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Thread: Only one medal at the Olympics

  1. #1
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    Only one medal at the Olympics

    So South Africa got only one medal at the Beijing Olympics. It seems I might have been a bit optimistic.

    Could we have done better?
    Just a bad year?
    Or are we doing something wrong?
    Last edited by Dave A; 25-Aug-08 at 08:38 AM.

  2. #2
    Platinum Member Marq's Avatar
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    Could we have done better?
    I think if I was a competitor - one would always think I could have done better. I think though if you look at some of the times posted by our athletes, they were world class. Just pipped at the post. Not such a shabby performance at it would seem.
    Or are we doing something wrong?
    I believe politics and bad management is at the root of the problem. Olympics is reserved for the elite and this country does not do elite well. The politicians are only looking to line their pockets and forget that it takes money to get a team up to speed. For example our mens hockey team had some support for the first time this year via the lotto hand outs. Here is a team training properly for the first time this year and able to get a camp in before going across. Facilities at a bare minimum and maybe a change of socks as a throw in. Unlike the world champs who have been training for the past four years, have their act together and work with great facilities.
    I understand that 50mil was spent on our athletes in total - if one compares this the 3.5bil spent on Australia's athletes then the results are not surprising.

    You can see the same scenario with the world cup - we are spending billions on stadiums and infrastructure - zero on the team. Did China do this? It would appear that they got themselves ready in all departments and took the opportunity to show the world a good front all round. Our crowd keep forgetting that marketing and showmanship is one of the end objectives. The world is not interested in fighting, blaming, pointing and not me scenarios along with shabby statistics in the criminal, corruption and politics departments.

    What did SA do for the olympics? - spent 50mil on the athletes - wasted 15mil on a promotional campaign that did not happen. Dressed our athletes from a second hand shop for a few bucks and hey presto expect them to bring home the gold. I will not be surprised if a report comes out telling the world how our politicians and sponsors involved have the gold in their pockets while our athletes sit at home jobless but happy that they were able to participate in the Olympics.

  3. Thanks given for this post:

    Graeme (26-Aug-08)

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    Gold Member Chrisjan B's Avatar
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    Yes and just look at the shabby way they treated Natalie du Toit - frontpage of Rapport dated 24 August 2008. I think such and event can spoil an athletes state of mind and undo months of mental training!

    When will these politicans learn to leave things to be done to people that does it best and rather concentrate on a framework to make it possible for people to do what they do best. This is applicable to to sport, economics etc.

    They must just stop meddling everywhere!!!! But no they must feed their ego's and insecurity by trying to control everything. Most of the time they bugger it up anyway!

    Thanks for letting me rant this way!!
    Last edited by Chrisjan B; 26-Aug-08 at 03:44 PM.

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    Diamond Member wynn's Avatar
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    It appears we got three gold medals





    yes






    yes we did






    yes





    But security made the culprits give them back!!!!

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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    There is something of an interesting insight into the finances of Olympic and local sport in this story.
    It is not as though we do not spend big on sport in South Africa. Sponsorship from private companies on rugby, soccer and cricket alone, tops R3-billion a year. The state-owned Lotto budgets to spend almost R700-million on sport each year.

    But a number of sports organisations do not meet the Lotto's criteria, such as the requirement that they supply financials for two years, so actual disbursements are lower, at about R500-million, according to evidence presented to parliamentarians.

    The R500-million was split this year between 50 sporting codes, 20 of which are Olympic sports. These 20 codes shared R53-million, with Sascoc, the body which runs the Olympics in South Africa, getting R28-million, also from the Lotto.

    The R53-million is more or less half the R113-million Australia says it costs to get an Olympic gold medal. With Australia's final tally sitting at 14 golds this amounts to more than R1,5-billion spent on Olympic achievement.

    According to Sascoc the R28,9-million it gets goes to projects such as the Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games and the Commonwealth Youth Games. It also receives R9,1-million from sport and recreation and about R4-million from the Internaional Olympic Committee. It says that about 20% from all projects is recovered for admin costs.

    According to UKSport, the British government's sports agency, the country spent £235-million on the summer Olympic sports in the run-up to Beijing.

    This is about R3,4-billion on Olympiad sports alone. Their total medal count in effect cost the Brits about R63,8-million each. And this is not taking into account corporate sponsorships for the various teams and athletes.
    full story from M&G here

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