Tokyo Olympics 2020 - Cycling

[Patchelicious]

1 hour ago, Mountain Bru said:

Actually changing what is said is something completely different.

That pretty ***.

Can I edit what the Mods say?
 

 

 

[Patchelicious]

2 hours ago, Matt said:

I love lamp and Spez

Oh do you?  Me too ????

[Vetplant]

On the mental wellbeing topic:

I attended a talk hosted by three elite sportsmen. Can't remember exactly who was there but Ryk Neetling was one. 

He shared an interesting fact that out of all the olympians, the one's who had the worst of the depression and suicide was actually those who won Gold. 

You get so much attention and adoration for your achievement, all those years of sacrifice finally placed you at the top, but fairly quickly it all goes quite, deafeningly so. 

They have nothing else to work for, they reached the ultimate goal. And now the attention is gone. 

Some of them are then simply unable to process this to then just build a new goal to chase. 

[NixM]

5 hours ago, Shell Belle said:

There was nothing innocent about that comment, or the others that followed.  The extent to which the sexualisation of female athletes has become normalized is really quite astounding.  The mere fact that you think that you can “queue* to hug a pretty lady” and consider it an innocent comment shows just how normalized it has become. 
 

That whole “discussion” was off-base and deserved to be deleted. 

Thanks, well said. Those comments made me feel properly creeped out. How do the fathers here feel if a group of men were talking about "queuing up to hug their daughter"?

[FootballingCyclist]

41 minutes ago, Vetplant said:

On the mental wellbeing topic:

I attended a talk hosted by three elite sportsmen. Can't remember exactly who was there but Ryk Neetling was one. 

He shared an interesting fact that out of all the olympians, the one's who had the worst of the depression and suicide was actually those who won Gold. 

You get so much attention and adoration for your achievement, all those years of sacrifice finally placed you at the top, but fairly quickly it all goes quite, deafeningly so. 

They have nothing else to work for, they reached the ultimate goal. And now the attention is gone. 

Some of them are then simply unable to process this to then just build a new goal to chase. 

To add to this, I have many many friends across different sporting codes who are at the highest level, some retired SA sport legends, Having had many many convos with them, one of the biggest things is that every little step they take they are being watched and every decision they make gets scrutinized as there will always be those who support you aswell as those who are just out to be nasty and nitpick, and yes with the game comes the responsibility etc, but even after retiring they're still watched with everything they do, So often they may feel they aren't able to actually just live a full life!! 

 

I saw a comment on a post earlier by a sports scientist who hit the nail on the head in very few words, he said "The surprise is it that it was said, not that it happened", and this is so true. It's not a surprise to so many that people are suffering from mental issues, it's more a surprise that it's now being put out there more often than we have been used to in the past!!

[justinafrika]

8 hours ago, Shell Belle said:

There was nothing innocent about that comment, or the others that followed.  The extent to which the sexualisation of female athletes has become normalized is really quite astounding.  The mere fact that you think that you can “queue* to hug a pretty lady” and consider it an innocent comment shows just how normalized it has become. 
 

That whole “discussion” was off-base and deserved to be deleted. 

Thank you.

Whether lecturing at varsities or facilitating corporate training, for MANY years I've found that I'm simply unable to say that I love watching pro volleyball without an assuming male chirping "beach volleyball" to sniggers from half of the males in class. E-V-E-R-Y  T-I-M-E. School-leaving kids are still doing this, FFS! Evolve already.

 

Edited July 29, 2021 by justinafrika

[DieselnDust]

25 minutes ago, justinafrika said:

Thank you.

Whether lecturing at varsities or facilitating corporate training, for MANY years I've found that I'm simply unable to say that I love watching pro volleyball without an assuming male chirping "beach volleyball" to sniggers from half of of the males in class. E-V-E-R-Y  T-I-M-E. School-leaving kids are still doing this, FFS! 

 

stupidity isn't something to be angry at. Sympathy is a better come back

I used to play volley ball at high school, all 172cm of me

[J Wakefield]

When you look at the topics or continuous monotony when it comes to the Olympics or World champs from athletes on how they were managed (I say that lightly) kit orders, staff compliments and the likes from either CSA or Sascocc it’s always the same year after year from riders and watchers (like us here) 

nothing changes ever and this year it is no different again. Info coming out is mind blowing and disrespectful to athletes involved. 
 

after putting my hand up for World champs now as a favor to some athletes, it came down very quickly after a few back and forths and “rules” 

 

[Block]

22 hours ago, DieselnDust said:

You do realise that Stefan was only called up to participate in the Olympics a month before the road race and that Darryl Impey's kit did likely not fit Stefan very well. So did they have to make do with extra they ordered or was a problem with getting his sizing? Was Stefan always the back up or was he a last minute decision? They're similar height but quite different in build. Could this have something to do with using his road race kit for the TT?

Frustration and dissatisfaction channeled to the right places makes a difference. Posting crap on social media just makes you look ungrateful, entitled and arrogant and Stefan is none of that. I suspect Stefan's tweet about his speedo was more tongue in cheek and that was was then raised to a different level by the trackie. Sorting problems out internally and directly delivers far more effective results than social media bashing.

 

Is CSA up to the task of delivering? That's an interesting question because it really does speak to the financial liquidity of the organisation and the people now in place. We know there are new people in the upper management structures. After 2 decades of mismanagement the new org has been in place for just under a year and we expect that this organisation must perform as well as Britch Cycling, KNWU, Cycling USA or any other highly funded and well established org? Well that right there is the root of the Saffa problem.  We live in an alternate reality. We think we are better than we are. In reality we don't operate at the same level as other Federations around the globe. We're decidedly third world as far as cycling goes.

CSA is in a rebuilding phase that is going to take at least 5 years of stability to get the ship sailing well and on course and here we are hammers inhand to break it down again because a few cyclists feel they were short changed because their bib was a cm too short and my mechanic was late. What a freakin joke.

 

Not sure why you are so super defensive of CSA. If SdB was called up a month before the event there was more than sufficient time to get the correct size kit. By the way their kit only arrived about 1 1/2 days prior to the event  and was still incorrect sizes and wrong kit.  Stop defending a non operative non supporting organisation. In any business if the turn around time is at least 5 years they will close it down immediately (except SAA abd CSA). Lets just agree to disagree  that CSA is not fulfilling their mandate and there is no support for our athletes

[Dicky DQ]

16 hours ago, TheoG said:

Absolutely true, but at what point are we getting too sensitive over the smallest of things, just asking, no need to answer.  That being said, however, to avoid provoking any enraged responses, in future I will refrain from saying a lady is pretty even though she might obviously be for the entire world to see.

My Opinion:

We are getting to the point that the snowflakes rule the world and the rest just need to shut up. I am so over this nonsense and will no longer fit in to cosset the snowflakes. Enough is enough. The should follow rule 5.

This is true for most people in life, even these snowflakes that feel they can't cope with life and try to take their lives. Now don't go all righteous on me now and say I don't understand, I do and I am tired of all this nonsense.  I have lost an uncle and almost my wife (I got home in time to rush her to hospital) and have also contemplated it a few times in the last while.

We are too accepting and accommodating these days. I believe we we force people to HFU as kids we would be in a much better place.

[J Wakefield]

Comments from management being that they not there to babysit. That environment and of athlete is exactly what you doing in order to make sure they perform optimally.

When this is managements view you know that they are totally incapable of the job expected to be done and should never be there in that environment. 
 

as said in a previous post - same old same old every year and until athletes band together and take a stance and make sure people are held accountable, can’t see anything change going forward.
 

 

[TheoG]

11 minutes ago, J Wakefield said:

Comments from management being that they not there to babysit. That environment and of athlete is exactly what you doing in order to make sure they perform optimally.

When this is managements view you know that they are totally incapable of the job expected to be done and should never be there in that environment. 
 

as said in a previous post - same old same old every year and until athletes band together and take a stance and make sure people are held accountable, can’t see anything change going forward.
 

 

Its really very sad!!!  Looking at how well other nations support their athletes, its extremely disappointing that ours are simply NOT.

Edited July 30, 2021 by TheoG

[justinafrika]

It's not complicated, federation management and support staff should do EVERYTHING it takes to optimise performance. DO YOUR JOBS!  

I can't imagine allowing oversights (add tardiness) and incompetence and excuses in business endeavours, I'd have lost large numbers of clients.

Edited July 30, 2021 by justinafrika

[The Ouzo]

33 minutes ago, TDFN said:

My Opinion:

We are getting to the point that the snowflakes rule the world and the rest just need to shut up. I am so over this nonsense and will no longer fit in to cosset the snowflakes. Enough is enough. The should follow rule 5.

This is true for most people in life, even these snowflakes that feel they can't cope with life and try to take their lives. Now don't go all righteous on me now and say I don't understand, I do and I am tired of all this nonsense.  I have lost an uncle and almost my wife (I got home in time to rush her to hospital) and have also contemplated it a few times in the last while.

We are too accepting and accommodating these days. I believe we we force people to HFU as kids we would be in a much better place.

The bold bit is the only bit I'm going to challenge. I'm very much a HTFU person, I've "just dealt with it", for the most part life functions just fine, but when the lemons life has been throwing at you turn out not only sour but also vrot, the rest of the ingredient for the lemonade have run out and nobody wants to buy whatever lemonade you have left over and those suicidal thoughts start running through your head, there are very few Fs to Harden Up and it takes a lot to get up from there. I know in my case that had I not had a wife that recognises the dark place I move into and shows me the love and care to get out of it I probably would not have pulled through. Not everyone is that lucky.

It has taken me a long time to try and word the above to not seem like a snowflake. But this is why I get upset about actual snowflakes, making mountains over molehills when there are people out there dealing with real issues.

I'm not saying these are not important issues, but I feel those that are publicly "triggered" by certain words are doing it more to be controversial rather than being genuinely triggered.

Edited July 30, 2021 by ouzo

[Duane_Bosch]

14 minutes ago, justinafrika said:

It's not complicated, federation management and support staff should do EVERYTHING it takes to optimise performance. DO YOUR JOBS!  

I can't imagine allowing oversights and incompetence and excuses in business endeavours, I'd have lost large numbers of clients.

You don't need to try very hard to see that our entire country is infected with a chronic case of don'tgiveaf%ckitis. It just  becomes much more apparent at an event like the Olympics where the parasites are in close proximity to the tiny handful of extremely talented and hard working individuals.

Edited July 30, 2021 by Duane_Bosch

[Shebeen]

19 hours ago, Shell Belle said:

There was nothing innocent about that comment, or the others that followed.  The extent to which the sexualisation of female athletes has become normalized is really quite astounding.  The mere fact that you think that you can “queue* to hug a pretty lady” and consider it an innocent comment shows just how normalized it has become. 
 

That whole “discussion” was off-base and deserved to be deleted. 

I missed the whole thing, but I think it's actually getting better.

I remember the Sports Cafe in the V&A Waterfront had this full length image of some german long jumper? from behind with her shorts pushing a wardrobe malfunction, it left nothing to the imagination as it was hi def and no airbrushing. If sabattini didn't make wimbledon final the viewing numbers plummeted. It wasn't that long ago that sports illustrated did a yearly calendar with hotties of sports, full on shoot on some tropical island in bikinis. These are gorgeous ladies who work damn hard and I will totally admit to buying into the hype of it all at the time.

Top female athletes know that sex appeal still sells, to keep it cycling related i'm pretty sure emily batty's IG following is only partially due to (very good) results. They are however a lot more in control of their image now, and if they want to go the genie bouchard route and prance around looking pretty instead of practicing then that's fine - there will always be kournakovas.

I do think the world has come a long way down this road, and there still is more to go.

[fully acknowledge that this is mansplaining and I don't really know what I'm talking about and how it feels for the athletes here]