Medal Count

[JJ]

I can't believe how anyone could question the legitimacy of Cathy Freeman's Gold in Sydney.

Her time of 49.11 in the final would have bitch slapped both Shaunae Miller and the great Allyson Felix in the Rio Final, who ran 49.44 and 49.51 respectively.

Also, five women broke the 50 seconds barrier in the Sydney Final, compared to three in the Rio Final.

And to debunk another myth, she had no reason to fear Perec because Freeman won Gold in the World Championships in both 1997 & 1999.

Finally, just in case people aren't sold on her greatness, Freeman is the 2nd fastest women in history that wasn't an Eastern European Hulk-like genetically mutated freak from the 1980s.

She's second only to Perec. In fact both their times when they came first and second in Atlanta are the two fastest in history (again not including the Beasts of the Eastern Bloc).

I believe Freeman is Australia's greatest ever track athlete as her PBs are standing the test of time in the truly elite modern era (and I mean no disrespect to the likes of Cuthbert by saying that).

Herb Elliott?

 

[JJ]

Big Tom Walsh gets a bronze in the shot - medals today for NZ, 1 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze - not bad for a wee country

 

[BuffaloRules]

Freeman winning that was absolute bullshit.See the opposition she beat? They were crap the lot of them.

And what the Oz public conveniently block out of their minds is the fact that the best competitor in the world,the French woman (her name escapes me ATM),was hounded so badly by the Australian media,she fled the country.

That woman was put under a coordinated and blatant siege,designed to break her to ensure Freeman's win.

That is probably why Freeman wore that stupid jumpsuit...to further away any attention to the reason why she really won.

Hounded so badly... Are you for real?

Freeman won the 400m World championship in 1997 and 1999...How was Perec the best int he world come 2000?

There was no way Perec was beating her....

I reckon if you had another brain it would be lonely..

 

[BuffaloRules]

Marie Jose Perec.

She had Freemans number and she knew it, Freeman was lucky she wasn't there.

She had her number apparently... just hadn't beat her since 1996....

 

[Micky75]

After swimming I lost interest with Australia - I'm not paying out our medal count, but I was more interested with Bolt. I will watch the Basketball if the Boomers play the dream team.

 

[Pommy]

After swimming I lost interest with Australia - I'm not paying out our medal count, but I was more interested with Bolt. I will watch the Basketball if the Boomers play the dream team.

No idea why Australians have a reputation for being bandwagoners

 

[ozbash]

Go Lydia...

 

[DiegoNT]

Surprise Gold in the Pentahlon! What a Gun

 

[Mogsheen Jadwat]

She had her number apparently... just hadn't beat her since 1996....

But still had a better time than her in the event. Two straight gold medals prior to, freeman could have beaten her, personally im not convinced she would have (not that it really matters at this point).

 

[Shorty]

But still had a better time than her in the event. Two straight gold medals prior to, freeman could have beaten her, personally im not convinced she would have (not that it really matters at this point).

You remain unconvinced for illogical reasons.

 

[Mogsheen Jadwat]

Hardly. If winning the previous two Olympic events including beating freeman in Atlanta with a time freeman didn't get close to in her career is illogical, then logic doesn't exist.

 

[dogz08]

that eliza mccartney is a bit of a looker for a kiwi lol

 

[Twizzle]

prefer Tatiana

 

[Shorty]

Hardly. If winning the previous two Olympic events including beating freeman in Atlanta with a time freeman didn't get close to in her career is illogical, then logic doesn't exist.

Except that she hadn't won her event for like 3 years leading up to it and hadn't actually ran 400m at all until a few months before the Olympics...
Maybe she knew she wasn't good enough to win.

 

[Tommy Smith]

Hardly. If winning the previous two Olympic events including beating freeman in Atlanta with a time freeman didn't get close to in her career is illogical, then logic doesn't exist.

Ummm it's called TIME. And the passage of it.

Perec was better in Atlanta. But that was four years before Sydney.

And in the passage of TIME since, her performance dropped. As is the case with every athlete.

Logic, indeed.

 

[Shorty]

So what is the verdict on the medal tally? (If we are conservative and say this is how we finish).
The good thing about this medal haul is that the golds are spread out in all different events.

But its a shame the swimming, cycling and rowing couldn't have beefed up the tally.

 

[Bazal]

Swimming is the big concern. We haven't got the cyclists we used to on the track, and there are a lot of countries at the same level or better. We had a horror run in road cycling, Porte was a great chance for a medal and crashed out, Dennis was IMO a lock for a medal, he's an outstanding one off time trial rider but he had to change his bike and lost over a minute. Rowing has done quite well considering, between rowing and the canoe events we've got five medals. That said, we have a pretty young swimming squad and that can't have helped.

Mens rugby sevens was a let down IMO, we should have been challenging for a medal at least, especially once SBW went down for NZ. The hockey sides, too, were a big let down.

I've been worried by our athletes seeming to fold under pressure in loads of sports, really.

 

[T-Boon]

So what is the verdict on the medal tally? (If we are conservative and say this is how we finish).
The good thing about this medal haul is that the golds are spread out in all different events.

But its a shame the swimming, cycling and rowing couldn't have beefed up the tally.

I am happy with how we have done.
I always thought it was weird when we finished in the top 3 or 4. The golds we have won are good quality especially the 100m freestyle which is arguable in the top 3 or 4 most anticipated events at the games.
The sweetest gold is always the surprise ones and we have had a few of those. I am always surprised by how well we do in field events.
The team events and cycling and rowing could obviously have been better but we are getting towelled up by the old enemy, no disgrace in that at present.
All told it has been a great games except for that Kitty Chiller who set the tone for the whinging early on and I've cringed at her face ever since - she's like some sort of parent figure - if I was Emma McKeon I would have told her in no uncertain terms where she could stick her closing ceremony ban.

 

[Shorty]

Yeah the pressure thing is....strange.
I know we have always had a few chokers in the olympics but it was like 80-90% of the team!

Even the Boomers went from being quietly building to awful...is someone high up approaching these athletes the day before their final to 'encourage' them?
Maybe the psyche is rubbish.

 

[Danish]

It's been the worst games I can remember (I was alive for Seoul but was a toddler).

I don't expect us to be finishing top 3 or whatever, but we absolutely should have finished with double digit gold, if not 12-13.

The biggest disappointment to me though is how many events we had favourites in that we wound up not even being in the medal hunt. If we'd won 15 silver and 15 bronze, I could cop our low gold count a lot more. But fact is the majority of our Olympians have underachieved, especially in our so-called pet events of swimming, cycling, and rowing. Every one of our team sport entrants also need to hang their heads in shame bar the women's rugby side.

I'm hoping they have a big overhaul of how funding is allocated after this games. I'd like to see those swimming Prima donas lose all funding (they are big enough to support themselves through sponsorships) and that money pumped back across lesser funded sports. No reason why with some relatively small funding we couldn't develop into a force in archery or other sports that don't require genetics to dominate. Maybe we could buy a gold or 2 as well by recruiting some ringers from OS again like we used to in field athletics or at the Winter Olympics...