Could I be an Olympian in 2020?

dulpit

Just watching the closing ceremony now. Looks like fun, I want to go.

I'm 30, don't really have a sporting background and am quite unfit. I'm wondering if there's any sport or event which would be easy enough that I could pick up and master over next few years so I can go to Tokyo in 2020. Possible?

NIMAN

If there was another Zika outbreak around the Japan region, and our golfers start pulling out again, you might sneak on to the team.

thelad95

If you really wanted to, a sport like archery could well be mastered in that space of time.

maudgonner

At the rate OCI members are being investigated you might have a better chance of getting a spot on their board.

Realt Dearg Sec

Boxing. How much skill does bribing a judge take, really?

Insect Overlord

Weight lifting could be an interesting challenge for ya.

PARlance

Olympian by 2020! I admire your vision.

PowerToWait

thelad95 wrote: »

If you really wanted to, a sport like archery could well be mastered in that space of time.

Ah yeah, piece of piss. Jayzis.

Surreptitious

People train to be in the Olympics since they were kids. Ridiculous question.

Glass Prison 1214

OP it is seriously hard to master any sport, let alone one that your not truly passionate about. My advice is find a sport you love and you'll be happy, no matter what your level.

ballsymchugh

Surreptitious wrote: »

People train to be in the Olympics since they were kids. Ridiculous question.

Glass Prison 1214 wrote: »

OP it is seriously hard to master any sport, let alone one that your not truly passionate about. My advice is find a sport you love and you'll be happy, no matter what your level.

is this yisser first ever look into an AH thread??

maudgonner

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Boxing. How much skill does bribing a judge take, really?

Problem with that is that you may end up with the likes of Michael Conlon beating seven shades out of you. Ain't no judge gonna save you from that :pac:

Dublinaccount

dulpit wrote: »

Just watching the closing ceremony now. Looks like fun, I want to go.

I'm 30, don't really have a sporting background and am quite unfit. I'm wondering if there's any sport or event which would be easy enough that I could pick up and master over next few years so I can go to Tokyo in 2020. Possible?

Remember when you saw the karate kid and decided you'd become a professional karate master.

Well this is another of those moments.

Add it to super-spy, tour de france winner and astronaut.

maudgonner

OP should possibly consider the new sports that are being introduced in Tokyo: karate, softball/baseball, sports climbing, skateboarding and surfing.

Of those, I'd say surfing is your best bet. We in Ireland have an innate ability with surfing, as displayed by your man who stood up on the surfboard after 14 pints of stout.

Would Guinness cause you to fail a dope test?

learn_more

Glass Prison 1214 wrote: »

OP it is seriously hard to master any sport, let alone one that your not truly passionate about. My advice is find a sport you love and you'll be happy, no matter what your level.

Rowing is hard to master ?

maudgonner

learn_more wrote: »

Rowing is hard to master ?

Yes, rowing, as in rowing a boat takes years of building up the endurance & mastering the technique.

Rowing, as in having an argument, isn't so hard to excel in. But sadly it's not (yet) an Olympic event. Easy to get them confused. If it ever does get into the Olympics AH should send a team though.

unfortunately

How are people actually selected to go to the Olympics? Could we just send anybody and fill up all the available sports? Who wants to be in my synchronised swimming team?

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

learn_more wrote: »

Rowing is hard to master ?

Master as in compete at international level, then yes. We're not talking rowing a dinghy across Greystones harbour.

My guess would be anything that involves a horse. Let the horse do the work.

IvyTheTerrible

The host country is expected to have a team for every sport. Find out what the Jspanese have no history in, get Japanese citizenship and train like hell! :P
(For the London Olympics, the organisers put ads in local French papers looking for handball players with dual citizenship, for example.)

Del2005

If Eric the Eel and Eddie the Eagle managed to qualify for the Summer and Winter Olympics then it must be possible to do it with 4 years dedicated practice. The trick must be to pick a sport that no one else from the country is doing.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Del2005 wrote: »

If Eric the Eel and Eddie the Eagle managed to qualify for the Summer and Winter Olympics then it must be possible to do it with 4 years dedicated practice. The trick must be to pick a sport that no one else from the country is doing.

Beach vollyeball?

ButtersSuki

maudgonner wrote: »

Rowing, as in having an argument, isn't so hard to excel in. But sadly it's not (yet) an Olympic event. Easy to get them confused. If it ever does get into the Olympics AH should send a team though.

Problem is it would be impossible to reach a consensus on the best team.

Fuzzytrooper

dulpit wrote: »

Just watching the closing ceremony now. Looks like fun, I want to go.

I'm 30, don't really have a sporting background and am quite unfit. I'm wondering if there's any sport or event which would be easy enough that I could pick up and master over next few years so I can go to Tokyo in 2020. Possible?

How would you feel about the winter Olympics? I'm thinking of putting together a bobsleigh team.

Outlaw Pete

Shot put. Just bodybuild and stuff. I don't know.. where's my keys.

Canis Lupus

Australia just had a marathon runner at 40. His first olympics btw so yeh, go for it. I imagine getting olympic level good at something in 4 years is achievable but you'd have to be utterly consumed for 4 years.

I imagine the hardest part however is getting good enough to qualify in 4 years.

Richard Hillman

Rowing and Cycling have interchangeable skills. Rebecca Romero got a medal in rowing in 2004 then a few years later got one Track cycling in Beijing.

tritium

It sounds like a pipedream but... Im pretty sure one of the uk marathon runners in the commonwealth had been a beer swilling couch potato up until a couple of years before- did fairly well too!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article

Lux23

Shooting?

somesoldiers

thelad95 wrote: »

If you really wanted to, a sport like archery could well be mastered in that space of time.

heard Simon Delaney talking about a programme he was making to do just this. The problem was that he would have had to be in the top 30 (or something) of the world to qualify which means numerous competitions in the run up to Olympics. Think he gave up after a year in

Your Face

You could with dedication, hard work and loads and loads of PEDs.

Badly Drunk Boy

somesoldiers wrote: »

heard Simon Delaney talking about a programme he was making to do just this. The problem was that he would have had to be in the top 30 (or something) of the world to qualify which means numerous competitions in the run up to Olympics. Think he gave up after a year in

Quitter!!

(I hate Simon Delaney.)

munsterlegend

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

The host country is expected to have a team for every sport. Find out what the Jspanese have no history in, get Japanese citizenship and train like hell! :P
(For the London Olympics, the organisers put ads in local French papers looking for handball players with dual citizenship, for example.)

Did Thierry Henry apply? He might have got the dual citizenship given his years in London!

IvyTheTerrible

munsterlegend wrote: »

Did Thierry Henry apply? He might have got the dual citizenship given his years in London!

Haha no even though he seems to have the skillz!

Actually one of the guys who was selected, I think he played in the 2nd division handball league in France, he wouldn't have come within an asses' roar of the French olympic team, so it was a nice opportunity for him.

cherryghost

esports could well be an Olympic sport in 2020. Try playing some esport orientated video games.

jamesbere

With certain sports you can forget it, gymnastics, boxing, certain track and field events. They take years of practice and and high levels of endurance that your not going to build in four years and probably never if you're starting at 30.

Now something like weight lifting, possibly running and rowing where you need to build up muscle and endurance could be possible although still highly unlikely.

There was a fella who attempted to get under the Olympic marathon qualification time from scratch, did pretty well but injury screwed him. I'll try and find the link

fryup

shooting

god knows we get enough practice in this country

Ficheall

Get citizenship for a country that has a **** team for something. Eg. it would be possible to achieve the level of Olympic team-member for any of the bottom 20 or 30 countries in chess in a couple of years:
https://ratings.fide.com/topfed.phtml
Maybe it's not the Olympics you want, but no one will ever know...

Boom_Bap

You probably couldn't even put in the training to be a ballboy in the tennis in four years.

Letree

I think i seen table tennis there. Surely that can't be too hard to master at your age.
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You are not going to the Olympics OP you are going to be sat on your couch watching it just like this one.

Strong Life in Dublin

If you have money try stuff like sailing and equestrian

Calahonda52

thelad95 wrote: »

If you really wanted to, a sport like archery could well be mastered in that space of time.

Is that not just wire pulling with an aim?

BattleCorp

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Is that not just wire pulling with an aim?

I can do that. Straight into a sock. :pac:

Skylinehead

maudgonner wrote: »

Rowing, as in having an argument, isn't so hard to excel in. But sadly it's not (yet) an Olympic event. Easy to get them confused. If it ever does get into the Olympics AH should send a team though.

No we shouldn't :mad:

Badly Drunk Boy

Skylinehead wrote: »

No we shouldn't :mad:

Well, I think we should. In fact, we should send two teams, for each type of rowing: Rowing with aggression, and Rowing with humour. And the word 'rowing' should always be in bold. So should 'bold'.

Any problems with that?

Skylinehead

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

Well, I think we should. In fact, we should send two teams, for each type of rowing: Rowing with aggression, and Rowing with humour. And the word 'rowing' should always be in bold. So should 'bold'.

Any problems with that?

I disagree with everything you say for no reason at all :mad:

PowerToWait

Some of these sports are heavily skill based. Archery is not a physical sport, but the raw talent required would rule out 95% of the population being anything better than average.

Forget about rowing or lifting or any of those. Also serious skill required as well as very specific physiological attributes.

If you're tall and like throwing a ball I suggest you get a handball team together. It seems like the least skillful of the lot.

4 days should have you at Olympic level.

maudgonner

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

Well, I think we should. In fact, we should send two teams, for each type of rowing: Rowing with aggression, and Rowing with humour. And the word 'rowing' should always be in bold. So should 'bold'.

Any problems with that?

Skylinehead wrote: »

I disagree with everything you say for no reason at all :mad:

Speaking as the chief executive of the RAI (Rowing Association of Ireland), as long as I get my first class flight, luxury hotel room and all the trimmings, I don't really give a shíte. I'll leave all the hard work to you athletes.

Clearlier

If you really want to compete in the Olympics the best way would be to get citizenship of a country that doesn't really send people to the olympics, set up an olympic qualification organisation. The IOC has a program to accept token athletes from countries where no one has qualified and you'd just need to get yourself sent under that.

Widdershins

Well there was a Jamaican Bobsled team so why not an Irish Bobsled team? (Cool Runnings!)

El Tarangu

Stranger things have happened, OP

"At the age of 33, he took a look at himself in the mirror and realised he had to make something of his life. He took up running, and discovered he had a natural talent for it. He shed his 20-a-day smoking habit, stopped guzzling sweets and chocolate..." - then went on represent England in the marathon in the Commonwealth Games.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/commonwealthgames/10995170/From-16st-smoker-to-elite-marathon-runner.html

Pherekydes

I suggest Decathlon. You only need to be decent (i.e. medal winning) national standard in the 100m, Long Jump, High Jump, 400m, 110m Hurdles, Pole Vault and Javelin (maybe) and decent (maybe top 10) standard in the throws and you'd be good to go.