Irish Winter Olympics team

Good news - Irish bobsleigh team allowed to compete in Winter Olympics - this would have been a travesty.

See article here.

Reply from Kev:

Jaysus dave - it makes absolutely no odds. Its a joke us having a bobsleigh team. We are not and never will be a winter olympics nation.

It's a waste of time focussing resources in that area.

Kevin.

Reply from Tom:

Right let's revamp all sport competitions, take the world cup back to 12 teams, or less, we only want those who can win in it.

WTF mcdaid?

we have a lad in the slalom who is world class, shane o'connor (see here).

Alpine slalom skier Shane O'Connor in action on the slopes

Tom

Reply from Conor:

The McDaid doctrine decrees that all competitions are to exclude teams who cannot win.

Still on Tom's soccer theme, let's look forward to next season's Premiership which will feature Man Ure vs Chelski: 19 games at Old Trafford and 19 games at the Bridge

Conor

Reply from Kev:

you guys are living in cloud cuckoo land - its a question of where the money should be spent in sport - its all well and good to have romantic sporting notions about participation and the olympic spirit but do think irish rugby would have got where it has today if it had focussed resources as much on the 7's game as on the 15 man game, no, or do you think UK track cycling would be leading the world if they focussed on road and track, no. A country, and especially a small country, needs to focus resources on select sporting areas to which they are well suited.

kevin

Reply from Conor:

Fair points Kevin and well made.

I do think it is good that we have some representation at the Winter Olympics.

On the subject of resources, it is hard to get it right. We still send sailing teams to the summer games because we won a medal in 1980.

For all the investment in rowing, we have won nothing. Our track and field performance is abysmal. Boxing is a success story. Our rugby resources have been very well managed and paid off over the past 10 years, although we were a shambles for the first 3 yrs of professionalism.

Rugby is ruthless and funding is targeted at kids at a very young age, it is killing the GAA.

Conor

Reply from McG:

"our track and field performance is abysmal" - somewhat harsh, look at the improvements made in sprinting in recent years. european and world indoor medals, world champs finalists. surely the investment has paid off here. 4th place in olympic finals for rowers (though ultimately disappointing, i concede). boxing a big success story with great coaching. why shouldn't we have a rugby 7's team competing at a top level - tom and i were at the 7's tournaments in wellington, watching teams like portugal, uruguay, kenya out there - we were noticable by our absence.

our bobsleighers are ranked 19 in the world. they have surely earned the right to compete in the winter olympics, against all the odds - sure, they won't win medals (though remember clifton wrottesley? he missed out on a bronze in the skeleton by 1/100th of a second in 2002...) - maybe they have the same ambition i do when i enter the odd race - finish in one piece, and don't come last. and i doubt they received much (if any) funding along the way. they are going to vancouver despite rather than because of OCI support.

i'll be switching on for the winter olympics. sounds like some of you won't be bothering. your loss :)

DAVE

Reply from Kev:

ah dave, we all love sport and i am as interested in the winter olympics as much as anyone but I cant help thinking that this country needs to spend money in select areas to produce some real sporting superstars to drive a national interest in sport and recreation for the good of everyone's health. A women's bobsleigh team finishing 11th or a slalom skier 9th wont change the habits of the overweight 7 and 8 year old girls I see at the school every day.

And if you think Ireland's olympic performance is even approaching what we should be achieving, check out the genesis report commissioned by OCI (see here).

Kevin

Reply from Dave:

re. the habits of overweight kids. interesting point kev - but perhaps irish kids watching the winter olympics in the weeks ahead might think about taking up a new sport? maybe even some of the kids who saw andy, ken and i boarding in the hills last month might do the same. we certainly got a good few whoops from anyone we saw. 10 years ago while i was "learning to board" (read: being stretchered off NZ ski fields...) snowboarding wasn't an olympic sport. changing tack here, nor was mountain biking. we now have irish bikers competing at the top level, and it will only get better - mountain biking will continue to explode in this country, it's only just started - it is the new surfing.

did you know we have a female downhill biker who is a european champion?
i see more and more young kids out in the hills every weekend. so that's one way habits are changing. and look at the number of people entering triathlons, multisport/adventure races now - it's a revelation (albeit in an older generation). in our day, the only options were the big team sports - computer games and TV aside, i'd suggest we in a better place now?

DAVE

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