Olympics 2012, in Londontown

They aren't the favorite. It's not even close to the same pressure

 

Is Northern Ireland part of Great Britain? I always thought Britain was Scotland, England, Wales. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, but is it also considered Britain?

 

According to the Beeb, Northern Ireland competes as part of Great Britain.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/athletes?country=great-britain&sports=&gender=&filter=Filter&isOneToWatch=0

But yes, if you want to be geographically specific "Great Britain" refers to the island that England and Scotland are on. The UK is the name of the nation.

 

Pretty sure this isn't the kind of prose the London 2012 folks want on their Twitter feed:

@LO2012: Crap corner leads to Senegal goal

 

That's the authorized independent Twitter account.

@London2012 is the official account.

 

(I obviously know nothing about this, and little besides the basics about FIFA and World Cup, and quite frankly, the exact divisions of United Kingdom)

Why don't they want to play as one in FIFA? And England's pretty good in the World Cup, right? Have they just not been able to qualify for the Olympics, or have they not tried?

How different is their competing separate when compared to the U.S. states competing separately?

 

The home nations competing separately go back to the early days of the sport. The first international match in soccer was England vs. Scotland.
I think a lot of it is Wales and Scotland trying to hang on to some semblance of independence.
Individual states in the US never have competed separately in anything, though Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands do and the Philipines began sending a team in 1924, decades before independence from the US. There just never was any history of California or Delaware sending their own delegation.

 

Strangest (and possibly funniest) Olympic interview you will read.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-blogs/blog=olympic-talk/post/iron-sheik-talks-team-usa-wrestling-london-olympics-2012.html

 

I'm going to say California would kick Delaware's ass in pretty much every sport.

 

You know, a competition with the best athlete in their respective sport from each of the 50 states really does need to happen. Just because I want to see the random archer from Wyoming run all over the representative from Massachusetts and things of that nature.

 

1,000 years of tension between the English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish have a lot to do with it. The Scots and the Welsh would rather never qualify for anything than qualify as part of something that they don't see as their identity.

GB has not tried to qualify for the Olympics since 1960, because there was never a GB soccer team to attempt to qualify. The only reason there was one this time is because the Olympics are in London.

Rather than the U.S. states, the more apt comparison would be something like Puerto Rico, or even Greenland to Denmark (although I don't think Greenland has an Olympic federation). So not an independent nation, but very much independent nonetheless. There's been a lot of devolution of power to all three in recent years, although Northern Ireland occasionally has some of it taken back. There's also expected to be a vote for Scottish independence in 2014. (My guess is that it will fail.)

 

The UK also hasn't competed in Olympic basketball since 1948 for the same reason as soccer. England, Wales & Scotland all compete separately in FIBA.