27-02-2018, 16:52
My problem is that when we invest in elite sports and potential medal winners we and particularly the BBC embark on a phantasmagoric bout of xenophobia, celebrating the genius of achieving a bronze having trained on a tea tray on a dry run at Bath University, overseen by its £500,000 a year ex-Vice Chancellor. We want still to be the plucky little Brits and we want to outfund our competition too.
I like to see us compete and I like to see us win sometimes in any and every sport. But I can't support a funding system that rates a mass-participation sport like Basketball as being worth zero and equestrian sports (that don't even include its only mass-participation arm) at £12 million plus, which is shoveled into the arms of the already well-off. In an obese, diabetic nation I would be financing basketball, volleyball and handball too because we already have facilities where these can take place.
As far as long-term aims I'd find it difficult to justify pumping millions into Skeleton because Lizzie Yarnold won at it, when we lack mountains, snow and even one single run when we offer nothing to sports for which we do have some facilities and within which new recruits might also be developed all the way to Olympic achievement.
I like to see us compete and I like to see us win sometimes in any and every sport. But I can't support a funding system that rates a mass-participation sport like Basketball as being worth zero and equestrian sports (that don't even include its only mass-participation arm) at £12 million plus, which is shoveled into the arms of the already well-off. In an obese, diabetic nation I would be financing basketball, volleyball and handball too because we already have facilities where these can take place.
As far as long-term aims I'd find it difficult to justify pumping millions into Skeleton because Lizzie Yarnold won at it, when we lack mountains, snow and even one single run when we offer nothing to sports for which we do have some facilities and within which new recruits might also be developed all the way to Olympic achievement.