Women's Rowing V. Archery

[Zoe]

Well words have been flying in the office tea-room over the last couple of days over the Women

[James Park]

You should be included in the team.
An analogy: if you have had a car accident should you immediately disqualify yourself from driving? I am sure there are plenty of other excellent analogies, and all will say "you should be on the team".

[Marcus]

I think your workmate makes an excellent point and it's a good analogy.

[Zoe]

I think your workmate makes an excellent point

yes, I have to say she was quite good. When I didn't immediately say "I would choose to relinquish my spot" she insinuated that I was quite probably morally bankrupt and, worse still, a bad sport (I just know she wanted to say "unaustralian" :wink: ). Little Johnny would have been proud.

[mbomike]

Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing :roll: No body could answer those questions till the competitor actually made or failed the shot.
Most sports (especially Archery) are filled with "what if's?"
All that really matters is competitors, weather they are backyard bashers or Olympians. Give it their best shot. Nobody has any right to ask for more. :agrue:

[grantwomack]

[quote=Marcus](I just know she wanted to say "unaustralian" :wink: )
I'd have thought the Australian would have waited until someone won and THEN get angry at that person for showing up everyone else. ;) :D
Very good analogy though. I do agree though that it can't really be answered until it happens. We'll see what happens to Prasad of India. Needed a 9 to win against Park. Drew the bow, let down, drew, let down, drew, shot a 7 and lost. :(

[Marcus]

she insinuated that I was quite probably morally bankrupt
hope you informed her of your position as having the highest moral quality in archery.








oh yeah, that wouldn't have counted for much.

[Clare Barnes]

We'll see what happens to Prasad of India. Needed a 9 to win against Park. Drew the bow, let down, drew, let down, drew, shot a 7 and lost. :(

It happened many times in Athens .... wonder how Frankenberg felt when, needing a 7 just to tie with Tim, he shot a 6, having shot nothing else lower than an 8 all match!

[Aarleks]

Mmm... Good analogy, bad conclusions by your workmate. :D
I agree with Jim. I don't see any reason why the archer should give up their spot. They would had to have done all that is required of an archer to represent their country at an Olympics, and so must be offered a position.

However, if archery teams were selected in a similar manner to say cricket or football teams then the situation may be different. Those sports pick the players that work best together under pressure (or at least ideally :wink: ). If such was the case for archery then a selection committee may pass the archer for another. Yet, archery is not a team sport and a selection such as this could be flawed.

[clever_guy]

Hindsight is always 20/20...

;) :lol: :lol:

Unfortunately competitive sports doesn't work that way, especially at a high-level. If you show up you might just win. Look at all the "upsets" in this Olympics to prove that point, whether you look in rowing, or tennis, or archery, or athletics or whatever sport. The fact is you *can not* base a likely outcome on past performance with any certainty. The guy who came in 30th at the respective sports WC may come out of nowhere and win the Olympics.

The over-riding issue is that high-level competitive sport is based on "performance", and by that I don't mean past or likely (or statistically likely) performance - but rather pulling it together to

[2Dogs]

Well..............if my shoulder was itchy I would give up my spot!.

Never know I might have had to scratch it during the team round :wink:

Oops.....it's feeling better now after typing this :D

[Kuru]

Is this like Deonne Bridger going to water every time she shoots international :D

[2Dogs]

No!.....and Deone has a Bronze Medal from the World Field Champs! :wink:

[Wombat]

Well..............if my shoulder was itchy I would give up my spot!.

Never know I might have had to scratch it during the team round :wink:



In the future this will be known as doing a "Snorky" :lol:

[Madeleine Ferris]

Not knowing a thing about rowing or the actual facts (except for a Dragon Boat competition once in Geelong - I THINK we won, too, but really can't remember - all I do remember is the incredible pain - and not being able to stop rowing - no matter how much it hurt - until we were told we could stop across the finish line!!!!) I don't know how anyone can pass judgement - either for or against - this girl. However, my observations were:

1. The first reaction from the rest of the team was not of concern for her wellbeing but rather anger - which immediately rang alarm bells in my head. Had this happened before? Was there tension between this girl and the rest of the team or did they just have a bad attitude?

2. Unless I actually blacked out, I am SURE I would have moved heaven and earth just to lift that oar out of the water because I knew it would be causing a huge drag on the boat (especially if this has happened before).

3. There didn't seem to be any sense of remorse, regret, or "I'm really sorry, guys" from her. And I guess it was lack of concern about the whole thing that makes it hard for me to have too much sympathy for her (unless the reason was (2) above - in that case there was not much she could do about it UNTIL she became conscious again).

Sorry, but I don't think you can use the anology of shooting a 6 or, say, missing an easy putt in golf (that's just nervousness applying tension to the muscles at the wrong time) to actually physically collapsing over your oar either because of a mental or physical condition.

This apparently had happened before and the selectors/coaches etc should have worked with her to find out WHY and if it could potentially happen again, particularly at really big events, and tried to and lick the problem. Perhaps they thought they had and it wouldn't repeat itself. In other words we just don't know. Perhaps she should have paced herself better and with her experience she should know how to do this. If you do have this rare condition - go participate in an individual sport where you sink or swim by yourself and it doesn't effect anyone else. Perhaps not swimming, though, otherwise you'd sink really fast!!!

However, (1) and (3) above are still very much in my mind and do colour my attitude and I find it hard, I must say, to sympathise very much with her. I do have another of those 'anologies' which is slightly similar, but I won't go into that here.

There - that's my two bobs worth, and I aim not to think about this subject again.

[Peter King]

Like Madeleine I can't understand stopping rowing whilst still having a pulse, when competing for a team. I still don't understand it but in Archery everyone can have a bad day, end or shot...we all have. That's not giving up.

Aarleks wrote:


However, if archery teams were selected in a similar manner to say cricket or football teams then the situation may be different. Those sports pick the players that work best together under pressure (or at least ideally :wink: ). If such was the case for archery then a selection committee may pass the archer for another. Yet, archery is not a team sport and a selection such as this could be flawed.

I agree with that when looking at solo performances which contribute to an overall team result, but not, for instance, in State Team Matchplay. Archery is a team sport if you are shooting Team Matchplay and performance under pressure and the ability to work together are factors.

[2Dogs]

I still say they should have just shut their mouths and sorted it out at the Team Meeting.

If she really did Bonk!.....well you wouldn't be able to lift a paddle, let alone a finger.

Maybe they should have just tossed her out with 200m to go......like team Pursuit does on the last lap :D

[mbomike]

I do feel sorry for the girl. We Australians are a very Christian based society (never let a bad thing go forgotten).
She is going to cop this rap for years to come. Remember Dennis Lillie?