Winter Olympics

Sorry @Doghouse Riley we'll have to agree to disagree re EC. I am well aware of her previous achievements and well done to her for those. It is her manner I and other of my fellow countrymen object to not her underachievement due to so called bad luck. Of course luck does play a part in sport especially being able to peak at the right times and staying injury free, however, to have "bad luck" in all 6 of her Olympic attempts seems somewhat pushing the boundaries of bad luck.
I was a professional sportswoman myself, of a reasonably high standard, and during that time came across quite a few of the " It wisnae fair brigade"

 

I've not said her under achievements were down to bad luck.

It's her aggressive style of skating. I mentioned the dutch skaters saying as much. Something on which she needs to work, but certainly no reason to stop her funding as has been suggested.

About fifteen years ago, our youngest son in a past job was trying to set up a call centre in Norway for an American bank. He was getting very little cooperation from Telenor, the phone company. One mid-week day, he phoned one of the managers of Telenor, to find out why he hadn't done what he'd promised to do, who should have been working.. But the communication was a bit intermittent on his phone. He asked the guy what was wrong with his phone. "Nothing, it's just that I'm skiing and I'm going in and out of some trees"

There's an example of "culture," for you.

Of course there could be another reason for the continued success of Alpine countries at sports involving snow and steep slopes, though I can't at the moment put my finger on it.

 

@Doghouse Riley before making uninformed comments about the Nordic countries, of which Sweden is one, I would suggest that you read this:

Sports In Sweden

Take notice how prominent winter sports are....

 

Up to your usual insulting standard @ARMANDII I'm not too sure which is the least accurate illustration of myself. Certainly the shape of ball is not what I used, blue trainers, hmm dubious mine were white but being godly and nun like, well that's totally accurate as is my ability to fib

 

You're drifting off topic.
When did I say they didn't participate in other sports?

Norway was on the top of the medals table.

That was my only point. Those countries with access to snow for much of the year do better at winter sports than those without it.

How many Caribbean countries won medals then?

Let it go.

 

Hang on a cotton picking minute @ARMANDII where the hell did you get that photo of me? This photo was taken on the occasion of me meeting 1 of our beloved fish sounding leaders

 

, just choked on my coffee, you are a great laugh and cheered up a very chilly evening

 

Looking through the various post on this thread, it appears to be that for a country to have success in the Winter Olympics, they need two things. First, to have access to snow, and second to have a large pool of people to draw competitors from. If a short list of countries that have snow access is made, and listed in terms of population, it would go something like: 1) Sweden. 2) Switzerland. 3) Finland. 4) Norway 5) Iceland.

If the thought was correct, then in theory, the final medal list would reflect this. However, it doesnt. The final list shows 1) Norway. 8) Switzerland. 10) Sweden. 16) Finland. Iceland, despite having easier access to snow than probably all of the countries, did not even field a team. At least, not according to the list I'm looking at! I do notice that only 1 medal separates Finland from the UK in 17th. position.

That for me, disproves the theory. Especially when The Netherlands ends up in 6th place! They are not exactly well known as having a lot of snow on which to hold Winter Sports.

As regards access. I live in the southern part of Sweden, which is the most densely populated. It may seem incomprehensible to some, but if I wanted to go to the nearest ski slope (in terms of travelling time) then I would actually go to...wait for it...Switzerland! To go to those in this country, or even Norway or Finland would in reality take longer. I'm not sure any more about the size of Londons population, or for that matter Manchester. Both of those cities are in fact closer to ski slopes in terms of time than I am! This further disproves the theory. Reality is, the UK has better snow access than Sweden!

My opinion is this. If someone wants to do well at anything competitive, then what they have to have is the will to succeed. Not to make excuses such as "I had bad luck" but to say to themselves "I did poorly. I'll work out what was wrong, fix it and win next time!"

 

Just to add a little to the subject of Lottery funding which my daughter received for 4 years. I hesitate to add I may well be out of date re the criteria but when we were involved the no 1 qualification was the sport had to be an Olympic sport which seems fair enough as it's joe public's money so jo public should be able to see where their money is being spent.Unless you were deemed to have the potential to win Olympic medals then you didn't get. You were judged on what you had achieved in the year and were given targets to meet. These obviously varied depending on your age and the likelihood of improvement. Another criteria was for you to show good sportsmanlike behaviour at all times.
This is where I take issue with the likes of Elise Christie and others in the past. EC as an example is 27 years old. You are not going to tell me she is going to improve much if any and will be 31 at the next Olympics. With age comes experience yes but one's athletic ability temperament and ability to cope with stress often diminishes. Yes she did very well at the world championships, who was there ie were the other best skaters present? I haven't a clue and doubt even 1% of GB population will have seen the championships. This of course applies to many of the winter sports hence why it is really only the winter Olympics which are of interest to this country generally speaking when it comes to Alpine sport unless you are involved in a particular sport yourself.
Personally I would rather give Lottery funding to a young potentially good athlete than give another 4 years of funding to EC who has had a pretty good "crack of the whip" already.

 

@silu , the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres owned Haigh Hall and opened an Iron Works and foundry in the area in the 1800's. He brought down foundry workers from Scotland and the area they lived in is still called Little Scotland.
Now back to the Olympics ..................

 

@HarryS although its disputed, the foundry at Haigh is credited with making the Laxey Wheel. There was even a report in the local newspaper at the time, that mentioned a man falling to his death from an upstairs window as he watched it pass.

Now, as you say, back to the Olympics...