RIO 2016 OLYMPICS
Preview - Sport-by-sport - Results/table
UK Sport, the nation's high performance funding agency, has set British athletes the ambitious target of winning 48 medals, one more than what was achieved at Beijing in 2008.
But, having won 29 golds and 65 medals overall four years ago on home soil, this year's objective actually seems reasonable enough.
The Guardian newspaper agrees and has predicted a total of 58 medals. Meanwhile, its broadsheet counterpart, the Telegraph, reports sports data firm Gracenote Sports has made a forecast of 56.
On that basis, the upper level of the range of attainment set by UK Sport - a total of 79 medals - would clearly appear to be rather pushing it.
In fact, to achieve that level, Britain would have to buck a historic trend whereby no country which hosted an Olympics has gone onto beat their total of medals at the very next Games.
Certainly, though, Team GB - as it is officially branded - has far too much talent to suffer the same fate as the last squad which travelled to the western hemisphere for a Summer Olympics.
Then, back in 1996, Britain won only 15 medals overall to finish the Games at Atlanta in a humiliating position of 36th in the table.
Indeed, only Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent in the men's coxless pair prevented Great Britain from returning from a Summer Olympics for the first time without a single gold medal.
A definitive nadir had been reached.
Thankfully, though, the British Olympic Association had a plan involving funding from the National Lottery and the set-up of UK Sport to identify the best opportunities for success.
There was an injection of funding into sailing, cycling and rowing, in particular, while the two sports with most medals on offer - athletics and swimming - were also strategically targeted.
Immediately, there was an improved showing. At Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004, Team GB climbed up to 10th in the table with 11 and nine golds respectively.
Then came the huge success in Beijing where Britain was ranked fourth - behind only China, United States and Russia - having delivered 19 golds.
And most recently, four years ago, came those magical two weeks in London where, as hosts, Team GB achieved a top-three position for the first time since 1920 by slipping ahead of the Russians.
Of course, the strategy of UK Sport can be considered controversial in some respects.
Sports such as basketball, synchronised swimming, water polo and weightlifting had their funding withdrawn after they were seen to have underachieved at London 2012.
Critics have pointed out that such judgements can be a matter of perception and that the withdrawal of funding denies the sport any chance of improvement as it has an inevitable knock-on effect at a grassroots level.
In fairness to UK Sport, though, its funds are not limitless - and, even then, its targets are not solely just about winning.
Some of the targets refer to final placings outside of the medal positions so that it can recognise if elite performance in a sport has progressed or not.
And, overall, a majority of sports fans would probably consider that the governing body has been getting it right.
After all, since it was set up, cyclist Sir Chris Hoy has - with six golds - become the nation's most successful Olympian, overtaking the aforementioned Redgrave.
Moreover, with seven medals, Hoy also shares the lead for most medals altogether with Sir Bradley Wiggins. Hoy has now retired, of course, so fellow cyclist Wiggins can take an outright lead in Rio.
In track and field, the likes of Jessica Ennis-Hill, Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford have become household names across Britain after starring in Super Saturday four years ago.
Meanwhile, boxer Nicola Adams and taekwondo champion Jade Jones are both back looking to add to their respective happy London 2012 memories.
Team GB is again expected to perform well in anything involving a boat - such as rowing, sailing and canoeing - while the Brownlee brothers, Alistair and Jonathan, still rule the roost in triathlon.
Swimming is expected to go a lot better than it did four years ago when Britain finished with just three medals, none of which were gold.
Indeed, Adam Peaty has been widely tipped to become the first British male Olympic champion in the pool since Adrian Moorhouse in 1988.
Elsewhere, there are genuine prospects of success in diving through Tom Daley, and in gymnastics through Louis Smith and Max Whitlock.
Team GB flagbearer Andy Murray will defend his Olympic title fresh from winning Wimbledon for a second time.
And, then of course, there is golf which is making its first appearance at a Games since 1904.
It could also be its last. Concerns over the outbreak of the Zika virus have been especially prominent in the golfing world and each of the men's top-four ranked players, including Rory McIlroy, will not be in Rio.
In fairness to the golfers, a group of 150 physicians and scientists sent an open letter to the World Health Organization (WHO) in May, calling upon them to have "an open, transparent discussion of the risks of holding the Olympics as planned in Brazil".
But the WHO dismissed the request, stating that "cancelling or changing the location of the 2016 Olympics will not significantly alter the international spread of Zika virus", and that there was "no public health justification" for postponing them.
Even still, getting the show on the road in Rio has not been easy amid an economic and political crisis which has engulfed Brazil.
The Brazilian economy has officially been experiencing an economic recession since early 2014.
And this has been coupled with a political crisis which has resulted in President Dilma Rousseff facing an impeachment trial over allegations she manipulated the government budget.
Unsurprisingly, there have been the customary complaints about the accommodation facilities - most notably from the Australians - while traffic jams have clogged up the city in the build-up.
Of course, the biggest pre-Olympic storm was not something for which Rio could be blamed.
Doping in sport, and at the Olympics especially, is nothing new - but the subject became especially prominent in the run-up to these Games, with the spotlight falling on Russia in particular.
An independent investigation commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency reported that Russia's Ministry of Sport and Federal Security Service had operated a "state-dictated" system to implement an extensive doping program and to cover up positive samples.
In response, the International Olympics Committee (IOC) immediately called an emergency meeting to discuss the report.
But then, in a total cop-out, spineless IOC president Thomas Bach left it up to individual sports federations to decide whether Russian athletes should be able to compete.
Ultimately, 271 Russians were cleared for competition while 118 were removed with Russia claiming now to have the cleanest team at the Games.
Closer to home, cyclist Lizzie Armitstead found her way into the headlines for all the wrong reasons after it was revealed she had missed three drugs tests.
Armitstead - who won Team GB's very first medal at London 2012 - has denied any wrongdoing on her part but it is difficult not to be cynical.
Hopefully then, Rio 2016 will instead provide only positive stories from now on and cynicism can take a back seat.
After all, even just as a viewer, the best thing about the Olympics is the sheer escapism of it: a two-week period every four years where the drudgery of life is put on hold and all that really matters is which men and women in this world can go highest, go fastest and be strongest.
Unfortunately, for people watching in Britain, many of the biggest events are in the middle of the night.
The men's 100m final, for instance, is scheduled to be run at 2.25am in the early hours of Monday 15 August.
Nevertheless, the BBC is providing round-the-clock coverage for nightowls and a daily highlights show at 9.15am to allow people to catch-up on anything which they have missed.
There will also be a montage or two, and - no doubt at some point - a moment for which a lump in the throat is unavoidable.
Welcome back to the Olympic Games - the greatest show on earth.
No comments:
Post a Comment