31 July, 2012

Olympics Report 4

Britain's athletes are not having a good Olympics. There was too much speculation, even assumption, that we would get a gold in this sport, another in that. Counting chickens before they are hatched, and the gods of sport don't like it.

The poor performance seemed to me typified when I saw headlines that a schoolgirl from Plymouth had won gold in one of the swimming races. Unfortunately she only lived, went to school and trained in Plymouth: she was swimming for Lithuania.

Britain's gymnastic team were on for a silver medal but the Japanese complained that they had been judged harshly and their appeal was successful. I really think the Olympics should be about objective victory - faster, higher, stronger is the motto - and we should ditch those 'sports' which are just about looking pretty in the subjective assessment of judges who just might be regionally or nationally biased.

One example is Tom Daley. A good looking boy and popular with the crowds, his sport is perfectly ridiculous. Synchronised Diving! Away with it, together with any other 'sport' where the winner can't be objectively assessed. Mr Daley should try swimming.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Exactly, with regard to the "subjective" sports. I think a few Olympics back there was a major overhaul of gymnastics judging but still it depends on who sees what. However, having said that, boxing sort of fits into that category especially in 'close' matches.

DAVE PHILLIPS said...

"GOOD NEWS" - Overnight from Thursday, August 2d to Friday, August 3d = "TEAM GB Gold Rush" reported as lead story in this morning's AM edition of "The Daily Telegraph"! -30-