[Honestweegie]

But... why do Team GB expect to get all golds... there seems to be a lot of tears and disappointmnet over receiving a silver

[daisiesfan]

Originally Posted by Honestweegie

But... why do Team GB expect to get all golds... there seems to be a lot of tears and disappointmnet over receiving a silver

I don't get it either.
Especially the way the media reports it as a loss. If that was the case they would only give out awards for first place.

[Honestweegie]

and we've done better than i thought we would, consider we seem to be crap at everything

[Pendragon579]

Think the media has overhyped things on the medal front... as we saw tonight with Vicky P there is no such thing as a certain gold

[Leicester_Hunk]

Because a lot of them have been overexposed in the press and had expectations built up - Victoria Pendleton being one, Becky being another, Mark Cavendish another. Jess of course but then she did what she was expected to do. I wonder how the press would have dealt with her if she had got silver (which would have been fantastic in itself). Then when the girls like Sophie and Kath, or Kath and Anna, who aren't in the papers all the time, win gold, it's a "shock"

[thejel]

In VPs case I dont think its such a bad thing retiring on a Silver.. Surely much more difficult to retire at the top of the tree...

[Virtual Paul]

Maybe they know really that if they'd done close to their pb that it would have won gold, or lost out by such a tiny amount that they knew their chance had gone for another 4 years at best.

Besides silver and bronze are way down on a gold, regardless of what Adlington says. Sport is about winning not taking part.

[elena]

Because I think one of the reasons for our success is our competitors (in some fields at least) have shaken off this "aww, we just want to take part" mentality and have moved to the more US-style "we want to win" mentality. *

That is NOT to say that the achievements of all shouldn't be applauded, and any medal is such a wonderful achievement - but they know it's a home games, and I think the team as a whole have a bit more 'drive' and 'bite' than they perhaps had, say, 10 years ago.

.. Personally, I think it's a good thing. I would hate us, as a general population, to view a silver as a bad result, that's too extreme.. but I think a happy medium makes us more successful.


*A notable exception being swimming

[Pendragon579]

Originally Posted by Leicester_Hunk

Because a lot of them have been overexposed in the press and had expectations built up - Victoria Pendleton being one, Becky being another, Mark Cavendish another. Jess of course but then she did what she was expected to do. I wonder how the press would have dealt with her if she had got silver (which would have been fantastic in itself). Then when the girls like Sophie and Kath, or Kath and Anna, who aren't in the papers all the time, win gold, it's a "shock"

The trouble is the main press writers are not specialists in each particular field e.g. they think Cav is the best cyclist in the world so he will win the road racing gold, simples! As we know it's nowhere near as easy as that but the press would have to do their homework on each particular sport to find that out

[Apple_Crumble]

The downside, for me anyways, is when sour grapes creep in. We have seen it tonight on here with some people moaning about a bit of rough n' tumble in cycling. Seesh. It happens all the time in cycling!

Silver is still a good achievement. There is no shame in Pendelton losing to a better cyclist (in my opinion).

[Pendragon579]

Originally Posted by elena

*A notable exception being swimming

Poor old swimming, now the black sheep of the family*

*But still currently doing better than all the ball sports combined.

[daisiesfan]

Originally Posted by Virtual Paul

Maybe they know really that if they'd done close to their pb that it would have won gold, or lost out by such a tiny amount that they knew their chance had gone for another 4 years at best.

Besides silver and bronze are way down on a gold, regardless of what Adlington says. Sport is about winning not taking part.

If that was true there would only be medals given for first place. You can't take anything away from someone coming second or third in the world whatever the sport!

[jimmy7bellies]

Think it shows how far the GB team has come from the days pre turn of the century when we'd only pick up a handful of golds (winning only 1 gold in 1996), back then our athletes would of been delighted with any colour of medal. Not now, since 2000 we have really grown as a top Olympic nation, a team of winners, 1st place is what they are aiming for. If only our footballers could do the same.

[Jerrica09]

Originally Posted by Honestweegie

But... why do Team GB expect to get all golds... there seems to be a lot of tears and disappointmnet over receiving a silver

Because we've done so well. Remember that some were crowing we woudln't get a single gold a few days in, now we've been so spoilt that some of us are blase about silver medals

[Pendragon579]

Originally Posted by daisiesfan

If that was true there would only be medals given for first place. You can't take anything away from someone coming second or third in the world whatever the sport!

And Becky has more Olympic medals than I will ever win, so I respect her achievement of winning a medal in each Olympic final she has competed in. Ultimately in the 800 metre final she had a bad day at the office, we all have those. Honestly the way the media have been slating the swimming you would think the swimmers had murdered all their families.

[daisiesfan]

Originally Posted by jimmy7bellies

Think it shows how far the GB team has come from the days pre turn of the century when we'd only pick up a handful of golds (winning only 1 gold in 1996), back then our athletes would of been delighted with any colour of medal. Not now, since 2000 we have really grown as a top Olympic nation, a team of winners, 1st place is what they are aiming for. If only our footballers could do the same.

The thing is with the footballers, I really think they don't care whether they win or not, as they still take home their ridiculous pay cheques every week win or lose.

[jimmy7bellies]

Originally Posted by Pendragon579

And Becky has more Olympic medals than I will ever win, so I respect her achievement of winning a medal in each Olympic final she has competed in. Ultimately in the 800 metre final she had a bad day at the office, we all have those. Honestly the way the media have been slating the swimming you would think the swimmers had murdered all their families.

Our swimming team (not so much adlington) was a bit of a let down tbf. We still have improvements to work on for 2016, lets see our swimmers follow the lead the likes of the cyclists and rowers.

[Opaque]

When they are the existing Olympic champions anything less than a gold is a loss of status
I can see why they think that. But if you're not the champion anything is good.

[rattie]

I think it's probably a good attitude in some ways. It's the drive to be the best and not second best that gets so many successful sportspeople to the top of their game. Too long we had the "it's the taking part that counts" view. Many other countries have never seen it like that.

On the other hand there is so much to be proud of in silver and bronze, it's probably more about not reaching what they know they are capable of and as a result missing gold which accounts for the disappointment. Many have been delighted to get on the rostrum irrespective of the colour of the medal

[Pendragon579]

Originally Posted by jimmy7bellies

Our swimming team (not so much adlington) was a bit of a let down tbf. We still have improvements to work on for 2016, lets see our swimmers follow the lead the likes of the cyclists and rowers.

Relatively speaking a let down. Still two bronzes and a silver. There are other sports where we have won nothing - e.g. archery. But they are not having a go at the archers are they?