MONEY FOR MEDALS

[geomorph]

Bring back the Soviet Union:)

Well the current hosts prove the success of that type of system in sport

[LostAgain]

Georgia also beat the Russian's in women's beach volleyball.... the 2 girls were Brazilian's issued with Georgian passports a couple of years ago:)

We could adopt a few African long distance runners, would not need anything like the money spent on Gymnastics. Could provide immediate returns.

Any other nations likely to swap their passports for a GB, other than Australian Orienteers?

[Patrick]

Any other nations likely to swap their passports for a GB, other than Australian Orienteers?

Well, there's a few Eritreans in my running club who are likely to form most of the Scottish distance running team in the 2014 Commonwealths!

Think we could get near 20 [medals] - love to be proved wrong.

I think the BOA target is 35. We got 28(?) in Athens so it doesn't seem far-fetched given how things have gone so far.

Cheers,

Patrick

[Scott]

The UK Sport target is 41 medals including ten to twelve golds, with 35 being the hang-your-heads-in-shame-if-not-met minimum. We got 30 (nine golds) in Athens.

The BOA haven't set an absolute medals target, but are aiming for 8th in the medals table (up from 10th in Athens).

[geomorph]

The UK Sport target is 41 medals including ten to twelve golds, with 35 being the hang-your-heads-in-shame-if-not-met minimum. We got 30 (nine golds) in Athens.

The BOA haven't set an absolute medals target, but are aiming for 8th in the medals table (up from 10th in Athens).

Guess 20 was really negative.
To get to 8th in table then we would expect to overtake S Korea and Japan as the remaining events are in areas they do not have depth in or its it Italy and France we expect to overhaul.

[Gross]

The UK Sport target is 41 medals including ten to twelve golds, with 35 being the hang-your-heads-in-shame-if-not-met minimum. We got 30 (nine golds) in Athens.

The BOA haven't set an absolute medals target, but are aiming for 8th in the medals table (up from 10th in Athens).

Individual medal targets – set by sports and signed off by UK Sport - suggest that the main contributors to Team GB’s Olympic medal haul will be the now traditional group of Cycling (6 medals), Athletics (5), Sailing (4) and Rowing (4).

[Gross]

This link leads to a listing of all those on the UK Sports programme for Olympics... lots of people being supported.

http://www.uksport.gov.uk/pages/list_of ... _athletes/

[Adventure Racer]

Individual medal targets – set by sports and signed off by UK Sport - suggest that the main contributors to Team GB’s Olympic medal haul will be the now traditional group of Cycling (6 medals), Athletics (5), Sailing (4) and Rowing (4).

If that's 6 medals of any colour for cycling, rather than just golds, then that wasn't exactly a hugely ambitious target they signed off on - I'm expecting at least that many golds!

Of course if the target is medals at Olympics, rather than just increased participation then the most efficient way to spend the money is to be highly focussed and go into the schools talent picking kids who have the right attributes to be good at sports they don't even do yet. I'm fairly sure this is what the Chinese are doing, and there is at least a limited amount of this in some sports in GB.

[greywolf]

If that's 6 medals of any colour for cycling, rather than just golds, then that wasn't exactly a hugely ambitious target they signed off on

I imagine the targets were set post-Athens - remember cycling "only" won 4 medals there (Hoy, Wiggins, Pursuit, Madison) so 6 would have seemed a reasonable progression....

[geomorph]

Individual medal targets – set by sports and signed off by UK Sport - suggest that the main contributors to Team GB’s Olympic medal haul will be the now traditional group of Cycling (6 medals), Athletics (5), Sailing (4) and Rowing (4).

Yes that's the first division.
Then we also get a few (traditionally) from canoeing, shooting, equestrian and swimming (2nd division)

The great thing is swimming seems to be on the up. Which shows that with the right coaching and althete attitude the facilities don't have to be perfect, cos let's face it most of our pools are underspecification. As somebody who finds the thought of competitive swimming training repugnant, I have only admiration for those who can do it and succeed.

So what do we do with the third division, those sports where the rest of the world is so far ahead it will take far more resources than current to step up into the second tier? Are some just dead horses we should stop flogging?

[EddieH]

Wy don't we nationalise a few Americans and have a baaseball team

[andy]

If that's 6 medals of any colour for cycling, rather than just golds, then that wasn't exactly a hugely ambitious target they signed off on

I imagine the targets were set post-Athens - remember cycling "only" won 4 medals there (Hoy, Wiggins, Pursuit, Madison) so 6 would have seemed a reasonable progression....

they're going to get way more than 6 hopefully - 2 already and the lads just smashed the world record in the team sprint qualifying!

[LostAgain]

New Olympic record in the 4Km pursuit, looking good

[Adventure Racer]

Checking the programme, the cyclists should effectively hit 6 by midday (our time) tomorrow, at which point we'll have 2 guaranteed in the women's pursuit by them both qualifying for the final, and one in the men's. Hopefully shortly followed by number 7 in the keirin.

Of course by that point they'll be wiped off the news front page by all the golds GB should win tomorrow in sailing, rowing and swimming!

[Ant W]

So if say Modern Pentathon gets £5,920,000, what does Orienteering get in a fair comparison? What are the comparable participation rates, and elite performance levels?

i.e. what is the effect of being an Olympic sport on funding?