To be fair van Niekerk is the current world champion it's not likes he's come from nowhere. 

Anyway you'd have to be mad to run the 400m hurdles. 

I really cant take the olympics, particularly track and field, seriously anymore. It angers me when people like that Hungarian man bitch Hosszu who is 27 years old suddenly learns how to swim and starts smashing their PBs and breaking world records, and gets away with it scot free. The cheats are ahead of the testing procedures and most of the time will get away with it, yet will return to their homelands as heros and be set for life. Cheating definitely pays.

Regarding the citizen of the world thing... I'm talking about things more important than sport, I'm talking about things like valuing a person on the basis of their character, as opposed to background. And making it accessible for anybody to have a reasonable chance of achieving whatever they wish to achieve (regardless of background).

Is any of that unreasonable? I'd be surprised if you're opposed to any of that (please say if so). Yet you really want to the see the Socceroos do well against other nations, as do I. That's exactly the same principle as wanting to see one's country do well at the Olympics (I just happen to like a number of Olympic sports). Assuming you agree with those the things I referred to in the paragraph above this one, it would seem every bit as confounding for you to wish to see the NT do well (at least using your logic).

The reality is one can be a "citizen of the world" and want to see one's country succeed in sport. The two aren't mutually exclusive. I regard sport as the last area where patriotism is acceptable. I.e. it's acceptable to prefer one's own country to win in sport, but it's not really acceptable to apply similar standards of favouritism elsewhere (where we should think in terms of the human race). Moreover, one of the things I like about Australia is the theory (not always the case in practice or attitude) that we're an extremely multicultural society. People from all backgrounds (citizens of the world) can succeed in our society. Sporting success is such an example.

The other thing is that expenditure on sport is not some kind of "let them eat cake" idea. More on that later.

Without doing a country-by-country analysis of each and every one of those countries you mention, by and large, they don't have the same background in Olympic sports that Aus has.

When Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands do poorly in football, the sport they have traditions in, they are not happy. Similarly we should feel that way about sports we have good histories in (plus football and these days basketball).

So many of us grow up competing in regattas and swimming meets. Water polo tournaments, hockey tournaments, etc. As with most countries, there might not be the year round attendance figures for these sports. But they have really solid levels of competition in Australia and participation rates.

So we're a laughing stock when we flunk out in such sports spectacularly given our culture of playing such sports. That's the nuance that is not being understood.

"I wonder if you can explain to the uneducated what actual benefit does the Australian get from an athlete winning a gold medal because it sure as eggs doesn't translate to higher participation rates.  Aikhme didn't want to have a swing at it maybe you do."

No need to be patronising. One hears different things about levels of success and participation rates, so I'm going to rely mostly on my own experience. It answer my questions, anyway. Still this much isn't anecdotal... Britain's Amateur Swimming Association has reported a sharp uptake in use of public swimming pools since their success in the pool recently.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/aug/13/swimming-rio-2016-leisure-cuts

Speaking from my own experience, a handful of my school friends were very, very good swimmers/water polo players. They were part of a culture of Australian (and local) success in the pool and they found this to be a huge source of motivation in terms of their training and so on. They wanted to be the best because they saw their fellow swimmers and compatriots make a mark at various levels (school, district, club, state, national and international). You see somebody succeed and you want to emulate them.

But it's a huge help if there is that example to follow.

The same for football (which was more my background). I was playing football as a kid despite all the agony of the failed qualification for Australia (but we still had Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka to aspire to, plus non-Aussie ones like Michael Owen and Thierry Henry, for me). And then Aus qualified for the World Cup and did a decent job. We felt inspired and kids who didn't play the game started to take it up.

I'm not proposing that grassroots levels be neglected. I fully support grassroots infrastructure. It's vital. I'm just calling for a holistic approach. You can't neglect the top end, just as you can't neglect the bottom end. Any of that unreasonable?

And I've provided a funding model (in rather vague terms, admittedly).

Each Briton pays about £2 per year for their sporting success. And most of this is from the National Lottery (which means that they a good deal don't even pay that, only those who buy lottery tickets). It's hardly a huge sacrifice. Money well spent.

now the hockeyroos continue to underperform and are knocked out

underpeformance at this olympics is the norm not the exception

it used to be the other way round

What is with our Olympians and fueling the media frenzy by being whiney about why they lost/didn't perform at their best. The hockeyroos captain was on the news this morning going on about how pathetic their performance was. The Campbell sisters have had to defend their lack of medals. Give them a break ffs. It's like being the 5th best swimmer in the world for a particular event makes you mediocre. This country has severely overinflated expectations.

I wouldn't call any of these countries "laughing stocks".

They, like Australia, fund elite Olympic Sports very well, but not as much as the USA, Russia, UK, Germany and China. 

All of them have proud Olympic pedigree, and Australia should always aim to be among them.

quickflick is correct. Any redistribution will favor the AFL, and I'm not in favor of such wastage when that pointless sport generates a lot of money. Soccer will be overlooked as always. 

European countries will have less obesity than Australians because they have better diets. Australia is becoming the king of fast food. 

Tbf it's hard for anyone not to have high expectations when you consider for eg one of those Campbell sisters is the current champion (and record holder?). And there are clear favourites in all competitions from all countries, so I don't feel like expectations are inflated higher from Australia media than any other country tbh. 

Not going to argue about expectations on the Campbell sisters but a perfect example of our media over inflating expectations is an article in the daily telegraph claiming Ella Nelson is one of our medal hopes. Her goal from the start was to make semifinals and the final if she's lucky. She came into the Olympics unsure if she would even be fit to run. Now after one run someone is claiming she's a medal hope despite the fact that many of the semifinal qualifiers easily finished in times quicker than her Pb.

They did well in Kazan but that was a year ago. A lot can change in a year.

on the flipside, the americans have won 70 medals at the olympics

So what?

Thanks for that info.  As you can probably tell I'm not that up on athletics so this is what happens when the uneducated (me) sees WR's being beaten with ease, they just assume drug use.

Yeah tbf there was talk about the possibility of Johnson's WR being broken before the race.

You can blame nazi germany (and Riefenstahl's film Olympia) for the romanticising of nationalism at the olympics. before that the Olympics were a resurrected greek sporting carnival

^ Although no-one really wants to know that

there are a few good things about the olympics:
There is no betting
There arent any promos for sports betting
There are no sponsors logos everywhere!

They are illegal according to the Olympic Ideal.

During the Ancient Games, wars had to stop for the Games to take place. 

The Olympic Ideals as envisaged by the Ancient Greeks have kind of been lost in this modern world as the Modern Olympics are more of a brand name than an ideal. And given all the problems and expense of hosting these games, it's probably time to look at the option of just setting up permanent venues in Athens, and host them there every 4 years as the spiritual home of the games. 

That avoids all the white elephants around the world as well, which saves a lot of money. 

it will never happen though

Well done Lacaze on a pb

did your country proud!

I know it probably won't happen.

What will happen is all the large countries like USA, China, Russia will be lumbered with it until they get sick of all the expenditure. 

It's a loss making exercise, unless of course you pick one place, build the infrastructure once and have it staged there all the time. 

Greece won their second gold medal! So happy, so proud! :)

However, I am starting to get depressed for Australia. We haven't added a medal for a while now and there are still 6 days left. 

Do we have anymore medal chances left or is that it? 

Olympic record in the pole vault by the local boy.  These blokes are miles in the air.

Brazil going berko.

Just removed from the groundbreaking era of film (Vertov and Eisenstein) Riefenstahl taps into the pleasure principle for the human experience

As a citizen of the world, Riefenstahl showcased the human body rather than identifying with any athlete in particular

Of which set the bar for olympians/ humanity to attain

Boomers face Lithuania next. The team I fear the most outside the USA. I have horrible memories of 1996.

Why the most controversial athlete is not a cheat

Awww naaaaw she said "i just want to be me", nawww. Lets let a half man compete in a fucking womens event and not raise serious questions because she said "i just want to be me". NAWWWWWWWW (reaches for the kleenex)

#ibelieveinsemenya

Yes but they were outside PBs. The pressure got to them. That's the problem and is why people (and probably the athletes, themselves) are disappointed.

In the scheme of things, being the fifth fastest in the world is great. But if you're capable of being the fastest in the world (or at least getting a particular time), and you perform below your capabilities, you're not going to be happy.

And that has happened to so many of the Aussies.

That Brazilian pole-vaulter with a massive jump. Must be great for all the locals in the crowd. Must have spurred him on.

It's a tough one, not sure what should be done about it.

At least it seems the Boomers are in a bracket now where they won't have to face the Dream Team unless they both reach the final, owing to finishing second behind them in the same group.

Serbia v Croatia will be interesting.

Usain Bolt really is phenomenal. I was always a bit surprised somebody that call could be that much quicker than everybody else. It just goes to show that it doesn't do to judge on height.

He has always just looked like he is joking around while he is running. I'll never forget watching when Usain won the 100m in Beijing 2008. Staggering.

Annette Edmondson is a gold medal chance. I didn't see or hear about her qualifying, hopefully she made it. She was a one of the decent prospects before this started. Of course, most of it has gone tits up. Still be interesting to see how she does.

She's well fit, too.

One thing that he really should be called out on is his celebrating/showboating before finishing a race, maybe he could've gone 9.4s in his prime if he didn't carry on like an arrogant flog during the race.