Well, I think you have to say so far, so good for Team GB and for the entertainment value it’s offered. I have never watched so much sport, day to day, and fully expected to be wearing down but I’m still going strong and looking forward to another week. There is no denying that the success of Team GB has driven things along and the success levels seen this week will probably not continue and I’m not too sure what will be on offer apart from track and field. Another couple of days of cycling and boxing to go, the basketball continues but the stuff that you only see once in a blue moon, outside of the Olympics, are seemingly getting scarcer. I think the badminton and table tennis are about done and I haven’t seen any archery or shooting for the last few days, but that could be down to the BBC scheduling.
The cycling has been exceptional, have we ever sent a better squad, in any event, to an Olympics? Wasn’t sure whether to be excited or alarmed to see Clive Woodward hanging around the velodrome? Clearly there are lessons that can be learned from what has been achieved by them already, how they are funded, how they are coached, how they are managed and how they attract talent to the sport. Is the Clive Woodward who was there the one who kicked England Rugby into the modern world or the one who micro managed The Lions into the ground a few years back and did little more than take up office space at Southampton? Maybe he has already been involved with the cycling leading up to the games, but if not then I hope he’s there to do no more than learn from the people who have created the success and look at a framework that can be used to encourage other squads towards the excellence we’ve seen in the cycling. And there do look to be a few candidates, maybe just a tweak, maybe a radical overhaul, swimming; take out the success of Adlington and it’s been pretty barren, boxing; despite a great deal of expectation and increased funding since Athens, there’s not going to be much of a return and, finally, hockey; both men’s and women’s teams have had notable achievements in the, not too distant, past and it seems that we have failed to build on either.
On the down side there were a couple of glaring examples of why some sports only attract limited exposure outside of the Olympics. Let’s start with hockey, I admit I have a few personal issues with hockey; long ago I played a few games at college for an ad hoc men’s team against the women who played in a league, it was fucking brutal, these women were animals and when it became clear that they were going to lose, became rabid animals. We had a secret weapon, a guy called Chris Shadbolt, he was a student but played a good standard of league hockey for Rotherham, he went up front, scored three goals, he went into defence and shut them out. The games mistress who ran the squad was apoplectic seeing her little darlings rolled over like that But my problems with the game started before the match got going, I asked where all the left handed sticks were? That caused a bit of a laugh. I’m predominantly right handed but play cricket and golf left hand, having been taught by my comprehensively left handed father. So that was not the most auspicious start, disadvantaging at best and discriminating at worst against a significant proportion of the population, why cannot left handers use sticks differentiated by colour so that the officials can still see the back of the stick isn’t being used? And talking of officials, just where do they get the industrial strength peas to go in their whistles? They are at it all the bloody time, there is no flow to the game. Here’s my solution, shorten the game, at least 2 fewer players on the pitch per team, bigger squads available during the game and rolling substitutions. Sorted.
Not sure what you can do with boxing in the Olympics though. It’s an absolute travesty that competitors who put so much into their sport are screwed over by the most consistently incompetent scoring and officiating on the face of the planet. Here’s what you mustn’t be; technically proficient, no point in jabbing, no point in working the body, no reward for punching correctly as your opponents slaps will be scored just as frequently, don’t bother throwing combinations, you’ll only ever get one point no matter how many times you connect within a sustained attack and don’t trouble yourself to listen to a word the referee says as he’ll do nothing about it when you completely ignore him. The referees cannot wait to say ‘break’ and then fail to ensure a clean break is made and cheap shots are thrown, boxers are told not to hold time and time again and, until one occasion I saw today, nothing at all is done about it, warnings are given in the ring about incorrect punching yet at the scoring table points continue to accrue for the most obvious slaps. You only have to watch a few bouts and listen to the commentary; in just about every one you watch you will hear as much comment on the scoring and refereeing as you do about the boxing. The boxers deserve so much better than the tawdry rabble who officiate at Olympic boxing but I really can’t see change on the horizon.