Beijing was mainly in the night for us, wasn’t it?
Didn’t they push the swimming finals to the morning session so that they were on at a better time for TV in the US?
I’d forgotten about Peking. I think I watched a fair smattering of that when I was in Germany; but I was living there alone at the time!
Yes, they did the same at Rio.
Think they are doing the same again. The long distance races are all starting stupidly early to avoid the heat, with the added benefit that it makes them evening viewing in Europe.
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…1500m is Laura Muir’s favoured event however - is keely hodkinson running 1500m also? She’s looking like she’ll be world class. Great that we’ve got some strength in depth there
As for the men’s… 
Callum Hawkins for marathon - he was barrelling along in Australia until he decided to dive head first into the railings … other than that…?
Full GB athletics team:
Muir is 1500m only, although she smashed an 800m last week so might be regretting not deciding to double up.
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Oh dear - looks like it might be quite a fallow year for the men’s track
Couple of people from Blackheath & Bromley 
At least it’s in a year when nobody will notice 
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Watched Gold Rush on telly last night, recap of London 2012. I was a little surprised that they ended on a note of “but it wasn’t worth it for some”. Perhaps it’s true, but only Pendleton saying it in the show and put a bit of a dampener on everyone else’s experiences imo.
I didn’t feel it put a damper on it. I felt it was a very honest reflection that it’s not always worth it. Some people clearly thrive on being the best at all costs but then there are those like VP who clearly found the high pressure environment left them feeling pretty damaged even when they got the success. It looks to me she just found the daily grind of everyone trying to put do you too much and these are people who were the best of the best. Gives quite an honest reflection when some people stress far too much whether they run 20:01 or 19:59 at parkrun.
Indeed. It’s nothing new. You want to win Olympic Gold? Then you better sell your soul to the devil, because you can bet everyone else is. T’was ever thus, and I find it disingenuous for people to suggest otherwise from a commitment & sacrifice perspective.
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Sure, but why end on that note?
This. I find it a bit baffling that some people don’t get that the pointiest of pointy ends of sport is going to be anything other than brutal, cut-throat and ruthless
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Same as business as well really; you want the spoils? Then you have to pay the piper.
I havent watched it yet but there was a documentary on BBC last night about Helen Glover, The Mother of call comebacks. She retired after Rio, had 3 kids, then in lockdown decided to come back, won the European championships and is now heading to Tokyo. Should be quite interesting.
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I get that and looking in it’s easy to say ‘well, duh’ but I think it’s quite easy to see how these excellence programs get a reputation for being meat grinders. Most Olympians come from growing up in sports but I don’t think many start off with the exclusive idea of being a gold medal contender. Most people likely start because they want to play or compete in a sport and inevitably the potential candidates get pushed up the chain. It’s probably quite difficult as you progressively get pushed up from local, to regional to national and international level to say ‘no, this is too much’ as just stay there and even when there I imagine it’s quite difficult to see if something is becoming too consuming. I imagine their normal looks very different to ours.
Yes although I think a lot of the accusations from somewhere that the athletes were subjected to an awful amount of bullying and bad behaviour from those around them. So much less them treading on everyone else to get to the top than being constantly beaten down
I’d rather hear from the Olympic hopefuls that were cast aside by “the machine” rather than gold medalists. What their experience was and whether they regret trying and failing…maybe it reflects differently from the medalists.
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