Ashamed to be British

[DIDSCO]

Today was the first time I've ever seriously considered applying for my Swedish passport. Im normally very proud to be English and British but today I'm ashamed.
The Winter Olympics is over, and once again Britain underachieved at a major sports competition. The Team GB boss said the Games was a great success for our country. One silver medal, what a joke, what aload of bull-shitt.

When is Britain going to face up to reality and realise serious changes need to be made to support our current athletes and future athletes. All this talk about lottery funding/support is rubbish. So many potential medallists now and for the future dont get it, or don't get enough. Why should we take second best, when so many smaller countries, with so much less talent, are kicking our butts everytime. Why should we take second best when sporting success is so important for British people.

There is so much talk in Britain but not enough action. Everyone knows it but nothing gets done. I remember all the money we got from the lottery when I was in the British squad, but most of its benefit was wasted because we weren't guaranteed long term funding. British people seem to think you can make olympic champions overnight, are we really that stupid.

Maybe because I've lived in Sweden for 7 years I see British sports results for what they really are rather than the rubbish you read in the British papers.

If sport is so important to us, and if sports is something we are so passionate about, why can't we set in place a decent structure from bottom to top to achieve world class success.

We're selling ourselves to short. We deserve better. Its time for change.

[damo]

If there was more money to spend should it be spent on:

- Popular sports such as football, swimming or athletics which are either watched or played by a large proportion of the population?

- Niche sports where the investment per medal won is lower?

[DIDSCO]

Oldman: I dont think you've read what I've written. It applies to most sports, including orienteering.
I know most of Britains best orienteers and know how much more they are capable of achieving with the right kind of backing during their international career and prior to it.

Damo:1. My piece applies to most sports in Britain where people train as professionals, even though they might not be, and where the sport can provide a sense of success for our nation.

2. So much money is wasted in Britain. There is plenty of money available if it is used in the way it should be.

[andrew T]

have to agree with you on that one didsco though in the case of the winter olympics our lack of medals abviuosly isnt helped by the fact that we aren't an alpine nation and don't exactly have the facilities or infastructure in place to create winter olympians of capable of getting medals.

with regards to other sports funding does seem to be pretty erratic and depends largely on where you live, and whether you can get funding from local sports councils etc. whoever there isnt a clear initiative by the government to try and develop the sporting talent we have.

Sports like football and other main stream sports are always going to have more money available as they are mainstream and therefore attract more sponsership etc. so surely funding would be better placed in othe areas i.e athletics, orienteering, cycling where we have definite world class potential.

there endeth the rant.

[awk]

The Winter Olympics is over, and once again Britain underachieved at a major sports competition. The Team GB boss said the Games was a great success for our country. One silver medal, what a joke, what aload of bull-shitt..

Just got back from a week in Norway. You sound like much of the local comment/Norwegian press about their team. Yes, I know they got more medals than our one silver, but it's pretty much the same angst - why oh why are we being beaten by these Germans etc.?

I gather there's similar mutterings in the USA.

Great watching it all on Norwegian TV - their preferences definitely matched mine with focus on Nordic/Alpine skiing etc, and not much ice dance etc.

[distracted]

It's not surprising that smaller countries excel at Winter Sports because they have the right conditions, the right geography and so they can set up the facilities and there's more chance for people to take up the sports involved. Ever noticed how Scandinavians dominate the cross country skiing events (Bjorn Daehlie, anyone?), the best skiiers are mainly from central Europe (Hermann Maier, Fritz Strobl, Dorfmeister, Kostelic) etc.

Where could you regularly cross-country ski, bobsleigh, ski jump etc in Britain? There's very limited opportunity - you have to go out on purpose intending to find somewhere, not just put on a pair of skis and walk out your front door. I think someone pointed out the relative number of Scots in the British team...

How many people could name the best British male and female skiiers before the Winter Olympics happened? - wouldn't have thought very many. Is this surprising? Not really... Apart from the W. Olympics and Ski Sunday (or equivalent) what media coverage do winter sports get??

You're not going to find the very best competitors if there aren't that many to choose from in the first place. You're not going to encourage more people in unless you can inspire them somehow - look how Shelley Rudman took up skeleton bob and see what happened there! Still the exception rather than the rule, but if you can only inspire one person once every 4 years you're not going to get very far...

[[my username]]

i agree that GB don't seem to perform on equal terms with many other countries that have fewer people and less money and this should be addressed: i think at the moment we have a culture where sport etc is pushed into the background of materialism. The government definitely needs to do something quickly if they want to meet their "target" of 4th in the 2012 olympic medals table.

That said, I always thought the Olympics were about appreciating all aspects of sport and competition, not just the number of shiny objects won by each nation??

[DIDSCO]

Andrew T wrote " though in the case of the winter olympics our lack of medals abviuosly isnt helped by the fact that we aren't an alpine nation and don't exactly have the facilities or infastructure in place to create winter olympians of capable of getting medals."

You've just agreed with point I was making.

Distracted >
The winter olympics is not just about the downhill skiing/x-country skiing. Though with the right support Im convinced British skiers like Alan Baxter could achieve even better results.

What about the Hockey, Ice dancing, Speed skating, Short track skating, curling, snowboard half pipe, freestlyle skiing.
How many ice-rinks are there in Britain, sod all, does this encourage people to take up hockey, speed skating etc?

Distracted wrote > "You're not going to find the very best competitors if there aren't that many to choose from in the first place. You're not going to encourage more people in unless you can inspire them somehow"

You've just agreed with me. We need to inspire our young people. One way to start with this is by having the right facilities.

What I wrote was not really about the winter olympics it was sport in general in Britain and how its set up.[/b]

[Adventure Racer]

What about the Hockey, Ice dancing, Speed skating, Short track skating, curling, snowboard half pipe, freestlyle skiing.

No long track skating facilities in Britain. Never likely to be any. Nothing to do with sports funding, just that there's not really the demand, and money could be better spent where there is. We didn't do that badly at curling - at least we're up there. Snowboard and skiing, even in minority disciplines we're still going to struggle as there isn't the base of people doing it every day when they are kids as in other countries. As for ice dance, if we ever win another medal in that it will be too soon.

Oh, and shouldn't this thread be in Banter?

[J.Tullster]

Oh, and shouldn't this thread be in Banter?

Nope, I would say this is a pretty serious discussion. It is true that Britain has possibly never been traditionally strong in the winter olympics, mostly due to lack of snow etc....but the summer olymipcs is more worrying..
Hopefully what Seb Coe promises will actually happen, that money and development will actually go into the grass routes and althletes in their early careers.

[DIDSCO]

Adventure Racer wrote

"No long track skating facilities in Britain. Never likely to be any. Nothing to do with sports funding, just that there's not really the demand"

Maybe there's not the demand because people, kids, have never been given the chance to try it. I've got an indoor long track skating rink outside my house. The swedes don't have any tradition in the sport but they're developing a team on that rink that will be capable of taking medals in the next 2 olympics.

Adventure racer wrote " We didn't do that badly at curling - at least we're up there"

This unfortunatly is the typical British attitude towards sport just now. People like you hold back British sport/talent development. We need forward thinkers who don't accept second best.
Correct me if Im wrong but the british curling team only got funding for 3 months out of the 4 years in the run up to the olympics,....what if they'd got 4 years funding and support?

Adventure racer> why is this banter, have you bothered to read what I wrote?

J.Tullster> Totally agree the summer olympics is a big worry. I'm not sure 6 years is enough time to change the whole face of British sports/talent development and achieve success in 2012 [/b]

[bedders]

There are a few names coming through for the 2012 olympics, two names off the top of my head are Emily Pidgeon and Harry Aikenes-Ayreety (which is incidentally the coolest name ever) and thats only for athletics. There must be youngsters in other sports similarly as promising, and with the right funding, which Lord Coe has promised us, then they should develop into fine athletes. Saying that, I'm not overly hopeful for a huge medal hall in 6 years time, but you never know...bit of luck here and there.

[DIDSCO]

I wrote above
We need forward thinkers who don't accept second best

Thats one thing that Göran Andersson brought to the British orienteering team in the late 1990's early 2000. He wanted us to be the best and made us believe we could be the best. We had quite a bit of money at the time that helped but we also needed a new thinking, a forward thinking, to develop our talent to the maximum. The team got medals. Dave Peel and his team have carried on with this attitude and it gives results.
The British orienteering team had to fight hard, maybe still has, to get the money to achieve these results. No long term plan could ever be put in place because the money couldn't be guaranteed. Why should it be such a fight to get funding for a team that can produce world class results. Britains attitude is the quick fix but it just don't work in the long run. Why should we accept second best in a country thats so passionate about sport and has so much young talent?

[DIDSCO]

Bedders > Theres new names like Emily and Harry coming through every year....but nearly all of them never reach their potential. The reason for this is maybe what I've tried to say above.

[Oldman]

Maybe some of those who "fail to reach their potential" need to look elsewhere than Government funding?