete does their best, then fair enough, but we should not be satisfied with losing just because they come from a tiny wee country. The blame cannot all be laid at the feet of the athletes. I am certain they work as hard as anyone else from any other country. If we want to engage in international sport, we have to set our expectations high - but we have to fair to the athletes and help them with their funding.

Munsty is training to be a teacher. He has probably read or heard about experiments where teachers are given a class of youngsters and told they were all highly intelligent and other classes where they were told they were bottom stream. The "highly intelligent" were taught differently and did much better becasue the teachers expected more from them. We have to set the same expectations of our sports people (and don't get me on to the irish international rugby team )

Sin é wrote:

Thomond wrote:Seeing as we dominate the GAA ....

... so you regret missing your opportunity to dominate Kilkenny next weekend!

Cork may 'dominate' the gaa, but not always in a good way (though you do provide endless amusement for the rest of us)! Cork & Dublin are the most entertainment GAA counties in Ireland - everything is either a big drama or just an average soap opera.

Feck Sin é you owe me a new laptop, i just spat drink all over my keyboard when i read that

Kia, I think the menatlity is changing in some aspects. All I have said is that we won't have the funding avaible for a while as our country is broke, the government have a big involvement in the National Lottery Funding and associated schemes and I know it is a lot harder to get money from it now.


Sin, drama? Sure there's always some we don't accept inadequacy. Ask Keano.


Deccie on the other hand is a different matter altogether!

Great post. Sensational.

It's about funding and resources but it is also about expectation. If you expect to fail then you will.

The sensational post was Kia's by the way, not the Billser...

His was ok though.

I think Kia put it together well but most of us don't settle for mediocrity, whic just realise with no money we can't compete for a while!

They're the only two that make sense.

Money isn't a silver bullet though Thom. Just ask Sean Quinn.

rodders wrote:Money isn't a silver bullet though Thom. Just ask Sean Quinn.

Money doesnt change a thing... Damn, there goes that theory. No more believing in Cyndi Lauper teachings...

Girls do just wanna have fun though.