Sunday 12 August 2012

Down under the medals table

I've written somewhere in the region of a dozen blog posts now. I say 'written', but it's more a case of dictating some general thoughts to a young Filipino boy, as I relax on a chaise lounge sipping gin, who then collates my ideas into some kind of coherent script.

It's quite fascinating to see exactly how many people from each country have tuned in. The UK is of course where the bulk of you guys are from, but I also have many readers in the US, France, Germany, India and even one person from the Philippines, [probably your mum, Pedro].

But at the time of writing, I have yet to receive even an accidental view from anyone in Australia. I know my blog has, up until now been a bit light on wallabies and boomerangs, but the complete absence of an antipodean audience still surprises me a bit. Most of the traffic to here is from my twitter account, and I have quite a few followers from Down Under.

Not to worry though, because today's post has an Aussie flavour (as in content, not as in the peculiar aftertaste of washing witchetty grubs down with a tin of Fosters).

I've spent an inordinate amount of time checking the Olympics medal table this week. It fills me with pride, excitement and also a sense of bewilderment at just how well Team GB has done. Third place, behind the USA and China is truly astonishing. Realistically, no one else can compete with those two superpowers, so third is basically first of the other nations.

After checking how Great Britain is doing, I next find my eyes scanning down the table to find out where the Australians are. I must admit to feeling a sense smugness at just how far down my eyes need to gaze before I see them down there, in 10th place at the time of writing. I genuinely didn't know why I felt this way, so decided to have a few moments of introspection to see if I could get to the bottom of it.

Aside from former Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting, who is one of the very few people in the world I just don't like (although even then, I can appreciate his skill as a superb batsman), I'm a big fan of Australian sportsmen. I alway cheer on Mark Webber in the Formula 1 (who seems like a genuinely decent bloke) and although I'm not a fan of his personal grooming, Shane Warne was always a phenomenal talent to watch.

I guess it's just a classic case of a country that has previously done exceptionally well at most sports (and made sure that the rest of the world was aware of this), gradually being brought down to earth.

I had a bit of banter with an Australian guy on twitter whose only riposte to the current state of Aussie sport was a particularly lame mention of their performance at previous games (Atlanta and Sydney if I remember correctly). Believe me mate, as a country Britain knows all about living on past glories, don't fall into that trap! The time is now, and right at this moment you're not (by your previous high standards that you've happily boasted about), so good.

Of course, all things go in cycles and I'm sure in future years, the inherent grit and determination in the Australian psyche will propel them back towards the pinnacle of sporting excellence. And it wouldn't surprise me if London 2012 was the greatest British sporting achievement in my lifetime and never again will we be in such a lofty position.

But I think that in Britain we are fairly used to the highs and lows across a range of sports that will serve us well moving forward. Although we've been envious of countries like Australia and are now thrilled to be where we are, I don't think we'll rely on this sporting achievement to define us in quite the same way.

I guess overall the key is to enjoy the success of the moment wholeheartedly, but do so in a dignified way. Then when the golden shine passes, at least people like me won't be waving at you languishing in the lower reaches of the medals table.



No comments:

Post a Comment