Kingston proved an excellent backdrop to the Olympic road cycling and the crowds have thronged to see the top professionals and especially the UK riders.
Sadly my photography skills are such I managed to miss the UK contingent at both the road race and time trials as these snaps show...
...but my enjoyment of the TV coverage of the games has been somewhat spoilt by the British team (or 'Team GB' as I suppose we must call them) constantly referring to 'medalled' or 'medal' in the form of a verb - as in 'we expect them to medal at this race'. It's not as if adding a mere four letters eg 'get a' is asking them to expend any extra energy. Medal is not a verb and it's far better for sportspeople to do their talking on the track rather than give traction to an ugly an incorrect use of the English language.
The one that irritates me is when commentators say that competitors are 'pressurising' each other, when they mean 'pressing'.
ReplyDeleteIt's a verb now
ReplyDeletehttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/medal?s=t
Deal with it.
It's a verb now, and one i quite like. Language evolves and i'm just glad you were not around in Shakespeare's time, when he made up a lot of our words. If the use of medal as a verb upsets you this much, a rendition of Hamlet would have left you fuming. Byron apparently used medal as a verb it as well.
ReplyDelete"Medal is not a verb and it's far better for sportspeople to do their talking on the track rather than give traction to an ugly an incorrect use of the English language."
ReplyDeleteSurely you mean "and"?
Just another one of those stupid Americanisms creeping into the English language.
ReplyDeleteMedal might annoy as a verb but it is beaten hands down by 'snuck' and 'dove'.....SNEAKED AND DIVED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDelete