posted Jan 1, 2009

Fantastic recognition for British cyclists but what happened to Mark Cavendish the worlds best sprinter on the roads by far this year with four stage wins in the TDF

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jan 2, 2009

Get everyone knighted!

I know a young lad playing for a football team down the park who scored 14 goals in one game! One game! Knight him now!

As far as I am concerned reaching the pinacle of your sport or profession brings rewards in itself. You work really hard and win a gold or world cup, and that is the recognition for doing your job! You are world champion - what higher recognition for doing your job is there.

So why then do you get further recognition. Its insane.

Its pathetic, and even more so, when only the popular sports get a mention!

Someone should do something about this - but then they are likely to get knighted for doing so.

Bobbins.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jan 2, 2009

The last thing I want to do is to put down the achievements of Chris Hoy, as his achievement in Beijing was fantastic. He now has 5 gold medals to his name - but is that really deserving of a knighthood from the Queen? In my opinion, it is not.

To put it into perspective, one of Britain's best loved entertainers Bruce Forsyth is not a knight, despite being a multi-talented man who has entertained millions over the past fifty or so years.

As a rugby fan, I totally agree with the recognition the England team recieved after their 2003 World Cup victory - they had been the best team in the world for over a year having defeated the 'Big Three' southern hemisphere nations both home and away, as well as winning the Grand Slam in 2003, and then the World Cup later that year. But my point is, Clive Woodward recieved a kinighthood after building what would become a World Cup winning team over a period of seven years, and finally achieved the ultimate goal, having represented England himself in the 1980s. However for Chris Hoy, Beijing has simply been another milestone in his career - he had already won 2 golds in Athens so you could argue that what happened in Beijing was not a total surprise.

Also, Kelly Holmes recieved a damehood for winning two gold medals in Athens and Becky Adlington repeated that feat in the Beijing pool, yet she has not recieved the same level of recognition.

Another point is that Martin Johnson captained the England rugby team for 4 years, and his captaincy culminated in the 2003 World Cup victory, yet he has only recieved a CBE. Is Chris Hoy's achievement really any greater than that of Martin Johnsons??? Personally, I think not.

The point I am making by using the above two examples, is that there doesn't seem to be any consistency or 'rules' that are followed to determine the level of recognition someone should recieve.

As many of you have already said, people such as athletes seem to recieving recognition far too early (Sir Bobby Charlton had to wait until 1994 yet Chris Hoy gets his knighthood now). Also, more people seem to be recieving recognition and so the standard of achievement has therefore seemed to go down a little - the group of people getting recognised is becoming a little less exclusive, I suppose.

However, I do feel that Lewis Hamilton's recognition was entriely appropriate, but once again, is Chris Hoy's achievement any greater??

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jan 3, 2009

Not to take anything away from track cycling but I hope Hoy is getting this for more than just winning 3 golds. His sport by his own admission is not exactly the next football and its profile beyond our gold medal glow shores is down there with some of the more obscure Olympic sports. They show the athletics religiously whether we stand a chance of a medal or not I am not sure one could say that of track cycling.

Arguably Wiggins would be a higher profile rider in world cycling anyway (Cavendish knocks them both into a cocked hat probably). Even Hoy argued the British emergence had as much to do with declining competition as the aggregation of small differences.

The guy who argued Heikki Kovalainen could match Hamilton should be aware that is laughable. Commenting on people definitively as though the persona they show on TV is worth tuppence or even matters is laughable.

As to hounding Christine Ohuruogu out of her sport that is not an opinion but just sad on you. Arguably her being a world and Olympic champion at 400 meters, given the competition is much more widespread is the highest profile win of the year with Hamilton, Cav's 4 tour stages or maybe Calzaghe beating B-Hop (boxing is not that competitive but arguably higher profile than track cycling world wide - frankly even swimming probably is higher profile).

I personally think if these awards are to be more than a measure of this year's headline inches they should maybe go for people who have done outstanding work outside sport or to help others inside.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jan 5, 2009

All people who win a gold medal in the Olympics get an MBE - this has gone on for years as I remember the Famous Five getting them in 1992.
The reason why Rebecca Adlington has not got a Damehood (I suspect) is because she's 19 years old and has only been to one Olympics so has plenty more time to add to her gold medal haul. I mean, Bradley Wiggins won another 2 golds at this Olympics after his historic Gold/Silver/Bronze haul at the last Olympics but he didn't get a Knighthood, just got his MBE upgraded to a CBE.
Hoy did something no other British Olympian has done for over a century and won 3 golds in one Games. This is after his Silver from Sydney in 2000 and his Gold from Athens in 2004. Let's not forget his 9 world titles and the fact that he's brought back at least one medal from every World Championships since 1999. He's also a double Commonwealth Games Gold medallist.
It's like Sir Steve Redgrave getting a Knighthood - he didn't just get it for his Olympic Golds but for ALL his World titles as well.
As for Track Cycling not being on the TV, then I guess you must have missed Team GB being filmed by the BBC in Majorca in 2007 bringing home 7 gold medals and then the BBC being trackside again in 2008 when they won 9 world titles. All covered by the very knowledgable Jill Douglas and with several off-track pieces on the various cyclists. Cycling has been given more and more air-time by the BBC over the past few years as the media has woken up to the success story that has been emanating from Team GB.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jan 6, 2009

"Though I have to say the whole honours thing is a farce anyway, they're empty titles that the rest of Britain ignores."

A quick glance on wikipedia soon reveals other countries have their own version of our honours system

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_honours_system

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Realms_orders_and_decorations

Looks like Usain Bolt was similarly decorated according to Wiki

"On his return to Jamaica, Bolt was honoured in a homecoming celebration and received an Order of Distinction in recognition of his achievements at the Olympics"

As has been stated, the military forces have their own awards (medals) and you are only looking at the sportsmen and women on the list, not the 2,600 others who've been rewarded. Do you ever pick up the paper to read about your local hero who is rewarded with an honour? All the binmen/ nurses etc who get equal recognition to our Olympic heros?

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jan 6, 2009

Knighthood was a bit over the top for me. CBE maybe as he has succeeded in previous Olympics but tbh it is a low profile sport if your country isn't competitive in the sport and it certainly isn't the pinnacle of achievement in cycling as a whole. I would also agree with therewesaidit that Cavendish has probably a greater claim to fame given his impact in the Tour.

Kelly Holmes and Adlington likewise cannot be compared. Holmes got her golds in a much more competitive arena where multiple golds are much harder to come by. She had also been at the top of her sport for over a decade prior to this achievement.

For me CO's achievement was at least as important as Adlington's. She won her gold in a more competitive arena and was following up on her world championship success a year earlier. I actually can't fathom why she was not awarded MBE last year with her success at the World champs. Maybe the negative press had a hand in that.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jan 6, 2009

If a sportsperson does a lot of charity work or has spen a lifetime training young champions then fair enough honour them for that but why knight someone for winning medals or trophies, those medals and trophies should be recognition enough and there are enough sportsperson of the yearawards etc... to give them additional recognition.

That's not to say I don't respect the achievements of these people, they really are a success story to be proud of but Knighthoods and MBE's, CBE's, OBE's are worthless titles because they are given to practically anyone.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jan 7, 2009

"I actually can't fathom why she was not awarded MBE last year with her success at the World champs."

Unless it's the Rugby World Cup or Football World Cup then MBE's don't get handed out to World Champions in sport. MBE's only get given to Olympic gold medal winners. As I have pointed out, the british track cycling team (since 2000) has come away with over 20 world titles - 16 in the last two years - so handing out MBE's for World titles is farcical. This is why I don't think Lewis Hamilton will ever get an honour even if he outdid Schumacher's 7 world titles.

" it is a low profile sport if your country isn't competitive in the sport "
What, like GB with regards to athletics? They are blatantly not competitive within the sport considering the relatively few titles and medals they've brought back from World Champs / Commonwealth Games / Olympics in the past 10+ years.
The only person who is competitive in their branch of athletics is Paula Radcliffe who is VERY deserving of an honour but until she wins Gold at an Olympics will never be recognised for what she has acheived

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jan 7, 2009

veryskinnylatte - What I was trying to say is that Athletics is relatively popular within this country despite a lack of success relative to the huge success achieved in indoor cycling events (our success in Athletics is on a par with similarly sized European countries in Athletics as a whole). Unless your nation is successful in the sport, Olympic cycling events get minimal coverage. Athletics will always get far more coverage regardless of how successful the nation is in the sport.

And not just more coverage for popularity's sake, it is a far more competitive arena being actively competed by far more countries.

For that reason success in this area should be weighted as a much bigger achievement.

add comment | complain about this comment