> It could mean a young persons career going on hold so it is all their lost salary as well as the cost of training etc and then it might all come to nothing through >injury or just failure to develop as hoped

Yes - but it can be done. I worked with someone who had represented GB at athletics. His father had represented GB at the Olympics. Very ordinary family, not wealthy. The son managed to get a university degree while competing which stood him in good stead when he was injured and couldn't compete any more.

Sport definitely requires family commitment tho' and lots of families where both parents work just don't have the time or aren't prepared to give up their evenings/weekends. This is why a lot of the GB athletes have family connections to the sport. Of course, lots of universities have splendid sports facilities so getting a degree and competing is perfectly possible, so parental encouragement to study is also required :)

>Scholarships are available but I doubt enough on the sporting front...

Lots of the public schools have sports scholarships.

> Certain sports attract privately educated for sure, like rowing and sailing as let's be honest it's not cheap some of these sports that require equipment.
>

I used to do Rowing and track cycling at school in London, granted it was a special school for the partially sighted so eprhaps had extra funding (we had weekly swimmign too).

Rowing was at Putney Bridge, and Cycling at Herne Hill where there is an outdoor track.

Gold for Team GB showjumpers!!!

Fantastic work from the Showjumpers - heart in mouth time! Jason Kenny just won gold in men's sprint too!!

Oh my goodness the medals just keep coming, this is wondeful :)

Back to earlier topic regarding private schools etc being more prominent in producing athletes, it also must depend on location, as an island water sports are very available, rowing and sailing, and they are available to youngsters to try out with club dinghies and rowing skiffs with expert tuition and guidance, so surely this would be the case around the country?
Trust you understand we are not all wealthy ex pats with yachts and privat means, but just every day folk earning a living same as everyone else.

Karen  ;)

When I was in the sixth form at (state) school we went sailing weekly (in our sports lesson) on the local authority run sailing lake - 40 years ago, so not sure whether local school children still get to go there :)

It's brilliant isn't it! And good chances of medals in dressage, cycling and triathlon today too! We are off to the canoe sprint tomorrow, can't wait! Getting very overexcited about it all - found an official Team GB t-shirt in Sainsburys today so will be all kitted out without having to go to the Olympic shop (assuming there is one at Eton Dorney!). :-D

> Certain sports attract privately educated for sure, like rowing and sailing as let's be honest it's not cheap some of these sports that require equipment.<

Saskia Clarke - one of the women sailors - is in place to win a gold (hopefully) today - and she's one of our local girls who attended the village primary school - one of the few non-private schools which has its own sailing club - the little ones learn to sail in Optimist sailing dinghies (they look like plastic buckets) from the age of 8.   Another local girl - Hannah Stobell - from the same school/sailing club is in the Paralympics too.  

This is what an Optimist looks like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimist_dinghy

Yes, its doable isn't it?  Go Saskia...Go Hannah :)

Looks like almost local Karl Hester (Sarkee) is aabout to get a team gold too :) :)

Karen

Poor bloke as I think it all got too much for him but at least he died happy

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2184852/London-2012-Olympics-superfan-spent-day-Games-watching-events-live-dies-suspected-heart-attack-velodrome.html

Blimey - I hadn't posted anything on this thread since Friday morning (too busy watching it to talk about it) BUT now I find I'm so far behind in my congrats I couldn't possibly catch up with posting each of them individually...

Recent highlights though:

I'm really missing the swimming - CB was doing her usual sterling job of delivering information and commentary and Mark Foster and Ian Thorpe have certainly brightened my screen. In fact can we keep Ian Thorpe ??!  Mark Phelps - what a man - but congratulations to our GB swimmers who really put the effort in :)

Hasn't the Velodrome provided a perfect backdrop to our medal success, the noise must have been deafening in there.  Well done Laura Trott, Sir Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and Jason Kenny.

Huge big ups for Andy Murray,  GOLD and SILVER in the tennis :  Loved the Brownlee boys today in the Triathlon  :  Didn't the women do well in the rowing - and weren't they good in interviews, superb role models for their sport and young women in general :)  Jessica Ennis - well done you, under so much pressure - and she's a great model for the shorter woman, my daughter was pleased to note that you don't have to be 6ft tall!!

Our equestrian teams have been amazing - GOLD in the show jumping and GOLD in the Dressage on top of our Silver in the Eventing.  Why on earth did they stop putting this on TV?  The Horse of Year Show was a TV highlight in my youth and it's incredible to see some of the same names still competing!!

                      What on earth will I do when it finishes...  :(

22 Golds!
Where did they all come from!! LOL
I know we've equalled Beijing, at 19, and there is the 'home advantage' which apparently is normal and accounts for a few extra, but I think we'll exceed even that.

Can't understand the attitude of the French who started muttering even before we'd equalled the Beijing haul. I'm disappointed as I always thought they were a fair play kind of nation, and not one to cultivate sour grapes (pun intended).

I was amazed to learn that Yorkshire's won more golds than Australia!

I was so annoyed today to miss all of today's action as was interviewing all day but they had a big tv screen right outside the room we were using so quickly dispatched the candidates and managed to catch snippets.

Really wanted to watch the triathlon as the ladies race on Saturday really caught my imagination and utter awe on the commitment , intelligence and such determination to get round the course.

At home tomorrow so will hopefully get a fix of what I think has been outstanding coverage.

Will miss it but as I said to my OH no more couch watching we will be doing more after watching such inspirational talented people

ohhh I wished id had chance to be glued to me tv seen some of it but not as much as id liked....

but heck here is the only place i feel I can come and say WaaaaHaaaaa,,, Goooo Team GB!!!,,,, lov it,, No one else i know is even bothered :-(,,,
i feeling alone but also feel very Proud of our boys and girls :-),,, does that make me mad?? lol,

I understand totally that all my Locals have been pee'd off at all the hype I was myself at the start but im loving it now loool,, am i bad!! lol

everyone else i know is still slagging the games off despite our wins,,(they just cant see it yet ), and ok i was a little apprehensive at the start cos,  Good Lord its on my door step,

And I and eveyone else in London have been programed thu the media hype for the last year that us Londoners where in for a Hell of a time on our roads,stay away,, dont come here ,, roads will be jammed blablabla,!!!  

But from the Day it started,,,,,, We Londoner's I feel ALL Braced ourselfs,,,
My own  mum had an emergence at the hospital in Kent and i put off going thu fear of the media i waited 3 bloody days,of course i was in constant contact with her medical team, but felt i should have been their but also was made to feel i couldn't go anywhere because of the Olympics  lucky mum was ok discharged same day,
and even  on the Monday  i did go,, I was hearing Nothing but (stay away from the A2 THU GREENWICH BLACKHEATH, AND I HAD go that way to her 67 miles AWAY, with the worry of what they where portraying on our local radio traffic stations,,, ,,, and the games had just started at Greenwich the day i did go down,, cos i was meant to have gone on the friday day of games start and i left it till the monday thu fear of their bullshit basically,,,,

we where all warned here to keep off the roads,,,, 8 miles traffic tail back at kidbrook bla bla bla,,,, so im grabbing sat nav rearranging route in a panic ,, i gotta get to me mum right away already left it way to long,, radio travel up dates telling you to STAY OFF the roads!!!!,,,, 

Iwent mums and ROADS ARE NO DIFFERENT THAN ANY OTHER TIME!!!!

,I  feel the media bullcrap of it all is whats runid it for most of us here,,, Its not that bad traffic wise,m alound of hype about nothing if ya ask me thats just turned everyone off rthe whole bloody thing,,,,,

i being one of the lucky ones who over came the fear of their hype and went for it ,,, cos id already falling for their hype on the friday when mum went into hospital and i should have been their really,,, luckly she didnt end up needing me their but was no hells chance they where keeping me away comne the Monday,,,,  and when i went it seriously was no differant from any other time i go up their and im their alot,,,, so why all the off putting bullcrap their spilling over the news to stay away,,,,

I'm missing too much of it now :-( Working shifts which mean i'm not able to watch much at all, 1st thing in the morning doesn't really give me much, but did manage to see the Brownlee's do well..

I've been recording it so I whizz through some of the heats and the fillers.  If it's a tense race, or a very long one, I fast forward a bit there too so some of these athletes are going at breakneck speed :)

> i being one of the lucky ones who over came the fear of their hype and went for it

I can only assume it's to avoid extra traffic from outside coming in... I lived in that part of London for many years and indeed used to walk on the waste ground upon which most of the Olympic site has been built as well as the Marshes, and firms I worked for dealt with small businesses in Waterden Road which no longer exists.

I'm not sure how I'd regard it if I was still a local resident. I'm sure over the years while it was being built there must have been quite a lot of inconvenience to people in the area, and it's not the sort of place where many locals would be able to afford a ticket at the end of it, or even get employment as so many of the people on the site are Volunteers.

I don't have any recording device so a wee bit stuck there and don't get home until after all the days coverage has finished, so bed it is!!

Try BBCiPlayer :-)

Fantastic sucess all round.

> Try BBCiPlayer

... and if time is short, Olympics Sportsday at 12.10am each day is a final round-up of the day's events in 45 minutes

Oh dear I'd missed that! But like you say, he'd had the time of his life watching it all, all those lovely pics of him drinking it all in. I'm sorrier that his mum now can't bear to watch!

We had a great time at the canoe sprint today, back home and exhausted but still glued to the telly. So sorry for GB in the individual jumping, we came so close!

> So sorry for GB in the individual jumping, we came so close

Nick Skelton - articulate in his interviews, gracious in defeat and very proud of his horse - give that man a knighthood :)

See we got a gold and silver in the dressage and just watched the boxing and what a great gold by Nicola Adams the first ever women's gold !

Yes, medals like busses - none for a day and a half, then 3 at once! :-D More to follow tonight in taekwondo too....

Oh dear catching up on today's events and the men's hockey score was a tad embarrassing !

Have just watched the dressage finals on I player, fantastic, poetry in monition!

Just watching the news and they are going to show some highlights.

I didn't realise she is a local girl and think if it is the same person she came to our fete a couple of years ago to do an exhibition stint on the village green !

Gold in Taekwondo too :-)

> Have just watched the dressage finals on I player

I missed these today so that's on my list of things to do tomorrow.  Did Claire Balding cry again?  She keeps getting all emotional about our horses and riders :)

Has anyone a link?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01lv5ts/Olymipics_London_2012_BBC_One_Day_13_13.4516.00/
Move the slide timer to 1.32.52

I hope this works?

thanks