Cycling (Road Race and Time Trial)

[gabi]

I took a poo 2 minutes ago. Am I a champion?

The BBC coverage has been hilarious. I thought the Aussies were the torch-bearers for this kind of one-eyed nonsense. I was wrong. GO TEAM GB!

 

[Orang Utan]

Surely getting an Olympic medal makes you a champion?

 

[gabi]

No. Coming first makes you a champion.

 

[Orang Utan]

Or second or third, clearly.

 

[gabi]

Er, no.

The Olympic Champion is Dutch, not British.

 

[Orang Utan]

But all the medallists are champions. Olympic champions.

 

[gabi]

You should work for the beeb

 

[Espresso]

The champion is the one who wins the blinking thing. Whatever it is.
The runners up are the runners up. And well done to them, of course; they're pretty bloody good, too. But they sure as shit aren't the champion.

You're not the world record holder if some other sod does it faster than you, after all.

 

[Orang Utan]

I think it's an Olympic thing rather than a BBC thing. Or maybe a medieval thing from tournaments.

 

[Orang Utan]

The champion is the one who wins the blinking thing. Whatever it is.
The runners up are the runners up. And well done to them, of course; they're pretty bloody good, too. But they sure as shit aren't the champion.

You're not the world record holder if some other sod does it faster than you, after all.

But if you get silver, you haven't lost. You're still a winner. It's just gold medallists are the overall winners. So if the BBC are calling Armitstead a champion they mean one of the winners, ie a medallist.

 

[gabi]

I think if you told Man City that Man United were also Premier League Champions (by coming second) they might be a little pissed off.

Anyway. Semantics. Well done to all that breakway group. Was a fucking cool race.

 

[butchersapron]

She's a runner-up champion. Something no kiwi has managed.

 

[gabi]

But if you get silver, you haven't lost.

No, you've lost.

 

[Orang Utan]

I think if you told Man City that Man United were also Premier League Champions (by coming second) they might be a little pissed off.

Anyway. Semantics. Well done to all that breakway group. Was a fucking cool race.

The Olympics is different - THEY HAVE MEDALS

 

[gabi]

She's a runner-up champion. Something no kiwi has managed.

Oh, I don't know. I think you'll find NZ punches above its weight in the Olympics. Even by your standards that's a pretty shitty straw-man

 

[Hollis]

I don't think there's any other Olympic event that the public can just wander up to, so people were really making use of it.

Marathon and race walking have non-ticketed sections.. although as the race walking course is only 2km in total, I can't see there being too much space.

 

[Orang Utan]

No, you've lost.

Only to gold. You've beaten loads of others and you get to stand on a podium and get a shiny medal while everyone bigs you up.

 

[gabi]

The Olympics is different - THEY HAVE MEDALS

You do know that runners-up in most sports also get 'losers medals'? Right? Some throw them away immediately as they see it as an insult to their massive egos.

 

[Orang Utan]

Not in the olympics though.

 

[gabi]

Ah, I see. You're winding me up

 

[Orang Utan]

No, you're being a bit thick as you won't understand that a medallist is referred to as a champion.

 

[gabi]

Fucking hell.

Fuck off back to nobbin n sobbin if you can't understand the most basic principle of sport.

 

[Orang Utan]

We have three winners - gold, silver and bronze. What don't you understand?

 

[gabi]

OU. Who is the current Wimbledon champion?

 

[Hollis]

I doubt Steve Cram or Colin Jackson would see themselves as 'Olympic champions'. Bronze and silver medallists are generally referred to as Olympics medalists - not champions.
Unless there's some recent rebranding exercise.

 

[Orang Utan]

Wimbledon is a tournament with only one champion. I don't recall who last won it.

 

[Orang Utan]

I doubt Steve Cram or Colin Jackson would see themselves as 'Olympic champions'. Bronze and silver medallists are generally referred to as Olympics medalists - not champions.
Unless there's some recent rebranding exercise.

Maybe there has been. But I think it's great and more in keeping with the supposed Olympic spirit to refer to the medallists as champions.

 

[Espresso]

But if you get silver, you haven't lost. You're still a winner. It's just gold medallists are the overall winners. So if the BBC are calling Armitstead a champion they mean one of the winners, ie a medallist.

How can you be a winner when you did not win?

You can't have more than one winner in a race, unless it's a race for teams; like a relay or a three legged race. In which case, the first team across the line is the winner. All the teams who came in after the first team are not the winners.

 

[gabi]

Ok anyway. This is a shitty sidetrack from an interesting thread. About a goddamn word. For that i apologise - but it was the beeb's continued broadcasting of an interviewer asking friends of this girl what it was like to know an olympic champion with not even a mention of the Dutch girl who did actually become champion today.

derail over.

 

[Hollis]

Maybe there has been. But I think it's great and more in keeping with the supposed Olympic spirit to refer to the medallists as champions.

Oh god.. lets take it a stage futher 'everyone's a winner'. Because what you are doing is devaluing the actually champions - the people who came, err, first.