Great Britain National Thread

[Orangehair43 254]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/57652166
 

An analysis of Britain’s hopes in Atheltics (no mention of the the relays - 4 x 100m for women must be a medal contender as well.

 

 

Because swimming and rowing finals are in the middle of the night Athletics will be the main focus of the press so a poor performance as it looks like it will sadly be will have an impact on funding in the buildup to Paris as much as they trying to hope it won’t. 

[Nickyc707 382]

  On 6/26/2021 at 11:45 AM, Orangehair43 said:

https://www.eurosport.com/olympics/tokyo-2020/2020/tokyo-2020-gold-for-laura-muir-double-silver-for-dina-asher-smith-predictions-for-team-gb_sto8223701/story.shtml

 

This would precipitate quite a funding drop for Paris and LA - it will be quite a challenging decade for athletes having to try and get more private funding after 25 years of Lottery funding being the main source. 

Expand  

Gracenote may prove to be correct but please remember that the same organisation predicted that GB would win around 50 medals in Rio rather than the 67 they eventually secured. Given the disruptions of the past eighteen months predictions inevitably have a reduced factual basis compared with previous games.

[Nickyc707 382]

BBC report on Gracenote forecasts.

 

https://www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/57888185.amp?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a6&usqp=mq331AQIKAGwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From %1%24s&aoh=16268598197654&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fsport%2Folympics%2F57888185

 

Interestingly, having forecast a British total in the low 40s and a table placing of 8-9th for most of the cycle, they have upgraded GB's performance just before the Games. They also note that they may be underestimating GB's track cycling squad. 

 

Can't help but wonder if this reflects their big miss on GB's performance in 2016.

[Orangehair43 254]

I know their saying funding in the Uk not going to be affected by performance but If GB do badly it will have an effect. Every other country will be dealing with the same Covid issues (there is only going to be a few medals at best ruled out due to Covid caught in the Uk). 

[mpjmcevoy 362]

  On 7/21/2021 at 10:21 AM, Nickyc707 said:

BBC report on Gracenote forecasts.

 

https://www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/57888185.amp?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a6&usqp=mq331AQIKAGwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From %1%24s&aoh=16268598197654&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fsport%2Folympics%2F57888185

 

Interestingly, having forecast a British total in the low 40s and a table placing of 8-9th for most of the cycle, they have upgraded GB's performance just before the Games. They also note that they may be underestimating GB's track cycling squad. 

 

Can't help but wonder if this reflects their big miss on GB's performance in 2016.

Expand  

Gracenote always follow world Champs/rankings to make their predictions and in many sports, that's fair enough. In others, though, it's a shambles, and track cycling is classically one of those shambles - Lord alone knows what form GB are in, though the astonishing speed of the Women's pursuit team in the low key europeans in 2020 suggests they ain't done yet.

 

Add in the long break since the last worlds in many sports, the vagaries of trying to extend form another year, the practical halting in many countries of anti-doping and the effects of covid on everything, and frankly it's a lottery. GB, USA, AUS etc are going to miss medals they never counted on missing, and win medals they never really thought were winnable...and for funding purposes, the safest thing is to treat this Games as sui generis, unique.

 

In GB's case, with the particular 'Great England Nationalist' government we currently enjoy, gold medals are right up thier street - these guys won't slash sports funding. Schools, hospitals, maybe, but not the 'ambassadors'

 

 

[Nickyc707 382]

  On 7/21/2021 at 2:23 PM, mpjmcevoy said:

Gracenote always follow world Champs/rankings to make their predictions and in many sports, that's fair enough. In others, though, it's a shambles, and track cycling is classically one of those shambles - Lord alone knows what form GB are in, though the astonishing speed of the Women's pursuit team in the low key europeans in 2020 suggests they ain't done yet.

 

Add in the long break since the last worlds in many sports, the vagaries of trying to extend form another year, the practical halting in many countries of anti-doping and the effects of covid on everything, and frankly it's a lottery. GB, USA, AUS etc are going to miss medals they never counted on missing, and win medals they never really thought were winnable...and for funding purposes, the safest thing is to treat this Games as sui generis, unique.

 

In GB's case, with the particular 'Great England Nationalist' government we currently enjoy, gold medals are right up thier street - these guys won't slash sports funding. Schools, hospitals, maybe, but not the 'ambassadors'

 

 

Expand  

Not going to get into politics beyond denying any culpability for electing the current Govt.  I suspect that Gracenotes may be closer to the mark than they were in 2016 although they themselves have noted the difficulties caused by the lack of international competition and in particular the absence of many of the top Chinese athletes when making their forecasts. Of course it's not only Chinese athletes, e.g. current Olympic champion Giles Scott took a three year leave of absence from Finn class sailing and so isn't rated as a potential medallist. 

 

Longer term I'm hoping sport won't suffer funding cuts but not for the reasons you suggest might drive Boris & Co.

[Grassmarket 3,618]

Already a big bummer for the Land of Hope & Glory today with the news about Amber Hill.  Only tiny consolation is that shooters can have longer careers than other Olympic athletes, so she will have other chances.  But she was definitely one of our highest-ranked athletes globally.

 

 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/57917553

[Mkbw50 438]

2-0 Women's Football

 

It means we have a 100% record at Tokyo 2020 so far, just finish the games now

[Nickyc707 382]

Flag bearers are Hannah Mills (Sailing) & Mohamed Sbihi (Rowing).

[Orangehair43 254]

  On 7/21/2021 at 3:54 PM, Nickyc707 said:

Not going to get into politics beyond denying any culpability for electing the current Govt.  I suspect that Gracenotes may be closer to the mark than they were in 2016 although they themselves have noted the difficulties caused by the lack of international competition and in particular the absence of many of the top Chinese athletes when making their forecasts. Of course it's not only Chinese athletes, e.g. current Olympic champion Giles Scott took a three year leave of absence from Finn class sailing and so isn't rated as a potential medallist. 

 

Longer term I'm hoping sport won't suffer funding cuts but not for the reasons you suggest might drive Boris & Co.

Expand  

And most of the contenders from Australia and New Zealand have only competed domestically since last year as well. While in some events (such as Swimming) domestic times can be useful for judging form in other events it’s a lot harder to comapare without direct competition.