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Original poster

NO Olympic Medals - why not?

95 replies

Polyanthus2 · 15/02/2022 12:05

It seems weird we are doing so badly in the winter olympics - is it because of Covid and athletes couldn't get to the best places to train?

Any other suggestions?

OP posts:
caranations · 15/02/2022 13:55

@Polyanthus2

I think I presumed that all the tv coverage meant we were actually in with a chance. I'm not that gripped to watch other country's sports people.
I'm the opposite and get quite cross when the tv coverage only shows those bits of events with Brits competing. It's the Olympics, I'd like to watch the best in the world compete, whether they are ours or not.
AmyDudley · 15/02/2022 14:01

Because in countries with snow they grow up with winter sports being a normal part of life as opposed to a specialist thing you have to travel to take part in. My great niece grew up in Norway, she was on skis at 2 years old, she went to school on skis, it is normal life. In Canada kids grow up playing hockey, they can skate at a very young age. It is integral to the culture of snowy countries.
We get an occasional appearance of exceptional talent (Torvill and Dean, John Curry, Robin Cousins) but they were in an era when we had rinks. There are no rinks anywhere near where I live, except an occasional Christmas mini rink, or the odd plastic rink in entertainment centre type places.
I think in sliding sports often people seem to come up through the army, or transfer from other sports because they have transferable skills like speed.
For some reason we seem to do OK in curling. I have no explanation for that other than we are British and it is completely bonkers so we embrace it.

needmoreshinys · 15/02/2022 14:23

@AmyDudley one of the skaters was saying there are loads of curling rinks in Scotland, so that might explain it

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General sports
DoThePropeller · 15/02/2022 14:30

Curling was invented in Scotland!

emmathedilemma · 15/02/2022 14:42

We're a country with one teeny tiny ski resort up in Scotland which (no offense Scots) is pretty basic - we were never going to be able to compete with nations like France and Japan
To be fair there's about 5 teeny tiny ski resorts in Scotland but they're still all basic and many of the GB olympians have grown up training on dry ski slopes. Even curling rinks aren't that common up here.
We're just not very good at winter! But it's fun to watch other nations.

Mysterian · 15/02/2022 15:01

We need more snow. Or we could set up The Moist Olympics full of sports designed for mild drizzle.

WouldIwasShookspeared · 15/02/2022 15:05

Our teams are less skilled than their competitors.

iklboo · 15/02/2022 15:06

The GB bobsled team had a horrible crash earlier. Thankfully both walked away but it was a nasty watch.

Hellocatshome · 15/02/2022 15:10

We need more snow. Or we could set up The Moist Olympics full of sports designed for mild drizzle.

Yes this! We need moaning about the weather and drinking copious cups of tea to be olympic sports and we would be sorted.

thevassal · 15/02/2022 15:17

Surely this is obvious. Some countries pretty much everyone grows up skiing or skating from very early age. Kids ski to school in the winter etc. So you've got a huge population of potential athletes to choose from with coaching available easily and accessibly. Then in the UK you have a small (albeit not on middle-class MN) percentage of the population who might ski once or twice a year at most and the vast majority of the population which have never even tried it.

And of the less than 1% of people who have the innate skills and who try skiing early enough to be noticed as potentially being good enough to compete in it, they will also usually come from families/schools who have the facilities for them to be equally good at other sports, so they are competing with also being told they could be rowing/sailing/etc champions if they preferred.

thevassal · 15/02/2022 15:21

I've used skiing as an example but applies to most winter sports. There is one ice rink in the whole of Wales, and that was closed for nearly 2 years over covid (it wasn't reopened when English rinks were). So that's potentially a whole country (or the Southern half) of possible future ice hockey/figure skating champions who have missed out on too much practice to ever reach Olympic standard now. Meanwhile in Canada or Russia even if rinks had been closed for the same time they will have been able to skate outside for a good portion of those two years, so have still been improving.

Leftbutcameback · 15/02/2022 15:29

British athletes aren’t training in Britain though, even during covid. Dave Ryding has been competing on the circuit with all the other top skiers, the xgames are going on etc. I think covid might have more of an impact in a few years because younger athletes have missed out but thinking all of our top athletes are on the one rink in Wales underestimates (a) the professionalism of the training and (b) the amount of money going into it. We should be doing better this time, even if that means more top 10 finishes rather than medals.

HufflepuffPride · 15/02/2022 16:08

Don’t we always do badly in the Winter Olympics? I’ve never seen the point in it to be honest, it’s shit apart from the ice skating.

Silversprinkles · 15/02/2022 16:20

Curling was invented in Scotland and the Scottish (GB on the label) womens and mens teams are still in the competition and tipped to do very well. They are our best chances for a medal and deserve their funding.

Eve Muirhead is a fucking legend - World Champion in 2013 (and silver/bronze in other years), Olympic bronze, European Champion 3 times. If she was a summer athlete she would be so much more well known and appreciated. It's a very tactical game with a lot of strategy and thinking - like chess on ice with extra sharp precision and placement.

drpet49 · 15/02/2022 16:30

* 9 million invested in curling?! Jesus Confused*

^This.

BathshebaKnickerStickers · 15/02/2022 16:33

I have a world class curling venue 5 mins drive from my house and our local primary schools use it…! I am in Scotland though.

My DH and I did wonder where a 17 year old Scottish girl could possibly learn to do ski slopestyle and Big Air - definitely nothing local and we live in her city…! 1 dry ski slope

Alexandra2001 · 15/02/2022 16:35

It'll get worse though, now we have Brexit, there is the 90/180 rule for staying in snowy Europe and its harder to live & work there without means and health insurance.

Limer · 15/02/2022 16:44

The Winter Olympics are dominated by countries with plenty of snow!

My favourite Winter Olympics was watching Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards. Came a glorious last after practising ski-jumping from his garden shed roof in Gloucestershire. Grin

Ylvamoon · 15/02/2022 16:52

There is also the fact that very little sports are shown on TV (... competition with other screen entertainment is high!)
... but having said that, my DC were glud to the TV watching the Two-man Bobsleigh.
And nearly cried when the GB team had the accident. The fast paced and high speed is far more entertaining than the curling (sorry to the Scots.)
If you want to inspire youngsters to venture into sports, that's were you have to start!

thereisonlyoneofme · 15/02/2022 17:39

Do Finland and Denmark not compete ,havent heard anything about their athletes ?

MoltenLasagne · 15/02/2022 17:40

We need more snow. Or we could set up The Moist Olympics full of sports designed for mild drizzle.

Inspirational! What could events be?
Going for a long walk in shoes that are supposed to be waterproof but start feeling damp after ten minutes
Trying to pitch a tent in that mist type rain without getting all your belongings soaked

latetothefisting · 15/02/2022 17:57

@Leftbutcameback

British athletes aren’t training in Britain though, even during covid. Dave Ryding has been competing on the circuit with all the other top skiers, the xgames are going on etc. I think covid might have more of an impact in a few years because younger athletes have missed out but thinking all of our top athletes are on the one rink in Wales underestimates (a) the professionalism of the training and (b) the amount of money going into it. We should be doing better this time, even if that means more top 10 finishes rather than medals.
My point is that they don't have the access when they are young enough to first get involved in the sport. The current Russian girls winning the skating have been skating since they were at least 3, and have left home for professional academies by the time they were 8. If kids in the UK can't even practice in their local ice rink what chance to they have of ever getting to that level where they even know if they like the sport, let alone be good at it?
timtam23 · 15/02/2022 18:15

@thereisonlyoneofme

Do Finland and Denmark not compete ,havent heard anything about their athletes ?
Finland is a very strong ice hockey nation and also strong in the Nordic/cross-country skiing events. Denmark, not so sure about skiing etc but they have also progressed in the ice hockey at these Games
powershowerforanhour · 15/02/2022 18:16

"we could set up The Moist Olympics full of sports designed for mild drizzle."

You know the Irish would beat the shite out of you. Better facilities.

Hlglu56 · 15/02/2022 18:31

There’s a programme on Iplayer about some of the young skiers/ snowboarders in the lead up to the games. I thought all our winter sport stars lived in the Alps but they don’t. One is still at school in Scotland. They are based in the UK (or at least the ones in the programme) and then go over to train for a weeks at a time. The weathers not always great whilst there’re there so they miss out on much needed practice time and with Covid restrictions they’ve not been able to get out there as much.