19 replies to this topic

[fox334]

olympian, on Aug 30 2008, 02:43 PM, said:

yet a Canadian swimmer managed to be on the podium while a South African swimmer failed to step on the podium this time. there's a slight difference.

Also, Canada did better that in Athens, while South Africa went from three medals (gold, silver and bronze) to zero.

[micheal_warren]

Yes the times in the ppols have really moved forward in the past four years...

[Rafa]

The outrage in the media in RSA seems to say that Olympic sport still matters here in RSA. Unfortunately we needed this performance to help possibly turn things around. If only we could put our egos aside and learn from the Ozzies.

[mattygs]

I guess most nations have a horror games every now and then. As has been mentioned, australia had their one in 76, and New Zealand had a bad Games in Sydney (well, bad compared to nz public expectations, but logicially, wasnt that bad at all).
But look at Australia now. And even little New Zealand , population 4.2million, managed to get 3 gold, 1 silver and 5 bronze.
I guess the key i to look at what model is the best for each given country. You can;'t just replicate what Australia has done, or what China has done.

[micheal_warren]

exactly! Good point mattygs

[Rogerioandrade]

mattygs, on Sep 1 2008, 04:59 AM, said:

I guess most nations have a horror games every now and then. As has been mentioned, australia had their one in 76, and New Zealand had a bad Games in Sydney (well, bad compared to nz public expectations, but logicially, wasnt that bad at all).
But look at Australia now. And even little New Zealand , population 4.2million, managed to get 3 gold, 1 silver and 5 bronze.
I guess the key i to look at what model is the best for each given country. You can;'t just replicate what Australia has done, or what China has done.

Right.
And while it´s important to invest in every sport, it´s important to try to keep the higher funds for the sports that the nation has more tradition and popularity, keeping them in a always high level and than developing the others.

For us, brazilians, our worse performance was in Sidney (6 silver, 6 bronze, no golds), perhaps that was the edition when we had more chances of getting the gold. 2008 was just so-so for us, since we raised the total number ( 15, from 10 in Athens), but lowered of number of golds (3 from 5). The overall sentiment, though, is deception, ´cause this time we had more money and a bigger delegation.

[Athan]

Well, it was a really bad performance for RSA, maybe it's an economical problem, but look at South African Paralympic sportspeople!!!!

They already have 29 medals in the Beijing Paralympics (there's only 3 silver and 5 bronze medals, the rest (21) are golds!) and are placed 6th right after Australia and before Canada.
Congratulations!

[Rafa]

21 gold!!! its insane..we're so proud!

[Mainad]

Mo Rush, on Sep 16 2008, 05:35 PM, said:

21 gold!!! its insane..we're so proud!

Indeed.South Africans may be disappointed with the performance of their Olympic team but their Paralympians have more than made up for it with a truly superb display (especially from Natalie du Toit and Oscar Pistorius)! Well done SA!!

[Augie4040]

Cape Town 2020.

Just wait till then and South Africa automatically fields 3 athletes in VERY discipline. Try and work up a better/ newer SAOC medal program and test it out in 2012 London and 2016(chicago/Rio) and with so many South African participating in 2020 Cape Town Games, I can foresee South Africa walking away with 25 medals.

Shocking "home field advantage" improvements happen, just look at the US performance in Salt Lake City compared Nagano only 4 years earlier(we almost tripled our medal count).

Just start HEAVILY recruiting young folks now so they will be ready by 2020. You just gotta build that program.