The Fucking 2024 Olympics

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

Just now, YoungWillz said:

Feel for Luke Whitehouse there, big sit down on his first tumble cost him, and he admitted it himself.

 

Filipino Gold? Wow!

 

I've no idea how the scoring works, surely keeping your feet planted and bending your knees using your core strength to stay in position scores better than springing forwards of back with another step? It's not like he sat in the floor.

[YoungWillz 20,919]

1 minute ago, RoverAndOut said:

 

I've no idea how the scoring works, surely keeping your feet planted and bending your knees using your core strength to stay in position scores better than springing forwards of back with another step? It's not like he sat in the floor.

Off the 90 degrees landing. Simples. Big penalty, if he had landed that straight, it was a gold.

[ladyfiona 2,559]

Random thought. You would think that with the population that Nigeria and India have. More money would get invested in Olympic sport so that they could be up there with other populous countries such as China.

[The Old Crem 3,576]

 

[The Old Crem 3,576]

Wins her match and a medal. The controversy is going to be 10 times bigger now. 

[En Passant 3,731]

22 hours ago, En Passant said:

 

I just swap channels on Discovery plus when the adverts hit, though to be honest I'm no tennis fan, so they don't seem to have interrupted much of what I'm choosing to view.

 

Turns out that they aren't showing any adverts at all online. Which explains why I've not seen any, I was swapping after event ends to dodge them and wasting my time, what a dope .

How do I know this for certain? Because I just watched about 4 hours of the 6 odd hours bike road race and they kept referring to 'Our TV viewers are going for a break" and "welcome back to the TV viewers".

Result.

4 quid? I'm not complaining.

 

Oh, and is the bike race on the BBC? Of course it's not they're showing horses dancing and other events that bore me rigid.

 

ETA: Fuck fuck fucketty fuck. Because I forgot to swear in the foregoing.

 

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

11 minutes ago, The Old Crem said:

Wins her match and a medal. The controversy is going to be 10 times bigger now. 

 

Thanks for that analysis. Have you any comment on the video you posted where the Head of the IBA said with a smirk that he's not telling us anything at all, but just to trust him while also acknowledging that the organisation is banned for being untrustworthy and corrupt? Or that he brushes off the fact that they've boxed for years without issue by saying there's been complaints in the past from all sorts of nameless people?

 

The controversy is entirely generated by people like you saying it's controversial without any proof or evidence, citing a decision taken by a corrupt organisation that aren't in charge of their sport any more. Whether Khelif or Lin are in contravention of the rules is completely lost in this. The IBA are not running this competition, why does their decision hold any water? And, more to the point, why the fuck do you KEEP bringing it up without adding anything meaningful to the discussion?

[YoungWillz 20,919]

Whitlock fucks it, but well done young Rhys from Ireland for a Gold on the pommel horse!

[The Old Crem 3,576]

5 minutes ago, YoungWillz said:

Whitlock fucks it, but well done young Rhys from Ireland for a Gold on the pommel horse!

He could have been competing for GB as he is from Northern Ireland. 

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

12 minutes ago, En Passant said:

Turns out that they aren't showing any adverts at all online. Which explains why I've not seen any, I was swapping after event ends to dodge them and wasting my time.

How do I know this for certain? Because I just watched about 4 hours of the 6 odd hours bike road race and they kept referring to 'Our TV viewers are going for a break" and "welcome back to the TV viewers".

Result.

4 quid? I'm not complaining.

 

Oh, and is the bike race on the BBC? Of course it's not they're showing horses dancing and other events that bore me rigid.

 

You love bike racing? Excellent, go and find it. There are 26 sports going on at the Olympics, quite a few of them that the British are very good at. A 6-hour bike race that doesn't get going until the closing stages is not an efficient way of filling your tv coverage. Is it exciting watching a group of cyclists ride through the countryside 10 minutes ahead of a group of 50 riders you're almost certain are going to catch them in 4 hours time? Not especially. I'm sure if you're into all the nuances of road cycling, you can find things to interest you, but generally speaking switching on for the last hour at most and you'll see what you need to. We won a bronze in the horses dancing, which is why they showed it (bores me rigid too). They then moved on to the gymnastics finals, where Britain had a chance in the floor final (which we got another bronze in) and then the women's vault final (featuring Simone Biles, who is getting all the attention these games) and now the pommel horse final, which we had the two-time defending champion in (he didn't medal). In between the past 2, they cut over to the road race for the closing 5km or so, so we saw Evenepoel have his puncture, then showboat over the line, Madouas hold on to second and the Frenchman lead the chase group home for 3rd. Did I miss anything exciting?

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

4 minutes ago, YoungWillz said:

Whitlock fucks it, but well done young Rhys from Ireland for a Gold on the pommel horse!

 

Assuming you're joking, as he didn't fuck it. Couple of mistakes, but he's getting on. Shame he couldn't nick a bronze but 4th is no disgrace and I suspected whatever Max did Rhys would beat him.

 

1 minute ago, The Old Crem said:

He really should be competing for GB as he is from Northern Ireland. 

 

Plenty of Northern Irish compete for Ireland not GB, it's always been allowed. Rory McIlroy for example. About half and half, almost as if the country is finely divided between Catholic Republicans and Protestant Unionists. 

[En Passant 3,731]

7 minutes ago, RoverAndOut said:

You love bike racing? Excellent, go and find it.

 

It's an example. In general you're absolutely right. I like cycling, you like tennis (and I'm still in awe of your 2 hours sleep in 3 days or whatever, to sit in a queue to watch it).

 

The point really is you can pick and choose any damn thing you like they're showing absolutely everything. I'm not usually a supporter of paying for bought rights and highest bidder and so forth, but in this one case, I'd pay that just to turn ads off for 2 weeks (and more).

 

TLDR....I used to cycle a bit, and these races can be like chess, even from a long way out. I'm not suggesting other people will like it, but I get to choose, and so would they for whatever floats your particular boat.

 

 

9 minutes ago, RoverAndOut said:

Did I miss anything exciting?

 

Not by your terms no. But by mine? Yes. There were several breakaways that might have come to something. There's no race radio in this event so it makes the teamwork and tracking much harder etc etc. Yes that's pretty specific and yes you'd need to care about it and no in the end there were no brits. But at the risk of repetition the point is for minimal outlay, I can watch what I want to and you can watch what you want to. And both minus the jingoistic 'yeay the brits' stuff that drives me potty, and ads which also drive me potty.

 

I'm boring myself now.......

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

3 minutes ago, En Passant said:

It's an example. In general you're absolutely right. I like cycling, you like tennis (and I'm still in awe of your 2 hours sleep in 3 days or whatever, to sit in a queue to watch it).

 

The point really is you can pick and choose any damn thing you like they're showing absolutely everything. I'm not usually a supporter of paying for bought rights and highest bidder and so forth, but in this one case, I'd pay that just to turn ads off for 2 weeks (and more).

 

TLDR....I used to cycle a bit, and these races can be like chess, even from a long way out. I'm not suggesting other people will like it, but I get to choose, and so would they for whatever floats your particular boat.

 

Thanks for the respect, I am slightly mental sometimes. 

 

Yeah, but what you're missing is that what you're saying about paying 4 quid for Discovery to watch anything you like is what we all got for free in London 2012 and again in Rio in 2016 when the BBC had all the rights. Endless streams on iPlayer showing everything from the road race to the water polo between Spain and Australia to handball between France and Sweden. Whatever you liked, you could watch. For free (aside from the licence fee, obviously, but that's standard). It was incredible. The London 2012 games were amazing. We got up at 8am to rowing and stuff like that, had all the big events in the afternoon like track cycling, moved onto athletics and swimming in the evenings and then, at 10pm, when all those things had finished, you could go to one of the 12-16 extra channels the BBC had on the Sky box (or onto iPlayer if you didn't have Sky) and watch late night volleyball, beach volleyball and handball. I watched every single second I could for those 3 weeks. It's how I have a basic understanding of how volleyball, beach volleyball and handball work. Water polo I never got into, weird as fuck.

 

So yes, being able to watch everything is amazing, we agree on that. That the BBC don't do that, though, is not their fault. What's amazing about Discovery's coverage is simply because they took all those rights from the BBC in the first place. So BBC not so good? Well...duh.  Overall, I've been happy enough with their coverage, although there's a few things I'd love to option to just flick to for half an hour, but they've done a good job of catching all the big moments, especially where GB are concerned.

[En Passant 3,731]

8 minutes ago, RoverAndOut said:

Yeah, but what you're missing is that what you're saying about paying 4 quid for Discovery to watch anything you like is what we all got for free in London 2012 and again in Rio in 2016 when the BBC had all the rights.

 

I didn't say I liked it. In fact I said

 

19 minutes ago, En Passant said:

I'm not usually a supporter of paying for bought rights and highest bidder and so forth

 

And perhaps that's badly worded, I'm still not a supporter of it.

But I'm a realist, we haven't had any premiership football for free since forever (again, as you know not entirely my thing, but that's not the point).

Would I prefer it were it all on Iplayer free (licence notwithstanding) to all? Sure I would,  but it isn't. And for once I'm not having to pay £80 a month or whatever it is that sky costs now.

 

TLDR: I don't like it. But we are where we are with all this and for now £4 is less than a pint most places and I can live with it. On entirely another note, why do we have to pay the licence fee to the BBC to watch things that aren't even on the BBC just because they're live? That's ludicrous. I support the idea of a public broadcaster but the BBC isn't immune to critiscism (from me at any rate).

[ladyfiona 2,559]

Rhys McClenaghan actually has a Youtube channel documenting his journey to the Olympics. So his next upload will be interesting. This is what I watched the other day where he toured Olympic Village.

 

 

[Toast 16,063]

What's happened to all the fucking swearing?

[The Old Crem 3,576]

Just now, Toast said:

What's happened to all the fucking swearing?

I don’t know. 
 

https://metro.co.uk/2024/08/03/pole-vaulters-olympic-dream-shattered-penis-21355235/
This will suitably lower the tone. 

 

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

4 minutes ago, En Passant said:

I didn't say I liked it. In fact I said

 

And perhaps that's badly worded, I'm still not a supporter of it.

But I'm a realist, we haven't had any premiership football for free since forever (again, as you know not entirely my thing, but that's not the point).

Would I prefer it were it all on Iplayer free (licence notwithstanding) to all? Sure I would,  but it isn't. And for once I'm not having to pay £80 a month or whatever it is that sky costs now.

 

TLDR: I don't like it. But we are where we are with all this and for now £4 is less than a pint most places and I can live with it. On entirely another note, why do we have to pay the licence fee to the BBC to watch things that aren't even on the BBC just because they're live? That's ludicrous. I support the idea of a public broadcaster but the BBC isn't immune to critiscism (from me at any rate).

 

You said "4 quid? I'm not complaining". Which I agree is not saying you like it. I was more saying "you can watch anything you like", i.e. cycling or boxing or whatever rather than football or tennis.

 

The Discovery deal is fair, but it's only necessary because they gazumped the BBC to get the rights. The only reason the Beeb get anything is the Olympics is one of the protected sporting events that has to be available on Free-to-Air telly. Unfortunately, everybody has realised that doesn't have to mean "live and in full", which is why Sky took the F1 coverage and only allow Channel 4 to show a few races a season in full (the British GP being one of them), The Open golf (highlights on the BBC) and Discovery have now taken the Olympics. Wimbledon is the only major sporting event that the BBC has full rights to now, unless you include the Snooker Triple Crown events (although I think Eurosport have live rights to at least some of those as well). The Grand National is on ITV at the moment. The only point I suppose I'm making is you're not comparing apples and apples: the BBC coverage is always going to be inferior to Discovery, for the reasons we've already stated. Are they maximising what they've got? Yes, pretty much. But I'm always going to yearn for the days when they had everything, as they rightly should (and that's my opinion, of course they have no god given right to anything).

 

Not sure what point you're making in your TLDR paragraph. 

Quote

On entirely another note, why do we have to pay the licence fee to the BBC to watch things that aren't even on the BBC just because they're live? That's ludicrous. I support the idea of a public broadcaster but the BBC isn't immune to critiscism (from me at any rate).

 

If you explain, I'll try and answer you. What do you mean "things that aren't even on the BBC, just because they're live?"

[En Passant 3,731]

1 minute ago, Toast said:

What's happened to all the fucking swearing?

 

You're not paying close enough attention.

 

1 hour ago, En Passant said:

ETA: Fuck fuck fucketty fuck. Because I forgot to swear in the foregoing.

 

Though this is perhaps understandable due to

 

1 hour ago, En Passant said:

I'm boring myself now....... 

 

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

1 minute ago, Toast said:

What's happened to all the fucking swearing?

 

Oh Fuck off Toast. 

 

I think we're on a bit of a downer today - lots of bronze (which is great!) but it's a lot easier to swear if we feel we've been robbed or we're on cloud nine. 

 

But, if you want me to keep up appearances, while I know it's the Fucking rules of the competition and they all knew them going in, Emma Wilson getting a Fucking bronze in the medal race having won the qualifying rounds by a country mile having won 8 Fucking races out of 14 contested when 4 years ago that would have been enough for Gold is irritating as Fuck. The girl was distraught at the finish as she got bronze 4 years ago too. Doesn't it give some kind of unfair advantage to the other girls in the Fucking race that they've already got the opportunity to race on the water and assess the conditions that day in the Fucking semis and Fucking quarters? 

[En Passant 3,731]

1 minute ago, RoverAndOut said:

But I'm always going to yearn for the days when they had everything, as they rightly should (and that's my opinion, of course they have no god given right to anything).

 

Oh as do I. I don't like the 'privatisation' of many things. Access to sport on tv is just one more. To some degree it's even possible I miss it more that you do because I'm older than you to the point where there wasn't anything more than BBC v ITV and that was it.

 

2 minutes ago, RoverAndOut said:

If you explain, I'll try and answer you. What do you mean "things that aren't even on the BBC, just because they're live?"

 

 

The licence fee is payable if...(off the top of my head I'm not going to look up the legal definition)

 

1 You watch the BBC

2 You watch BBC Iplayer (this is only since, hm, 2016? 2018? something like that)

3 You watch any other broadcast tv - This is the one, you can't even watch ITV 'live' without a licence, nor anything else even if the show is pre-recorded. So by definition any live sport is 'live' on any channel. Therefore you must have a licence.

 

3 In practice means you can be prosecuted for watching any damn thing that is defined as 'broadcast live' whether its on the BBC or not. And it's the 'not' I think is utterly ludicrous.

 

Does that help?

 

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

3 minutes ago, En Passant said:

Oh as do I. I don't like the 'privatisation' of many things. Access to sport on tv is just one more. To some degree it's even possible I miss it more that you do because I'm older than you to the point where there wasn't anything more than BBC v ITV and that was it.

 

Blimey, you're older than I thought!  I remember Channel 5 starting if that's any comfort. 

 

4 minutes ago, En Passant said:

The licence fee is payable if...(off the top of my head I'm not going to look up the legal definition)

 

1 You watch the BBC

2 You watch BBC Iplayer (this is only since, hm, 2016? 2018? something like that)

3 You watch any other broadcast tv - This is the one, you can't even watch ITV 'live' without a licence, nor anything else even if the show is pre-recorded. So by definition any live sport is 'live' on any channel. Therefore you must have a licence.

 

3 In practice means you can be prosecuted for watching any damn thing that is defined as 'broadcast live' whether its on the BBC or not. And it's the 'not' I think is utterly ludicrous.

 

Does that help?

 

Yeah, it does. It's broadly what I thought you were asking. And you know better than I do, really. Those are, indeed, pretty much the rules. And the idea is that it's a TV Licence. You pay a fee to own a TV, which is, of course, ludicrously archaic, especially in an age when so much of television isn't watched on a television at all. It just so happened that the money you paid to the government for a TV Licence was funnelled into the BBC as the national broadcaster. This obviously worked fine until the 1960s when ITV came on the scene and paid for the programming through advertising. I think the argument for many years was that, as the state broadcaster (with it's rules around impartiality), it should not promote certain products over others, hence no advertising (to the point that brands are meant to be obscured on cooking shows, although not always successfully).

 

Why do we still have the Licence Fee and why is it still expected to own one? Because, without it, the BBC wouldn't have any money and would cease to function. As is being increasingly proven, there is very little will to prosecute those who refuse to pay the Licence Fee, and many get around it by not really consuming BBC content (my brother and his girlfriend don't pay the TV Licence and watch most of their stuff on Disney+ and Amazon and only occasionally break the law by watching the BBC) or just ignoring the law and watching anyway. And, remember that the BBC is not just a TV Channel, or a series of TV channels, it's a news company, it's a sports broadcaster, it's an entertainment provider, provides children's programming, it provides websites for all that content, it has umpteen radio channels it provides, it has local content for the whole UK (which has been slashed due to the freezing of the licence fee and the reduction in people paying it - same for News coverage, which is now much less extensive or personalised). And you get all that for £169.50 for a year (if you have a colour TV - £57 if you only want it in black-and-white!). That's £3.25 a week or 46p a day. For as many people as you have in the house (which may be one or may be 6). There's also external BBC money that comes from other affiliated businesses like BBC Worldwide where they export rights around the world and then there's merchandising and things that raise plenty of money, but a big chunk comes from the Licence Fee for the main domestic content. I'll defend the licence fee because I think it's value for money and the BBC is still the envy of the world in terms of its scope and professionalism. I also recognise that at some point, it will go, because the voices of discontent will grow louder. But what comes next, I have no idea. The BBC will not be able to continue in its current form if the licence fee is removed and some kind of subscription service is introduced. The other option is advertising, which would be unbelievably depressing. I will always choose the BBC if there's a choice simply to avoid the adverts and sponsors - I don't need my weather updates sponsored by Heinz Baked Beans, thanks.

 

Wow - we're waaaaay off topic now!  Fucking hell.

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

Don't know what the Fuck is going on, but Dina Asher-Smith is not the happy-go-lucky speed merchant she was a few years ago, and not in a "she's past it" kind of way. She's just looked subdued and lost for the past few years and seemingly has no idea where to go next. Hope she finds some happiness soon and we get her back to her best.

 

Fingers crossed for Daryl Fucking Neita in the next heat.

[En Passant 3,731]

1 hour ago, RoverAndOut said:

Wow - we're waaaaay off topic now!  Fucking hell. 

 

You can blame me for that one too. I'm always doing it. In my defence it's normally brought up by something that was mentioned that was origially on topic but drifted. Still....

I don't have an issue with all the things you say about the BBC it does all of those things and more probably.

It's definitely value for money if you use it, not denying that, never have.

Its funding however is a huge issue going forward because of Sky, youtube, netflix, apple tv, social media etc etc.

Many of those from generations even younger than yourself honestly don't watch it at all I'm led to believe.

The funding has to come from somewhere, and it'll have to get sorted at some point the problem is the licence fee is an utterly outdated model in the current world.

 

I do have an issue with paying for something you don't use. It's like paying Sainsbury's even though you only shop at Lidl.

If you only watch commercial broadcasts that you already pay for separately why should the BBC get a cut? It's plain wrong.

I don't understand how they got the 'any broadcast tv from any source' under the wire but they shouldn't have.

 

 

TLDR: (again, I'm overusing this) Pay the licence to use the BBC and Iplayer sure but not output that has nothing whatsoever to do with the BBC it's unjust however good the value the BBC provides may be.

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

Another FUCKING Bronze!!! Except this is an upgrade. 6th in Tokyo, 3rd this time in the 4x400m Mixed Relay. Femke Bol is a Fucking machine and I am so here for it! Love her.