Olympic Success

[transadelaide]

It seems that the Paralympics these days are held in the same host city as the Olympic games. Is this a good thing?
Sheffield held the Paralympics in 1991. We got an Olympic size swimming pool, and athletic facilities second to none (well not quite). Would Sheffield have held the Olympics? Are secondary cities missing out on an opportunity to improve their sporting facilities for all of their citizens?

You must be thinking of some other sporting event for those with different abilities being held in Sheffield. The Paralympics have been hosted by the same city ever since 1988 for both the Summer and Winter Games - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paralympic ... ost_cities

I think it's a good thing, it works the best way for increasing the profile of the competition and allowing athletes with different abilities to use the same top-standard facilities as those conventionally regarded as 'normal.' The vast majority of competitors at the Paralympics are performing at standards not too far off their Olympic counterparts and would easily take 99% of us 'normal' fat-arsed slobs in a race* so they 'deserve' top-standard facilities no less than Olympic athletes and it's insulting to think they should be pushed off to some hinterland. It's also the best way of fulfilling the meaning of the 'Paralympic' name - 'para' being used to mean 'alongside' as it takes place twinned with the Olympic Games.


* Indeed, Matt Cowdrey of Australia used to compete and win in open events at national junior level in swimming. It was priceless to see the looks on the faces of people from the other states when they got beaten by a guy with one arm and had the whole South Australian team laughing at them!

[rfletcher72]

Sheffield hosted the World Student Games in 1991. We got some world class sporting facilities as a result, but the Council Tax payers of the City are still paying for these 20+ years later.

[transadelaide]

The lesson which some host cities of major events have gotten right and some have not is the one around what happens for purpose-built facilities afterwards.

Sydney 2000 generally got this right, it was the catalyst for a major urban renewal project that rehabilitated a post-industrial wasteland (this is what the Stratford plan was based on) and you now it's rare for there to be a week with fewer than two major games at the main stadium and a good amount of use for the indoor venues. Hopefully those venues at Stratford which are permanent will be more like Sydney's in the years to come rather than the derelict remains of Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.

My home city of Adelaide would be the ideal host city for the Commonwealth Games (not big enough for Olympics) as we already have just about everything we would need with only a few upgrades to existing venues and a couple of temporary venues. We have one of the world's best velodromes, a full international-grade hockey centre, two full-sized stadia with capacities over 50,000 (including the legendary Adelaide Oval) and numerous suitable indoor locations including purpose-built netball and basketball stadia. What would be a really great legacy is not so much the sporting facilities which are already quite good, but rather that a proper investment in our transport infrastructure could come out of it!

Speaking of Adelaide, I was out on my bike on the weekend and came across the cyclo-cross racing in the parklands which I had forgotten was on. One of the volunteers helping run the show was none other than the recently-returned queen of the London velodrome Anna Meares. I knew she was a true champion before that (four and a half years from broken neck to Olympic champion is not a bad effort!) but that was just emphasised by seeing her getting splattered by mud while counting laps and ringing the cowbell when she could have been picking up huge appearance fees all across Europe

[jbilton]

Hi

Yes .... there are always winners ..

http://propertydrum.briefyourmarket.com ... shed-.aspx

.. but then of course losers

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympi ... Stoke.html

Not particularly happy with AtOS

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/co ... 82036.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/au ... s-protests

Cheers
Jon

[paulz6]

Sheffield hosted the World Student Games in 1991. We got some world class sporting facilities as a result, but the Council Tax payers of the City are still paying for these 20+ years later.

I think you are right. My sister was a volunteer for the paralysed part of those games. Whether the legacy is worth paying for is another matter of opinion.

[transadelaide]

I think it depends on the size of the city and the proximity of other large cities as to whether it's worth it or not.

Where I come from (Adelaide) is a city of about 1.2 million people in the greater area, the state capital of South Australia and 730km from the nearest city (Melbourne) larger than 300,000 people. Therefore I think it's acceptable for us to have publicly-funded world-class sporting facilities like Adelaide Oval, a top-notch velodrome, basketball and netball stadia fit for purpose and a full quality athletics stadium. All of these facilities are used regularly for grassroots sporting events (club competitions and schools) as well as elite competition so none of them could possibly be described as white elephants.

Whether the same could be said of Sheffield, which is inside 70km of both Leeds and Manchester, is a completely different question compared to Adelaide.

[oldrocker]

Hi

Not particularly happy with AtOS
Cheers Jon

If it were left to them we probably wouldn't have a team to enter !

[transadelaide]

I have to say I am impressed by all who are competing at such a high standard in the Paralympics. Kieran Modra and Scott McPhee are ripping up the velodrome on their tandem bike at speeds I can only reach on a steep descending road!

[jbilton]

Hi

Not particularly happy with AtOS
Cheers Jon

If it were left to them we probably wouldn't have a team to enter !

Hi
You're right there Dave .... as someone posted

"So since Atos are sponsoring the Paralympics it should go something like this:

1.Competition by athletes
2.Award of medals
3.Atos decide that the winners are not "deserving enough"
4.Medals taken away from winners
5.Competitors appeal
6.Medals returned to winners
7.Atos decide to rerun the whole competition all over again "

Cheers
Jon

[stephenholmes]

That's about right Jon
Kind regards Stephen

[paulz6]

I think it depends on the size of the city and the proximity of other large cities as to whether it's worth it or not.

Where I come from (Adelaide) is a city of about 1.2 million people in the greater area, the state capital of South Australia and 730km from the nearest city (Melbourne) larger than 300,000 people. Therefore I think it's acceptable for us to have publicly-funded world-class sporting facilities like Adelaide Oval, a top-notch velodrome, basketball and netball stadia fit for purpose and a full quality athletics stadium. All of these facilities are used regularly for grassroots sporting events (club competitions and schools) as well as elite competition so none of them could possibly be described as white elephants.

Whether the same could be said of Sheffield, which is inside 70km of both Leeds and Manchester, is a completely different question compared to Adelaide.

In the US, a 100 years is a long time. In the UK, a 100 miles is along way.
I suppose, despite the population density, that Sheffield deserves to be the backend of society. Yes, that is right, we can let Leeds and Manchester have all the facilities and the jobs, and then we can all move out. After the steel works shut, we replaced the work with high level technoligcal jobs (sorry for the spelling, but the auto spelling checker wants to replace it with 'non-technical'!!!), which even now are being outsourced to India. Even the skilled jobs are being outsourced now, the only jobs that cannot be outsourced are local facing McJobs.
I don't live in Sheffield anymore. My fore-bearers brought a decent family up on one wage. Now the very same people seem to complain when the future tax payer has moved out because of the lack of decent jobs.

[oldrocker]

Hi

Not particularly happy with AtOS
Cheers Jon

If it were left to them we probably wouldn't have a team to enter !

Hi
You're right there Dave .... as someone posted

"So since Atos are sponsoring the Paralympics it should go something like this:

1.Competition by athletes
2.Award of medals
3.Atos decide that the winners are not "deserving enough"
4.Medals taken away from winners
5.Competitors appeal
6.Medals returned to winners
7.Atos decide to rerun the whole competition all over again "

Cheers
Jon

"And, by the way, since you can win a medal your DLA is stopped."

[davejc64]

Well the government are trying to reduce the number of people claiming benefits.

[stephenholmes]

Good morning everyone
One mis conception that should be cleared up about Disability Living Allowance
DLA is actually an "In Work" benefit, and not as some sections of the press would have you believe is a means of topping up
Less than 0.5% of Disability Benefits are fraudulently claimed but again that doesn't make good head lines
I think it was a great shame that Remploy was closed down as they were a good employer and showed that with the proper support disabled people can make a valuable contribution
Kind regards Stephen