Well the Olympics is now underway.
Its interesting to compare the attitude of Andy Murray (not interested if we're really honest) with that of cyclists Nicole Cooke and Emma Pooley or swimmers Rebecca Adlington and Jo Jackson who were beaming from ear to ear.
Of course they had just won medals but wasn't it great to see how pleased the three day eventing team were when Tina Cook (the late sub for Zara "Royalty" Phillips) won bronze.
To be honest the millionaire Tennis players shouldn't be there, Olympic Gold is not the pinnacle of their sport and lets be honest that's what the olympics is all about.
Michael Phelps is now the "winningest" (ARGH I HATE THAT PHRASE) medal winner but is he the greatest olympian?
Now Phelps is a superb athelete but he is in a sport where winning multiple medals is comparatively easy. Think boxing for a start! And he is in a major swimming nation, if he was Austrian for instance that would be 3 relay medals he could never win.
Still its a signifcant achievement and hats off to the chap.
Of course its not all about the winning. You have to feel sorry for US Gymnast Alicia Sacramone twice fell over which effectively cost her team any hope of gold.
And then we have Tom "aw he's only 14 and isn't he cute" Daley. Listening to Nick Campbell and Victoria Derbyshire on BBC 5 Live made me want to reach for the sick bucket (although to be fair Campbell always has that affect on me). It was odd reading all the furore over the criticism by his partner Blake Aldridge.
Aldridge effectively said that normally Daley out dove him but not on that day. The truth was they were never going to win a medal and yet the press went on and on and about Daley, the only one they wanted to talk to and about was Daley. So when it all went wrong and suddenley they remembered it was a two man team Aldridge was a bit miffed. I can relate to that.
Of course this is not new for British Sport when Sir Steve Redgrave was going for his 5th gold a similar thing happpend but Redgrave was mature enough to stress how reliant he was on his team.
I feel a bit for Aldridge, he had come back from serious injuries and this was his moment the pinnacle of his career, he was paired with a fourteen year old kid and ignored. Until it all went wrong.
3 comments:
Well pretty much agree with you all all points!Love the openess of the women swimmers!
I wish that "we" didn't get so over the top with our "medal" count. If our sports have moved on - what about the rest of the world, they are going to sit back and watch us improve without doing anything about it?
I have no idea what any "sport " is doing in the Olympics with "millionaires" competing. Football to be added to that- if its for under 23's let there be no exceptions!
I have to say I am looking forward to the Athletics - but have enjoyed the Gymnastics(more to come) and the Hockey and Rowing....its a shame that to really enjoy the sailing you need to be there!
At last someone else who objects to Nicky he drives me to distraction!
Pete, I'm addicted to the Olympics and it's great to see Michael P win the medals but what I enjoy most is seeing a first-time medal winner an athlete competing in the Olympics for the first time. These are amateur athletes and that's what it's all about.
You are right :o) It's a Fuji. I'll let everyone know next week when it arrives on my doorstep.
I have to admit that it's the girls that are grabbing my attention this week. Their jubilation in winning their medals makes you proud to be British :)
But sorry to see Robertson and Emms go out of the Badminton though.
Post a Comment