Why The Olympics Still Haven’t Got It Right Yet

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It’s been an exciting couple of weeks during the Olympics in Rio. The Team GB ambassadors have all won gold now and Laura Trott’s massive win means she is the most successful British female Olympian of all time!

You’ve probably seen recently (if you’re an avid Twitter user like me) a tweet that’s been sweeping the nation. Undoubtedly, this tweet prompted some chuckles! But it’s actually a pretty fair point and there is a lot to be said here.

We all sit around the television, eagerly criticizing each and every performance from the best athletes in the world. “Well that wasn’t very synchronized” as the top female divers in the world plunge into murky green water.

Without some sort of comparison, it’s hard to appreciate the speed and strength of some of these athletes and how they’ve perfected their performance. That’s why I’ve put together some facts that hopefully will put into perspective the magnitude of their achievement:

1. Ever watched the hammer throw? Athletes throw a metal ball (16lb/7.26kg for men, 4kg/8.8lb for women) for distance that’s attached to a grip by a steel wire. Depending on which type you own, that’s not far off swinging a Dyson hoover around. Given the fact I can barely lift mine up the stairs, that’s pretty outstanding. Not to mention, the men’s hammer throw world record is 86.74m (that’s a whopping 284 feet 6 61/64 inches).
2.  Hicham El Guerrouj is the current men’s record holder with his time of 3:43.13, while Svetlana Masterkova has the women’s record of 4:12.56. According to a forum on the Runners World website, they were saying that it is good for a female to run/jog a mile between 10 to 12 minutes and for males 8 to 11 minutes. That’s coming from mostly fit and healthy people who are training and run on a regular basis!
3. This is the one that gets me the most – gymnastics! I found a pretty funny thread on Reddit of people discussing the statistics of how many people can hold a handstand. Users responded with either 1% or 0.1%. Yet, we watch contestants perform multiple flips over gymnastic vaults, parallel bars or springboards – and we don’t bat an eyelid.

I’m not saying that nobody cares about the Olympics, but I do think we forget to appreciate how incredible these athletes are. Hey, it’d also be pretty funny to see someone try and hold and handstand next to the top gymnast in the world or participate in one of the races.

Com’on Olympics, let’s get some comparisons and let the average ones join in with the fun!

Fear not though! Just because we aren’t in Rio, doesn’t mean we can’t get involved. DFS have been getting people across the globe in their new game, #FlipIt. How many beer mats could you flip? I think it’d take me a lot of practice just to do one, yikes!

DFS is the official homeware partner of Team GB for this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio. You can also follow DFS’s Twitter and Instagram feeds for all the latest on the GreatBrits: Game On series.