UK - Unlucky Kingdom?
Glued as I am to the synchronised diving, the gymnastics and other things I would never normally watch, I can't help but notice a common theme emerging from this years Olympics:
The UK are either extremely unlucky, or extremely rubbish.
I love Sport, any Sport, and I'd watch any Sport so the Olympics is right up my street. As is normal whilst driving to work, I was listening to 5live last Wednesday morning. Their programmes are coming from Greece and they were commenting on the rowing, which sounds as though it's taking place at somewhere called 'Skinny Ass'.
The first British rowers started off in their race, tried their hardest and came fourth by a milli-second, unfortunately only the top 3 went through. The second set of rowers went off and exactly the same thing happened.
The third set of rowers then set off and came third by another nano-second. 'Yesss' I thought. This time only the top 2 went through. Booo..
Later on the equestrians were beaten by a German (who else?) who had apparently broken a rule during her winning ride. The German was then disqualified and then re-instated. As if finishing behind someone who had cheated wasnt bad enough, they tell you that you've won and then when you're right in the middle of celebrating, they tell you that what they actually meant when they told you that you'd won, was that you hadnt won. Luckily this has since been changed.
On the way home I was listening to one of the swimming finals, a young British lad was just about to dive in when his goggles broke. Big wimp, crikey, I can swim without goggles, I thought. But apparently its a bit more of an essential item for professional swimmers though. How unlucky is it to have your goggles snap just before the race of your life? Curse you Lord!!
Then the story of the judo guy who had been pummelling the Greek to within and inch of his life for the first 2 rounds of the right and almost all of the final one. The Greek then finds it within himself to pin the Brit down in the last 4 seconds and win the tie.
Then the Korean Hockey team who scored with 30 seconds left to beat the British team 3-2.
Luckily we had a better day on Saturday where we won quite a few golds but Sunday saw the return of the GB we know and love with athletes failing left, right and centre. Jumpers not jumping, sprinters not sprinting and runners coming home in last places looking like they're running after butterflies.
The worst thing is that the general feeling is 'oooh hard luck'. Hard luck nothing, no good more like. The sooner this 'taking part is all that counts attitude' is eradicated then we will continue to get beaten by people, teams and countries who simply want it and deserve it more than we do.
Am I being harsh?
The UK are either extremely unlucky, or extremely rubbish.
I love Sport, any Sport, and I'd watch any Sport so the Olympics is right up my street. As is normal whilst driving to work, I was listening to 5live last Wednesday morning. Their programmes are coming from Greece and they were commenting on the rowing, which sounds as though it's taking place at somewhere called 'Skinny Ass'.
The first British rowers started off in their race, tried their hardest and came fourth by a milli-second, unfortunately only the top 3 went through. The second set of rowers went off and exactly the same thing happened.
The third set of rowers then set off and came third by another nano-second. 'Yesss' I thought. This time only the top 2 went through. Booo..
Later on the equestrians were beaten by a German (who else?) who had apparently broken a rule during her winning ride. The German was then disqualified and then re-instated. As if finishing behind someone who had cheated wasnt bad enough, they tell you that you've won and then when you're right in the middle of celebrating, they tell you that what they actually meant when they told you that you'd won, was that you hadnt won. Luckily this has since been changed.
On the way home I was listening to one of the swimming finals, a young British lad was just about to dive in when his goggles broke. Big wimp, crikey, I can swim without goggles, I thought. But apparently its a bit more of an essential item for professional swimmers though. How unlucky is it to have your goggles snap just before the race of your life? Curse you Lord!!
Then the story of the judo guy who had been pummelling the Greek to within and inch of his life for the first 2 rounds of the right and almost all of the final one. The Greek then finds it within himself to pin the Brit down in the last 4 seconds and win the tie.
Then the Korean Hockey team who scored with 30 seconds left to beat the British team 3-2.
Luckily we had a better day on Saturday where we won quite a few golds but Sunday saw the return of the GB we know and love with athletes failing left, right and centre. Jumpers not jumping, sprinters not sprinting and runners coming home in last places looking like they're running after butterflies.
The worst thing is that the general feeling is 'oooh hard luck'. Hard luck nothing, no good more like. The sooner this 'taking part is all that counts attitude' is eradicated then we will continue to get beaten by people, teams and countries who simply want it and deserve it more than we do.
Am I being harsh?
