The AH Tokyo 2020 Olympics/Paralympics Thread in 2021

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117744529#Comment_117744529

Indeed and I'd say most horse racing people are sports fans just like the rest of us and would love to see more funding going into Olympic sports.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117744470#Comment_117744470

Well then it should be considered as some other type of commercial activity. Take it out of 'Sports Funding' and let the IDA or whoever subsidise it from their budget.

Christy42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117744293#Comment_117744293

I saw Jacobs said he smiled when he saw the news since the British press have taken a few shots at him. Not saying he is clean but as he said they possibly should have been looking closer to home first.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117747763#Comment_117747763

As far as I know, they are funded by the Department of Agriculture and none of their funding comes from Sport Ireland. So it's a bit of a myth that they are impacting on sports or Olympic funding in any way.

deise08

New search function is crap, or I just can't seem to work it properly. Goes straight to oldest, can't find newest post.

Edit: new tagging function is brilliant.

If somewhere more suitable for this please move it.

Did Anyone else see this tweet from paralympian Patrick Flanagan?

His wheelchair was made unusable somehow between getting on the plane and ollecting it in Heathrow.

https://mobile.twitter.com/PatrickFlan/status/1426403040102342656

fryup

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117744293#Comment_117744293

and who the hell are we to talk...

michelle smith, martin fagan, stephen roche, michael O'reilly, that horse in athens 04

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117752061#Comment_117752061

In fairness, the vast or overwhelming majority of our Olympians were probably not taking drugs. We've won a tiny number of medals on the athletics track (and none in the swimming pool outside Michelle Smith). There doesn't appear to be a strong doping culture here, thank goodness.

Ha Long Bay

Just catching up on the days events on +1 tonight. Congrats to Ellen Keane on her gold medal today a brilliant achievement.

Watched some of the basketball yesterday it's really not the same without Timmy "downtown" McCarthy commentating.

robinph

I'm sure we really shouldn't be laughing, but the S5 butterfly swimming, which is those with no arms, was hilarious. I thought the fundamental thing about the butterfly stroke was the both arms going around your head at the same time thing, but with no arms you can't do that obviously so they were just swimming like fish wriggling through the water. Then part way through the race you realise that they have no arms to touch the end of the pool and stop the clock...and sure enough they just keep going until they headbutt the end. :D

robinph

Now they have blind long jump happening. One person stood just on the take off board and shouts at the jumper who runs straight at them, then the shouting guide has to leap out of the way at the last second as the jumper goes flying over them and hopes that they land in the sand pit. I've done some guiding of blind runners in races, but that is a whole heap of extra trust in the assistants shouting at you and guiding you to leap literally into the unknown.

Silver for the girls on the track, delighted for them. Even held the world record for 10 minutes.

Morris Garren

Watching highlights today- lots of great performances, not least from the RTE analysts who bring a fair degree of expertise and excellence.

However, during the wheelchair rugby highlights, the RTE voice-over told us (I had to replay it to be sure) that one of the British para-athletes climbed the 'worlds highest mountain - KILIMANJAIRO - on his hands and knees....' having been amputated 'in his yooot' - Christ almighty, do RTE get junior cert work experience kids to do this thing? Serious disrespect and lack of proper professional standards from the broadcaster, in contrast to the real athletes themselves.

Morris Garren

Have to say, once again, the quality of RTE coverage lies in the excellent insights of Mark Rohan and Catherine Walsh; they have to cover lots of disciplines but they have done their research and are really on top of their game.

Contrast this with the muppetry and nonsense of the GAA coverage yesterday-- Pat Spillane shouting and ranting like a drunkard; not sure why RTE retain these dinosaurs for years when you compare them to the more genuine contributors who actually know what they are talking about

siblers

You'd really have to question some of the classifications, was watching one of the 200m final in running and the one who won seemed to have minimal impairment while others couldn't even fully sprint due to their impairment. Seems to be across the board for a lot of the track and swimming events

robinph

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117821285#Comment_117821285

In some events just down to the numbers for the event they might have a couple of categories merged together to create a full field. The number of competitors for some events is just so few that it exaggerates the range of standards between the best from each country.

robinph

Then you get other categories like the T64 100m and four athletes finishing the final within 3 100ths of a second and unable to separate 3rd place.