There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

[Sean of the Shed]

Greg Rutherford gets mightily upset at the lack of a Union Jack on his vest.
There are flags on the other kit though, including the shorts to satisfy his need for national pride.
Eilish McColgan does have a point about the fact that they have still found space for the British Athletics logo and the Nike swoosh, though.
I don't remember the most iconic vests ever having a flag or logo of any kind.

[Kevin S]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

Or

[Kevin S]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

Or

[Kevin S]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

Or

[Kevin S]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

Or

[Kevin S]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

Or


In conclusion, Rutherford is a complete arse.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

The doing it for "Team GB" bit at the Olympics is always a little bit galling, although we do get sucked into it, seeing as that medal table is entirely contrived and not anything that the IOC themselves encourage. At the World Athletics it just emphasizes the point. None of the athletes are going to "compete for Team GB", they're bloody well competing for themselves. If it was a genuine team track and field competition, there would be points per event and an overall team prize, like at the European Cup. There isn't. Supporting the British athlete out of sheer jingoism makes as much sense as supporting the British golfer at an Open, just because he's British. Would I support Ian Poulter against Sergio Garcia? Would I fuck.

[Flynnie]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

Kevchenko wrote: Or

Uh, you sure about that one?

[Kevin S]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

What do you mean? Is there a UJ behind the number then?

[Sean of the Shed]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

It's the lack of the UJ as a badge that Rutherford is going on about, rather than a UJ design as we had at 2012. At least that's my interpretation.

[Kevin S]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

Oh, I see. OK, I'll downgrade my insult to "a bit of an arse."

[Ray de Galles]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

His complaint is about the replacement of the Union flag that was previously on the otherwise exact same kit with a British Athletics logo, which I can kind of understand.



.

[Toby Gymshorts]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

It looks better without the flag, IMHO.

Could be even further improved by removing "Great Britain" from it.

[ursus arctos]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

Flags are rather rare on current Olympic uniforms.

Even jingoistic masters like the US and Russia aren't using them.

[Ray de Galles]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

Toby Gymshorts wrote: It looks better without the flag, IMHO.

Could be even further improved by removing "Great Britain" from it.

The British Athletics logo is pretty lame, any reasonably decent flag is preferable but then again I am a vexillology nut.

"Great Britain" is troublesome but massively preferable to "United Kingdom" which might be the alternative.

.

[blameless]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

If it's a "Great Britain" team, then presumably no Northern Irish athletes are taking part?

[ursus arctos]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

I take back what I said about the US. It looks like they did have flags in London. Still rather rare among major athletics nations.

[Ray de Galles]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

I was thinking they had but hadn't got round to checking.

Blameless, I was going to say that GB&NI would be far better and more accurate as that's the team's name.

[Duncan Gardner]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

Harry Truscott wrote: "Great Britain" is troublesome but massively preferable to "United Kingdom" which might be the alternative

Not sure why GB vexes you (pun intended).

Just for BL, here's a recent Olympic Gold medalist from NI:

[blameless]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

Dunc, I'm perfectly aware the UK team owes some of its medals to Nordies - hence my flagging up of the inaccurate "GB" tag.

[Flynnie]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

Kevchenko wrote: What do you mean? Is there a UJ behind the number then?

I see we were talking past each other, but there's a UJ on that woman's clothes, on the top left.

Haven't the IOC banned federation logos for the Olympics? Flags or shields or whatnot are making a comeback there.

[Ray de Galles]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

Flynnie wrote:

What do you mean? Is there a UJ behind the number then?

I see we were talking past each other, but there's a UJ on that woman's clothes, on the top left.

There's also one on her shorts.

[ursus arctos]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

They seem to be schizoid on the subject.

There was that big kerfuffle over the Hockey Canada logo back before Vancouver, but they haven't applied that consistently at all.

[Various Artist]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

blameless wrote: Dunc, I'm perfectly aware the UK team owes some of its medals to Nordies - hence my flagging up of the inaccurate "GB" tag.

Yes, that reductive continuum that takes us from where it's properly the 'Great Britain and Northern Ireland' team, but labelled on the vests as 'Great Britain', known by official IOC three-letter code as 'GBR' and endlessly popularised 'Team GB' consistently irritates me. The nomenclature is complicated enough at the best of times without incorrect official recognitions such as these muddying the waters.

[Ray de Galles]

There ain't no flags on the athlete's rags

I was sure I had seen a vest labelled GB&NI worn at a previous international athletics meeting some time in the past but can find no evidence of it.