The Olympics - Why are the Australian women dominating ?

[LostDoggy]

For the last few years the Australian ladies have dominated the pool and yet the men struggle.Is think likely to change anytime soon ?

[whythelongface]

Re: The Olympics - Why are the Australian women dominating ?

Yes the women have dominated but to say that the men are struggling is a bit of an over dramatisation. Maybe we have been blessed over the last decade with the likes of Thorpe, Hackett etc.

The guys are actually looking pretty good with Sullivan, Stoeckel, Lauterstein and Rickard (though he is 25 already) being the backbone of the team over the next few years. The guys ended up with around 4 silver and 2 bronze. Hardly a struggle.

[GVGjr]

Re: The Olympics - Why are the Australian women dominating ?

This was discussed on SEN today. Athletic youngsters have so many other options but the ladies don't have the likes of Football, Rugby (both codes) and Cricket drawing on their most talented athletes with big money contracts. Netball does very well but the money isn't flash and there is more to be made in the pool than on the netball court.

[GVGjr]

Re: The Olympics - Why are the Australian women dominating ?

Yes the women have dominated but to say that the men are struggling is a bit of an over dramatisation. Maybe we have been blessed over the last decade with the likes of Thorpe, Hackett etc.

The guys are actually looking pretty good with Sullivan, Stoeckel, Lauterstein and Rickard (though he is 25 already) being the backbone of the team over the next few years. The guys ended up with around 4 silver and 2 bronze. Hardly a struggle.

I think the struggling comment was more in comparison with the women than outright struggling.

[LostDoggy]

Re: The Olympics - Why are the Australian women dominating ?

Which countries have access to the Speedo suits? Seems to be effecting womens swimming more than mens

[LostDoggy]

Re: The Olympics - Why are the Australian women dominating ?

I'm pretty sure Speedo had to make them available for everyone at the olympics.

[westdog54]

Re: The Olympics - Why are the Australian women dominating ?

I'm pretty sure Speedo had to make them available for everyone at the olympics.

They were on the market, the Australians just got them for free as part of the sponsorship. A lot of countries had to get permission from their sponsors to wear the suit.

[The Doctor]

Re: The Olympics - Why are the Australian women dominating ?

It is nothing new that Australian women have dominated at the Olympics.

In fact our girls seriously rock.

In our Olympic history the girls have contributed to around 42% of our overall gold medal tally. What is remarkable is that they have achieved this despite the comparitevely low level of representation they have had in our teams as compared with the men. Up until 1996 men usually had at least double or triple the number of athletes competing. Take Melbourne 1956 for example. We had 325 in our team and only 46 were women. Prior to this there were never more than 10 female athletes and in several Games there were no women at all.

So the fact they have achieved so much despite the lack of equal opportunity is astounding. You can go further when you consider the amount of funding, facilities, administrative representation etc that have had to contend with.

THis is all the more extremely impressive when you consider that the over thecourse of modern Olympic history women in general have only had around 1/4 of the number of events to compete in.

Whan I see girls like Anna Meares tough it out and fight to the end and win us a medal despite all her recent set backs it is no wonder our girls are such fantastic sports people. THey are truly inspirational.

[westdog54]

Re: The Olympics - Why are the Australian women dominating ?

Whan I see girls like Anna Meares tough it out and fight to the end and win us a medal despite all her recent set backs it is no wonder our girls are such fantastic sports people. THey are truly inspirational.

For me the best story and the best image from these Olympics, from an Australian standpoint, came within a couple of hours of each other.

Meares gets best story honours, to be 2cm(?) away from paraplegia and to come back and win a silver medal in an extremely challenging and competitive event is extroadinary.

And the image of Sally McLennan celebrating her silver medal in a manner that would've made Usain Bolt blush is one that will stay with me for decades.

[Missing-Dog]

Re: The Olympics - Why are the Australian women dominating ?

It should be expected that our women will outperform our men. As has been mentioned, talented women don't have the array of financially lucrative sporting options that our men do. Also, female participation levels in sport would be drastically higher in Australia than the worldwide average. That is probably true for men too, but it would be much moreso for women.