[Emaemmaemily]

I've spent a fair amount of the last week telling one of my sister's off for making comments like "we're so ****" when the British team don't win gold in an event.

I've noticed however that her attitude is quite common in our country, and not just at the olympics. If England go out of the football world cup in the quaters or semis everyone says how terrible our team is (apparently ignoring what an achievement it is to get that far), and the same happens with Wimbledon and alike.

Why do so many British people have really bad attitudes towards our athletes and sports players? You don't see people from other countries being so terrible towards their athletes when they don't win.

This obviously doesn't apply to ALL of us, but it certainly is a trend.

[Georgiina_Tee]

I always thought it was more 'It's the taking part that counts'

I always thought that British support their teams even when they know they don't have a chance e.g. that Tom Daley issue with that boy Riley69 on Twitter he made 4th place and put the guy on the news

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio Z715e

[The Dark Lord]

We're British! It's in our nature to moan about anything and everything we possibly can. The Olympics is just a special outlet for our dissatisfaction with the world around us.

[Emaemmaemily]

(Original post by Georgiina_Tee)
I always thought it was more 'It's the taking part that counts'

I always thought that British support their teams even when they know they don't have a chance e.g. that Tom Daley issue with that boy Riley69 on Twitter he made 4th place and put the guy on the news

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio Z715e

I agree that we support teams even when we don't really have a chance, but often if we then lose we get all kinds of nasty comments like the one I mentioned above.
Obviously I'm not saying we're all like it, but it's certainly not some tiny minority of people either.

[Martyn*]

I think it might be because we are a nation of sport spectators rather than sport doers or participators. Anyone who knows what it is like to run a marathon or sprint the 100 meters as fast as they can, will realise how rigorous sport really is, nay, how rigourous physical exercise can be.

I have a brother who is obssesed with sport, especially football. He's never kicked a ball in his life (okay perhaps at school). He exemplifies the typical attitude towards athletes, that if the England team lose more than they win, they must be a terrible team. Any notion that the England team tried their best, and have won a few in the past is not even considered.

Another element is our obsession with competing, the emphasis of wining at any cost can be seen in most walks of life. For many it is a reality in British society where it is viewed as terrible not to have the latest fashion accessories, or if one wears a track suit with two stripes instead of three, or if someone chooses Gola trainers instead of Nike trainers. Another one is music. Anything pre-Take-That is strictly ancient. Like one's taste in music, sport is for us just another taste. The actual work that goes into making music, whether good or bad, is not taken into account. The same with our attitude to sport.

[Darth Stewie]

Well because we aren't whateverstan, our bar is set a lot higher than the majority of other countries so the relatively modest achievements such as getting past the group stages in the world cup tend to get overlooked.

This isn't limited to the UK though, Americans are just as bad if not worse when it comes to the NFL and NBA, Canadians do it with the NHL and Australia do it when watching Rugby. Think it is a human trait to ignore the good and focus more on the bad.

[drummer]

(Original post by Emaemmaemily)
I agree that we support teams even when we don't really have a chance, but often if we then lose we get all kinds of nasty comments like the one I mentioned above.
Obviously I'm not saying we're all like it, but it's certainly not some tiny minority of people either.

Certain groups of people are much more relaxed about competitive sports. Common quote's made by these people are 'It's the taking part that counts' or 'They did their best' whilst there is no problem with that and it is true for such huge events you have others who have 100% belief in their athletes and won't settle for anything less. These people often say 'Second, is losing' 'Doing your best is not good enough'

These attitudes often set the difference between Mediocrity and Champions.

[sugar-n-spice]

It's not common enough in my opinion. People celebrating coming fifth or a bronze and a personal best. The Chinese have the right idea, crying and apologising for the disgrace of their failure.



He won silver

[drummer]

(Original post by sugar-n-spice)
It's not common enough in my opinion. People celebrating coming fifth or a bronze and a personal best. The Chinese have the right idea, crying and apologising for the disgrace of their failure.



He won silver

That is a perfect reflection of their sickening work ethic, Wu Jingbiao was bloody awesome.

[py0alb]

(Original post by Emaemmaemily)
I've spent a fair amount of the last week telling one of my sister's off for making comments like "we're so ****" when the British team don't win gold in an event.

I've noticed however that her attitude is quite common in our country, and not just at the olympics. If England go out of the football world cup in the quaters or semis everyone says how terrible our team is (apparently ignoring what an achievement it is to get that far), and the same happens with Wimbledon and alike.

Why do so many British people have really bad attitudes towards our athletes and sports players? You don't see people from other countries being so terrible towards their athletes when they don't win.

This obviously doesn't apply to ALL of us, but it certainly is a trend.

I think its more just an adverse reaction to the media and other people's mindless obsession.

We all just get so fed up with having various sports people shoved down our throat that we get fed up with hearing about them, and end up wishing they'd just **** off.

You would find that the fans of sports that don't have a huge media following don't suffer the same problem.

[FrigidSymphony]

It's an English thing more than a British thing. The Scots support everyone we have no matter how far they get. Hell, we're happy just to be a part of things. One of our football songs was called "Don't Come Home Too Soon".

[py0alb]

(Original post by FrigidSymphony)
It's an English thing more than a British thing. The Scots support everyone we have no matter how far they get. Hell, we're happy just to be a part of things. One of our football songs was called "Don't Come Home Too Soon".

In England we just have "Don't Come Home"

[Kiss]

(Original post by FrigidSymphony)
It's an English thing more than a British thing. The Scots support everyone we have no matter how far they get. Hell, we're happy just to be a part of things. One of our football songs was called "Don't Come Home Too Soon".

Indeed

[Leon Trotsky]

(Original post by sugar-n-spice)
It's not common enough in my opinion. People celebrating coming fifth or a bronze and a personal best. The Chinese have the right idea, crying and apologising for the disgrace of their failure.



He won silver

Wow, shocking.

[fordfiesta]

What I have noticed is that the people who criticize highly successful people for settling for 2nd or whatever are the ones who know the least about winning.

[CJ]

For me it's all hype based. In the run up to a world cup/Euros, England players faces, merchandise and coverage is just everywhere. You get sucked into it and become too expectant, then feel like you've been sold a lie when their best just isn't enough.
At the Olympics it's the poster athletes that will take the brunt of it. The expectation on Wiggins/Addlington/Idowu/Ennis/Hoy etc was so much higher than those less famous but just as capable. Like the mens team gymnastics when we won bronze, such an amazing achievement and brilliant to watch.


My first reaction to when Rebecca Adlington won bronze earlier in the week was, oh... she got gold before why not this time?
I later found out she swam faster than when she won gold and was just beaten by the quality of two other athletes. She's improved herself and her speed, what else can she do? In that respect she hasn't failed at all, just beaten by worthy competitiors.

I think level headed people can appreciate quality, pressures and real expectation. There will always be misery merchants unfortuately.

[Ice Constricter]

Its to do with ignorance and mass hype (like CJ said) from the media. When people are ignorant of a particular sport they don't understand the reasonable expectations one should hold of that athlete/team, so only go by what the media tells them. Then when they perform worse than they expected they hold nothing but unfair criticism for that athlete/team. If you notice, a lot of the people that are 'clued up' on the sport judge less harshly because they know what is reasonably expected.

Another thing worth mentioning is that a lot of western countries are very patriotic of their team when heading into a competition and generally expect themselves to do well because of the position at which they're in, in the world, but as soon as failure arises, the patriotism is dropped at the whim of a hat. That defines England.

[Clip]

(Original post by sugar-n-spice)
It's not common enough in my opinion. People celebrating coming fifth or a bronze and a personal best. The Chinese have the right idea, crying and apologising for the disgrace of their failure.



He won silver

He's all apologetic as he might be facing a firing squad when he gets back.

[Bellissima]

i am SOOOOOOOOOO bloody sick of these negative people!!! whatever we place is brilliant!!!!!!!!!!

[RtGOAT]

(Original post by sugar-n-spice)
It's not common enough in my opinion. People celebrating coming fifth or a bronze and a personal best. The Chinese have the right idea, crying and apologising for the disgrace of their failure.



He won silver

Thats awesome.


I wish the British athletes would show the same determination. Anything less then 1st simply isn't good enough and if you're happy to settle for second best (or even worse) you may as well not bother competing.

Personally I think they should stop giving silver and bronze medals.