Peddling

Olympics: Government Too Busy Peddling Schemes to Support Future Stars

If there is a god of sport – and at this stage in the British medal procession who can seriously doubt that there is? – then please let him have me wake up tomorrow morning as the owner of a bicycle shop.

High-grade carbon-fiber frame? Sorry sir, we are sold out. Aerodynamic bodysuit? Alas, someone came in five minutes ago and bought the last dozen. The talent, dedication and competitive will of Victoria Pendleton? Madam, there are some things money can’t buy.

The point is that we are all cyclists now, or at least we will be until we get a puncture 15 miles from home only to discover we forgot to pack a spare inner tube, or until the nights start drawing in, or until Sunday afternoons parked in front of the telly watching another dreary Premier League match become a more attractive proposition than Sunday afternoons peddling on the A956 as mud is sprayed in your face by a passing SUV.

The garages and garden sheds of Britain are the graveyard of sporting fads, with abandoned golf clubs piled on rusting bikes and tennis rackets entangled in the laces of trainers bought in the first flush of marathon mania. Such is the fate of modern mass enthusiasm. There is no shame – only a financial penalty – attached to having believed that sporting stardom was only a £300 impulse buy away. Bruce Springsteen might argue otherwise, but some people really weren’t born to run. Or play golf. Or tennis. Or cycle.

Let those unlucky people follow their passions elsewhere, to the library or the nearest multiplex cinema. We wish them well and hope they will forgive us if, in these days of Olympic euphoria, we concentrate our thoughts on those whose interest in sport has been roused by the magnificent performances of British athletes in Beijing.

How do we encourage this interest, harness it and transform it into a permanent feature of our national life? This, as you might fashionably ask, is the 16-gold medal question.

Needless to say there are as many answers as there political hacks and slick-haired PR types wandering around Beijing at the taxpayers’ expense, claiming credit for the achievements of others. It would require a unique gullibility to be taken in by such people, especially when we have access to the wisdom of those athletes who have created the current euphoria.

How do we encourage cycling in this country in the hope that we produce the next Chris Hoy? Easy, we don’t close the Edinburgh council velodrome where the next Chris Hoy might develop his talent. “I wouldn’t be standing here with any medals round my neck if the Meadowbank velodrome hadn’t existed,” the Scotsman said after picking up his third gold of the Games. “Why not built more facilities rather than knocking them down? It’s about getting kids on bikes and into sport.”

That is but one example of the accountancy-driven myopia that might yet stifle hopes of capitalizing on British success in Beijing, but it is by no means the most glaring. No, that distinction belongs to our own government, which refuses to guarantee an additional £100m in athletes’ funding in the lead-up to London 2012.

In the latest get-me-through-the-next-press-conference announcement, the culture minister Andy Burnham unveiled a scheme yesterday called Medal Hopes in which the private sector is to be encouraged to come up with the £100m. Fair enough, you might think, until you read on to discover the government has spent the past two years encouraging the private sector to come up with £100m, an effort that has failed to raise a penny. Nor is it likely to, given the current economic climate and competition for sponsorship money as 2012 approaches. To suggest otherwise, as Burnham did yesterday, is to strain credulity to the limit. To then insist, as he did, that the government is committed to having the “strongest team in London” beggars belief.

There is only one way the government can show its commitment to British athletes and a strong British team in 2012 and that is by guaranteeing the £100m. They should do so before Sunday’s closing ceremony in Beijing – for the next Chris Hoy, and for bike shop owners up and down the land.

Beijing embraces Olympic spirit, but not the foreign spectators that come with it

The walk to the National Stadium is a wonderful experience, especially at night, when the warm breeze caresses the skin, spectators are excitedly making their way to their seats clutching precious tickets and the buildings dotted about the Olympic Park – most notably the stadium itself and the “Water Cube” (aka the National Aquatic Center) – light up the sky like visiting spaceships.

China is proud of the 2008 Games and rightly so. They have been superbly organized, the volunteers have shown, ahem, Olympian politeness and many of the events have been breathtaking, not least in the athletics stadium.

Yet, if I can bastardize a phrase patented by the former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, these are not “the best Games ever” for the simple reason they have been staged for the greater glory of China and not for the greater good of sport.

Look around on that walk towards the National Stadium and you will see very few foreign visitors, apart from the occasional group of sponsors’ guests being led to their seats by a guide, or a gaggle of English ticket touts trying to rip off the locals. The best Olympics have been those that have embraced internationalism, but the Chinese government’s suspicion of foreigners has meant the rest of the world has largely been excluded. This is a pity for the Games but most especially for the hosts, who have denied themselves the chance to show the world what a fascinating country this is.

You’re free to protest but…

There will be a lot of talk in the coming days about how the 2008 Games have advanced freedoms in China. Believe none of it.

There are people better placed than me to give chapter and verse on the indignities of living in a totalitarian state, although it might serve a useful purpose to draw your attention to a report by the official government news agency that said the Beijing authorities had received 77 requests to demonstrate since August 1.

“Seventy-four applications have been withdrawn so far, because the problems those applicants contended for were properly addressed by relevant authorities or departments through consultations,” the news agency explained. “Two other applications have been suspended because their procedures were incomplete. In one of such cases, for example, the applicant applied to take children to the demonstration, which is against China’s law, and the one remaining application has been vetoed by the public security authority, as it is in violation of China’s law on demonstrations and protests.”

Gold-medal sportsmanship

The Australian swimmer Grant Hackett returned home with the silver medal he won in the men’s 1500m. Less impressively, he also went as my favorite athlete of these Games.

Hackett, who was going for his third successive gold in the event, was denied victory by Oussama Mellouli – a Tunisian swimmer who was only in Beijing courtesy of a controversial decision to cut his two-year ban for a doping offense to 18 months.

Many Australians were incensed but not Hackett, who was offered multiple opportunities to criticize the gold medalist. “His past is his past. You know, he was a better competitor on the blocks,” he said. “There’s no bitterness at all, it is the way it is and that’s life.”

Tags: Busy, Future, Government, Olympics, Peddling, Schemes, Stars, Support