- 17 Aug 08, 09:55 PM
North Media Village, Beijing
You want to know how great this weekend was for Team GB?
If Britain's weekend at the Olympics were a country it would be above Michael Phelps in the medal table. It was that good.
On the strength of this weekend alone, this country, a happy place full of waterways and cycle paths (a bit like Amsterdam), would currently be eighth in the standings, above the Republic of Phelps, Russia, Italy and France.
It was, quite simply, the greatest weekend in British Olympic history.
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The only concerted bout of British medal winning that comes close is 21 August 2004.
The middle Saturday in Athens saw Britain officially scoop five golds, three silvers and four bronzes.
But two of those golds, a silver and a bronze had already been "won" - the yngling gold was wrapped up by Thursday and the eventing medals were held up by an appeal. The following day, however, brought only a rowing silver.
And we really should discount any comparisons with London 1908. We won 56 golds out of a total of 146 medals. Every day was a "super" day that year. We haven't won more than 15 gold medals at an Olympics since, until this one perhaps.
Over two days of glorious competition in Beijing, the Brits won eight golds, four silvers and five bronzes, in five different sports. That would beat, on a traditional basis, our entire hauls in the Games during the 1950s, 1970s and 1990s.
There was even a bronze medal for 19-year-old Louis Smith on the pommel horse - our first Olympic gymastics medal for 80 years.
Think about that for a second. We have done better in two days than we did in three different decades of post-war Olympic competition.
This jackpot has taken us to third in the current standings, ahead of traditional rivals Australia and Germany. That's nosebleed territory, we finished 36th in the table only 12 years ago.
If those Games in Atlanta were the dark nights of the soul for the British Olympic Association, the 16-17 August 2008 will go down as the sunniest of days.
Our tally in 1996 was a miserable one gold, eight silvers and six bronze: the only first prize being provided by the redoubtable Pinsent and Redgrave combination.
So embarrassed was the BOA, it even suggested a new points formula to lift us up the table. But with 11 golds already snaffled here, there will be no such talk in Beijing.
I spoke to BOA chairman Lord Colin Moynihan at the rowing regatta on Sunday and he was in a buoyant mood.
"It is without question the best weekend Britain has had at an Olympics," said Moynihan, a silver-medal-winning cox at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
"And it is testament to how far we have come in improving our levels of performance. Perhaps the key to it is the support we can give our athletes now, and 1996 played a key part in that change."
Moynihan is right. The dismal showing in Atlanta prompted a long-overdue debate about how elite sport was funded and run in the UK. The result was an overhaul of our fractured sports federations and a greater focus on potential medal winners.
Influenced by the successful Australian model that emerged after their Atlanta-style catastrophe in Montreal 1976, we set up a government agency called UK Sport to channel a wonderful new source of money to our most talented athletes. That source was the National Lottery and for British Olympic sport it's the gift that keeps on giving.
This new, more elite-minded approach; greater funding and, it has to be said, slightly better luck, brought a huge improvement to our Olympic endeavours in 2000. Team GB won 11 golds out of a total of 28 medals in Sydney to climb back up the table to 10th place and respectability.
That position was held in 2004, thanks to nine golds in 30 medals.
One year after Athens, our aspirations and prospects changed once more. Winning the right to stage the 2012 Olympics brought a greater focus on elite sport and a lot more money to spend.
Sir Steve Redgrave, who remembers the Atlanta angst only too well, believes the London factor is already playing a role in Beijing.
"For the last three years all anybody has been talking about has been London, London, London," he said, after watching Britain's rowers finish the 2008 Olympic rowing regatta on top.
"That has focused minds. The BOA has stepped up, the government has increased its support and many of the sports have raised their games too.
"You only have to look at the success the Chinese are having.
(China won their 33rd gold on Sunday to set their own medal record).
"It is not just a case of home advantage - it's what they've been doing in preparation for the last seven years. In their case longer, as they thought they were going to get the 2000 Games."
Moynihan's BOA has set the team a target of finishing fourth in the table in London - a major stride forward from the 10th-place finishes in 2000 and 2004.
It was billed as a "stretch target" at the time but some have dismissed it as an entirely avoidable hostage to fortune.
This weekend's results in Beijing - a Games the BOA has been at pains to describe as a "staging post" - show that stretch won't be quite so uncomfortable.
And Moynihan is adamant the good times aren't quite over yet in China.
"There's more to come," he said. "The sailing regatta has a long way to go, there are still medals to be won in the cycling and we're confident of success in lots of other sports too. It's by no means over!"
John Steele is chief executive at UK Sport, the body set up post-Atlanta to dish out public money to Olympic sports and which set the British team the target of 35 medals in Beijing, possibly rising to 41. (The team has 25 at close of play Sunday night).
He is also delighted with Britain's Beijing bonanza.
"It has really put Team GB on the map," said Steele. "Our athletes, coaches and support staff should be proud of their achievements.
"At the start of the Games, one of our ambitions was to achieve around 12 gold medals. That we have nearly reached that figure already is fantastic.
"We still have another week of great sport to look forward to. Then we can start to think about how we can build on Beijing towards London 2012 and beyond."
They're both right, of course. There are still medals to be won at the velodrome, Shanaze Reade in the BMX, a couple of sailing shouts, Tim Brabants, Phillips Idowu, Christine Ohuruogu, the open water swimmers, our triathletes, David Price and James DeGale, Heather Fell and who knows who else can plunder a surprise souvenir.
Not all of these will come off but I am confident Britain's best ever Olympic weekend has just guaranteed Britain's best Olympics since the 1908 carve-up. Bodes well for the next time we host them, doesn't it?
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Comments
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Terrific article Matt and it must be wonderful to be out there and seeing it all happen before you. We are far from finished with the gold medals and look at the cyclists because some of the younger members of that team are really hungry for gold and there may be one or two surprises there. There was a gold rush like this in the last couple of days of the Sydney Olympics and when it started they all wanted one. It has come a week earlier this time and it can just happen that it starts rolling and everybody strives that bit extra so that they can join in the fun and I really do feel that there will be at least one gold medal every day now and we will pass the 20 mark.
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I just hope that there is a DVD to come out after these Olympic so that unlike 1908 we can tresure our success for ever!
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It would be great to be third in the medals table but the Aussies will throw the kitchen sink at us and you would expect the German and Russian juggernauts to get some momentum this week.
The Aussies have just won the triathlon and have 2 golds in the bag today in the sailing.
I think we will win the 2 cycling sprints and the team pursuit. Events like the maddison are more of a lottery but we have to have a chance as Cav should be fresh.
Looking forward to seeing Tim Brabant, current form suggests he could win.
Reade is clear favourite for the BMX but I remember Wilf O Reilly when short track became an Olympic sport and we were supposed to be dominant at triathlon with Lessing when it became an Olympic sport. Delivering gold is a step up when it matters.
What would be great would be to get a surprise gold. I think every winner has been fairly predictable (Adlington in 400 m and Cooke in the road race were bonuses but not real surprises to those who follow those sports).
Rutherford is a great competitor in the long jump, Tweddle on the bars could deliver.
Goodison is leading his class in sailing and Dempsey and the gorgeous Byony Shaw both still have chances in the wind surfing.
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Tmthyrl, batdude_uk123 and holy-moley, I agree, it was the mother of all weekends for British sport.
But you're right, I can't see us holding on to third. The Russians will certainly make a late charge, as will the Aussies (theirs has started) and Germans. But you know what? I think we might just hold one of those off and keep fifth. What a result that would be....perfectly setting ourselves up for London. Fourth will look unambitious then.
Whoa there, Matthew! See how easy it is to carried away?!? I think it is far more realistic to think in terms of 5-7 more golds here, which will make it our best Games since that "rogue state" 1908. That would take us to 16-18 golds. The interesting thing about that is that 18 golds is the number the BOA has been talking about as what we will need to win to finish 4th in 2004.
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Great article.
I believe there are seven events left where we have a very, very strong chance of claiming a gold medal. (Men's team pursuit, men's individual sprint, women's individual sprint, Madison, Laser, men's triple-jump and women's BMX). I think it would take a mistake or a massive effort from another competitor to beat us in anyone of those.
There also seems to be AT LEAST another 4 athletes who could possibly nick one if they perform their best on the day (Christine Ohuruogu, David Price, Tim Brabants and Nick Dempsey).
I'm quietly confident we could achieve 20 golds at these games and better the target of 41 medals overall.
Add to this the massive amount of young talent we've seen coming through and things are looking pretty rosy for 2012.
3rd place in the medal table in 4 years is a realistic target now I think. Who knows, we might even end up there this time!
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Well it can't be denied that we are having a fantastic Games, and even I, who follows a lot of the Olympic sports am suprised as to just how many Golds we have and will win, and how far up the table we are likely to finish. I think fourth is certainly realistic in London.
The only thing that I would perhaps like to see be different is maybe a few more medals in other sports other than the traditional ones we excel in. Maybe in a team sport like Hockey, and its a shame we won't be getting any medals from our very talented Badminton, Archery and Judo teams. I'm sure this will happen in London though, and Louis Smith fantastic performance in Gymnastics has hopefully got the ball rolling for 2012
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All gold medals are equal but some are more equal than others. For many of us the Olympics means the big track events. And, the UK no longer puts real contenders in the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m. We might be winning more medals but tough as they are ... rowing, cycling, sailing, show-jumping even swimming are comparative sideshows. The main events have always taken place on the track in the Olympic stadium. If we want to look the world in the eye that is where we have to judge our success in London 2012.
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why are we British best at sports that involve sitting down? ie sailing, rowing and cycling????
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The greatest achievement for me so far has got to be that of young Louis Smith. I'm sure those in the know in gymnastics would say they expected it, but I'm not too sure many other people did. Congratulations young man.
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I hope when the number of medals is totted up at the end that everyone remembers to include a spectacular gold for Adrian Childs for his record breaking number of "err's" he includes in his presentations. (Maybe also a silver for wearing shirts that are too tight...)
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The medal table shows Great Britain. Is this correct? Doesn't the Olympic team cover Norther Ireland as well as Scotland, England and Wales? In which case shouldn't it be UK rather than GB?
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It is a great day for Team GB. Congratulations.
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"On the strength of this weekend alone, this country, a happy place full of waterways and cycle paths (a bit like Amsterdam), would currently be eighth in the standings, "
Why is this more impressive than our actual position, ie 3rd? Can anyone please explain what on earth he's going on about?
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philsheridan,
You are right, NI is represented in our team and in fact the official name of our team is Great Britain and Northern Ireland but its just normally always shortened to Great Britain.
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Everyone who has ever bought a lottery ticket should take pride in this weekend's performances! BOA, Moynihan, Brown, Camelot all take note, this is not the time to rest on our laurels. I heard a rumour that due to slightly disappointing performances, the archery or shooting guys may lose their lottery funding. This is WRONG!! We should now look to push things on even further. Our cyclists, swimmers, sailors, rowers, gymnasts, shooters and canoeists have done what they have done thanks to giving the right people the money and facilities to do what they have to. Now keep that investment going and find MORE money to ensure that Clive Woodward can earn is considerable salary to make sure our athletes, badminton players, hockey players and every other sport of note can go to London confident of being one the best supported and prepared teams!!
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Congrats to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. See what happens when you chuck a bit of money at sport and FINALLY devlop some national pride??
I've enjoyed the competition between Oz and Team GB (I HATE that name), hope it continues well in to the next games too...
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Congratulations to all medal winners. These are all from what are considered minortiy sports and not given that much coverage in normal times.
To honour their efforts don't let an athletics medal wipe out our memories.
On watching Bolt win (which was awesome) Michael Johnson said in the USA they will be saying 'Phelps who'. How appalling but he is right.
Don't let this happen here. You may have noticed that these sports have been producing champions for years, which just haven't been encouraged to notice. Again, well done
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Michael Johnson's attitude towards any sport other than running has been pathetic, Amazonmothe...
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Drool Britannia!
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It should not be forgotten that these medal winners are standing on the shoulders of giants, namely the men and women who contribute tirelessly - and without personal reward - to the grassroots sports in this country. It is such a shame that the funding of elite sports in the UK takes place to the detriment of grassroots sports.
Swimming pools are being closed and the remaining ones become more expensive to use. Short sighted and corrupt politicians continue to sell off playing fields to greedy property developers.
Medal winning should be the icing on the cake - not the raison d'etre.
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I wish the Irish situation was as simple as some are suggesting..... It all depends on the sport as some (most?) Olympic sports organise on an all-Ireland basis and different governing bodies handle things differently.
If you're an amateur boxer and want to go to the Olympics then, even if you live on the Shankill Road, you fight for the Irish Republic (there have been fighters who got Olympic medals for the Republic and Commonwealth ones for NI). If you play hockey in Dublin and want to go to the Olympics then you have to look for selection in the GB side because there isn't an Irish Republic national hockey team (and in the remote past there was the odd player from Dublin in the GB side). You can however play for Ireland in the World Championships, where you'll play England (Scotland and Wales probably wouldn't qualify), not GB as the GB side only exists for Olympic purposes.
More generally, great as it is to see so many British medal winners, one thing ought to worry those preparing for 2012- the narrow spread of sports in which GB is doing well. Take sailing, rowing and cycling out of the equation and, give or take Rebecca Addlington, the picture would look pretty gloomy- indeed my sense is that the spead of sports in which GB is winning medals is actually narrower than it was four and eight years ago. Cycling has been the great success story, coming from nowhere to world class in less than a decade, but British judo has dropped off the radar screen, as has shooting (a long term side effect of gun laws?), archery and indeed athletics- which, as far as the wider world public is concerned, is the true core of the Games. Heaven help us if, say, cycling got slung out of the Olympics because the IOC finally lost patience with its governing body's total inability to get on top of doping in the road racing scene.
A final thought on cycling and doping. If it was, say, China which had come from nowhere to win heaps of medals in relatively thinly contested "techncial" disciplines like cycling I suspect there'd be more than a little knowing tapping of noses in the UK sporting media and none-too-subtle hints that chemical enhancements were at work. Perhaps we ought to give the Chinese a bit of credit for building a formidable sporting machine rather than dropping dark hints that they've done it on the back of successful doping
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At the cycling, just seen another example of our sitting-down dominance. Hoy is quality, isn't he?
Kencharman and mxb160, you're right, I would love to see a greater spread of medals and I genuinely think we'll get that in London. Some of the sports you mention are starting from a pretty low base and will need a bit longer for the virtuous circle effect of more wins, more cash to work through.
tess_sjs, again I agree. Huge hats off to Louis. He is a perfect example of what I'm talking about above.
jojas, who knows?!!? We're an island nation with a proud maritime history so our sailing success shouldn't be such a surprise, should it? Likewise the rowing....our public schools/elite universities have been knocking out superb rowers for yonks. I guess cycling is slightly the odd one out but then it was a very popular sport after WW2 and its core following in the UK has been very solid. I think the key thing here has been getting a really great program together, with good coaches, a decent venue (Manchester) and then letting talented people do their stuff without worrying about cash. And we've been fortunate that the really big cycling nations have concentrated on road racing at the expense of track....I wonder if they will try to redress that a bit, particularly when they see the likes of Cavendish coming out of our track set-up???
singingvicar, not sure what you're on about, old son. The clue is in the title and is repeated throughout the article.....I'm writing about the greatest ever weekend in British Olympic history and trying to put that in context. Not that hard to understand, surely? The fact we're third (or were third when I wrote this last night) is also discussed at length.
And for those who commented on our team being Great Britain and not the United Kingdom, you're right and there is a good explanation here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Britain_at_the_Olympics
I hadn't heard MJ's comment re: Bolt and Phelps but I'm a bit disappointed to hear that, to be honest. I know where he's coming from in terms of the relative popularities of the two sports but I think Phelps has seriously bridged the gap in the US. He's massive there.
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Re the 'sitting down' sports, don't forget the equestrian events!
Has no-one been watching the high jump, triple jump and mens 400m, we have representatives in all these events with good chances.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
I don't really care how high up we finish on the table or whether we're above the Aussies or whoever...I do care about our team achieving great success, and in that respect it's simply been a triumph.
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Matt Slater ? Who's he ?
Sure we've won a few medals, most are in the same sports, most of those sports are the least represented from other parts of the world (presumably there will be a big push for Snooker and Darts in the Olympics).
Most of the winners will get tv programmes, dame hoods (I nearly smashed up my tv when the swimmer suggested her colleague should get a damehood - what an idiot), they will be fat cats by 2012 and their hunger gone.
This is a blip, if we go 3 Olympics with a similar performance that's success, but untill then let's be smart - watched the sobering effect of the Athletics where we didn't even have a finalist in the 100m.
I do wish these journalists with little knowledge and do gooders (i read one person on another website state how well Radcliffe did despite having only 3 weeks training - rather than stating she shouldn't have been there if she wasn't fit), would be quiet.
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Silver is a good colour - really good.
Please could somebody in the Olympic village reverse all the negative media hype and help the British girl rowing quad team celebrate their team Silver properly.
Ok they were gutted on the day not to get gold, and Steve Redgrave said all the right things on the pontoon, but in all the subsequent TV coverage, only the Gold medal winners are mentioned, nothing of the Silvers, (Bronze - what's that) and then suddenly going all over the shop for one Pommel horse gymnastic Bronze.
Silver is still fantastic, and all silver medal winners should be mentioned by name in all the round-ups and look-backs. Bring back balance.Celebrate more widely.
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Without a doubt if we hadn't performed so badly in Atlanta we would not be in the position we are now.
And to think before Atlanta we were hitting 5 golds a games - that would be nothing short of a disaster now.
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Keep blinking and pinching, it is really happening. As for where are more medals coming from, after the big three of cycling, sailing and rowing are finished - I think any more will be a real bonus. I'm not at all sure that the madison gold is anything like a certainty; it's a very tactical event, needing luck and a shrewd racing brain, as well as outstanding pace and endurance. After the British dominance of the whole track programme you can be sure that Wiggo and Cav will be marked so tightly. At the World's this year at Manchester this is exactly what happened and it made their victory all the more incredible. If they manage it this time it will be, probably, the GB cycling team's best win of the Games, so please don't expect what would almost be a miracle. It's one event where the whole world can combine legitimately against you in one race, and that's exactly what they'll do. I have to say that the team pursuit win was really something special, particularly after our long history of nearly in that event. Remember 1972?
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Let's not forget honouring the contribution made by the worst interviewer in the world, Gary Richardson.
E.g. Just after Nadal won the Men's tennis final: "Rafa, Rafa, which is better - this or Wimbledon?"
Gary, get a grip and stop being such an annoying little man.
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Fantastic achievement for all of those who have won gold and medals over the weekend. It's kept me smiling all weekend.
I must say though, that the BOA and UK sport have been very smart with how they've focused their spending. The events that team GB do well in are the ones with a very small pool of countries that have the funding to compete at the highest level. The money spent on technical design in the track cycling would be the entire Olympic budget of Jamaica or Zimbabwe. I don't want to hear about techinical advances, sports psycologists, visual aid coaches, Clive Woodward size, expensive back up staff! And no one sails or rows other than rich commonwealth countries and a few others. We will get success in these areas, because other countries can't afford to do it, hence the pool of competitors is lower than say it is for track and field (but even the pole vault, hammer etc come into the category of being relatively expensive pursuits).
We will do amazingly at 2012 if we continue this formula. But let's not be too decieved. As the worlds nations get access to the kind of money team GB do, and equipment/facilties become more available, we will again struggle. I think the next two Olympics will be a GB golden era. But we must keep up the progress otherwise we'll slip again.
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Hopefully this will be the last time team GB will compete in the Olympics. Best of luck to England in 2012.
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Living in Oz at the moment. Totally wonderful to have a rare moment of British excellence to be proud about. Its been a long time coming. So looking forward to 2012. Go you good things.
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What the performances over the last few days have shown is that we now have competitors in some sports who are not afraid of winning when expected:
The track cycling golds all came on the back of World titles earlier in the year
Ben Ainslie is the best in the world at what he does (hence 3 Olympic golds and how many World titles?)
Coxless 4 - Mostly dominant for the last several years (OK, problems earlier this year).
Rebecca Adlington in the 800m - great performance on the back of the less expected gold in the 400m
Let's hope before long we can add Philips Idowu to that list - world leader coming into the Olympics, but he's someone who in the past has not necessarily lived up to his billing.
Perhaps Clive Woodward and his TeaCUP (Thinking Clearly Under Pressure) are having an influence on more of our sportsmen. Now hopefully this mentality can rub off onto those who have under-performed compared with expectation.
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Good article Matt.
Well this weekend was something rather special and no mistake. We are used to forecasts getting the weekend weather wrong, but the promises of a bountiful middle weekend of the Olympics proved to be spot on.
We are seeing the effects of the shake-up post-Atlanta, and that gives us an important lesson. Sporting success cannot be turned on like a tap, and this success has taken 12 years of funding to reap dividends. True enough, we did pretty well at Sydney and Athens, but more often than not the talent has to be nurtured from a relatively young age.
The difficult thing with funding is that it's not a bottomless pot of money. Deciding where to spend it will be a difficult decision for some people.
Do we invest in rowing and cycling where we do well, but could go on to dominate?
Or do we invest in sports where the performance was not as good as expected such as Judo and badminton?
Or what about swimming, archery and fencing? Both have a lot of medals on offer, but we don't get too many of them.
And of course 'punishing' judo or hockey (say) by cutting the funding would do little more than waste whatever has been already been invested in the sport.
Glad I don't have to choose.
One thing's for sure, there isn't much good news back home these days, and for two weeks we have a reason to be cheerful.
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I have to admit that, as we Brits have such a strong affinity with Jamaica, I'm getting almost as much enjoyment seeing them stuff the Yanks on the track.
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I am not 'patriotic' I am Scottish and soemthing of a nationalist. I thought that the 2012 effort was a hideous, out of control (which is probably true) waste of money. And I thought that China was an innapropriate place to hold the summer games, which I was not even that big a fan of.
However I have been captivated and in no small way enlightened over the past few days. For the UK to punch so far above its weight in so many disciplines has been astonishing to witness.
These games seem to have been managed imperiously and the efforts of our athletes have been truly Herculean.
London has a tough act to follow!
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It's getting ridiculous to see people *still* refer to Cycling as a minority sport so thats why we are doing well.
Cycling is the number one sport apart from Football in the majority of Europe, even in the UK where competitive cycling is still a minority sport its a massively popular participation sport.
The idea that Cycling is a minority sport and other nations do not compete is frankly ridiculous and typical of a insular attitude for which (especially the English) are rightly derided.
Britains achievements in Cycling are *phenomenal*, we're destroying countries where cycling is both tremendously popular and well funded, far in escess of the current funding that British Cycling receives.
Regards,
Eduin
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Sorry on my previous comment I only mentioned Europe. Let me expand slightly on cyclings popularity.
As well as being second only to football in the majority of Europe the only continent without a sizeable number of cyclists is Africa. North America, South America and especially Asia demonstrate incredible support for cycling both in terms of participation and the popularity of it as a Sport. In Japan, track cycling is *massive*.
This is a World Sport, a sport where Britain now dominates on the Track and competes on the road, in BMX and MTB (still a way to go in the last one but we'll get there).
The achievements we are seeing are magnificent and anyone downplaying it is probably another Swimming apologist for that overmedalled borefest (and a TRUE minority sport with perhaps 5 countries even taking it seriously as a "sport").
Regards,
Eduin
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One reason Team GB has improved over the last few years is the formulation of the Sports Institute System in Britain. The Scottish Institute of Sport was first, followed by the English Institute of Sport in 2002, then Wales and then Northern Ireland. Highly skilled/qualified science and medical staff (not highly paid - they go to football clubs!), work tirelessly to make our best better, funded by UK Sport.
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"It is such a shame that the funding of elite sports in the UK takes place to the detriment of grassroots sports."
It doesn't. Success at the elite level inspires more people to take part in grass-roots sport, which in turn provides the seeds for further success at elite level in the future.
Models which give grass roots preference over elite sport have been tried in the past (by both ourselves and the Aussies) and been shown to fail, in terms of both success on the track (and field, and water) and encouraging more involvement in sport.
Louis Smith's bronze medal will encourage more boys to take up gymnastics than £10 million invested in the grass roots of the sport. Yes, you could always fund the grass roots better, but without success at elite level you're funding something which will have less and less demand.
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Great article Matt
Its great to see an article celebrating a weekend of unprecedented sucsess in GB sport rather than the usual tripe about "Our Paula" A trivial footnote on a fantastic Olympics for team GB, keep it up !!
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I think we should also, at this time of success, spare a thought for the likes of Sharron Davies, who was competing at time when many of her opponents we so pumped up with hormones they could have fathered children; and Sarah Hardcastle, who was almost expected to hitch-hike a hundred miles in a blizzard for her daily training sessions in the local council paddling-pool. I'm sure there are *many* more examples of Brits who could have achieved more under more favourable circumstances.
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EvilMole, do you work for UK Sport? Only kidding. I agree with you about the importance of role models/heroes/inspiration. And you're right that grass-roots v elite debate has rumbled on for decades here, usually to nobody's advantage. That said, I'd like to think we can get ourselves into a position where we do a bit of both....support the grass-roots end so that everybody can get into sport (and that means building pools, looking after football pitches) AND fund our elite athletes adequately so they can do their thing on the world stage. We're getting there but there's a way to go yet.
neilhoskins, I think you're right too. We should all spare a thought for Sharron Davies. I once swam against Sarah Hardcastle, by the way - my school's freestyle relay team v her. It was a dead heat....on purpose, I think.
HarryHarmski? Who's he?
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Fantastic achievement for all of those who have won gold and medals over the weekend. It's kept me smiling all weekend. And a decent article Matt.
I must say though, that the BOA and UK sport have been very smart with how they've focused their spending. The events that team GB do well in are the ones with a very small pool of countries that have the funding to compete at the highest level. The money spent on technical design in the track cycling would be the entire Olympic budget of Jamaica or Zimbabwe. I don't want to hear about techinical advances, sports psycologists, visual aid coaches, Clive Woodward size, expensive back up staff! And no one sails or rows other than rich commonwealth countries and a few others. We will get success in these areas, because other countries can't afford to do it, hence the pool of competitors is lower than say it is for track and field (but even the pole vault, hammer etc come into the category of being relatively expensive pursuits).
Is this short term success?? Would the cycling team have won if they didn't pump lots of money into bike design, equipment and wind tunnels?? Is that sustainable? The success is amazing, and i'm loving it, but my question is Matt, do elite sports only mean elitist sports??
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"If Britain's weekend at the Olympics were a country it would be above Michael Phelps in the medal table. It was that good."
Have a careful think about how much completely nonsensensical rubbish you can fit into this sentence. I'm reasonably sure that if pushed you could do better. In fact, you probably did so in the next sentence.
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A true indication of Britian stature will come from the track and field events.
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Before the olympics started my German girlfriend asked me how many gold medals team GB would win. With a wry smile I told her 15 (I had been watching the cyclists and rowers before the olympics so suspected something special may happen). She laughed in my face and told me we would be lucky if we got six. She hasn't spoke to me since Saturday night (where I started laughing in her face) so I'm now openly rooting for some German gold medals so I can at least get more than two words at a time out of her.
P.S. I really think with some strong events to come we will still finish above the Aussies and Germans in the medal table, the Russians may be a different matter but they have quite a bit to catch up. Heres hoping for 3rd for GB!!!
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38. At 1:49pm on 18 Aug 2008, EdTuBrutus wrote:
Sorry Ed, but in the UK it is a minority sport, unfortunately. Even the numbers who cycle for recreation or transport are tiny compared to the likes of Italy and France. Partly it's to do with overcrowded, inappropriate road space and diabolical planning. Partly, sportwise, there are few decent facilities where cyclists can train and practice. Most of all though there just isn't the culture of cycling for fun. In the UK people started giving up their bikes for cars during the 1950's and the country has developed that way ever since.
It would be great if the Olympic track cycling success, and Nicole Cook's road racing exploits, could inspire people but I fear it won't... because the culture in Britain is for whatever the latest fad is. I'll bet bicycle sales increase. I think people will buy the wrong, very expensive, bikes for all the wrong reasons then, when they discover the hard work they have to put in to be competitive, the bikes will languish in garages and sheds.
Hope I'm wrong and that the nation buys loads of cheapish bikes to get out for some fresh air and exercise, and that all of a sudden grannies everywhere will dust off their bikes and ride them to the shops and round to see their friends - just like they do in my part of Italy.
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well done Team GB and especially to Louis Smith. For him to get a medal in the individual Gymanstics event was a massive acheivement for a debut olympian
I agree with most comments that we've got another 5-6 gold medal chances yet to come.
would love to finish above the aussies in the table.
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Whislt the team has to be congratulated for a very good performance, the same cannot be said about the BBC staff: As mentioned previously, the sneering towards other competitors and the general unsporting commenting is appalling.
Last example: When Pendleton beat her Dutch rival in the semis, the commentator mentioned something along the way of this being a training ride in the park for Pendleton. This is unsporting - she beat her rival fair and square but there is no need to belittle the attempts of the competition. (Baker couldn't hide her joy when the US hurdler hit the last hurdle - another example)
But then again this is a typical BBC (and British) attitude: dismissive of everyone else (we are the best etc. etc.) and xenophobic - great games and performances all around marred by pathetic commentating in many sports.
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Please can anyone in the UK let us know if and when an Olympics 2008 highlights DVD available in the UK comes out.
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