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The Price of Success? The triumphs and controversies that have rocked Britain's cycling medal factory. Contains some strong language.
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CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Sport
"Britain's Cycling Superheroes". BBC2 9:00
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Posted 6 years ago #
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Thanks for pointing that out: interesting viewing.
Quote of the programme: "He was swinging like a dunny door in a hurricane"...
Posted 6 years ago # -
Most entertaining - on many levels.
Too much remains with who you choose to believe.
Assuming the jiffy bag was ‘innocent’ - or at least that Brad’s benefit was essentially medicinal - the delivery and documentation remains WAY below what ought to be standard for an organisation that payed massive attention to ‘detail’.
I agree with David Millar’s disappointment - though there will be people who think he’s not the right person to comment!
The concluding message of the programme that ‘BC is now separate from Team Sky’ looks like an attempt to distance an organisation from an embarrassment - but won’t wholly excuse any lack of curiosity due to being blinded by the shiny successes.
DB’s view that maybe people are a bit soft and need hard regimes to succeed won’t please some people.
Likewise the suggestion in the programme that (my paraphrase) ‘some athletes are so driven that they have to accept the regime’ is perhaps troubling.
Posted 6 years ago # -
as much as i dislike Millar, he did say 1 comment towards the end that i totally agree with and it went along the lines of :
as long as its not sexual or racist, then make it is hard as possible
as far as i am aware, thats what it was, and in my OWN opion here --- some who disliked that and didnt like the truth about where they were going, how to get there and what it took to get there AND that they were NOT going to make it, cooked up a storm after the failures and wanted it to be someone elses fault.
this is peoples time and money , and lots of MONEY, being pumped into this sport and these athletes and as was stated in the program, do you want to come 14th or do you want to win.results always speak for themselves.
anyway, just my opinions here.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Giving an ethics lecture today, brailsford bringing in Immanuel Kant ( well dodging him) Aristotle (again dodging him) and setting for John Stuart mill.
End justifies the means, discuss
Posted 6 years ago # -
Here's my thought before I watch this;
In order to win at elite sport you need to be obsessional. A variety of other personality traits that can make you unpleasant to be around are also helpful. We should expect winning athletes to be peculiar, difficult, damaged people and sometimes downright dangerous.
In road cycling the key 'skill' is metabolism. It's a contest to see who can get the most oxygen through the lightest body. We shouldn't be surprised if some riders resort to chemistry in order to win a chemical contest.
Great spectacle and theatre can be had without any of the participants being heroic, let alone super-heroic.
Current cycling super-heroes; John Foster Fraser and Danny MacAskill.
Posted 6 years ago # -
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Dame Katherine Grainger, the new chair of UK Sport, admits her organisation has faced “significant challenges” over the past 18 months that can no longer be brushed under the carpet
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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/nov/20/british-athletes-uk-sport-rights-damian-collins
She was on Today this morning.
She talked about ‘crossing the line’ - between motivation and bullying.
Also said that treating athletes better will give better results.
I’m sure everyone would like to believe that and act accordingly, but I wonder how much it is true/workable at the high end.
In everyday life you encourage people (esp children) to do things they feel they can’t do. Usually it works out, but if their judgement is more realistic than yours (of their ability) then it could be a problem.
At the elite/Gold level perhaps more so.
Posted 6 years ago # -
“Current cycling super-heroes; John Foster Fraser and Danny MacAskill.”
Neither involved in sport or competition in the conventional sense.
“In order to win at elite sport you need to be obsessional”
Yes, and if you have a good relationship with an equally obsessive coach things can happen.
Not defending anything Shane Sutton may or may not have done, but plenty scope for losing interest in people he believes won’t ‘make it’. Also easy for third parties to judge methods that might work for some people (and, should be, by informed consent ) but seen as ‘old fashioned’, ‘inappropiate’ etc.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Neither involved in sport or competition in the conventional sense.
Well indeed. JFF well and truly past the competing stage.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I tend to think Mark Beaumont is the most interesting cycle hero. Those racers that just cycle round and round don't really add a lot in my view where as mark creates his own events and makes interesting videos. Had not ridden 10 miles when first sore his video quite inspirational. I suppose magnatom is another cycle hero as creates videos and appears on the news would tend to think they would get more people cycling than pro racers, but could be I just find cycle racing dull.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Re Mark Beaumont, think his achievements are fantastic, but I listened to the Cycling Podcast's episode on him and thought that IWRATS' comment
"In order to win at elite sport you need to be obsessional. A variety of other personality traits that can make you unpleasant to be around are also helpful. "
was near to the mark.
Minipaddy did a homework on Lee Craigie as a Scottish sporting hero - she is well worth looking out for - mainly off road exploring and racing - her Cape Wrath video is really cool as is her work on Cycletherapy.
For girls and women in particular, the Adventure Syndicate is worth following.
Posted 6 years ago # -
agreed here with @paddyirish - i've been follow AS on facebook for a while and to me thats the sort of cycling and adventure a bike can give you.
moving a little OT here, but i get the feeling for me, that the last few years the Adventure show has sort of missed the mark and adventuring in scotland - they seem to be quite event based focused these days and repeat coverage of the same events every year....
Posted 6 years ago #
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