Did you hear?

[karenmac60]

David Beckham is trying to get in the GB team for the next winter Olympics. Seems he has been practising on the women's skeleton for years...

[joggerjayne]

LOL

[Sandy-Wroe]

Speaking of Winter Olympics, is it true that a Curler had a hissy fit and broke the broom over someone's head?
Hardly in the spirit of the games, It's taking part, not winning that's important.

[joggerjayne]

Now that's a proper mardy !!

[joggerjayne]

It's ... taking ... part ... not ... winning ... that's ... important

Nope. I can't make a sentence out of those words.

I need a clue.

[Sandy-Wroe]

Isn't that the gist of the Olympic ethos? That to do ones best and compete is more important than winning?

[WhiteBears]

i got that text few days ago! :)

[karenmac60]

If it was only taking part that was important then they wouldn't give out medals - just like my daughter's school sport's day ;)

[joggerjayne]

Try running the "taking part" argument by the Canadians ...

... who allocated themselves 300 practice runs on the bob track ...

... and each other nation a maximum (!) of 30 practice runs !!

Why? ... To maximise their own chances of winning Golds.

Result ... A Georgian luge competitor who did not have enough practice runs to learn the track was killed.

[karenmac60]

There is no real concept of 'taking part' when it comes to sport. I enjoyed a few different things when I was younger like rowing and judo, but I wasn't competitive, and if you were part of a club you were expected to compete and win or you should just go home and not bother them. Now I enjoy a non-competitive sit on my ar$e ;)

[joggerjayne]

He had to go full speed on his practice runs.

He hadn't been given enough opportunity to do slow, "familiarisation" runs.

There was a dangerous corner. The Canadians had all learnt the correct angle of approach to take the corner.

The Georgian hadn't.

He took a "conventional" angle, and went over the edge ... and was killed.

[karenmac60]

I noticed there was very little press coverage of it (not that I read the sports pages) but if it had been a Brit it'd have been splashed all over the place. I was only vaguely aware that it had happened, and I wasn't paying attention to the news so I wasn't even sure if it was a death or an injury. Poor guy.

[karenmac60]

It was on Tam Cowan - and don't call me a bitch till you know me. I am one, but you don't know that for sure.

[karenmac60]

Ooh, get you. Hand bags at dawn.