What does the success of team GB's athletes in the beijing olympics say about...?

Question

our national football, rugby and cricket teams for eg in england, scotland, wales, northern ireland? particuarly in football (or soccer if you live in the US) where players are paid unbelievably high wages for their club. if you had the choice as an athlete, would you prefer to represent the UK as a nation whilst in the olympics, or as a footballer, rugby player, for eg individually as england, scotland, wales and northern ireland? and if you can offer an explanation as to why.

as an additional question, do you agree or disagree with this statement: judging by this olympics in beijing and the last in athens and their increasing medal tally, britain perform better at sports in the olympics than england, scotland, wales, northern ireland at football etc

Answer 1

Being Scottish, I would prefer to see Scotland compete in anything as a separate nation [ even if it means very little success ], because of our long history of wars and grievances with England I doubt many Scots enjoy seeing the Union Jack and hearing God save the Queen. The improved performance of Britain in the games is pure and simply money ! More was pumped in over the last 10 years and the results are showing.

Answer 2

They were better than 100 years ago in the 1908 olympics.

Some brits would argue that they did better in the 1908 olympics but:

Even though GB came first with 100 medals youve go to keep in mind only 22 countries were participating and there were no women!

There was absolutley no competition from Russia, China, India, Brazil, Japan etc! And there was no drug test or anything.

Now we have 10,500 athletes from 204 countries and Britain is doing extremely well (theyre 3rd) than ever before.

Answer 3

I think it shows that Olympic Athletes (irregardless of their success rates) are more passionate and more engineered towards the sport than a lavish, celebrity lifestyle. As such, I would suggest it makes them purer sportsmen and women.

I would also agree that Britain does better in other sports than the ones we seem so obsessed with.