An end to vegging out

So I have over done things. Last Saturday and Sunday I just watched the olympics far too much and by Sunday, even with Bolt running his miraculous race, I had had enough. Of course I will be watching just not to the extent I did over the weekend.

As the great Saturday seeped into Sunday and all the newspapers were full of the success I started to wonder what next. Those seasoned Olympic watchers will know that Britain doesn't do this well - even Beijing wasn't this good - we were a nation of one or two outstanding performances but over all good losers coming seventh or eighth, if we qualifies at all. Now we are an olympic powerhouse and we have come to expect victory and then more victory. An example of this would be the rowing on Saturday. After winning two gold medals in a row the third race only produced a silver, ONLY A SILVER! The rowers were totally distraught and kept apologising for only coming second. Is this what the olympics are going to be in future? We must win otherwise it is consider an utter failure? I hope not but I suspect it will be. You can guarantee now that there will be no cuts in funding for elite sports - if you think that Lord Coe is a formidable political operator then imagine what would happen if Jess Ennis started to protest about cuts. In fact the money will be increased. I wouldn't be surprised if the stadium is now saved for the nation to slowly rot in east London as no football club would touch it without basically pulling it down. So whilst it has been a great time to be British it must be remembered that this comes with a great cost and one of the prices we will pay is the end of the romantic image we have of the plucky under dog winning against mighty foes. Now we are the mighty foes and we had better get used to paying the price for such victories. Of course it could all be a dream and reality will come back and bite our collective back sides. Twelve years ago Australia was under going a similar metamorphoses and now look at where they are with only 1 gold medal to show for all their much vaunted 'sports' culture. Sent from my iPad

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