ThunderDragon Blog

Don’t worry, I’m not back yet. However, with the opening ceremony today, I think it’s appropriate to cross-post one of my own blog entries from before I left the land of the internet.

So today, we’ve all seen Boris collecting the flag and the end of the 29th Summer Olympiad. There’s big a huge party on the Mall, and all thoughts have been turning towards the London Games in 4 years time. But not mine. Not yet at any rate.

Since I first saw the Summer Paralympic Games at Atlanta in 1996, I’ve always preferred them to Olympics ‘proper’. Olympic athletes are obviously proud of their achievements - and winning an Olympic gold is something all will be proud of. Even the tennis players.

But, for a paralympian, finishing the race is a tremendous achievement for most. It’s emotive stuff, often tear jerking, and the skill of the athletes is magnified.

I really do enjoy it - which 4 years ago was to the chagrin of my then housemates, watching the Wheelchair Basketball bronze-medal playoff live at 8am one morning and waking the house up with my cheering.

We also do brilliantly well at the games as Team GB. Fourth it Atlanta (39 Golds, 122 medals) before jumping to 2nd in 2000 behind only Australia (41 Golds, 131 medals). In Athens, the Chinese investment in sport started to show its prowess, as they headed the medal table with 63 Golds - Team GB again in second with 35 golds. A similar performance should be achievable in a few weeks time.

Such success is perhaps not surprising. Whilst it was the Greek that created the modern olympics, it was the British that created the modern paralympics- in 1948 at Stoke Mandeville hospital. They joined with the Olympics, sharing venues a few weeks after the Oympics, in 1988. Since then, some British paralympians have become household names - notably Ade Adeptain (Wheelchair baskterball) and of course Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson (wheelchair athletics).

The BBC will be providing even more extensive coverage than previously, so we can follow the games fully. I’ll be watching.

~Asp

London is now the host city for the Olympics.

Just four years to go, and a lot to do. Beijing has set a high standard, and one we need to meet.

Medal-wise, we came back from Beijing having done excellently - in fourth place, with 19 golds, 13 silvers, and 15 bronzes. That’s going to be a hard achievement to beat in 2012. Though it might be possible if we can bring ping-pong home…

YouTube video via Daily Referendum

On my way back from V2008 last Tuesday, I listened to BBC 5Live to ensure I caught the final day of action from the Velodrome (and Chris Hoy’s historic hat-trick). Inbetween the updates from the Madison, there was the standard phone-in, notably people responding to suggestions that double gold-medal winner Becky Adlington should become Dame Rebecca - as Cassie Patten suggested live to the masses.

That morning, Dame Kelly Holmes had said that, in her opinion, Adlington isn’t ready for such an honour. But, as a lot of people were keen to point out - she became a Dame after a double victory. Is it just sour grapes?

Well, I generally feel that the honours system has been seriously devalued. Entire teams getting honours doesn’t value individual achievements. Especially when they get it for winning a single tournament that happens every 18 months.

There’s no doubt that most (if not all) of Team GBs gold medal winners deserve some recognition in form of honours. However, it’s about time we looked at the honours differently.

Honours should be a final achievement. The cherry on the top of a wonderful career - the hallmark of an amazing achievement. “Dame Kelly” as she’s known was given her honour at the end of her career, after a succession of international medals - the pinnacle of which came at Athens. Adlington is at the start of her career.

If we gave Adlington a Damehood now, what would we give her in 4 years time if she continues her success? The throne itself? And what about Chris Hoy with three golds at these games; or Ben Ainslie with 3 successive golds (an achievement Jacques Rogge today rated as good as Michael Phelps given the potentional number of medals available at each games)? Maybe a Duchy each?!

And from another angle - the stars themselves already have some reward - the silverware hanging around their necks. If anyone deserves an honour from these games, I’m going to suggest Shane Sutton (and Dave Brailsford MBE (yes, he’s got something already), as well as others in the British Cycling Team. You might not know the games - but without them Team GB might well have 7 gold medals fewer than they do at the minute…

Whilst the honours system should, erm, honour Britain’s greats - it should be especailly used for the ‘unsung’ heroes. Such as the lollypop lady who’s been helping kids cross the road for 30 years, rain or shine. And, regardless of the final medals tally, let’s not use the Beijing successes to look popular and trendy by giving honours again.

~Asp

The Northern Monkey is turning even more Northern next week, as he moves house. Until internet is established, there’ll obviously be no guest column. As the world breaths a huge sigh of relief…

It is amazing how well we have done so far in this Olympics, since we are now third in the medals table - and not all that far behind the USA in gold medal terms!

The current medal table, via the BBC:

There is no way that Team GB were expected to do so well, since we so massively under-fund our athletes. However, since the events in which we do well are very nearly over as the “real” section of the Olympics - the track and field section - gets going, we will just slip down the table…

Team GB has done us proud, no matter where we finish over all.

Last week, I was talking about the clash between sport and personal lives. No-one’s a winner as a result of “Spank-gate” - Mosley’s clearly lost out, but the sport too as it was the main point of discussion at Bahrain last weekend. Not the track action.

In the past week though, there’s been a different clash - that of sport and politics.
The Olympic Games are all about world unity. As the I.O.C. website says:

Bringing people together in peace. Setting aside differences in the name of sport.

Of course, with China’s human rights record and occupation in Tibet - yes, it’s a chance to protest and show what global condemnation there is for their activities. However, that’s what a peaceful protest is for. Protesting in the Olympic spirit.

However, some people seem to think that right way to protest is (at best) in a very disruptive manner, trying to steal the Olympic torch; or (at worst) violently.

I can almost understand it from the French. Any excuse to get out on the streets - as Tom Paine says, the spirit of ‘68 does live on. I can, once again, refer back to my time over in Paris during the Student strikes of 2006. My University was closed indefinitely because of the risk of violence. I witnessed people being thrown down the steps leading into the law department as they tried to cross the picket lines. One student had an arm broken at some point in the protests. I think I’m justified in saying that the security services probably provoke violence themselves. An example I gave at the time in “CRS = SS“:

But, protests turned ugly over here too. We’re British, we react to problems with a stiff upper lip and tutting over a pot of tea and scone.

The problem with this attitude is that it rarely gets results. A few marches in London didn’t do much for student Top-Up fees; but the CPE sunk without a trace (along with the Prime Minister) after the French protests. So, on the one hand, I’m in favour of our protests being a bit more direct. Not French style violent, but direct. Let’s have a National Strike over the abolition of the 10p income tax band. See if things get changed.

But, not when it’s part of the Olympic movement. Trying to steal or extinguish the torch? The torch is possibly the most physical symbolisation of peace we have. Attacking a symbol of peace because of an oppressive regime is an almost dictionary definition of irony.

Come August (whilst I might be washing my hair during the Opening Ceremony), I’ll be watching the games, and cheering on the British athletes. I probably won’t even think about Tibet whilst watching the Paralympics in September. And I hope that people won’t think badly of me for keeping sports and politics separate.

Asp

The lighting of the Olympic torch as it begins it journey from Olympia to Beijing in time for the 2008 Olympics was disrupted by a group of demonstrators. The group, Reporters Without Borders, said that:

Whilst I agree with the sentiment, no matter what the human rights situation is in China what is the point of disrupting a sporting event? This is not a political event, but a sporting one. And it’s not like the Olympics could be held anywhere else at this late stage.

Rather than disrupting the Olympics, use the “symbol of peace” that the Olympic flame stands for as an opportunity to show where the Chinese government fail to meet what we consider to be the correct standards - but in a more effective way than the IOCs “silent diplomacy” [which means what, exactly? Saying and doing nothing].

By disrupting the Olympics, demonstrators are not helping their cause, but just ensuring that the Chinese become more intransigent to making any positive change.