Irish Sporting Achievments

GerM

The IOC has tight directives around the promotion of betting at the Olympics. Horse racing will never be an Olympic sport.

mikom

Dear Ireland,
please just once can you win a bronze rather than a gold in the navel gazing and comparison Olympics.
Thanks,
Mikom.

Ben D Bus

later12 wrote: »

Perhaps it might be useful to compare Ireland to some other participating states from advanced economies & of a similar size:

Country|Population|Gold|Silver|Bronze|Total Medals
Lithuania|3.12m|1|0|1|2
Uruguay|3.25m|0|0|0|0
Croatia|4.29m|2|1|1|4
New Zealand|4.43m|3|2|5|10
Ireland|4.59m|1|0|1|2
Norway|5.03m|1|1|1|3
Singapore|5.12m|0|0|2|2
Finland|5.41m|0|1|0|1
Slovakia|5.45m|0|1|3|4

A similar chart over the last few Olympics might be better as the medal numbers are small enough that a single games is easily skewed by a single medal.

I note for example that Slovakia already has 20 medals after competing in a mere 4 Summer Games. Croatia has 17 after 5 (plus another 10 winter games medals)

kowloon

I know there's another thread on this, but I wonder if a lot of our sports talent ends up in the GAA. I see nothing wrong with this, but it does mean a smaller pool to draw on for the other sports.

We just don't have the numbers to reach the critical mass you need for a sport to develop a talent pool and to get funded and/or have whatever specialised facilities it needs.

latenia

later12 wrote: »

Perhaps it might be useful to compare Ireland to some other participating states from advanced economies & of a similar size:

Uruguay 3.25m

I had no idea Uruguay's population was that small and I've always been a nerd for that kind of thing. It really makes their football achievements all the greater.

later12

later12 wrote: »

Perhaps it might be useful to compare Ireland to some other participating states from advanced economies & of a similar size:

Country|Population|Gold|Silver|Bronze|Total Medals
Lithuania|3.12m|1|0|1|2
Uruguay|3.25m|0|0|0|0
Croatia|4.29m|2|1|1|4
New Zealand|4.43m|3|2|5|10
Ireland|4.59m|1|0|1|2
Norway|5.03m|1|1|1|3
Singapore|5.12m|0|0|2|2
Finland|5.41m|0|1|0|1
Slovakia|5.45m|0|1|3|4


I'm not trying to compare us for nationalistic reasons, but if there is a charge that we are underspending on our sport infrastructure then we ought to relate ourselves to comparable jurisdictions in this way.

I haven't counted Paddy Barnes's guaranteed Olympic medal because (a) we don't know what color his medal will be and (b) other participating states may also be guaranteed unaccounted medals. This is just how things stand at 8pm on Thursday.

While we are at the lower end of what might be anticipated for an advanced economy of our population, we are not strikingly poor performers. While there is room for improvement, as demonstrated so adroitly by New Zealand (shower of freaks), we are in or around where one would anticipate us to be compared to our contemporaries.

Conlon, Nevin and Barnes are all in Semi Finals and all are guaranteed medals.

We are walking from the Olympics with at least 5 medals, at worst case scenario 1 Gold and 4 Bronze.

It's set to be our most successful Olympics ever (a tie with Melbourne in 1956), and people are moaning about under achieving?

We're making massive steps in Olympic Boxing, have track athletes hitting seasons and personal bests across the board at the games, and have people like Jennings showing that they're not just there for a laugh, they're there to put themselves to the test, and to hurt for this country.

Incredible begrudgery in some cases!

ScumLord

Outside of Olympics which features sports people don't care about for more than a month every four years we had Jordan F1 motorsport, while they weren't the most successful team, that they got wins at all was amazing plus they gave many great drivers their big break into the sport including Michael Schumacher.

later12

Deleted User wrote: »

Conlon, Nevin and Barnes are all in Semi Finals and all are guaranteed medals.

We are walking from the Olympics with at least 5 medals, at worst case scenario 1 Gold and 4 Bronze.

It's set to be our most successful Olympics ever, and people are moaning about under achieving?

Just to reiterate, the reason they are not counted on the table is because other jurisdictions may also be guaranteed medals of some yet to be decided hue.

This is just a snapshot. As Ben D Bus said, it would be interesting to compare Ireland to our contemporaries over a number of Olympics, which could be a worthy exercise when this is over... just from the point of view to looking at how effective our sports infrastructure may be on an Olympic level.

Duckworth_Luas

Flange/Flanders wrote: »

we possibly would be doing a lot better at other sports if we didnt have the GAA.

What if Britain, Italy, Spain, France etc didn't have soccer? What if the USA and Canada didn't have gridiron & baseball? What if Australia didn't have rugby league and AFL? What if New Zealand & France didn't have rugby? What if India & Pakistan didn't have cricket?

All these countries have sports and combination of those sports that dominates their nations much more than GAA does in Ireland.

flanno_7hi

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

What if Britain, Italy, Spain, France etc didn't have soccer? What if the USA and Canada didn't have gridiron & baseball? What if Australia didn't have rugby league and AFL? What if New Zealand & France didn't have rugby? What if India & Pakistan didn't have cricket?

All these countries have sports and combination of those sports that dominates their nations much more than GAA does in Ireland.

Yes but we also compete at a decent level at both football and rugby too.

I'm so proud today of katie and of the rest of the olympians. It's such a magnificant achievement even to qualify for an event.

Rhys Essien

later12 wrote: »

Perhaps it might be useful to compare Ireland to some other participating states from advanced economies & of a similar size:

Country|Population|Gold|Silver|Bronze|Total Medals
Lithuania|3.12m|1|0|1|2
Uruguay|3.25m|0|0|0|0
Croatia|4.29m|2|1|1|4
New Zealand|4.43m|3|2|5|10
Ireland|4.59m|1|0|1|2
Norway|5.03m|1|1|1|3
Singapore|5.12m|0|0|2|2
Finland|5.41m|0|1|0|1
Slovakia|5.45m|0|1|3|4


I'm not trying to compare us for nationalistic reasons, but if there is a charge that we are underspending on our sport infrastructure then we ought to relate ourselves to comparable jurisdictions in this way.

I haven't counted Paddy Barnes's guaranteed Olympic medal because (a) we don't know what color his medal will be and (b) other participating states may also be guaranteed unaccounted medals.This is just how things stand at 8pm on Thursday.

While we are at the lower end of what might be anticipated for an advanced economy of our population, we are not strikingly poor performers. While there is room for improvement, as demonstrated so adroitly by New Zealand (shower of freaks), we are in or around where one would anticipate us to be compared to our contemporaries.

Incorrect.As of now we have 5 medals.1 gold,1 bronze and the other 3 at least bronze.The other 3 being Paddy Barnes,Michael Conlan and John Joe Nevin in the boxing.
We also have a medal potential with Rob Heffernan in the 50Km walk.
Overall things not to bad.

BornToKill

Deleted User wrote: »

It's set to be our most successful Olympics ever (a tie with Melbourne in 1956), and people are moaning about under achieving?

cough<Atlanta>cough

McBauer

Eddie Irvine - Almost won the Formula 1 World Championship in 1999

later12

later12 wrote: »

J

Rhys Essien wrote: »

Incorrect.As of now we have 5 medals.1 gold,1 bronze and the other 3 at least bronze.The other 3 being Paddy Barnes,Michael Conlan and John Joe Nevin in the boxing.
We also have a medal potential with Rob Heffernan in the 50Km walk.
Overall things not to bad.

Rhys, read the whole paragraph of the bit you quoted.

True, there are more due a few medals, but there is a reason for not counting these yet.

Ben D Bus

Rhys Essien wrote: »

Incorrect.As of now we have 5 medals.1 gold,1 bronze and the other 3 at least bronze.The other 3 being Paddy Barnes,Michael Conlan and John Joe Nevin in the boxing.
We also have a medal potential with Rob Heffernan in the 50Km walk.
Overall things not to bad.

You didn't really read the post you quoted.

And can I state for the record that I think our medal winners have done a great job. They can be justifiably proud of their achievements. I don't want to be accused of begrudgery simply for a dispassionate analysis of our relative national performance compared to similar countries.

trooney

The Ocean's Seven has only been completed by one person, who happens to be Irish.

flanno_7hi

latenia wrote: »

I had no idea Uruguay's population was that small and I've always been a nerd for that kind of thing. It really makes their football achievements all the greater.

Uruguay has won 2 gold medals both in footie in 1924 and 1928. South America is not as successful as you would think at the olympics. A concerted effort from Brazil in particular in the last 20 years has started to change that.

miker1983

WumBuster wrote: »

Stephen Roche- Tour de France winner
Sean Kelly- one of the greatests cyclists ever
John Treacy/Eamon Coghlan/sonia O Sullivan- World and Olympic medal Athletes
Dermot Weld/Vincent O Brien/Aidan O Brien- greatest horse trianers ever
Barry McGuigan/Steve Collins- world champion boxers
Roy Keane/Liam Brady/Paul Mcgrath- world class soccer players
Padraig harrington/Rory McIllroy major winning golfers

Ya we certainly have never produced any great sportsmen. Id give your friend a Katie taylor style right hook if he dosent STFU

Don't forget Darren Clarke and McDowall

BornToKill

BornToKill wrote: »

cough<Atlanta>cough

Michelle Smith got 4 medals at Atlanta.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland_at_the_1996_Summer_Olympics

Nobody else won a medal.

ScumLord

flanno_7hi wrote: »

Uruguay has won 2 gold medals both in footie in 1924 and 1928. South America is not as successful as you would think at the olympics. A concerted effort from Brazil in particular in the last 20 years has started to change that.

Brazil is great at other sports though which maybe is why they don't care to much about Olympic stuff. They have they're own martial art (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu), they have world class racing drivers too, and of course there's the soccer thing. Olympic sports can be niche sports that are hard to break into if your not well funded and Brazil has to much of a rich poor divide to make the most of their supreme sporting abilities. Soccer and Martial arts are easy for anybody to do with or without money.

flanno_7hi

ScumLord wrote: »

Brazil is great at other sports though which maybe is why they don't care to much about Olympic stuff. They have they're own martial art (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu), they have world class racing drivers too, and of course there's the soccer thing. Olympic sports can be niche sports that are hard to break into if your not well funded and Brazil has to much of a rich poor divide to make the most of their supreme sporting abilities. Soccer and Martial arts are easy for anybody to do with or without money.

Yeah well even if they only had football they would still be amazing.
I just think it's surprising the low medal total for the whole continent

KenSwee

miker1983 wrote: »

WumBuster wrote: »

Stephen Roche- Tour de France winner
Sean Kelly- one of the greatests cyclists ever
John Treacy/Eamon Coghlan/sonia O Sullivan- World and Olympic medal Athletes
Dermot Weld/Vincent O Brien/Aidan O Brien- greatest horse trianers ever
Barry McGuigan/Steve Collins- world champion boxers
Roy Keane/Liam Brady/Paul Mcgrath- world class soccer players
Padraig harrington/Rory McIllroy major winning golfers

Ya we certainly have never produced any great sportsmen. Id give your friend a Katie taylor style right hook if he dosent STFU

Don't forget Darren Clarke and McDowall[/Quote

Motor racing; Derek Daly, Eddie Irvine & Ralph Firman all were F1 drivers for top teams.

ScumLord

flanno_7hi wrote: »

Yeah well even if they only had football they would still be amazing.
I just think it's surprising the low medal total for the whole continent

Olympic sports are too expensive. There's no money in the sports unless your some sort of freak super athlete. South Americans can't afford to take part.

MadMardegan

Didn't expect so many replies! Great stuff folks.

Ok, the guy is Bulgarian, hope that puts it in perspective.

flanno_7hi

Hristo Stoichkov is the only Bulgarian one that jumps to mind without googling

flanno_7hi

last competitive event between the 2 countries?
2 1 all draws

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_%E2%80%93_UEFA_Group_8

Duckworth_Luas

flanno_7hi wrote: »

Hristo Stoichkov is the only one that jumps to mind without googling

Spartacus was from modern day Bulgaria but gladiatorial combat was banned 1500 years ago.

BornToKill

Deleted User wrote: »

Michelle Smith got 4 medals at Atlanta.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland_at_the_1996_Summer_Olympics

Nobody else won a medal.

Three GOLD medals. Medal ranking tables are usually based on that above anything else. See, for example, the BBC 2012 ranking.

BornToKill

BornToKill wrote: »

Three GOLD medals. Medal ranking tables are usually based on that above anything else. See, for example, the BBC 2012 ranking.

i'ts utterly subjective. See for example this table here (first google result for "london 2012 usa medal count")

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1290459-london-2012-medal-count-day-13-events-that-will-add-to-usa-total

and pretty much anywhere else that I choose to search for the type of listing that I "want" to see.

Sea Filly

later12 wrote: »

I haven't counted Paddy Barnes's guaranteed Olympic medal because (a) we don't know what color his medal will be and (b) other participating states may also be guaranteed unaccounted medals. This is just how things stand at 8pm on Thursday.

Why did you not mention that you omitted our other two guaranteed medals, Conlon and Nevin?

Duggys Housemate

Deleted User wrote: »

i'ts utterly subjective. See for example this table here (first google result for "london 2012 usa medal count")

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1290459-london-2012-medal-count-day-13-events-that-will-add-to-usa-total

and pretty much anywhere else that I choose to search for the type of listing that I "want" to see.

lol, nobody just counts the medals equally unless you're a US publication and the US gets out front that way.

endabob1

MadMardegan wrote: »

Didn't expect so many replies! Great stuff folks.

Ok, the guy is Bulgarian, hope that puts it in perspective.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/medals/countries

latenia

flanno_7hi wrote: »

Uruguay has won 2 gold medals both in footie in 1924 and 1928.

I was talking more about the 2 World Cups and 3 other Semis as well as the record amount of Copa Americas. I always presumed their population was 30or 40 million...

Duggys Housemate

Sea Filly wrote: »

Why did you not mention that you omitted our other two guaranteed medals, Conlon and Nevin?

it doesnt matter because, as he said, other nations might have guaranteed but not yet awarded medals.

Sea Filly

later12 wrote: »

Just to reiterate, the reason they are not counted on the table is because other jurisdictions may also be guaranteed medals of some yet to be decided hue.

We know that, but why did you just say you were omitting Barnes, and not mention the other two?

Sea Filly

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

it doesnt matter because, as he said, other nations might have guaranteed but not yet awarded medals.

I know that, but why only mention one of the guaranteed medals? Why specifically Barnes? We know the colours have to be determined but there are three to be determined, why just make a point of saying why you're omitting one of them? If there had been more clarity, people wouldn't have questioning it.

flash1080

Talent times money equals Olympic medals

darragh16

Pool oul Michelle is getting an awful bashing here.

She never tested positive for banned substances at the olympics. It was that bitch Janet Evans who blatantly accused her of doping right after she won the medals. I don't think her medals are tainted and they were never revoked and the IOC & FINA have done that to medalists before

bazingaboom

We produce the greatest racehorses in the world.

Our eventing horses are also the best in the world. Sadly most of them used to get sold but people are slowly inventing them here which was seen in this Olympics with the team coming 5th.

The pony eventers led from the start in the European championships a couple of weeks ago and absolutely destroyed the opposition to storm home with gold while also winning idividual gold and bronze but for some reason you never hear about this.

Brain Stroking

darragh16 wrote: »

Pool oul Michelle is getting an awful bashing here.

She never tested positive for banned substances at the olympics. It was that bitch Janet Evans who blatantly accused her of doping right after she won the medals. I don't think her medals are tainted and they were never revoked and the IOC & FINA have done that to medalists before

.......and who is to know whether she really did have 100% whiskey blood? Too many grey areas in that one

later12

Sea Filly wrote: »

Why did you not mention that you omitted our other two guaranteed medals, Conlon and Nevin?

Sea Filly wrote: »

We know that, but why did you just say you were omitting Barnes, and not mention the other two?

Sea Filly wrote: »

I know that, but why only mention one of the guaranteed medals? Why specifically Barnes? We know the colours have to be determined but there are three to be determined, why just make a point of saying why you're omitting one of them? If there had been more clarity, people wouldn't have questioning it.

Sorry. I got here as quickly as I could.

I am about to reveal why I only mentioned BARNES & not CONLON & NEVIN

It is thus

I forgot the last two guys' names

The mystery has ended.

fryup

realies wrote: »

To put some perspective on the Olympics, if we end up with 4 medals, pro-rata this equates to 60 for GB, 250 for the US and 1100 for China!!

ah don't window dress it with that pro-rata crap,

despite what happened today our olympic is still p!ss poor, if it was only for boxing we'd have next to nothing

fryup

fryup wrote: »

ah don't window dress it with that pro-rata crap,

despite what happened today our olympic is still p!ss poor, if it was only for boxing we'd have next to nothing

take any event when you have to sit down out of the Olympics and we're doing just about as well as Great Britain.

Take any event out of the Wrestling and we do as well as Iran.

Take weightlifting out and Kazakhstan aren't doing too great.

if it wasn't for the track, Kenya'd be having a miserable time.

Take out the sprints and Jamaica are struggling for medals.

etc
etc
etc

Arawn

Best hidden I've a job thread in ages congrats op

Sunnyisland

fryup wrote: »

ah don't window dress it with that pro-rata crap,

despite what happened today our olympic is still p!ss poor, if it was only for boxing we'd have next to nothing

If it was only this and only that,

We are going for the best performance from our olympians ever and you go on about how piss poor we are, ffs can you not just enjoy it like the majority of the people are doing, If your so good go out and get a medal your self.

fryup

Deleted User wrote: »

take any event when you have to sit down out of the Olympics and we're doing just about as well as Great Britain.

oh ffs:rolleyes:

do you sit down in athletics? do you sit down in swimming? do you sit down in gymnastics?

look at all the medals they got in those events

fryup

fryup wrote: »

oh ffs:rolleyes:

do you sit down in athletics? do you sit down in swimming? do you sit down in gymnastics?

look at all the medals they got in those events

~25% of their medals?

Rowing and cycling make up over 40% of their medals. (add equestrian, canoe and sailing and you might see what I mean)

They' have approximately 15-20 times the population Ireland has to grow and select athletes from.

If you can as easily discount "ah its only boxing", I should be just as much within my rights to say "ah sure they're sitting down, that hardly counts".

Sea Filly

later12 wrote: »

Sorry. I got here as quickly as I could.

I am about to reveal why I only mentioned BARNES & not CONLON & NEVIN

It is thus

I forgot the last two guys' names

The mystery has ended.

Google? It wasn't a mystery, it was just very weird. And lazy. And even if you couldn't remember their names, that wouldn't stop you mentioning them.

later12

ah well.

Duggys Housemate

Alina Spoiled Sunburn wrote: »

fryup wrote: »

oh ffs:rolleyes:

do you sit down in athletics? do you sit down in swimming? do you sit down in gymnastics?

look at all the medals they got in those events

~25% of their medals?

Rowing and cycling make up over 40% of their medals. (add equestrian, canoe and sailing and you might see what I mean)

They' have approximately 15-20 times the population Ireland has to grow and select athletes from.

If you can as easily discount "ah its only boxing", I should be just as much within my rights to say "ah sure they're sitting down, that hardly counts".

Ah, it's only dressage.