Tokyo Olympics 2020 - Cycling

[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]

[Jewbacca]

I think that sexism has been so ingrained in society that people 'don't mean' to be sexist but are then sexist. 

Because they 'don't realise' they then think it's other people who need to change or are at fault, not them.

Like the German coach being openly racist in the ITT, whatever the reason, it's not acceptable. It may have been funny or acceptable in the past, but now it isn't. I can understand that things can be misconstrued, but to be fair, most of the time it IS us and our perceptions that need to change.

HTFU is NOT the same as people taking responsibility for how they think and what they perceive as being acceptable. 

Sexism is so ingrained in our culture that slang and colloquialisms used every day and were deemed 'acceptable' 10 years ago by a man run, man driven culture are no longer ok. It's not a question of women being soft, it's a case of men having to understand that they need to change the way they think and act.

It's deeeeep in our culture. 

Edited July 30, 2021 by Jewbacca

[DieselnDust]

18 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.
 

 

so herein lies opportunity John.

The chicken or egg scenario. Something has to break the duck. I see this style of management everywhere in SA, the do as I say crowd. We need to shift to a Do as I do style. But also the level of competency in terms of the athlete psychology also needs to be addressed. Is anyone out there offering these services to CSA?

I see the athletes have quite a few people attending to them so I'd also like to understand in what areas does the environment need improvement and how does CSA facilitate these changes?

['Dale]

If you haven’t been in the arena in any way or form, it’s hard to understand what it takes to be the man or woman in the arena. 
Management and team support must be far from being a distraction. Management and team support must be so efficient that they become ‘invisible’ to the athlete’s journey. 
 

Respect to the men and women in the arena. 

[J Wakefield]

13 minutes ago, 'Dale said:

If you haven’t been in the arena in any way or form, it’s hard to understand what it takes to be the man or woman in the arena. 
Management and team support must be far from being a distraction. Management and team support must be so efficient that they become ‘invisible’ to the athlete’s journey. 
 

Respect to the men and women in the arena. 

This.

[J Wakefield]

43 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

so herein lies opportunity John.

The chicken or egg scenario. Something has to break the duck. I see this style of management everywhere in SA, the do as I say crowd. We need to shift to a Do as I do style. But also the level of competency in terms of the athlete psychology also needs to be addressed. Is anyone out there offering these services to CSA?

I see the athletes have quite a few people attending to them so I'd also like to understand in what areas does the environment need improvement and how does CSA facilitate these changes?

Send people who know what they doing in that level of environment and have a proven track record with the required qualifications for it. 

[The Ouzo]

1 minute ago, J Wakefield said:

Send people who know what they doing in that level of environment and have a proven track record with the required qualifications for it. 

and that is the problem, in sport and in business. The people getting sent are not the ones that should be there, but they are sent as the guys that should be there are lower down the food chain and are not deemed worthy of being sent on the trip.

[DieselnDust]

8 minutes ago, J Wakefield said:

Send people who know what they doing in that level of environment and have a proven track record with the required qualifications for it. 

Ok but this then applies to both the Athlete and Supporting staff.

Who are the people that are light on experience and qualifications and what positions do they hold?

What are the key positions that need to be filled by these people?

And then how does CSA grow the capability within the organisation if at some point inexperience isn't given the opportunity to fail?

 

Sorry to be probing into this so deeply but I'm genuinely interested. There are people in SA with experience but I don't see them offering to fill positions at CSA so detail around where these gaps are and how to fix them is important to having an educational discussion. I'm willing to learn as much as I can and asking questions everywhere.

PM me if thats more comfortable. My only interest in this topic is understanding the gaps

Edited July 30, 2021 by DieselnDust

[splat]

2 hours 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 (add tardiness) and incompetence and excuses in business endeavours, I'd have lost large numbers of clients.

 

2 hours ago, Duane_Bosch said:

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.

It comes down to accountability.
It's clear that there is none.
No fall-out or repercussions or consequences for not doing your job properly.
Being a fat cat and a leech seems to be applauded from within the club.
Anyone who says anything against it is vilified, so it takes a very brave person to stand up and try to make a difference.
They are out there, so lets support them where and how we can.

[lechatnoir]

1 hour ago, Jewbacca said:

I think that sexism has been so ingrained in society that people 'don't mean' to be sexist but are then sexist. 

Because they 'don't realise' they then think it's other people who need to change or are at fault, not them.

Like the German coach being openly racist in the ITT, whatever the reason, it's not acceptable. It may have been funny or acceptable in the past, but now it isn't. I can understand that things can be misconstrued, but to be fair, most of the time it IS us and our perceptions that need to change.

HTFU is NOT the same as people taking responsibility for how they think and what they perceive as being acceptable. 

Sexism is so ingrained in our culture that slang and colloquialisms used every day and were deemed 'acceptable' 10 years ago by a man run, man driven culture are no longer ok. It's not a question of women being soft, it's a case of men having to understand that they need to change the way they think and act.

It's deeeeep in our culture. 

there are several examples of little boys surrounded by bikini models in various poses/scenarios and everyone has a fat laugh and it flies around the web. Swap the boy for a girl and women for men and people get arrested. It's messed up, not being a snowflake