OT: Olympics question

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In watching the Paris Olympic games team GB (Great Britain) is often seen. Since Great Britain includes England, Scotland and Wales the obvious question is: what about Northern Ireland? Does anybody know the back story?

DB2

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Since Great Britain includes England, Scotland and Wales the obvious question is: what about Northern Ireland?

Not sure there is a back story (other than pure history), but yes, the GB team does include Northern Ireland.

FAQs | Team GB.

Pete

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And what about Jersey, the Isle of Man (Mark Cavendish is in the bike races this year.), and the Bailiwick of Guernsey?

I play Worldle, a geography game not a word game, every day. The Isle of Man has a great flag. And is there a land with a cooler name than the Bailiwick of Guernsey?

https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

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iirc, Jersey and Guernsey, among the Channel Islands, are UK possessions. Trivia bit: only part of the UK proper occupied by the “Berlin Brownies”.

Steve

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Quibble, quibble, quibble. They are self-governing British Crown dependencies.

There was a PBS show, a few years ago about the occupation of the Channel Islands by the Germans. It was probably a Masterpiece Theater. According to Google, the Channel Islands were occupied by [redacted] Germany for most of WW2, from June 30, 1940 until liberation on May 9, 1945.

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“Island At War”, about fictitious events on a fictitious island. A pretty decent watch, for the most part. My local public library has the series box set. Someone also uploaded it to youtube.

Here’s ep #1.

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Since Northern Ireland is not part of Great Britain, I wonder how they feel about the name ‘Team GB’?

DB2
I guess ‘Team GB’ sounds better than ‘Team UK’.

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Not quite…

GB = England, Wales, and Scotland
UK = GB, and Northern Ireland

The Captain

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Agreed, but somehow, somewhere, for some reason “Team GB” includes Northern Ireland: again - FAQs | Team GB

“Team GB is the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team.”

There must be some reason they preferred (either the GB powers that be or the IOC) preferred to call it Team GB v. Team UK.

Pete

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Which was my original question: “Does anybody know the back story?”

DB2

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The English are complicated! :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

I think it’s because ‘Britain’ is more descriptive than ‘Kingdom.’

The Captain

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Wikipedia knows all…

Team GB is the brand name used since 1999 by the British Olympic Association (BOA) for their British Olympic team. The brand was developed after the nation’s poor performance in the 1996 Summer Olympics, and is now a trademark of the BOA. It is meant to unify the team as one body, irrespective of each member athlete’s particular sport. Officially, the team is the “Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team”,[1] although athletes from Northern Ireland may opt to compete under the auspices of the Olympic Federation of Ireland instead.
Team GB - Wikipedia

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…but still begs the question of the naming. Captain may be right: Team UK is not as descriptive to the wider world than Team GB.

Pete

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That’s it.
and other letters to get to 20+

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Speaking of the Olympics…

DB2

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Paris tries to lure in tourists with bargain Olympic tickets for ÂŁ12

Maybe they’d have better luck selling tickets in Euros or even dollars… :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Pete

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Cool! I do it this way 9876543210.