England cant possibly win

bobmac

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at everything.

England has a population of around 52m people
It's not enough to compete against the world at ALL sports.

China...1.3 bn
India ...1.1 bn
USA .....310m
Egypt.....78m
for example


Should England stop trying to be the best at all sports and just concentrate on a few major sports instead (ie football, golf etc) and forget the others stuff (synchronised swimming, darts, snooker, cribbage).

If so, which 5 sports would you like to see England focus on.
(Ok, the Scots/Irish/Welsh can join in)
:p
 
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Have to disagree, people take up a sport initially as a leisure activity, if it transpires that they have the necessary ability then they get to represent the country, should they wish to do so. The vast majority if sportsmen and women aren't naive enough to believe they will be a world champion; it is the fault of a ridiculous level of collective national expectation fuelled by rubbish tabloid journalism. I don't think you should limit people's opportunities to play representative sport at the highest level.

That being said, our dressage horses should man-up and play polo instead
 
as many world champions we have had in a whole range of sports we dont have loads at the same time, yet we remember them as if we were dominant in all sports at the same time

taking competitive sport out of schools hasn't helped but at the end of the day we do ok but, we must drop this attitude of being world beaters or potential world beaters at everything. We cannot compete with the resources of a lot of other countries and need to accept it!
 
We are probably better than we think we are. We've a lot of world champions at many sports usually very unsung, poorly funded if at all but training day in day out to be the best in the world. Sadly the over inflated ego and bank balances of our football team tends to hog the limelight. I agree that with PE and school teams becoming rarer it will be harder for kids to get an opportunity to learn any sport, discover a talent and pursue it but we should be proud of what we have
 
Bob, 52 million is plenty.
Northern Ireland has a population of less than 2 million.
We have had world champion boxers, athletes, golfers, bowlers then in general, actors, writers, surgeons, the list goes on...
Talent needs nurtured and managed. Northern Ireland media is actually pretty good with regards to winners, we don't knock them down, we make documentaries on them, when a team or person loses, they regroup and go back at it, not moan about how everything was against them. Most of all, we earn success when it comes, not demand it.

at everything.

England has a population of around 52m people
It's not enough to compete against the world at ALL sports.

China...1.3 bn
India ...1.1 bn
USA .....310m
Egypt.....78m
for example


Should England stop trying to be the best at all sports and just concentrate on a few major sports instead (ie football, golf etc) and forget the others stuff (synchronised swimming, darts, snooker, cribbage).

If so, which 5 sports would you like to see England focus on.
(Ok, the Scots/Irish/Welsh can join in)
:p
 
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