[Devongone]

Well, we only got to see the rider and horse as they were supposed to be entering the arena. The girl was beyond tense, angry, very upset, ready to have a kicking fit. Don't you think that was because she'd just spent 20 minutes with the horse, knew she couldn't get him to do anything and already knew her Olympic medal was off down the pan. Had she been given the chance of a different horse do you think she, or the horse, would have arrived at that point in that state? Really? German equestrians are just too efficient and keen to win to have allowed that to happen, if they'd really have had a way out, so I'm sorry but I don't believe a viable alternative was offered, whatever Samantha Murray thought (from a studio in London). Given the chance the rider would have swapped for a clothes horse. You didn't need to be Monty Roberts to know what was going to happen.

What they aren't telling you is that to get to know and ride a horse in a demanding discipline in 20 minutes is pretty cruel in itself. At least in horse racing when horses are unfamiliar with a jockey they are with other horses, and they are herd animals, they don't like being alone in a big open space with frightening brightly coloured poles, being ridden by some girl, who may well be a rich spoilt bitch for all I know. You think those horses aren't scared out there? Look how wild-eyed they are. Why couldn't the riders be first given access to the randomly-chosen horses a week before the contest? There's time. Why? Because the organisers want crazy shit like that to happen. They want to entertain the idiots. And you're right it's cruel.

Yeah, I'd send the coach and the girl in for three rounds each with Lauren Price. That should do, and the horse to a quiet field where the flies are his biggest worry.

[ritchiebaby]

Regarding the medal table, it's what GB are all about and surely the other nations target as many as possible too, as shown by the wild celebrations over any medal won. I know this might not be a widely held view nowadays, but it's one of the few areas where GB are still a leading nation in the world, so let's enjoy it and celebrate it for all it's worth.

The most interesting afterthought is how will funding for Paris 2024 be divided out?

[St Charles Owl]

Regarding the medal table, it's what GB are all about and surely the other nations target as many as possible too, as shown by the wild celebrations over any medal won. I know this might not be a widely held view nowadays, but it's one of the few areas where GB are still a leading nation in the world, so let's enjoy it and celebrate it for all it's worth.

The most interesting afterthought is how will funding for Paris 2024 be divided out?

Not just the GB, over here the medal table is huge and they were desperate to get more golds than the Chinese. Interestingly the medal table in the UK is ranked by Gold medals, over here its ranked by total medals won. GB is 4th either way I believe. But Japan and ROC switch places depending on which way it goes.

[Amelia Chaffinch]

Does it get more air-time than it used to, SCO?

[ritchiebaby]

I meant to mention the stunning performance from Jason Kenny to win Gold in the Keirin. He took off with 3 laps to go (unheard of in a usually tactical race) and the second place rider just looked over his shoulder wondering what everyone else was going to do. By the time they reacted, he had disappeared into the distance.

[St Charles Owl]

Does it get more air-time than it used to, SCO?

Wall to wall, multiple channels on the NBC network. Off course they major on Americans as they should but they show plenty of other as well. They love Tom Daley!! You could watch most events live if you wanted to stay up into the middle of the night but they had a prime time show at 5pm - 11pm every day.

[Devongone]

Certainly the medal table seems to be what GB and others are all about, but isn't that why the Russian State was sponsoring doping and tampering with samples etc., isn't that why Chinese swimmers bulked up and started breaking records by huge amounts and their distance runners started winning by half a lap, isn't that why all these years later women can't sprint like Flo Jo, or match Marita Koch's 400 metre times? Isn't that why British athletics turned a blind eye to Mo Farah going out to be with Salazar? Isn't her past association with Salazar the unmentionable truth about Sifan Hassan's assault on three gold medals? Of course it's good that we do well in a multiplicity of sports, but Mo Farah has been disguising our slight decline in athletics for a few years now, our cyclists now are only winning gold in the less glamorous events and our rowers have suffered a massive fall from East German led grace. Achievements are cyclical, maybe we'll build up again in all these sports. Swimming will be the interesting one, can we ever find a new Adam Peaty or a Duncan Scott and how likely are we to come up with a new gay, knitting diver who pikes, twists and purls for fun?

The only male 400 metre runner we have who could beat Warholm if he hurdled and our guy ran on the flat spends a lot of his time injured and couldn't go to the Olympics, consider that when examining the medal table.

[Lord Snooty]

I just look at the medal table as just a bit of fun. There's nothing gained for coming top. Nobody remembers who topped the table in 1972, but they remember Mark Spitz winning 7 Golds.

[Amelia Chaffinch]

'72 should also be remembered for the poor Israeli athletes who died.

[theo_luddite]

Re: Devogone
Team GB leave Japan with 12 cycling medals, matching their performances in the London and Rio Olympics and just two short of the record haul from Beijing in 2008.
Great Britain topped the medals table in two-wheel events.
While British Cycling’s performance on the track was in doubt heading into the Games, as other nations had dramatically closed the gap in major competitions, the Team GB track stars delivered multiple golds.

But the Great Britain Cycling Team also flourished in other cycling disciplines, winning gold in BMX freestyle and racing, as well as mountain bike gold with Tom Pidcock.

In an interview with The Telegraph, British Cycling performance director Stephen Park said: ‘We’ve had a tough few years at British Cycling, different people taking different views. I have always been very conscious of the legacy of the British cycling team.

“The question was whether we could maintain top team status. For those listening three years ago I was saying the dominance of the track would not be the same because of the movement in equipment. That’s proven to be the case.”

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/briti...0-olympics

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Re SCO
Ok I've been back here 19 years but of the Olympics I saw while over there, and OK a few degrees further North, most of the TV channels were US biased. The biggest complaint I had was that they only used to show events with a Yank (individuals or teams) in them. As soon as they were out the sport/event/finals disappeared from view. Other than the medals table changing, you would have no idea anything had happened. I guess with interweb streaming these days, and the diverse population able to watch folk from back home on all manner of devices, they've had to become more inclusive to keep the viewing figures up to pull in the advertising revenue.