Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Despite what I said earlier about Eric Heiden, I think Phelps probably is the greatest ever. Just look at Bejing. Even disregarding the relays, Phelps took Gold in 100 and 200 m Butterfly, 200m Freestyle, and the 200 and 400 m Individual medley. That's 3 distances, two strokes plus the medleys. You'd be hard pressed to find a track athlete that excels in the 100-400m range, and it's not that common for swimmers to compete over that range either. It's still tough to compare him to Heiden who won everything from 500m to 10,000m, but Heiden did that 30 years ago when people didn't specialise as much as they do these days. Then consider Phelps's haul in Athens, as well as London. So yes, I do think he is the greatest ever.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Rule saying you have too? that`s a question there may well be one :erm:

Did not the same thing happen in that rowing "show" Bert and someone on The BBC the other night. Nothing is new. :dozey:

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Personally, I blame the format. What do you expect if teams can get an easier draw if they lose a match? It's not that different to a football team resting players for a game when they've already qualified. Or a relay team that fields lesser athletes for the heats. I think the organisers should come up with a format that doesn't incentivise a loss. This is four pairs out of the last eight, i.e. half the qualifying pairs. That should tell you something's wrong with the format.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

first to congrats amy oliver archery she ranked 37 just beat this morning world number 1 indian Deepika Kumari 6-2.

great result for GB. In the last 32

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

And we just got our first GOLD for Women's Pair in Rowing :D

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

apparently this is the first year that we have had group stage format for badminton......... and i suspect the last

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Terrific effort!:clap:

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Wonderful news.:clap:

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

I'm not so sure now: All eight have been disqualified:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012...ified-olympics

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

The right decision.:clap:

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

I'm not so sure. We've lost 4 of the 8 quarter finalists, due to a format that incentivises losing. I think they need to look at the format, not the players.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

Perhaps we do need to change the format dan but at the end of the day cheating is cheating and in a lot of peoples mind that what they did.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

I don't consider it cheating, although what they did was rather blatant. There's plenty examples of athletes who don't perform at their best in races that don't matter too much in order to avoid showing the opposition how strong they really are. Are they cheats as well?

Is a football team that rests players for less important matches cheating?

I think you're better off thinking of a format where losing doesn't help.

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

It hardly epitomises the Olympic ideal though does it? So I think it's the right result..Format or not they had a duty to do their best and they patently didn't.

After all the Athletes oath is

Re: The London 2012 Olympics: Sports discussion
 

True, but the question also is if we're now seeing the best Athletes competing for the medals. Not having the best Athletes isn't exactly in the Olympic spirit either is it?