"Team GB"

Mystique
Mystique Posts: 342
edited September 2008 in Campaign
Why, oh why are we "Team GB". What's wrong with being Great Britain??...for some reason the term "Team GB" really grates on me, especially when news reporters use it ad infinitum.

Are China "Team C", or Trinidad & Tobago "Team T&T"???- Nope, just another case of "Cool Britannia" copying the US of A (sorry, "Team USA").

Shame to not have our most successful medal haul under the name "Great Britain".

Comments

  • spen666
    spen666 Posts: 17,709
    Can you not just be pleased we have done well without making another entry at our greatest event- "the Whinge"
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  • richa
    richa Posts: 1,632
    We are all members of Great Britain. Only the athletes out in Beijing are part of Team GB.

    I guess the idea is to help engender a team spirit.
    Rich
  • graeme_s-2
    graeme_s-2 Posts: 3,382
    The one thing that I find interesting is that Wendy Houvenaghel and Mark Cavendish (to name just two) are not members of Great Britain. They're members of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but I don't think "Team United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" would look quite so neat printed on t-shirts. Perhaps Team UK would have been more appropriate? :?:

    As it happens I quite like Team GB as a brand, I think it's quite catchy.
  • Norco_Will93
    Norco_Will93 Posts: 48
    Graeme, I agree with you there, Team GB is quite catchy (Y)
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  • Stewie Griffin
    Stewie Griffin Posts: 4,330
    I think its an awesome name :wink:
  • Benny Hone
    Benny Hone Posts: 43
    I'm with Mystique on this one. I think it stinks. It's as bad as the "Team England" nonsense they tried to foist on the national football team a while ago but rapidly, and wisely, dropped. Then again, the brand-namers will probably argue that it was a success as the team were a success whereas the national football team hasn't had much of that lately, has it?
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  • pneumatic
    pneumatic Posts: 1,989
    Stewie Griffin wrote:
    I think its an awesome name :wink:

    unbelievable!

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  • nwallace
    nwallace Posts: 1,465
    Graeme_S wrote:
    The one thing that I find interesting is that Wendy Houvenaghel and Mark Cavendish (to name just two) are not members of Great Britain. They're members of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but I don't think "Team United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" would look quite so neat printed on t-shirts. Perhaps Team UK would have been more appropriate? :?:

    As it happens I quite like Team GB as a brand, I think it's quite catchy.

    And at the Athens Olympics (2004 not the various other ones there) the team was introduced as Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

    So this year the Northern Irish Members are being missrepresented, the Isle of Man isn't represented in the name either so Mark CAvendish isn't covered by the name, Team UK wouldn't cover it either as The isle of Man and the Channel Islands are part of neither Great Britain nor The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

    For some daft reason the UK has gained the identifier GBR in ISO 3166-1 and included territories that are technically not part of the UK

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1
    The Nearby dependencies wre included in 2006
    http://www.iso.org/iso/newsletter_v-11_ ... of_man.pdf

    But then this is the UK Olympic comittie and they take in whoever wants to compete under their banner and can meet the transfer regulations.
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  • beverick
    beverick Posts: 3,461
    Just think what they'd have been called if Marketeers had been allowed to 'brand' the team....

    Bob
  • martinwitnam
    martinwitnam Posts: 439
    So what happens when Scotland extricate themselves from GB?
    Where will they get their funding from BTW? Are they setting up their own lottery? Will they be allowed to use Manchester and Newport as training tracks?
    Can we fix it?
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  • bagpusscp
    bagpusscp Posts: 2,907
    martinwitnam wrote:
    So what happens when Scotland extricate themselves from GB?
    Where will they get their funding from BTW? Are they setting up their own lottery? Will they be allowed to use Manchester and Newport as training tracks?

    Maybe they will take Gordan Brown with them :lol:
    bagpuss
  • Parsnip49
    Parsnip49 Posts: 205
    martinwitnam wrote:
    So what happens when Scotland extricate themselves from GB?
    Where will they get their funding from BTW? Are they setting up their own lottery? Will they be allowed to use Manchester and Newport as training tracks?


    We will be better off - how much has Scotland contributed to London 2012. How much has England contributed to Glasgow 2014?

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