THE Olympics has provided its usual four-yearly insight into sports that for the other 206 weeks of the four-year cycle are largely forgotten about.
And it turns out to the nation’s collective surprise that we are actually quite good at some of them.
Cycling, sailing, canoeing and BMX riding might sound more like events at an adventure weekend than part of the reason for Great Britain’s elevated position in the medal table. But they have contributed to GB’s best medal haul in a century. It would be good if, after the closing ceremony next week, the achievements of Chris Hoy, Rebecca Adlington and the rest of the medal-winning Olympians aren’t forgotten about apart from a token appearance on Ready, Steady, Cook.
With attention soon to shift to London 2012 it is the best opportunity for football to be given a bit of much-needed per-spective in the nation’s sporting psyche.
Too often football is treated not like the nation’s favourite sport, but as the only one. It takes Wimbledon, a Rugby World Cup or an Ashes series to dent, although never seriously, the blanket coverage football receives, even in the ever-shrinking off-season. But the Olympic success can really engender a change in approach.
This is partly because the childhood dream of playing for the local Premier League team is becoming increasingly harder but also because other sports are being funded more seriously.
The Velodrome at Manchester is the stand-out example of this and the flurry of medals achieved on the cycling track is no coincidence.
The diversification of Great Britain’s sporting interests would be a positive thing. It widens the number of children taking part in sports and it increases the number of sports in which we can take interest and be proud of sporting success.
It would also show that the monomaniac obsession with football is a fad and not a permanent state, and the nation’s sporting view needn’t be so narrowly focused. It would be a real shame if in the coming weeks the revelation of the existence of other sports and sportsmen and women was lost among an avalanche of banal football news.
