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I don't think Australia is rubbish at the olympics. It's just that we've gone in with a mostly young team, and I think the excitement of being at the olympics has gotten the better of them.
But combined with the nose-dive in the reputation of the Australian cricket team this poor showing at the Olympics is rather indicative of a nation in sporting decline don't you think ?
the Aussies were fantastic swimmers, but its like the Americans and tennis when they had all the good players, it will come around again Im sure for both..
But combined with the nose-dive in the reputation of the Australian cricket team this poor showing at the Olympics is rather indicative of a nation in sporting decline don't you think ?
Cricket is a national sport, and played by just about everyone as juniors or at some level.
Only very few kick on and actually make a living out of it, even state level is just about anonymous.
The cricket team still thumped India last summer, even if their ageing star batsmen were past their prime.
The cricket team is still ranked number 3 or 4 in the world.
Making the Olympics is a totally different kettle of fish, and talk of a decline is premature.
A lot of our superheroes of the past, such as Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett etc - were ""once in a generation swimmers"", and very difficult to replace.
You simply cannot manufacture sports people of that calibre.
The fact is the rest of the world has caught up, and have bigger budgets as well as populations to boot.
Every nation gets a boost when they host the Olympics, the Sydney games were the peak for Australia.
Australia is still a small nation (population), but generally does well in the Olympics. Oz has had a good run for the last 4 Olympics though
australia did even better in athens in 2004 , australia is the strongest sporting nation on earth overall for the size of their population and anyone who has ever been to oz will know how important sport is in that country , they are having a terrible olympics this year however
I have no idea why the Brits now have the upper hand over the Aussies but...
i'm guessing that the fact that Olympics is held in London strongly motivated and pressurized the Brits to over perform this year. That was especially the case for China too back in 2008 although they have already been among the top for a few years.
while GB performed superbley last night in track and field , the bulk of thier medals have come from cycling and rowing , the powers that be have clearly put in a place a programme which focuses resources in events where they think GB have most potential , its paid off handsomely , i like rowing but cycling does nothing for me
Perhaps now that the Aussie myth at being one of the if not the top world sporting nation can finallyu be put to rest and more serious issues can be contemplated. Unlikely though..
Saying that though the number of silver are impressive....Canada not doing so great either.....
australia did even better in athens in 2004 , australia is the strongest sporting nation on earth overall for the size of their population and anyone who has ever been to oz will know how important sport is in that country , they are having a terrible olympics this year however
Why do so many keep saying they did better in Athens??
58 medals in Sydney vs 49 in Athens is not better. Yes there was one more gold but that doesn't compensate for 9 more overall....
they are having a terrible olympics this year however
I know.
How positively frightful.
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