Holy shit you people are really high maintenance when it comes to the Olympics.
I remember first coming over here in 2000 when the Olympics were in Sydney and the whole nation was partying like it was still 1999. You couldn't escape the enthusiastic -borderline fanatical - worship of the likes of Cathy Freeman, Ian Thorpe, Dinky-Di, True Blue Aussie Tatiana Grigorieva, Ginger bollocks in the pole jump, the Beach volleyball chicks, etc. etc. etc. It was a sea of green and gold. Every advert contained an Olypian - no matter how tenuous the connection between star and product - Cntz were shouting 'Aussie, Aussie, Aussie' at all hours of the day and night. People were happy.
Since then the Australian athletes have lost the home-ground advantage they had in Sydney and have seen their budgets chipped away year after year. It's little wonder their performance started to drop off. What I do find surprising however is just how venomous the backlash turned out to be. Comments sections, pundits, folk down the pub etc all started sharpening their pitchforks about halfway thrugh London 2012 and there seems to be no sign of the mob abating.
How the hell do you expect kids to perform at their best when they get their training budgets eroded and are greeted with calls for even more funding to be stripped when they fail to live up to impossible expectations?
I like to contrast it with the UK where traditionally nobody gave a shit about how successful the athletes were. Golds were rare and to be celebrated but fuck it, you could be as inept as Eddie the Eagle Edwards and they'd still make a hero out of you. That level of actual support - coupled with an increase in funding- have meant that instead of peaking at London 2012, Team GB have gone on to claim 2nd in the Rio medal tally.
As for scrapping the Olympics in favour of World Championships? Thats a bit drastic. Just because you lot are having a shit time, doesn't mean other nations aren't!
Olympic Medals mean so much because they are won in front of an audience of billions. Even as a keen cyclist I can never be arsed trying to track down live streams of the everyday track world champs, BMX champs, XC World Cup etc but I will stay up till 4am on a nightly basis once every four years to watch the same riders compete at the Olympics.
