And seeing as I'm here :)

[Kooky]

For those of you not subjected to all my Facebook posts about it, my cousin's son (second cousin? cousin once removed? who knows?) did something pretty amazing last week too. Downnhill MTB World Champion at 19; damn right I am very proud indeed

(You might want to turn this down a bit.)

[baloo]

Great ride. Well done to the lad.

Commentators were brilliant, made watching fun. Favourite quote: "How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big!"

[Kooky]

They've watched him come up through the Juniors, they know he's pretty special. Tiny wee thing he is too.

[Pinklepurr]

Wow...that was a brilliant ride. Congrats. A very special lad indeed!

[daffodil]

Good one!!

[Jedi]

That was incredible.

[Fat Bob]

I'm not sure if the commentary or the riding was better! Fantastic job, and such a commanding lead (11 sec at the end). Do they have mountain biking at the Olympics?

[Kooky]

It will come as no surprise that I'm far from expert in these matters (and have never actually ridden a bike myself) but, although some MTB races are Olympic events, what he does - downhill - is not.

Press outside of the specialist media has been pretty dismal, TBH - here for instance http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympic ... 789188.stm they managed a sentence on him.

There is however a Facebook group petitioning for him to be Sports Personality of the Year Won't happen, but his fans are pretty fanatical.

[Tack]

That was great fun to watch. Well done that boy! And to your cousin kooks, I just know how hard she/he must have worked to support and make it possible for him. Good job.

[Sardonicus]

Never really watched MTB before, pretty amazing stuff done by what must be rubber people

[Lili Von Shtupp]

[BoD]

Brilliant stuff. You have to be young to be that crazy. The older you get, the more you focus on how much falling off hurts, so you slow down.

[Kooky]

Tack, how true that is; they virtually live in a motorhome and all their spare money goes on following him around the world. * The whole family even came down to Canberra the year before last. Just wish they'd had more time here.

I haven't actually seen Danny since his christening but I've been kept updated for years and the wonders of Facebook and youtube make following his progress so much easier.

* My cousin still finds time to keep an eye on my mad sister for me.

[slinky]

Wow!! That was incredible!! Loved the announcers almost as much as the ride itself

(I never know what relative label to put on my cousin's kids either )

[baloo]

2nd Cousin it is.

[Tas]

(Question: I can get that the kids of my first cousin are to second cousin for me. What is the relationship between first cousins' kids? Is it third cousin?)

[Kooky]

Unsurprisingly, there's a lot of conflicting information out in cyberland about this topic. Is he my second cousin or my first cousin once removed?

[Pinklepurr]

Actually Tas I think that those kids are your first cousins once removed not your second cousins. First cousins kids become second cousins to each other...does that make sense? I will try and find the list..I looked it up not long ago to try and explain it to my boys who asked what relationship they were to my cousin's son...and it got terribly confusing for a while there!

[Kooky]

That would agree with what I think, PP. Doesn't mean it's correct but

[Pinklepurr]

OK found it, this seems to be the most common and accepted system of working it out that we could find when we looked.

Children of siblings are FIRST COUSINS to each other.
Children of FIRST COUSINS are SECOND COUSINS to each other.
Children of SECOND COUSINS are THIRD COUSINS to each other etc etc

To work our the ONCE/TWICE/THIRD ETC REMOVED...do the following

Starting with YOU,
children of your FIRST COUSINS are your FIRST COUSINS, ONCE REMOVED
Children of your FIRST COUSIN'S children, are your FIRST COUSINS, TWICE REMOVED.
So, your FIRST COUSIN'S son is your FIRST COUSIN, ONCE REMOVED.
And your FIRST COUSIN'S son's, son's daughter is..........your FIRST COUSIN, THREE TIMES REMOVED.
Thus, your SECOND COUSIN'S child is your SECOND COUSIN, ONCE REMOVED.

This is how generations work:
Any first generation is parents
their children are siblings to each other...and share parents
their children are first cousins to each other...and share grandparents
their children are second cousins to  each other...share great grandparents
their children are third cousins to each other...and share great great grandparents
their children are fourth cousins to each other....and share great great great grandparents
and on and on.
The 'removed' is just as simple...
The child of your first cousin is your first cousin once removed...simply, your first cousin and down (removed) a generation.
The grandchild of your first cousin is your first cousin twice removed...again, your first cousin and down (removed) two generations.
It works the same in the other direction. If you are first cousin once removed to someone, they are first cousin once removed to you also.

If only one half of the family is involved then they become half blood cousins.

We were trying to explain not only my cousin's son but also my niece's daughter (who is older than my eldest son...) thank goodness we don't have a big family we would never have explained it all.

[Tas]

oh that actually looks like a system!!! I'm sending that to my mother and father so that hopefully some of the lengthy and confusing stories from my father might be simplified! (edit: too much info ) Thanks PP.

NOW Back to really cool MTB riding and announcing!!!!!!

[Fat Bob]

Same generation from the common ancestor is second (or third or fourth) cousins.

Where the generations are not the same then they get removed. So your uncle could be called your first cousin once removed (though that is probably an imcorrect term because he is your uncle).

Why, who you thinking of marrying?

[cromasaig]

Only just seen your original video, Kooks. That's phenomenal!

Very telegenic sport, too.

[Spike]

Same generation from the common ancestor is second (or third or fourth) cousins.

Where the generations are not the same then they get removed. So your uncle could be called your first cousin once removed (though that is probably an imcorrect term because he is your uncle).

Why, who you thinking of marrying?

My extended family is just as confusing. I have a nephew who is older than me and his daughter is about to give birth, making me a great great uncle I suppose.

[Fat Bob]

There was a 20 year gap between my dad and his eldest brother, so yes, that's happened a few times in my family too.

As for my mum's family, they were from a mining town in Yorkshire. They were probably cousins, uncles and grandparents all at the same time.