Armchair athlete

It has not been a very good week health or weather wise from where I am sitting this week. Unfortunately the allotment has not had much attention; thankfully it is well watered if not weeded. Fortunately the Olympics coverage has made up for the time I have spent in bed or on the settee not being or feeling well.

I am almost wishing [but not wanting] Michael Phelps will fail in at least one of his Olympic challenges for no other reason than the feeling that it would give the winner of such an event; imagine beating someone who appears almost invincible? He is already the most successful Olympian ever, what more could he want? [Does he ever smile?] Have you seen how much this bloke eats? No wonder there is a world wide food shortage.

For different reasons, who ever started it, I was also hoping that Georgia would come out on top of the Russians in the recent round of East European madness. I am so glad that some of the Georgian athletes were able to beat their Russian opponents in both beach volleyball and one of the combat sports. [Who ever thought of introducing beach volley ball as an Olympic event? Put some clothes on for heavens sake!]

Now that the track and field events have started we can expect to see the US overtake China in the medal table surely? But before all of that Team GB have a great chance of increasing our tally in the boat races tomorrow and on two wheels in the Velodrome.

Zimbabwe and Olympic games

It will only be a matter of time before Zimbabwe erupts into violence due to the delay in releasing election results. I had thought the idea of having independent monitors of the elections would reduce the possibility of this type of blatant manipulation of the actual outcome, regardless of who has won.

I am still hopeful for the sake of the Zimbabweans that if there is to be a ‘run off’ of the two candidates that it should happen sooner rather than later.

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London and Paris have both had their protests during the Olympic torch relay and now it is the turn of California, who have began their campaign in some style reaching new heights as can be seen in this video of the Golden Gate Bridge.

A Red hot issue - 2008 Olympic torch

What a complete charade the carrying of the ‘Olympic’ torch is and has nothing to do with sport itself. Its progression through London was nothing more than a complete debacle.

As I saw the coverage of the event towards the end the torch’s journey through London I couldn’t help wondering who was paying for the security measures that were more than evident, at times there were so many police officers in yellow hi-vis jackets that it was hard to see the person carrying the baton.

Without politics we would not have had an ancient Olympics let alone a modern one, which also owes so much to the world stage of politics for its reintroduction and continued use today.

The torch carrying through other countries prior to the games commencing was something Nazi Germany began as part of their propaganda campaign prior to the Olympic games of 1936, so there was no politic intent there then!

By accepting the games China has put itself in the spotlight and should expect the type of scrutiny it is now receiving of its human rights record and policy towards Tibet.

People are once again questioning whether sport and politics should mix, that is like asking if a football match should take place without a referee.