I've been watching some of the Olympics so far and whilst exciting - especially the swimming (how has there suddenly been such a big change? Have humans or training sessions really changed that much the last 8 years?) - the events are really depressing.
I'm British and so that probably explains it. We have very poor sports funding in this country and the level of the sportsmen we field in the non-professional, hell... even the professional sporting events show this lack of funding. Considering our population and the lack of funding from government-level we do fairly well in the world arena compared to the larger, better funded countries (e.g. USA and China).... but it's not good enough. In fact, it's embarrassing. I'm not looking forward to the track and field events next week when i'm fairly certain we're going to struggle to get many medals.
Now, all of this isn't surprising when you look at our general performance over the numerous Olympics in recently but we're supposed to be hosting the Olympics in 2012!! What the hell are we going to do? Basically, we're going to host the Olympics and hardly be a contender for a portion of medals because of the chronic lack of funding.... not only that but it's being hosted in London which is so overcrowded and untenable as a hosting city that it's stupid. The event should have been somewhere more central - sure, people don't like Birmingham but it could have hosted the events with more ease than London can.
I feel embarrassed about our performance in this Olympics, i'm afraid that i'll feel ashamed when it comes to our turn to host. Summary - why did we apply to host the games only to be shown up? The Chinese were ready for it and we're not. I mean, we didn't score a single gold in the equestrian events! The English are known for their horse riding.... what the hell are we doing? And what the hell will we be able to do in four years time?
They can blame the weather all they want but they should have been training in the right temperature and humidity for at least a year or six months. I don't know if they have been... maybe they have? Then why have people mentioned it?
**EDIT**
Well, i posted this near the beginning of the games when i hadn't realised that the medal table represents the total number of medals awarded - not places in events... i.e. some events you can win 4 medals but you only get one first place team. Which i think is misleading. I feel like it's cheating. If you win a team event for four people it doesn't mean that you country's score should go up by four but by one. Otherwise it's unfair to the people who win an event by themselves and only add one point to the country's tally.
I'm not ashamed of my team anymore and i realise now that i was posting too early into the Olympics and before our stronger events came to pass. Hopefully we can build on these successes for 2012!
