Olympic Games Paris 2024 - AH Thread [Thread banned posters listed in first post.]

ledwithhedwith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497323#Comment_122497323

stop being a child.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497353#Comment_122497353

Nah. It's nonsense the amount of vitriol and jealousy thrown at the GAA. Most of it has no basis in reality or is based on a reality from over 50 years ago.

Anyone think we don't have bigger athletics participation because the GAA won't turn itself into a charity building facilities for other sports is just wrong.

6 clubs in my general area. 2 rugby, 3 soccer and 1 GAA. If it's all so harmonious outside the GAA why am I not seeing athletics in Thomond. Why are Balla spending loads of government money on new exclusive facilities when they could share with Moyross, Thomond, Shannon or Caherdavin ?

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122496002#Comment_122496002

Will be interesting to read commentary on the UK's efforts this time and maybe there is something to learn for us in terms of sustaining support. They seem to have hit a wall in gold and overall achievement.

Maybe someone more knowledgeable can point to why this is?

ledwithhedwith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497377#Comment_122497377

I don’t think it’s jealousy at all. The GAA have always been incredibly insular and I think most rational people recognise that fact.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497377#Comment_122497377

Nobody is asking GAA to turn itself into a charity. But the GAA is very happy to take government funding for those facilities, that should come with strings attached about access to those facilities for other sports.

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497383#Comment_122497383

I think people started copying their methods in high performance and marginal gains etc..

jackboy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497377#Comment_122497377

When I was growing up the community games athletics competitions always took place at the local GAA grounds. Not sure if that still happens. GAA club also does loads of 5k runs for fundraising. Loads of non gaa people enjoy those.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497385#Comment_122497385

Exactly what I said. Attitudes from the 1960's

Most GAA people are in some way multi sports fans the same as every other sports fan in Ireland.

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497352#Comment_122497352

It just requires spending the money well.

Having realistic targets in participation but also in producing elite athletes.

One thing is I'd fund the LOI academies.

Also increase and improve PE in schools.

The number one metric should be participation, but not just kids but all ages. I bet there's loads of adults out there inspired by the Olympics to get back into sport.

The key to producing elite athletes is casting as wide a net as possible and having kids try as many sports as possible. Then when they're older filter them into high performance and elite coaching.

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497400#Comment_122497400

It is the Gaelic Athletic Association and it really makes sense to include them and their vast infrastructure in any forward planning. Would there really be much opposition, I wouldn't imagine so.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497397#Comment_122497397

So why is government money for soccer or rugby not being asked to come with strings. Why do we not have athletics courses and hockey pitches in the middle of all the greyhound stadiums ?

There is a great team up in Limerick with Greenmount cyclo-cross and the horse racing stadium. That should be forced on every horse racing stadium in Ireland I suppose.

Every sport is happy to take government money for facilities and every sport does exactly that.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497424#Comment_122497424

And it is totally inefficient. Of course every sport is happy to do that, they shouldn't be allowed. This is not about GAA v soccer and rugby.

I'm asking you if that's the wisest use of the government funding, if the aim is to increase sports participation?

Not everybody is into GAA, some prefer other ball sports, some prefer individual events.

AndyBoBandy

Serious cold turkey here in the house yesterday….

Went downstairs after work, we had dinner and sat on the couch afterwards, turned on the TV, and after a quick scan around the channels, turned it back off….

Thats the beauty of the Olympics… it doesn't matter what the sport is, it's all compelling viewing…

and it's also sad too that it'll probably be at least 12 years before we have another Olympics in our region/time zone again….. yeah we'll still see some live events from LA & Brisbane, but the vast majority of everything else will be happening at stupid O'Clock, and RTÉ can't be relied on to provide a comprehensive highlights package…

Even the little TV in my office has probably done more work this summer between the Euro's and Olympics than in the previous 6-7 years or so it's been on the wall!!

Anyway….

what day is it even…….

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497436#Comment_122497436

I have no problem with the idea that government funding should be for community facilities only.

I have a problem with the GAA being constantly singled out as supposedly being the only sport taking government money for single sport use.

wazzzledazzle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497383#Comment_122497383

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497398#Comment_122497398

OH has made a good point there. More countries, especially host nations , provided significant funding as the UK did for 2012. You can see the correlation on how well Japan did in their home Olympics and likewise France. Obviously, the more nations who increase their gold medal hauls, this will impact other nations.

I heard that melt Laura Kenny make a significant point with regard the Track cycling in that all nations had to share what race equipment they were going to use with all other nations for the first time, which leads me to believe they were gaining a significant advantage in their equipment, based on only they got 1 gold medal this time around. I'm sure their are more Cycling fanatics who could say exactly what sort of gains their equipment may have had(or not had)

Did you smash it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497397#Comment_122497397

I would be shocked if the money the GAA got from the government was 10% of the money the GAA raise for the excheque annually; mainly through VAT for matchdays on petrol, hospitality industry, public transport, matchday staff.

This idea that the GAA are supported by the state is ass backwards.

The horse racing industry claims it makes 2.? Billion a year for the government.

The soccer industry claims somewhere between 600 million and 1 billion.

The GAA moves people far more than those two so god only knows what they are generating for the economy.

yet we have to hear nonsense that the government supports the GAA.

FrancieBrady

This is how it should be, going forward. Doesn't need to be as elaborate. This project is an initiative of The Athletic Club, The GAA and the local municipal districts north and south. I think the soccer club was initially involved but opted out of trusteeship although they are users in a major way. Two soccer clubs the GAA and athletics use it as well as a multitude of other sports and the general public. This multi use, shared running cost model is the only sustainable way forward. I'm told this facility has confounded the business plan and is way ahead of projections.

https://www.thepeacelink.eu/

reubenreuben

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497385#Comment_122497385

Gaa are like the people who say , that's jimmy down the road in meath, yer know, the blow in from dublin. He's been living there for 40 years though.

odyssey06

Bump, thread stuck for me.

Asdfgh2020

the simple fact is that there are more Gaa clubs than any other type of club in the county and it’s inevitable that they will get the lions share of funding……don’t think there is any government biased-ness towards them. Also, Gaa soccer and rugby being team sports will always attract more kids as opposed to more solitary sports such as swimming, rowing, etc where a lot of the training is done in very small groups or alone..?

orangerhyme

People should view GAA as an advantage anyway.

They take in kids at under 6s now and train them so that's a head start on lots of other countries.

Nermal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497458#Comment_122497458

Laughable that they're not using standardised equipment, really. Who's competing here, athletes or manufacturers?

wazzzledazzle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497670#Comment_122497670

I was shocked when she said it. More shocked that it was not standardised across the board, moreso for the Olympics. There is significant advantages to be had in AERO tech.

Ceepo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497285#Comment_122497285

While in principle,you're right, the Olympics will inspire less people than Gaa Rugby or soccer,but that doesn't mean other sports shouldn't get a piece of the funding pie. Fundamentally people are physiologically different. Not everyone has the eye hand coordination required for hurling, or the physical attributes to be a rugby player.

If you look at the huge number of events in Athletics you will see the difference between say a 100/200m runner and a 200/400m runner, yet both are classed as sprints. Similar to the 1500m , some people move between 800m and 1500m and some between 1500m and 5000m. This is dependent on muscle type and aerobic capacity.

If by Only funding the main team sports you mentioned, you're doing a disservice to a whole other coherent of sports people.

And while putting money into sports can have a huge physical benefits in terms of health, it's important to remember that there is also huge benefit to mental health as well. So JUST putting a focus on a a small number of sports (although it represents a big number of people) you're excluding a huge number of other people.

Jack Daw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122495736#Comment_122495736

So mentioning in her African heritage is racism according to some (because it implies she's not fully Irish), and now not mentioning it is also wrong.

It's very hard to keep up with all the rights and wrongs of identity politics , just shows you that people who indulge in it all the time are cranks who are just hoping to be offended so they can have another thing to complain about.

wazzzledazzle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497760#Comment_122497760

They get a bit annoyed when they don't get their "gotcha" moment. Something to be enraged about. You know the type. Only happy when they're not.

Galwayguy35

Nadeem the guy who won gold at the javelin had to ask someone a few months ago to buy him a javelin so he could practice, the clip on Wion showed his village and its like something from 100 years ago with just the most basic of facilities.

That he was able to compete with athletes from countries with unlimited resources at their disposal and win is impressive.

Strazdas

The three most watched events on TV in Ireland during the Olympics were Kellie Harrington's win, Adeleke's 400m final and the women's relay final (in that order).

Not a surprise that Kellie and Rhasidat were the two main draws for TV viewers.

EagererBeaver

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122496002#Comment_122496002

The UK national lottery has been running since 1994. It was not set up to fund Olympic sport.

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122498407#Comment_122498407

Kellie's fight was on a Tuesday night rather than a weekend night so easier to watch for people.

I'm guessing that includes RTE player views.

I would've thought the 4x400 girls would be highest.