-
IMPORTANT // Please look after your loved ones, yourself and be kind to others. If you are feeling that the world is too hard to handle there is always help - I implore you not to hesitate in contacting one of these wonderful organisations Lifeline and Beyond Blue ... and I'm sure reaching out to our PRE community we will find a way to help. T.
2024 Paris Olympics
- Thread starter Redford
- Start date
Swiss golfer Morgane Metraux has gone out in 28for the front nine of her 2nd round, wow !!!
Olympic golf began as a doubtful proposition. It’s in no danger of missing the cut
Picture-perfect conditions and a large crowd made the first day of the women’s golf a triumph, but the Australians had mixed fortunes.
Yep, I agree.
Olympic golf began as a doubtful proposition. It’s in no danger of missing the cut
Picture-perfect conditions and a large crowd made the first day of the women’s golf a triumph, but the Australians had mixed fortunes.www.theage.com.au
I watched most of the mens, including all of the final round, it was awesome . The crowd were great and respectful, which was a pleasant change from the Pga tour.
Hoping for Botswana's first medal with Letsile Tebogo in 200m Mens later ... fingers crossed
Bloody hope so, was always a fan of Fredericks from Namibia years ago but he never quite got there for gold.
In terms of medals, you do have to look at how many are on offer. Given how there were way less gold medals on offer in Melbourne I still reckon that would likely be the largest proportion of gold medals Australia has won.
Actually, having a bit of a dive into the stats, in Melbourne Australia won 13 of 151 gold medals - 8.6% of gold medals. In Paris it looks to be 329 gold medals, so for Australia to do as well we would need 28 gold medals.
DS
Yep he did it GOLD to Botswana a big deal here ,first ever Gold Medel to Bots .. 200 m ..
Bots up ! Tebogo blew Lyles into the weeds. Lyles reckons he has Covid.
Abby Andrews. Brilliant. Another bad loss for the screaming, grand standing USA. Just needed France to get up in the basketball to make it a true disaster for the Americans.
Men's kayaking. Good effort. Almost a boilover.
Abby Andrews. Brilliant. Another bad loss for the screaming, grand standing USA. Just needed France to get up in the basketball to make it a true disaster for the Americans.
Men's kayaking. Good effort. Almost a boilover.
Yeah, but we also had 9% of all athletes competing in Melbourne.
Yeah, a lot less countries back then as so few were decolonised - in Africa Ghana was the first to decolonise (Gold Coast prior to independence) and that would have been 1957 from memory. Similar in Asia, Malaya 1957.
But, we won a higher proportion of gold medals at Melbourne than any other olympics, this is just a fact - Melbourne is the best!
DS
I only take a passing interest in how Australia performs. Probably why I detest the swimming coverage.
The overall global landscape and dynamics of a sport is more what I find interesting. Probably because I am from a track and field background. Arguably (along with soccer and boxing) the most truly global sport.
You touched on the West African nations. I for years as a teenager in the 90s had been talking up the potential for the Caribbean nations to temper US track dominance (in the sprint events). Could just see underlying signs. And from about 2007ish that came to fruition. Jamaica and Bahamas being the two main two (Trinidad to some degree too). Albeit, Jamaica had a poor Olympics this time around, by their recent standards, with the US wrestling back dominance they have not had in a while.
Seeing similar signs now coming out of West Africa. Not necessarily winning medals yet, but building some depth. Cote d’Ivoir and Nigeria I have thought of for a while as having great potential (perhaps Ghana too). The former two showing some really good signs, particularly in the women. The more the better to break this American dominance and good for the sport overall.
Last edited:
Botswana another African nation really shining on the track. Their men’s 4x400 team are the ones to beat in the final, based on the heat form.
I don't watch much athletics, but I reckon Nigeria have underperformed in athletics over the years, and also in soccer.
Would love to see an African country win the soccer world cup, it is basically the only sport in a lot of African countries.
DS
Correct, they certainly have. In fact Nigeria were showing really good signs in the 90s along with the Caribbean nations. But never really kicked on like Caribbean.
I remember interviews with the likes of Caribbean sprinting legends, Merlene Ottey and Ato Bolden, who have done trips to West Africa to work with athletic organisations there. And they both commented on the immense amount of talent they saw. But there just isn’t the organisation and technical know how in place to harness it. But they saw no reason the region couldn’t mimic or go beyond what the Caribbean has achieved in the sport. Of similar modest means.
Cote d’Ivoir by relative African standards appear functional, and seem to also be leveraging off their historical links to France and a large diaspora there too.
<
Basketball
|
TV shows
>
