Perhaps further football golds could be considered, such as:
1. highest individual goal scorer;
2. best player of the tournament;
3. best keeper;
4. most spectacular goal.

A panel of highly esteemed judges from every corner of the globe could ajudge nos 2 to 4. Let’s be honest, it could hardly be any more arbitrary than a whole swag of golds that can handed our for a variety of human endeavour – the vast bulk of it barely any more interesting than the game of sjoelbak.

Did I mention I’m opening a new restaurant as well…?!

During the Athens games I did some calculations based on the budget figures and realised a few interesting facts:

It cost every single taxpayer an average of $40 to send our team.

For every dollar of taxpayers money actually spent on promoting sports in this country (providing facilities & equipment, upgrading grounds, funding coaches and officials, investing in kids sporting programs, etc) four dollars goes to fund a bunch of elitist wankers trotting over to the games to participate in sports virtually no-one in this country takes part in or gives a rat’s arse about at any other time. And then when they’re millionaires none of the money is repayed. What about a hex debt?

Think of it this way – every time you see an Australian receiving a medal, just remember it represents a public swimming pool that wasn’t built or a sports ground that could’ve been contructed – and then tell me it was worth it. No wonder our kids are becoming couch potatoes.

The most disgraceful moment in Australian sports was during the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth games when an overly jingoistic journalist poked fun at a Canadian swimming coach after we had thrashed them in the pool. When he was then asked if he felt totally humiliated he replied that he wasn’t, when he considered that the funding given to the Australian swimming team was seven times the funding given by every other country in the commmonwealth for every sport combined. We aren’t respected as a sporting nation anymore, we’re merely considered the new East Germany.

Three cheers for us – I’ll be changing channels.

Of course the NBA also opened the gates to foreign players whose national teams keep knocking off the US in the World Championships and Olympics, so I guess professionalism works both ways.

And then there’s the fact that Americans don’t take international team sports seriously anyway, since they either clash with regular seasons or interrupt off seasons.

I also think there should be respect for team sports that haven’t lost their sense of tradition at the Olympics, like ice hockey, where all the countries take it seriously.

You are presuming that people are distanced enough from particular sports to only think that the pinnacle is national representation. If you look closer its often different.

I’m as or more proud of Aussie footballers who are REALLY cutting it in a UCL game than in a Socceroo international.

I’m as or more proud of Cadel Evans in Silence-Lotto colours tearing up the Alps as I would be of him in a ‘national’ rep race.

I’m far more proud of Bogut doing his thing in the NBA each week than in the Boomers.

Probably overstating my point but there is something about an Aussie representing at the truly highest level – even if that highest level happens to be a commercial team or a club.

I’m thinking the Davis Cup is probably the only partial exception to this rule for me, but I think maybe unfairly as I have fallen for its jingoistic appeal and in reality should look to the Grand Slams alone for that pride in the sport of tennis.

you really are in it for your country – -

and, because all the sports are on show together, and you are part of the broader ‘olympic team’,

well, that means that all of a sudden, the shot putter, the rifleman and Lauren Jackson are ‘team mates’, and contributing to the same medal tally.

That’s what makes the olympics special, and that’s what gives people that national joyous exposure OUTSIDE of their regular fan base – - and that’s why high profile gold medals are super important, which is why we remember the frustrations and joys of the Kookaburras at the Olympics well ahead of at the World Champs,

and why Jana, despite being World Champ, the Olympics were the ‘goal’ – - – - the world champs by comparison, is really just individuals who happen to be ‘Australian’…..a bit like expat Australian soccer players overseas – - – they really are of no consequence unless they might play for the Socceroos….otherwise….they’re just more ‘global’ professionals doing their thing.

Jimbo
That joke is as old as the hills but I still laughed out loud – perhaps it was your deadpan delivery.

For many womens sports the Games appear to still be the pinnacle more so than the mens. Probably as the pro money isnt their to the same degree….I reckon Lauren jackson would take a gold to a WNBA title anyday. I’m no soccer expert but I wonder if Marta and the Brazilians would value an Olympic gold ahead of the women’s world cup ??

What could you do with a ball in a pool in 30 seconds?

Last time I played water polo, my horse drowned

True Tah

Cant speak for other countries but I can speak for the United Kingdom.
They are not interested in the Olympic football tournament because they are not in it. See above link for reasons.
I think its a bit of a myth that traditional football countries are myopic & are only interested in football at the Olympics.
They would in my opinion have more a lukewarm approach in comparison to Australia to the games overall but they would not be glued to “Football only”. I say this because it appears to me from crowd figures at lower age football that Europeans in particular(because they have a saturation of quality matches) are only really interested in their National Senior team,so I doubt anyway that Olympic football would be high on their list of football priorities.

By the end of the olympics, I will be able to distinguish, to within .1 of a point the difference between a good dive and a bad dive (currently my expertise in this field is limited to football matches against asian nations), a good floor routine and an average one (again my expertise is presently limited to football matches against asian nations – usually when they are 1:0 up), a perfect syncronised swilling routine and a poor one (not to mention commenting on the British team’s awful teeth).

These are all rare and dare I say it, golden moments that we as sports lovers should collectively treasure.
Cheers
md.

I’d like to see all the cyclists on the same model bike,

but, in reality, why should I worry about the inequitity at the event itself,

we know that training and preparation creates huge inequitities,

so……since you can’t get all too serious about any of it………why not just enjoy the theatre that is the olympics.

I would put it to you that for many of the team sports on the program, it has become ambiguous as to whether the Olympic gold is more valuable than a world championship.

Now people might turn around and say: if such ambiguity exists, so what?

And I would respond: precisely!

With all due respect, I don’t understand the gripes about sports you don’t follow.

As you can see, this is my very first venture in the Roar, I only signed up last night, and sent this article in off the cuff late last night.

As to photos – I loaded up the striking US Palermo logo instead.

~~~~~~~~~
KB

But in the meantime, virtually everything now has some sort of world cup or world championship, and I’m wondering whether there’s anything left for which the Olympics is the absolute pinnacle?

At the end of the day, this may well be at the heart of my gripe.

there has been talk of rugby being included in Olympics before, but thankfully this talk came to naught.

Some of the sports are debatable, but ideally winning a gold medal should be the pinnacle of that sport. On that basis, sport such as soccer, tennis, basketball and baseball would be excluded.

I do think the Olympics would keep going without soccer. I guess one of the attractions re the Olympics is that there are many differant sports you can follow, well in Australia we all got involved in all sports. From the comments I am seeing, it seems that in countries where soccer is the only sport followed, the people of that country only pay lip services to other sports in the Olympics – would that be a fair comment?

In which case, should the IOC award Olympics to countries where a variety of sports are likely to attract attention, and not ones where soccer is the extent of the local sporting scene?