2012 Hero Family Tree

[mrcharly-YHT]

Both Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny referred to vomiting as being a regular result of their training programme. That's not to mention writhing around in pain as the lactic acid burns its way through your muscles.

Back in the day, I used to race kayaks.

Vomming after a race was considered normal.

[TheLurker]

I knew there was a damn good reason (as well as being rubbish at them) why I didn't like competitive sports.

[Jurek]

Vomiting after running competitively was a regular treat, back in the days when I used to run.

[mattc]

Quite a few top athletes vomit like clockwork before races. So I'm not convinced there's a simple correlation with effort level.

(trott is still great though - mainly for her pigtails )

[Cudzoziemiec]

James Hunt used to vomit inside his helmet on the starting grid. So presumably that's stress rather than effort.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I wondered whether the disappearance of the word "heroine" was as a result of its narcotics-related homophone.

I think it's cos it's just not really necessary to distinguish between male and female actors/heros...

I would have thought that acting was one of the few areas where it really is a valid and worthwhile distinction. However, I used to work with an actress a woman wot did acting (she had appeared in East Enders! but this was a completely non-acting job where I worked with her) and she called herself an actor, not an actress.

I think Laura Trott just became my hero after Charlotte's post...bloody hell.

If she's not related to Teethgrinder, she must be from Von Broad's family. 

[Ewan Houzami]

I threw up in my motorbike helmet once after a night on the piss, and had to ride back from Sheffield to London with the smell lingering in my nostrils.

IME it's not a good idea to call a female actor an actress on set, luv, Eastenders or anywhere, as you'll likely be corrected at best, or receive dagger-looks of indignation at worst.

[citoyen]

I'd excuse Laura Trott, a good Essex gal, from not knowing that the word "hero" had a feminine. Sadly, a Grauniad journalist also made the same mistake the other day.

That's a house style thing, not a mistake. The Guardian don't use "actress" either.

(edit: basically, what everyone else said.)

d.

[tom_e]

I'd excuse Laura Trott, a good Essex gal...

Hasn't Ms Trott pointed out quite forcefully that she's from Hertfordshire (Cheshunt)?

Born in Harlow, apparently.

I think TheLurker refers to this.

[niggle]

Laura Trott, btw is as hard as NAILS.  She suffers from a stomach condition that means she quite often has to throw up at the end of a stressful event.  She had a spoke go through her face in a road race crash earlier this year, used her chin as a braking surface and because she was in Belgium at the time and couldn't get to a doctor to remove the stitches, did it herself in front of a mirror. 

Wow. That's quite some story, I think I just became a fan.

Me too:

Wikipedia: "Trott was born a month prematurely in Harlow in Essex with a collapsed lung and was later diagnosed with asthma. She was recommended by doctors to take up sport to regulate her breathing."

[Bledlow]

I'd excuse Laura Trott, a good Essex gal, from not knowing that the word "hero" had a feminine.

Though it shouldn't really, since it was originally gender-neutral, both as a noun & a name.

[citoyen]

Wasn't the first Hero a woman? IIRC she chucked herself off a cliff after her boyfriend drowned while swimming at night to visit her.

d.

[Ewan Houzami]

Wasn't the first Hero a woman? IIRC she chucked herself off a cliff after her boyfriend drowned while swimming at night to visit her.

d.

That doesn't seem particularly heroic of her. More like an act of a despair.

Google just throws up a song by Enrique Iglésias when searching for 'original hero'. Though I haven't listened to it as I somehow doubt it's an intellectual discourse on Greek mythology a la BoJo, but I've heard 'hero' being bandied about left, right and centre today on the telly. Seems like everyone is everyone's hero to some degree in this big love-in called the lympix.

[citoyen]

That doesn't seem particularly heroic of her. More like an act of a despair.

The meaning of hero has changed somewhat over the years. ISTR the original meaning implied an element of personal sacrifice (ie death).

d.

[Ewan Houzami]

Absolutely. When people use it in the sporty sense they mean 'inspired by', but that lacks a sense of the dramatic. Proper old-school heroes were altruistic, selfless, warriors who were prone to dying a fair amount. VC medal winners - that sort of thing.

[Clare]

The trouble with the word herione is that it brings to mind a pathetic character dressed in something effusive and corsetted, having an attack of the vapours or a fainting fit whilst waiting for a man to rescue her, after which he will kiss he passionately and they will live happily ever after.

The end.

[Jaded]

So did the family tree get all the way back to Adam and Eve?

[Tail End Charlie]

James Hunt used to vomit inside his helmet on the starting grid. So presumably that's stress rather than effort.

What, and then put it on ?