The musings of a juggling mother

Rants & raves about life as a woman today, juggling work, home, kids, family, life the universe & everything.

© Mrs Aginoth. The right of Mrs Aginoth to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents act 1988

Thursday, March 16, 2006

The problem with British Sport

Well, there are lots of things that contribute – I could get technical and go on about the ridiculous funding situation, the problem with the NGB’s fighting each other, the lack of facilities, minimal talent ID, and difficulty in getting support from the authorities, but lets just look at the simple things.

England has just swept the medal board in the 4km Cycle pursuit. Congratualtions to Paul Manning, Rob Hayles and Stephen Cummings who got gold, silver and bronze respectively.

But have we celebrated this? No – there is NOTHING!!!! Go look for yourself. It’s not been mentioned on the news, it’s not on the BBC website – if you search REALLY hard, you can just about find an allusion to it, but no actual results!

The Ozzies got themselves a clean sweep in the pool, and they have full front page coverage on their broadsheets!

And we wonder why our kids don’t do well in sport on the world stage. If you’re not in the self styled big four (Rugby, Tennis, Cricket, Soccer), why bother?

6 Comments:

  • At Friday, March 17, 2006 7:41:00 am, Blogger srp said…

    Here from Michele.
    Baseball is about to start here. To my mind this is not the most exciting sport to have to sit and watch on TV. I suppose it would be more exciting in the stands with the hot dogs and soft drinks but then you couldn't see anything and the players would look like tiny specks. Of course you have to spend a fortune for the tickets when the TV is sitting in the living room. So who knows why they don't report the "other" sports. As long as it is not as boring as golf or poker, I'm for it.

     
  • At Friday, March 17, 2006 8:28:00 am, Blogger OldLady Of The Hills said…

    I am soooo not into most of the sports things that I feel like a dunce about it! I like watching Golf...so that tells you how boring I am when it comes to these things...though I don't find watching golf boring...(OY!)

    I'm here from Michele this A.M. Hope things are going okay with you and yours Mrs. A., especially Mr. A.s situation...

     
  • At Friday, March 17, 2006 8:44:00 am, Blogger MaR said…

    I am not informed about British sports, sorry. A bit about soccer because Beckham plays in Madrid, lol! Here via Michele's today. Hope everything is looking up.

     
  • At Friday, March 17, 2006 1:55:00 pm, Blogger JR said…

    We have football, basketball, baseball and NASCAR topping our sports in the US. Before Lance Armstrong, nobody paid attention to cycling. My ex was a cyclist and raced all over the country. When I tried to explain his sport, the courses or the velodome when he did that, people thought I was joking. They couldn't believe people actually rode bicycles for sport, or how old the sport was. As for funding, yeah, "other" sports get the shaft here too, plus women's sports other than golf and tennis. But I suppose it's about the free market, if people are interested and will pay to watch it or participate in it, there would be more financial support. As for the media not covering it, I think they should.

     
  • At Friday, March 17, 2006 4:42:00 pm, Blogger Paste said…

    I'd agree with your general point but I think that the Commonwealth Games is being covered well by the BBC and this particular result was certainly in my paper and is also on many online pages eg:-
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2961-2089935,00.html

     
  • At Friday, March 17, 2006 10:02:00 pm, Blogger Spinsterella said…

    VV's right.

    There was no such thing as cycling as a sport in Ireland till some Irish bloke won the Tour de France, and then the whole bloody country took it up. Briefly.

    In Ireland - the top four were (when I lived there):

    Gaelic Football
    Handball
    Hurling
    Soccer

    4kn cycle pursuit does sound a bit, well, specialist....

     

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