I have had over the past few days had a fair bit of stick for disagreeing with the sudden claims for Sir Bradley Wiggins and a few grumps about the Olympics so I thought it was time I put the record straight on where I stand
Bradley and The Tour De France
Firstly I must make the point that unlike many I have not suddenly been attracted to Le Tour because of the success of Bradley,Cav and Chris Froome but have been an avid follower ever since Channel 4 first took the step of showing regular highlights back in the mid 80's a time when the only British interest was likely to be in the hard work of a lowly Domestique,my heroes back in those days were the likes of Lauren Fignon, Greg Lemond and Stephen Roche and especially in the sprints the Tashkent Terror Djamolidine Abdoujaparov.
I know therefore the enormity of both Cav's winning of the points race and the fact that today Bradley will enter the Champs Elysees wearing the Maillot Jaune and I hold the guy in total admiration as one of the great British sportsman of this and any other generation.I do however have a problem with the clamour for him to be knighted and that's not a problem with Bradley but with any professional be they a sportsman ,Politician,School dinner lady or whatever in that Knighthoods, MBE's etc etc should be an award not for Doing Your Job but for going the extra mile (Ian Bothan for Charity work, Jummy Saville for the nights on the ward at Stoke Mandevilleetc or the thousands of unknowns who give up their own time to benefit others and not themselves).
So hopefully i wont be accused of being anti Bradley in the future
The Olympics
Anti Olympics per se I am definitely not having watched them avidly since Tokyo in 1964 but from an early stage I have not been blinded by the fact that although they are the greatest sporting show on earth they are an nd never have been without major problems be that the major drugs problems that existed when the likes of Sharon Davies , Cathy Cook and many others were denied Gold medals because they were competing against the chemically enhanced Eastern Europeans through the politics that meant 3 successive games in Montreal,Moscow and LA were not a true test of who was the best because of assorted politically inspired boycotts through to China that was the last throw of a regime trying to prove that Communism was better than Capitalism .
So we come to London and although I profoundly hope it ends up as a great success and a credit to our country I am not going to jump on the bandwagon that all is perfect for the following reasons.
1) The Torch Relay a great idea of getting the whole country involved and had it been local people,maybe those who deserve MBE's etc being involved I would have had no problem,but right from the start it became celebrity obsessed with the likes of Beckham,Drogba,Will I Am carrying the torch,people with no connection with the area they ran through and if any connection with the Olympics a very tenuous one.
2) Corporate Sponsorship,now I ma not naive enough to believe that in this day and age we can mange without the big boys shoving their wares down our throat for the privilege of paying big bucks towards the cost of the games but the Sponsors Roadshow around the torch,the only recently clarified issue of wearing Non Sponsors logo's on your clothing when attending the games and the chosing of a company like Mcdonalds to be the "Official Restaurant " of the games when sport is supposed to sponsor a healthy lifestyle.
3) Locog and the "Olympic Brand" protection,what sort of world are we living in where the owner of the Olympic cafe that's not even in London was forced to change it's name for the duration of the games.
4) G4S well enough said about that complete balls up suffice it to say that millions have been paid to G4S that could have been used to stop the cuts in the army personnel who are now being asked to clean up the mess.
5) Team GB what the hell is that all about we are Great Britain not some American inspired branding of a country
6) And worst of all the fact we are forced to allow convicted drug cheats to take part (Messrs Chambers & Miller) when we tried to take a stand for decency and were overruled not just by the courts but the IOC themselves in their backing of WADA.
So clarification grump over and I really hope Bradley goes on to add Olympic gold to today's success in Paris and that we come away with a clutch of medals from our home games
