THE BRITISH THREAD II

They were talking about the disproportionate numbers from private schools who go on to medals contention.
Well, of course they do. And if you go from Sandhurst into the Army, and can pursue your sport there to the exclusion of almost everything else....why then, you're nearly up to East German or Chinese standards.

Surprise too...we build the Lea Water slalom course about two years early, let our kayak teams train there, and we win gold and silver!
And our cyclists got good after they built the Manchester Velodrome. Cause and effect.

Gone are the days of Alf Tupper, The Tough of the Track.

Now here's a thing.

If a man who is missing part of his legs can run on "blades", what is there to stop a high-jumper who cannot jump very high from using a trampoline?

Or maybe a swimmer who is deficient in the arm department from using flippers on his feet?

I think Mr Pistorius' case sets an unwelcome precedent.

We've been through this. A panel of experts have concluded it gives no unfair advantage. I'm no expert, which is why I allow experts to make the decisions. He won't win anyway.

Much as I feel sorry for the guy I agree with Mac. He takes no risk of a pulled calf muscle. He's bionic.

Who knows what the other guys could do if overstraining the calf muscles is not a consideration. His heart has less work to do.

It's all a matter of the 'perspective': a couple of weeks ago in the Daily Mail ...



... and today in the Sunday Mail

From one perspective, you might note that all the medal winners up to now have been pinkish.

Mo Farah qualifies by residency for a long number of years.



We've even got a Lithuanian girl, was it, who lives and trains here but who won a gold medal for her own country.

So this appears nothing more than journalistic muck-raking.

On a per capita basis the UK leads the medals table

It takes 52 million Chinese, 16 million Germans, 12 million Americans, 7 million Koreans and only 4 million of us to win a gold medal.

Bearing in mind that the US has won 10 swimming golds one has to wonder what is happening to sport in the US. The slide in golf and tennis has been obvious for a while now. Armstrong's Tour de France wins are in question.

And one guy has won four of them.

I think it is due to a stubborn persistence with two sports nobody else wishes to bother with so they can look good in their own backyard.

America seems to breed its youth very tall and with long arms, to they can win at swimming on reach alone.
Patently unfair.

I don't like Hazel Irvine. She comes over as a smug know-it-all. Celts used to be good as sports commentators. I still fondly remember Cliff Morgan, Sam Leitch and Bill McLaren.

The Olympics are on in London at the moment, by the way.

Moon photobomb!!!

That problem has been solved ...

Which problem are you referring to, Walter?

If someone with carbon legs is faster than others

Well, where are the limits? He can make his carbon-fibre legs a bit longer, and that would speed him up.

It's obvious, if it gets to a point where he can regularly beat standard bipeds, they will bring in new regulation to prevent it.

So they should never have let him start.

They most certainly should not. But they are cowed by vociferous minorities abusing our pity.

Henry Miller once said that he sometimes wished he had been disabled in heroic action so he could tell people what he thought of them without risking getting thumped.

Some one sent me this overnight:

A policeman spots a huge black guy dancing on the roof of a Ford car.

He radios for backup.

"What's the situation?"

"A big fat black bloke is dancing on a car roof."

"You can't say that over the radio" replies the operator, "You have to use the politically correct terminology"

"OK" he says "Zulu...Tango....Sierra"

Oi! Watch what you're saying there lad! A good number of the organisers of these games learned from the masters! - the last time the games were fun!

For the non-Brits ... a "Sierra" is a Ford vehicle manufactured in the UK.

Carry on ...

I watched a fair bit of the opening ceremony from the point of view of having a grasp of the mindsets in play during the creation and practice.

A picture of England. . . sorry London. . . oops. . . sorry. . . Great Britain. With no horse!! Orwell predicted it. Who on earth suggested Rowan bloody Atkinson. It must have been The Queen. I felt deeply ashamed during the sequences involving that most unfunny gent. He was educated at Durham Choristers School for flip's sake. Anybody who laughed at his routine need their bumps feeling imo. I believe some toes curled in the embarrassment.

It was an Eleusianian welcome ceremony designed by a large committee of twerps.

Compared to the Federal Procession through Philadelphia in 1788 to celebrate the ratification of the Constitution, and the Fourth of July, it was pathetic.

Two odd things I noticed in Carl Van Doren's necessarily sketchy description of the parade. The Constitution float was No. 13. Every float was numbered. That's a deliberate dare for superstition to do what it will. Like a bloke who deliberately walks under ladders. I hardly think 13 was an accident.

The other thing is that the last float, after all the other trades had strutted their stuff, was that of the Stay Makers ("represented by Mr Francis Serre, with his first journeyman carrying an elegant pair of lady's stays in the procession") Following was a corps of light infantry and all the local worthies not familar with the work displayed up ahead. And clergy.

After the piss up on Union Green at which, only a few got drunk, it is said the whole sky was filled with a beautiful Aurora Borealis.

The Manufacturing Society was float 29 which was 30 feet long and 13 wide carrying a carding machine, an 80 spindled spinning machine, a lace loom and a jean weaving loom with a fly shuttle. In operation. 5 persons. It displayed a banner reading "May the Union Government protect the manufacturers of America" The chap working the lace loom was weaving " a rich scarlet and white livery lace".

Marvellous. A work of art and I've only got a glimpse of it.