The Weight is nearly over

I won't be watching much of the Olympics, don't get e wrong I love watching sports, it's just that the sports I love watching are not in the Olympics, I watch as much motorsport as I can and record the Grand Prix and other big races if I can't watch them live; Cricket, I have learnt to tolerate highlights in order to see some test cricket, and then there is Rugby, but none of these are in the Olympics. 

Of course there is something very enthralling about competition, especially if you are partial to one of the competitors, it's just that I am not sure that happening to come from the same country is sufficient reason to be partial.   I don't see that I have any right to any reflected glory if the UK eight win the rowing, I have done nothing to help them, if a runner wins their race they do not win for Britain they for themselves, I may enjoy watching them win I may enjoy watching others simply competing, but the point surely of the Olympics is about the individual competitor, not the national team.   I used to love the Olympic ideal of individual against individual, competing being more important than winning and amiable amateurism, all this seems to have gone by the board.   There is a good reason why there is no official overall national prize or indeed any national prize per individual sport it is because it is meant to be about individuals meeting on an equal basis.   As it happens the broadcasters and other observers feel the need to bang the national drum and so we get medal tables, team targets, and all the attendant jingoism.




Zoe Smith, Olympic hope weightlifter

Sorry to bang on about the Olympics so much but as I live and work in London, not only am I paying for it, I am also having my live disrupted by it and have to plan my journeys around it.   As it happened my journey to and from Cardiff this weekend was actually a lot easier than normal as people made a point of avoiding West London and North Surrey to avoid the route of the cycling road races.

I will watch some events simply because they are on, others I will watch because I have played that sport a bit.   I would love to watch Olympic Tug-O War but there hasn't been a medal awarded for that since 1920.  I used to do some competitive weights (mostly power lifting rather than straight lifts) and will now being watching it just to cheer on this girl as she competes today.