Foreign sports and elite athletics

realitykeeper

Should we Irish be following foreign sports? If not, should we not delight and rejoice in Ireland`s failure to beat Denmark in the soccer?

Also, is it wise that we Irish spend a lot of taxpayers money on elite athletics when the odds are stacked against us as a small country? Would it not be wiser to encourage and facilitate fat people and ordinary folk to exercise more and ease the burden caused by their health problems?

By encouraging the masses to participate in sport, not only will we have a healthier population but more athletes will emerge and Ireland`s performance at elite athletic events will improve.

Ten of Swords

Can't make head or tail of that post. Is sport a good thing or a bad thing?

Leg End Reject

Sure why bother doing anything?

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

realitykeeper wrote: »

Should we Irish be following foreign sports? If not, should we not delight and rejoice in Ireland`s failure to beat Denmark in the soccer?

Also, is it wise that we Irish spend a lot of taxpayers money on elite athletics when the odds are stacked against us as a small country? Would it not be wiser to encourage and facilitate fat people and ordinary folk to exercise more and ease the burden caused by their health problems?

By encouraging the masses to participate in sport, not only will we have a healthier population but more athletes will emerge and Ireland`s performance at elite athletic events will improve.

Cutting off funding to elite athletes isn’t going to do anything to encourage more people to lose weight. And anyone who has elite potential will have to have been training from a young age to get anywhere, hence they wouldn’t get the chance to get anywhere near overweight.

Quantum Erasure

we should ban the GAA altogether, we might actually win something then...

Greyfox

realitykeeper wrote: »

Should we Irish be following foreign sports? If not, should we not delight and rejoice in Ireland`s failure to beat Denmark in the soccer?

We Irish should follow who and what we want, people like different things.

Lirange

We might be able to learn from “foreign sport.” I think we could definitely do more to improve Irish sport. How many realistic medal opportunities will we have in Tokyo? Our population is essentially the same as New Zealand. Yet they are consistently on another level to us. 18 medals to our 2 last go around.

realitykeeper

Ten of Swords wrote: »

Can't make head or tail of that post. Is sport a good thing or a bad thing?

Sport is a good thing but foolishness is bad. For this reason, investing in sport should be done wisely and not foolishly. Now do you understand? Note I did not ask if you wanted me to dumb it down.

washman3

Well at least last night V Denmark was a very decent display. We were under no illusions about the task in hand, little was expected, and Ireland were actually the better team,technical aspect aside. Very few players are household names and most people would struggle to name the clubs they play for. They died with their boots on (yet still have a chance to qualify).
Contrast this to the horse****e that was rammed down our throats for 2 years leading up to the Rugby WC. we supposedly had a team of World class players,coach and management. Yet when push came to shove we failed to fire a shot in anger, then retreated like a bunch of spoiled kids even refusing to give interviews to the same journalists that they have courted for years.
Just look at the gracious attitude of the All Blacks after the England defeat.
Might explain why their sports people can average 15 Olympic medals.
With athletics we will always struggle, odds will always be stacked against us but that should not mean we abandon those who love it.
Maybe we should be targeting the events that we have a realistic chance of winning medals at. Should we have a real shot at an Olympic soccer team? Hockey, both men and women teams but unfortunately it's an elitist closed shop in this country. Showjumping the same. We need to be looking at making these accessible to the ordinary Joe Soap.

Scarinae

realitykeeper wrote: »

Also, is it wise that we Irish spend a lot of taxpayers money on elite athletics when the odds are stacked against us as a small country?

How is soccer ‘elite athletics’? All you need to play is a ball. I would have thought elite athletics would be something that requires expensive equipment to play, such as ice hockey.

riffmongous

Every time I see one of the OPs threads

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzlG28B-R8Y

Realt Dearg Sec

Scarinae wrote: »

How is soccer ‘elite athletics’? All you need to play is a ball. I would have thought elite athletics would be something that requires expensive equipment to play, such as ice hockey.

I think they mean elite meaning at a world class level, not elite as in played by poncy tossers from South Dublin.

twowheelsonly

Why call them 'foreign' sports ? International Sports might be more apt.

What we need to win more often at these International sports, including Athletics, Soccer, Hockey and a whole lot more is more investment in those codes. Success breeds success and encourages more participation. Just look at Ladies Boxing (Katie Taylor Effect) and Ladies Soccer (World Cup Effect). Both have seen a colossal growth in participants in recent years and the by-product, as you note, is more elite athletes coming through.

The trouble of course is where to find the funding.. The solution is to take it from those sports that don't compete on an International stage - i.e. those 'non-foreign' sports !!! Somehow, given the tone of your 'foreign sports' jibe, I can't see that being a popular remedy

FanadMan

Op, could you not have left that thought where it belonged......in the toilet bowl?

Your Face

Did you see that ludicrous display last night?

realitykeeper

Scarinae wrote: »

How is soccer ‘elite athletics’? All you need to play is a ball. I would have thought elite athletics would be something that requires expensive equipment to play, such as ice hockey.

Bertie Ahern gave nearly half a billion of taxpayers money to the redevelopment of the Aviva Stadium. He also gave a hundred million or two to the GAA. The GAA probably didn`t need as much because their players play for free so I suppose really the Government paid hundreds of millions to people to play professional soccer but to get to your question: a soccer ball costs a few euro but half a billion is a bit much. When I was in school we used to stuff a plastic bottle and that was our football. Nobody gave me half a billion so why give it to the FAI?

Besides, professional soccer is supposed to be a business. Shouldn`t they be paying the government and not the other way around?