London Does It Again!

So now we have the Paralympics. It's going to be the best Paralympics ever. Because it's here. That's why it's going to be the best ever.

Politicians have tears of admiration in their eyes for those disabled people who have achieved being on the telly, stretching their bodies to the utmost. The same politicians take away the benefits of those disabled they say are stealing taxpayers' money and really should be working, just look at what can be achieved, look at the examples being set by your fitter brothers and sisters, get off your arse and get a job, come on, put some effort into it you shirking fake!

But as a spectacle, it's really difficult to get worked up about. How can you when you have admiration for every single participant? All athletes perform to the best of their capabilities and you want to see a race where there is a small margin between winners and losers. You want to get behind your man or woman, you desperately want your athlete to beat the rest, you couldn't give a shit if Mary Decker falls over, you think thank fuck for that. You want Great Britain to win a tight, exciting race. If not Britain, you want Jamaica. If not Jamaica, anybody but the USA. We love it when the Americans come just outside the medals. And more than anything we want Ovett to beat Coe.

How can the competitive emotions come to the fore when you're applauding everybody in the race, willing them all to do a personal best? Even Oscar Pistorius as he wins by five miles. Bloody hell, they're all to be admired. Even the Americans and the Tories.

So Proud, So Very, Very Proud

AHOY THERE!

I don't want to piss on anybody's chips but...

Let's have a look at the amounts of funding from UK Sport for the 2012 Olympics.

Surprise surprise rowing gets the most money followed by surprise surprise cycling.

Both events need expensive equipment, £20,000 per boat, £20,000 per bike.

Neither rowing nor cycling are mass participant sports. You can imagine the schools that have rowing clubs! And you can imagine the kids whose parents can't afford to buy them a decent racing bike let alone the kids having the space to ride in safety.

How many non-white athletes have Great Britain in these sports? Surely there would be one or two with the body for rowing, the body for cycling?

The next time somebody says "if only footballers were like our great Olympians," you know where to tell them to stick their words.