Quote Originally Posted by ryanman89 View Post
The reality is that the majority of the British public would say we are shit at sport. The general attitute is far too negative.
A few stats -
The most f1 drivers titles of any nation,
Football team ranked 7th (of 21
Rugby team that has reached last two world cup finals
Numerous boxing world champs
4th in medal table at Olympics.
Cricket team that has won 2 of the last 3 Ashes.
By far the dominant force in track cycling.

Not to mention the world beaters we have in squash, triathlon, darts, snooker, swimming etc etc.

I'm not saying Britian is the most successful sporting nation, but we are far better than the miserable, negative British public would say.
For example, Australia are our main sporting rivals, now if you asked the british public who was the better sporting nation id say 80% would say Australia. Yet we have beat them in last two rugby world cups, beat them in 2 of last 3 Ashes, beat them at 2008 Olympics. (im not mentioning football here as they don't reallt take it seriously). I could list loads of sports that the British beat them at, yet the only sports you could make a case for them are rugby, cricket and swimming. Ive already shown how the first two are debateable, so that leaves swimming. And we can give them that.
As for putting Australia as Britains major sporting rival well it s little weird that u would compare your countrys of 80 million against ours of 20 million. Thats like comparing The UK with the USA.

Yes u have won 2 of the last 3 Ashes, but its also 2 of the last 11 i believe. In those last 3 series the actual test wins are 8-4 Australias way and u cant really say the England cricket team is better til they win in Australia. What happened last time they played there? Add the fact Australia are current World Cup champions and Champions trophy winners it isnt even debateable who the better cricket side is really.
Australias main sport is Aussie Rules so that takes loads of our best athletes. Rugby League is similiar which except for a bad world cup final Australia is dominant. The last time we played england in Football we won 3-1 and also made the second round of the last world cup. Australia on world rankings has 10 of the top 100 golfers, good surfers, and won 2 gold medals at the last Athletics world championships. Netball world champions, better Motorcycle racers and both on and off road. Our mens and womens basketball teams have had far more success than Britains. Cadel Evans just won the world road racing championship in cycling and we have the top 2 ranked womens triathletes.

Britain are no doubt having a good run in sport at the moment due to extra funding coming up to the London olympics. To say the only sport Australia are better at is swimming is just plain fucken stupid. Fuck Britain won one more medal than Australia in the 2008 olympics hardly a big win. Compare them to
Atlanta Australia:41 GB:15
Sydney Australia:58 GB:25
Athens Australia:49 GB:30

Great Britains preoccupation with beating a country a quarter the population borders on pathetic.

And yes our boxers are shite.