Disclaimer
What you see & read here, are purely my own views, opinions & perceptions.
Others may not feel or think the same like me.
If they do, these are totally coincidental. But what the heck, who cares !
Singapore gotten 2 bronze medals (from table tennis) & 1 national record.After 3 years with our country spending S$4.1 million, many asked if this spending is justified.
Our Olympic Pathway Programme (OPP) identified 11 athletes over 4 sports (table-tennis, swimming, badminton, air-rifle shooting) who had the potential to win an olympic medal. But other than the paddlers, none came close to compete in their finals.
After the event, Yahoo(Singapore) made a survey asking singaporeans whether they feel pride for our country winning these medals. About 77% said no because none of the paddlers were local talents borned singaporeans. They were imported or bluntly coded by many as "made-in-china" converted to singapore citizenship. In fact, 1 paddler just gotten her citizenship before she play in the Bejing Olympics 2008.
Olympics is about man versus man & the best man wins.
It's normal to see european coaches coaching chinese teams, & chinese players playing for many non-chinese countries in the olympics. But in my opinion, athletics taking part, should meet some criterias : they must either be originated from their own country, or have been a citizen in a new country for a period of minimum time. Otherwise, it's just a "commercial" game, where rich countries could "import" or "buy" foreign talents to represent them. For this reason, I gave very high respect to those countries who only send their "original" athletics for the olympics, & not "imports".
The question to ask is : do we want to implement the right processes to nurture our local talents over the long haul, or we just "import" foreign talents to get quick results just to show others we are pro-sport
Like many, I tend to agree that Michael Phelps (Originated from United States) is the greatest olympian in our times. He has to be, having won 22 medals (18Gold, 2Silver, 2Bronze) in 3 olympics (2004,2008,2012) before he announced his retirement after the games. I strongly believe he wins because of his physical niches & hard works in swimming - his long workouts, his slender body, height & long limbs. Have you seen any swimming champions who are fat & short ?
When this malaysian badminton player LEE Chong Wei played his long-time chinese rival in the single's final, many malaysians felt "malaysian" & united, "glued" to the tv to watch him play, probably his last game before his retirement. He failed to win gold. but has won the hearts of many malaysians.
He took the 1st-game aggressively, gave away the 2nd-game too early without much fight, & with only a 2-point margin, he lost the 3rd-game & the gold medal.
My opinion on why he lost : from his expressions during the games, & later confirmed by him in his press interviews, he lost due to his lack of confidence.
I can see why. In 29 meetings before this olympics badminton final, he has only won 9 times against this same chinese rival. So, he only had 1/3 chance of winning. Besides confidence, I think he did not win because he used the same strategy, lack of creativity & aggressiveness, and employed the same coaches. Someone once said : If you always do the same thing, you would expect the same result.
Henry Ford (1863-1947) once said : Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. But I say this is only true to some extend, especially in sports where one's performance is limited by physical ability which is directly related to one's age. Have you seen any old athlete win in any olympic game ?
I stopped watching soccer ever since our national tv stopped showing this sport, & I cannot justify to pay the high fees for buying sport channels commercially. In the 80s, & 90s, we enjoyed free sport channels on tv despite paying the annual tv licence fee. Now, this tv licence fee has been abolished, after someone realized that in reality, there isn't much to watch on our national channels. On some days, I watched the news 3 times in the same day, in different languages......it's so boring on tv these days.
I watched the soccer final between Mexico vs Brazil, as it was beamed live & free on tv.
Mexico won (2-1) & I personally think that mexican coach Luis Fernando Tena should take the credit for coaching & fielding the best team, who scored the first goal in just 29 seconds into the game. It's amazing to watch the team play & it's quite a true statement :
"Talent wins games, but teamwork & intelligence wins championships." Michael Jordan
Brazil loss, I think, is due to overly confidence which equates to complacency.
After mexico scored the 1st-goal in 29 seconds, it took them >20 minutes to "wake-up & warm-up" to launch attacks at goal,......hmmmmmmmm.
This team has many talented & expensive players & had not lost a single game leading to the final. Overall, I think complacency, lack of teamwork & internal conflicts in the field killed their game. For this, the brazilian coach, Mano Menezes must answer to his critics why like many of his predecessors, the 5-time world champion continues to fail in their attempts to win the only title : olympic gold that continues to allude them.
If this team continues to behave & play like this, I don't think they could win the 2014 world cup. Trust my assessment,........let's just wait & see.
What you see & read here, are purely my own views, opinions & perceptions.
Others may not feel or think the same like me.
If they do, these are totally coincidental. But what the heck, who cares !
Our Olympic Pathway Programme (OPP) identified 11 athletes over 4 sports (table-tennis, swimming, badminton, air-rifle shooting) who had the potential to win an olympic medal. But other than the paddlers, none came close to compete in their finals.
After the event, Yahoo(Singapore) made a survey asking singaporeans whether they feel pride for our country winning these medals. About 77% said no because none of the paddlers were local talents borned singaporeans. They were imported or bluntly coded by many as "made-in-china" converted to singapore citizenship. In fact, 1 paddler just gotten her citizenship before she play in the Bejing Olympics 2008.
Olympics is about man versus man & the best man wins.
It's normal to see european coaches coaching chinese teams, & chinese players playing for many non-chinese countries in the olympics. But in my opinion, athletics taking part, should meet some criterias : they must either be originated from their own country, or have been a citizen in a new country for a period of minimum time. Otherwise, it's just a "commercial" game, where rich countries could "import" or "buy" foreign talents to represent them. For this reason, I gave very high respect to those countries who only send their "original" athletics for the olympics, & not "imports".
The question to ask is : do we want to implement the right processes to nurture our local talents over the long haul, or we just "import" foreign talents to get quick results just to show others we are pro-sport
Like many, I tend to agree that Michael Phelps (Originated from United States) is the greatest olympian in our times. He has to be, having won 22 medals (18Gold, 2Silver, 2Bronze) in 3 olympics (2004,2008,2012) before he announced his retirement after the games. I strongly believe he wins because of his physical niches & hard works in swimming - his long workouts, his slender body, height & long limbs. Have you seen any swimming champions who are fat & short ?
He took the 1st-game aggressively, gave away the 2nd-game too early without much fight, & with only a 2-point margin, he lost the 3rd-game & the gold medal.
My opinion on why he lost : from his expressions during the games, & later confirmed by him in his press interviews, he lost due to his lack of confidence.
I can see why. In 29 meetings before this olympics badminton final, he has only won 9 times against this same chinese rival. So, he only had 1/3 chance of winning. Besides confidence, I think he did not win because he used the same strategy, lack of creativity & aggressiveness, and employed the same coaches. Someone once said : If you always do the same thing, you would expect the same result.
Henry Ford (1863-1947) once said : Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. But I say this is only true to some extend, especially in sports where one's performance is limited by physical ability which is directly related to one's age. Have you seen any old athlete win in any olympic game ?
I stopped watching soccer ever since our national tv stopped showing this sport, & I cannot justify to pay the high fees for buying sport channels commercially. In the 80s, & 90s, we enjoyed free sport channels on tv despite paying the annual tv licence fee. Now, this tv licence fee has been abolished, after someone realized that in reality, there isn't much to watch on our national channels. On some days, I watched the news 3 times in the same day, in different languages......it's so boring on tv these days.
I watched the soccer final between Mexico vs Brazil, as it was beamed live & free on tv.
Mexico won (2-1) & I personally think that mexican coach Luis Fernando Tena should take the credit for coaching & fielding the best team, who scored the first goal in just 29 seconds into the game. It's amazing to watch the team play & it's quite a true statement :
"Talent wins games, but teamwork & intelligence wins championships." Michael Jordan
Brazil loss, I think, is due to overly confidence which equates to complacency.
After mexico scored the 1st-goal in 29 seconds, it took them >20 minutes to "wake-up & warm-up" to launch attacks at goal,......hmmmmmmmm.
This team has many talented & expensive players & had not lost a single game leading to the final. Overall, I think complacency, lack of teamwork & internal conflicts in the field killed their game. For this, the brazilian coach, Mano Menezes must answer to his critics why like many of his predecessors, the 5-time world champion continues to fail in their attempts to win the only title : olympic gold that continues to allude them.
If this team continues to behave & play like this, I don't think they could win the 2014 world cup. Trust my assessment,........let's just wait & see.
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