Top 5 sportspeople of 2012

Well it's New Year's Eve (I need to get a life) and we are forced to wave goodbye to the glorious year of sport that was 2012. We were treated to a summer showcasing the pinnacle of human achievement. In this post I will be reliving the most amazing displays of ability that we saw over the past 366 days.

5. Mo Farah

The first ever Briton to win an Olympic gold medal in distance running, he managed to do the distance double by becoming Olympic Champion in both the 10,000m and the 5,000m. His victories were the crowning glory of 'Super Saturday' and united an entire nation in a state of euphoria. Because of this he is my number 5 on my list of 2012 sportspeople.

4. Serena Williams
This year the face of women's tennis finally achieved a career grand slam by winning an Olympic gold medal, as well as the Wimbledon and US Open championships. She cemented her title as the best female tennis player in the golden era of tennis. 

3. Michael Phelps
The greatest swimmer of all time stole Larissa Latynina's title of greatest Olympian of all time by bringing his Olympic medal total up to 22, 18 of them gold. His year wasn't without  surprises; he was beaten to gold in the 200m Butterfly by a young Chad le Clos from South Africa. He also had stiff competition from his compatriot Ryan Lochte and all of the USA 4x100m relay team was beaten by France. His entertaining races have earned him the third spot on my list.

2. Usain Bolt
Before the London Olympics doubts were raised over the sprint king's ability to win the blue riband event of  track and field after his training partner, Yohan Blake, beat him in the Jamaican national championships as well as Bolt's false start in Daegu at the world championships in 2011. However the big man pulled out the stops and won gold in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m becoming the first man in history to do the sprint double triple which earned him as my 2nd favourite sportsperson of 2012.

1. Bradley Wiggins
The first ever Brit to win the Tour de France. After winning one of the World's most gruelling sport events, he still had the energy to act as a domestique for Mark Cavendish in the Olympic Road Race and still had enough in the tank to win gold in the Olympic time trial. He was also elevated to third place at the 2009 Tour de France. After becoming the only man in history to win an Olympic Gold as well as the Tour, he became my favourite athlete of 2012.

This list is based on achievement rather than personality, athletes like Jessica Ennis would be on here but I decided to base it on their achievement rather than the effect their medal had (Jess' gold was my favourite of the London games).

Don't moan about the honours

The other day the 2013 New Year's Honours were announced and unsurprisingly the list was dominated by Olympians and to a lesser extent, Paralympians. However many people both members of the public and Paralympic athletes have been complaining about the honours that the "superhumans" have received.

The honours list most notably includes knighthoods for the sideburned Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins, as well as 4-time Olympic Champion Ben Ainslie. Paralympic cyclist Sarah Storey was appointed a dame while the performance directors of both British Cycling and Rowing were awarded the title of ‘sir’.

However many people were surprised to find out that David Weir was only awarded a CBE despite winning 4 gold medals earlier this year. Weir himself has tweeted that he is “extremely happy to have been given a CBE...” although has said that Paralympians must work harder than Olympians for recognition, which he later clarified on Twitter as a reference to the fact that Sarah Storey only received a Damehood now when “she should have been honoured a long time ago because of her achievements in Paralympic sport...”

I agree with Dave on this matter, Paralympic sport stars struggle to get the attention qnd recognition they deserve even in the run up to the 2012 Games, the biggest event in Para-sport history.

Some however cannot be as gracious Weir; Lee Pearson, the face of Paralympic equestrian told the Independent on Sunday that he was disappointed to receive a CBE rather than a knighthood. This really saddens me to see that he cannot be happy with what he has and must be criticising the fact that he hasn’t been awarded higher.

Let’s face it, 2012 wasn’t even Lee Pearson’s best year, although he won gold in Greenwich it was a poor performance from the rider who won three Paralympic titles at each of the three preceding Paralympics, and yet he still expects to be raised from an OBE to a knight.

Given this arrogance I would hesitate to award him a knighthood, even if he did manage to win three gold medals at the 2016 Olympics.

Overall I think that we do need to start treating both our Olympic and Paralympic athletes with equal respect although I think that anyone should moan about the prestigious titles they have been awarded, especially considering that there is only one MBE between all of the code breakers of Bletchley Park, without whom we wouldn’t have a nation to compete for.

Are the European Games going to be so great?

Today at the European Olympic Committees (EOC) General Assembly it was announced that the first European Games will take place in Baku, Azerbaijan (which isn't in Europe) as it was the only bid city.

The idea of the games is to promote European success in the Olympics which has been on decline all around the continent with the exception of Britain, which has the Commonwealth games for its athletes to prepare.

I have been wanting a European equivalent of the Pan American Games for years; a continental multi-sport event will provide an opportunity for cities that wouldn't normally host something like this to host a big sporting event.

In the case of Baku, they can gain experience for future Olympic bids from hosting a city, which will ultimately result in more new Olympic hosts.

Baku has the potential to be an incredible host; the oil rich nation planned and constructed a purpose built arena for the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in less than a year. Although the existing venues in Baku tops out at 2 arenas and a stadium under construction.

Political tensions over the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic mean that we can almost immediately rule out the possibility of seeing an Armenian representation; as the people of Armenia are banned from entering Azerbaijan.

I fear that the inaugural European Games are going to lack one of the keys to any multi-sport event: Athletics. The European Athletics Association (EAA) voted against taking part in the competition instead opting to keep their biennial competition which fails to gain much publicity in Olympic years.

Although it should be noted that the EOC believe that the EAA will eventually give in, although another competition in the year of the World Championships may not get the all star names that would be hoped for.

LEN, the European Aquatics governing body are still in talks with the EOC, potentially leaving out another staple of the Olympic programme.

I hope that if these games take off, a Paralympic counterpart will be introduced to get more attention for Para-sport.

Baku really have their work cut out, they need to host a fairly large competition with only 2 and half years of preparation and whatever happens in 2015 will affect the survival of this competition. I really hope that athletics and aquatics play a part in the games or it will all be in vain.

Why has NBC won three Golden Rings?

Yesterday NBC won three Golden Ring Awards from the IOC for their coverage of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Just to clarify, this is the same NBC that failed to broadcast the 7/7 tribute at the Opening Ceremony in favour of a Ryan Seacrest interview with Michael Phelps as well as preventing viewers without cable or satellite subscriptions from watching live sport.

This is on top of adverising faux pas during their coverage including a commercial for a Today Show interview with "Gold medallist Missy Franklin" right before they showed her race, spoiling the result for millions of Americans.

You think they would learn, guess again; immediately after Gabby Douglas became the first African American to win a gold in gymnastics, the network showed an advert featuring a monkey on the uneven bars - that won't cause trouble will it?

I think very few people would disagree that 2012 was NBC's worst year of Olympic broadcasting since the infamous Olympic Triplecast of 1992 which cost the network's partners around $100 million.

And despite all of this the American broadcaster still managed to win the gold award in the 'Best Olympic Programme', 'Best On Air Promotion' and 'Best Olympic Feature Film' categories.

Making this achievment more incredible is that NBC beat out the BBC's 'Super Saturday' coverage for the Gold Award on best programme: The BBC, the national broadcaster of the UK that recieved overwhelmingly positive reviews over their coverage was beaten out by the same people who brought you #NBCFail.

This post would be longer if the Golden Rings actually mattered and if they weren't controlled by who pays the most to broadcast the games.

Sports Personality 2012 - Who's deserving of the shortlist

Today the BBC released the 12 member shortlist for Sports Personality of the Year 2012, the list includes 8 Olympians, 3 Paralympians and a Golfer. Clearly however, some are much more deserving of their place than others.

Nicola Adams - The very first female Olympic boxing champion on this planet; not only did she win a gold medal, she won it in style in front of a screaming crowd at the ExCeL. On top of her sporting achievments she came out as bisexual, suggesting how much her sport has moved on this year.

Ben Ainslie - The most successful sailor in Olympic history, although I doubt his ability to achieve any of the three Sports Personality trophies, he has definitely shown himself as an incredible British Olympian over the last 16 years.

Jessica Ennis - If this girl wasn't on the list I would have sent a strongly worded letter to the BBC demanding that she be put on the shortlist. She was undoubtedly the face of the games both before and after, she united an entire nation in a state of ecstasy when she won gold. On top of all of that she ran the hurdles in a time that would have won the 2008 Olympic Gold in 100m Hurdles. I fully expect this girl to achieve one of the three trophies this year, whether it will be better than her third places from 2009 and 2010, we will have to wait and see.

Mo Farah - The only British Olympian of 2012 to have won two individual gold medals and the first Brit ever to win Olympic Gold in the 5k or 10k. Furthermore he got the entire planet doing the Mobot, including Usain Bolt, this man is truly something and will almost definitely win something on the night.

Katherine Grainger - And now for a change of mood: don't get me wrong, it was incredible to see her finally win Olympic gold after three consecutive silvers, but this year she won a single gold, as a member of a team: Yet Anna Watkins nor 3 double gold medallists are nowhere to be found on the list. I think her chances of an award are low, she is very unknown to non-Olympic fanatics and her achievements are mediocre in comparison to many others.

Sir Chris Hoy - Britain's Greatest Olympian of All Time. Enough Said.

Sarah Storey - It is so great to see Paralympians on the shortlist this year, not only is she one of this Nation's best Paralympians, she is also one of the nations best cyclists: her ability matches that of our Olympians and very nearly got her onto the Olympic squad. Let's not look at all of the 'What ifs' though, she won 4 Paralympic Golds.

David Weir -  Briefly the first suggested 'David' on Google search, but still proud owner of 4 London 2012 Paralympic Gold Medals. Many were amazed to see what this man could do, more were speechless about his incredible ability to keep going for more.

Rory McIlroy - From the heights of human endeavour to the lows of laziness in sport. In the year 2012 this man won a single competition worth winning, instead of training to the degree he should he is more interested in partying with his girlfriend, Caroline Wozniacki (another overrated sportsperson). Furthermore, should the BBC give an award to a man who is threatening to compete for Ireland in Rio 2016?

Ellie Simmonds - The teenage swimming superstar won 4 Paralympic medals this year; 2 of them gold. Her attitude to competition was incredible this year; while the media was moaning about Victoria Arlen's classification she celebrated the competition she recieved from racing the American of a similar age to her. She definitely has the Personality for this award, as well as sporting achievement to back it up.

Andy Murray - Every year I moan that this man has reahed the shortlist yet again, but not this year; he won Olympic Gold, Olympic Silver, the US Open and reached the final of Wimbledon (and gave Federer a run for his money). He is definitely one of my sporting heroes of 2012 and has definitely changed a few minds.

Bradley Wiggins - Finally, to round off the 12 for 2012 is Britain's first ever winner of the Tour de France, and one of the most decorated British Olympians there are. To say this man is incredible is an understatement. He is definitely a contender for the trophy but most of the people shortlisted are.

Overall I agree with the list; although it seems to be lacking Charlotte Dujardin, Jason Kenny and Laura Trott, each of whom won 2 gold medals in London. I strongly disagree with the inclusion of Rory McIlroy for his mediocre year in comparison with the incredible year some of our Olympians and Paralympians have had.

To go higher, We must start lower

29 Gold medals, 17 Silvers and 19 bronzes; 3rd in the world isn't bad for a small island nation just across the channel from Europe. It was quite a result for Team GB however after overcoming the short term challenge the British Olympic Association (BOA) now has to cement itself as a force to be reckoned with in international sport.

Now we could spend UK Sport's funding on coaching and athlete's funding however, in my opinion instead of blowing all of the money on the top athletes of today, we should spend a considerable amount on the athletes of the future.

From the 13th of August onwards sports clubs were overflowing with enthusiastic youngsters eager to emulate their new found heroes, sadly these clubs didn't have enough coaching staff to nurture the talent before them, sadly this meant some of the children had to be turned away. Whether there was a potential Olympic Champion among them in unknown, but no child should be refused the right to take part in sport.

In a nation of high unemployment it would not be hard to find volunteers to coach, especially after the hundreds of thousands of people willing to volunteer for the London Olympics and upcoming Glasgow Commonwealth games.

The curriculum of Physical Education in Britain should be reviewed, in my experience, months are spent on sports such as Rugby, Netball and Cricket which have little importance internationally while very few lessons are spent on athletics in preparation for a school sports day.

While the British use of sport in education is one of the many factors that inspired Pierre de Coubertin to start the modern Olympics, PE teachers have been known to replace some of the lessons of the week with theory lessons, stopping children achieving the legal requirement of two hours of exercise a week in school. This prevents some children from achieving their 5 hours a week in total.

Children's talents often go unnoticed until it is too late to nurture the talent, unlike in the USA due to most High schools possessing their own artificial tracks, which not only allows young talent to be scouted but allows for good training conditions all year round.

So in conclusion, to ensure British Olympic success for years to come as much emphasis needs to be placed on youth sport as is placed on professional sport.

Finally looking ahead to the future

Well, it's November, I can't quite believe how quickly this year has gone; it feels like just yesterday I was jumping up and down eagerly awaiting the start of London 2012.

It may have taken a while after the closing of the Paralympics but I finally feel like I can look ahead to the future of Olympic Sport. Just this weekend we witnessed the excitement of Track Cycling World Cup from Glasgow and still have the third installment of the World Cup in Mexico to look forward to in January.

The sporting calendar of 2013 will include the European Indoor Athletics Championships as well as the World Championships from the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow where Jessica Ennis will hopefully retain her World title from Tatyana Chernova . Other World Championships include the FINA Swimming World Championships.

We can also look forward to an exciting season of high octane Winter Sports, just a year out from Sochi; let's not forget that the Team GB Men's Ice Hockey Squad is only one game away from the Olympics.

I am also looking forward to the revealing of the 2020 Olympic Host where one of Istanbul, Tokyo or Madrid will be selected as the successor of Rio 2016. Another city will be chosen as the host of the third Summer Youth Olympics.

And so: I don't have to rely entirely on Youtube videos to get my fix of Olympic sport, with an exciting year ahead, the sporting summer of 2012 will not be the last.

Where have all the real sports gone?

Over the past few months the British media has failed to report on stories of Olympic sports; instead the stories on the back pages are about Twiddlidee United's overpaid striker not playing for eight weeks because he hurt his thumb.

I will keep this post relatively  short so as not to bore you but I feel that this needs to be said.

While I understand that most summer sports are not in season and winter sports haven't yet began, I feel that the British media have completely zoned out of Olympic sports in favour of sports such as football in which no incredible accomplishments can be made.

Over the course of this weekend I have seen tweets all across my twitter feed telling me about the Scottish Track Cycling Championships and yet I was unable to find it anywhere on TV or online; I know it isn't a big world class event but at the minimum I would have hoped for a live stream on the Red Button or the internet.

To give credit where credit is due I would like to point out that the British media has been covering the Lance Armstrong story extensively, however the reporters at big British papers like to report on hero to zero stories in an attempt to make their lives seem more worthy.

It is such a shame that after the golden summer of sport the British media fails to report on the type of stories that changed the nation but instead rambles on about the same dull sports that comprise of simple kicks of a ball that will ultimately result in one of 3 possible outcomes.

If there is not enough Olympic sport on TV, the legacy of London 2012 will be short lived and the games will fail in inspiring a generation.

Why the USA shouldn't host the Olympics

The USA: land of the free, home of the brave and host nation of 8 Olympic games. Somehow, this nation believes it deserves to host the Olympic games yet another time, I can name but a few of the reasons why it shouldn't. 

The USA has hosted the Summer Olympic games 4 times on top of the 4 winter games the nation has hosted. This figure well surpasses that of any other nation, with only countries such as France and Britain able to come anywhere close. Compare this figure with the number of games hosted on the entire continent of Africa and it seems ridiculous that the USA has hosted the games so much. 
 

Cast your kind back to the last American summer Olympics, the Atlanta games of 1996, the celebration of useless organisation in the USA: the athletes' canteen lacked food native to African and Asian nations, the roads were gridlocked due to the poor transport systems and poor facilities for the global media which led to heavy criticsm of the games all round.
 

If we go back 12 years prior to the games of Atlanta we find ourselves in Los Angeles at the games of the XXIII Olympiad, these games were boycotted by 16 nations mainly due to the US led boycott of the Moscow games four years before, which ultimately led to the medal table being 'slightly skewed' in favour of the United States. 
 

The third member of the terrible threesome of American Olympics is the St Louis games of 1904 which were held as a sideshow to the World's Fair, a decision that nearly ended the Olympic movement before it had truly started.

The United States hasn't just ruined the Summer games either: In 1972 the city of Denver put the IOC in a difficult position when they decided to pull out of their hosting responsibilities for the '76 winter games due to escalating costs, forcing Innsbruck, Austria to step in as last minute host.

 

As if the US hadn't undermined the Olympic movement enough, they decided to bribe IOC members to host the winter games of 2002 in Salt Lake City. Doing so shook the Olympic Committee to the core and put corruption in sporting organisations under the media microscope for years to come.

The USA also lacks interest for Olympic sports in the intervals between editions of the games; the largest IAAF certified Athletics stadium in the United States has a whopping capacity of 10500 at Hayward field in Eugene, Oregon, which has the largest capacity of 4 IAAF tracks in the US.
 

The USA lacks experience in hosting international sporting events; it seems that in recent times the only World Championships they have hosted are those in Equestrian which were held in Lexington in 2010, and just like america does, the USA bided for the 2018 edition of the championships with Wellington, Florida before they pulled out due to lack of political support.
 

So given this information would you trust the USA with the task of organising the World's biggest sporting event? 

Why doping rules aren't tough enough

Anyone who knows anything about sport will know about the shocking evidence of Lance Armstrong's doping evidence, and as we come to terms with the fact that one of the world's most loved cyclists ran a doping ring throughout his career, I can only ponder over why the World Anti-Doping Agency is becoming more leniant with cheats.

The most recent example of cuhy punishments are in fact involved with the Armstrong case; 11 cyclists were the key to revealing the sophisticated drug ring run by Armstrong, and despite admitting to using performance enhancing substances, they have only recieved a 6 month ban each. While we should commend these cyclists for bringing the truth to light, 6 months does not serve as a strong deterrent to other potential cheats, considering they can be back competing in the same year they were caught breaking the fundamental rules of sport.
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There are also many ways to avoid serving long sentences; the Belarusian shot putter Nadzeya Ostapchuk, who was stripped of her 2012 Olympic gold after testing positive for the banned substance, metonolone, has only recieved a 1 year suspension thanks to her coach admitting he was guilty. I'm not convinced that he did spike her food, in my opinion it seemed like a plot to halve her potential ban.

In all of this however we should not forget the complications of whether someone knowingly cheated or not, for example in 2002 British Alpine Skiier Alain Baxter was stripped of his Olympic bronze after testing positive for a banned substance. It was later revealed that the substance could be traced to a Vicks inhaler that he bought in the US, not aware of the differences in formula to the British version. I see this as a perfectly valid reason as to why it was in his system, as did the FIS, which accepted his appeal and gave him the minimum ban, 3 months, which seems harsh for a drug that damages the body rather than improves it. He was never reinstated of his medal which does seem fair considering someone in the public eye shouldn't really have Meth in their system.

What disappoints me most about the WADA is that instead of helping to fight the war against drugs in sport, they have taken the side of drugs on many occasions, most notably earlier this year when the organisation fought the British Olympic Association over a rule that prevented any athlete that had been found of using drugs in the past of competing at the Olympics. Sadly the WADA won the case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport with one of the flimsiest cases in the court's history. So the BOA were forced to remove the rule that was older than the organistion that was set up to prevent doping.

And so, we are left with an organisation that takes money from NOCs all around the world, and in return: changes their rules, issues short bans and fights for the people they were set up against. On top of this it is up to National Anti doping agencies, such as the USADA to uncover drugs scandals due to the WADA's reluctance to use DNA fingerprinting until the 2012 Olympics.

What, More Sports?!

In just less than a year's time, the International Olympic Committee will whether they will add any new sports to the 2020 Olympic programme. This made me wander why the IOC want to add any more sports to their already saturated programme.

London 2012 was made up of 26 different sports, the smallest since 1996, when this figure was equalled. Not for one moment during these games did I think that the games were lacking Wushu or roller sports, in fact I think the addition of Golf and Rugby Sevens for 2016 is unnecessary considering both Golf and Rugby already have large international tournaments.

Worse still, if one of Climbing, Wushu, Karate, Squash or Baseball and softball, we will lose one of the current Olympic sports, or they will surpass the 28 sport limit. while we have little reason to fear over Athletics, Swimming, Cycling or Gymnastics, I am dreading the potential removal of sports such as Taekwondo, Fencing, Modern Pentathlon (The sport created for the Olympics) and Equestrian (My personal favourite).

Let's face it, none of the shortlisted sports truly embody the Olympic spirit; Baseball and Softball are the first two sports to be removed from the Olympics since Polo in 1936, while Karate bears too many similaries to Taekwondo. The only country that plays Wushu is China, and they don't really need more medals do they? Climbing would send all spectators to sleep, and Squash lacks international participation as does Roller sports.

These sports also lack the ability to draw in the crowds, I couldn't imagine many people that would spend their hard earned money watching someone climbing a wall or skating around in circles on roller blades.

More sports also make the games difficult to host, an extra burden for debt-ridden hosts to carry. Rugby Sevens for example needs a stadium of around 40,000 seats, and considering Rugby isn't too international, host cities will fork out for a new one, on top of the costs of other venues.

It is also noteworthy that not all Olympic sports are instantly popular; tennis, which was introduced in 1988 only managed to gain popularity as an Olympic sport in 2012, while basketball has remained dull since 1992 when NBA players could compete, unofficially giving the USA the gold for each games in both men's and women's.

I have to say if any of these sports deserves the legendary Olympic status, it would have to be squash, as it is truly individual as as sport, despite being hard to follow, and if any sports are to be removed from the Olympic programme it should be one of Golf or Rugby sevens, that really don't need the Olympic attention.

Will we really miss Van Commenee?

This week, UK Athletics head coach Charles Van Commenee resigned from his post after Team GB only winning 6 of the 8 targeted medals in athletics at the 2012 Olympics. However, I would like to question what he has done as head coach.

Let's not beat around the bush, the British athletics team has been more successful during the reign of the dutchman compared to his predecessor, Dave Collins, who resigned after UKA's lack of success at the Beijing Games. He also has an incredible track record, coaching British athletes such as Denise Lewis and Kelly Sotherton to Olympic success.

However I often doubted his passion for the role, cutting the Women's 4x100m team's funding in 2010, and often got into arguments with Phillips Idowu, and yet still expected much from him at big events.

I also feel that Charles Van Commenee made the preparation for London more difficult than it needed to be, years in advance of the games he announced that no member of the Track and Field squad would be able to attend the Opening ceremony, which, in my opinion, should be the choice of the individual athlete, not one man.

As well as that, instead of training in Britain, the Dutchman forced the team to prepare for the Olympics out in Portugal, which would have probably de-climatised the squad, and then make them re-adjust to the British climate. He also publicly humiliated Phillips Idowu when he failed to make it out to Portugal due to injury.

Van Commenee chose to train in Portugal when the team trained their prior to the 2010 European Championships in Barcelona, what Van Commenee failed to realise was that while the Spanish and Portuguese climates are similar, they have very little in common with the British weather.

He also claims that training abroad helped the team escape the Olympic hype in Britain, this I do agree with, however training in Germany, France or Denmark would keep the athletes adjusted to the unpredictable weather.

However, let's not forget that Team GB athletics won 6 medals, within the forecasted number, and of the 6 medals, 4 of them were gold, putting Great Britain into 4th on the Athletics medal table. He also directed over two of their most successful world championships and one of their most successful European Championships.

I would like to wish Neil Black, the new Performance Director of UKA, luck in his new position. I hope he can build on the success of the past few years, and that he can increase on the medal haul in Rio.

Why London 2012 saved Equestrian

The sport of Equestrian hasn't had an easy ride over the past few years, with constant allegations of doping and the Olympic equestrian venues moving further and further away from the heart of the games, Equestrian sports' Olympic status was nearing danger, until the Games of London.

Cast your mind back to August 2004, the Athens Olympics. Cian O'Connor won Ireland's only Olympic medal in the individual jumping competition, two months later, it was found that Cian O'Connor's horse, Waterford Crystal, tested positive for banned substances: fluphenazine and zuclopenthixol. In July of the following year, the FEI officially stripped O'Connor, and the whole of Ireland of Olympic Gold.
This was a scandal that shook the equestrian world to the core, people realised that cheating in Horse based sports was far easier than in other Olympic disciplines.

In 2005, The Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) made an announcement regarding the Equestrian events in 2008. Due to quarantine laws in China, the Equestrian events of the games weren't even held in the juristiction of the same National Olympic Committee as they were pushed out over 1000 miles away from Beijing to Hong Kong. Despite many attempts to get the feel of the Olympics in Hong Kong, many riders commented upon the feel of a World Championships over the Olympics.

Then London 2012 stepped in, and despite options of hosting the Equestrianism at Hickstead, or Badminton, Seb Coe decided upon a temporary arena in Greenwich park, to ensure the sport was close to the heart of the games. This increased attention given to the sport during the Olympics.

The London games were also the first clean games since 2000, despite rigorous drug testing carried out by the FEI in partnership with the Horseracing Forensic Laboratory in Newmarket. The clean games have clearly saved the olympic status of the sport.

Although to a lesser extent I would argue that the change of tides in the dominance of this sport increased media attention. For years the Germans have been untouchable in Equestrian, with the real competition being for the silver and bronze medals. However in the Team Eventing GB and Germany had a tough battle for gold, and although Germany won gold here, the British Team won gold in the team jumping as well as the Team and Individual dressage. The unexpected nature of the equestrian events lead to an exciting competition that intrigued the sporting world.

It is with great pride that it was the games in my home country that kept my favourite sport, equestrian, part of the gala of excitement that is the Olympics.

Why London 2012 will never be surpassed

As the curtain fell on the Paralympic games, the world was forced to wave goodbye to the games of London. However the games will live on in the memories of billions, and I believe will be remembered as near perfect and unbeatable.

We all remember 4 years ago when we asked ourselves how on earth would London's ceremonies match those of Beijing? For years the British constantly joked, but also fretted over how the world would see us. Decision time came on the 27th, what had Danny Boyle in store for the world, would it be tacky as we feared or would it live up to Beijing?

In my eyes the ceremony undoubtedly became the best ever, as we showed the world we are a fun loving nation with an incredible history and unlike Beijing our 4 ceremonies were a celebration of mankind and humanity, whereas Beijing showed how people can have the synchronisation of a computer.

Let's be honest, not even the Australian public were as enthusiastic about their home games as the Brits; millions lined the streets of Britain, to see the Olympic flame pass through their communities. The games were completely sold out, both of the 8 million Olympic tickets (excluding football) along with the 2.7 million Paralympic tickets, becoming the first games in history to do completely sell out. If you still don't believe in the enthusiasm of the British, then try this, The men's Cycling road race became the most attended Olympic event in history as over 1 million sports fans cheered along the roads of the South-East to be part of the action.

The games also had a party atmosphere that can only be matched by the games of Sydney. In the Olympic park thousands of people watched the Olympic action at 'Park Live', and would cheer every medal, not just those won by the home team. Even in the centre of London the games were present, banners displaying the Olympic rings followed you everywhere, as did statues of the mascots, so when Elena Isinbayeva said that you didn't feel the Olympics in central London, you could tell she didn't go into central London.

Last but by no means least was the sport, we had women from every nation, and women in every sport. Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian ever and the queen of the 7 events won gold to the home crowd's delight. Despite the large number of existing swimming records in 'cheat suits' the number of records came close to Beijing.

I fully welcome Rio de Janeiro to host both Games as well as they can, and add the distinctive Brazilian flavour to the greatest Sporting events on earth, though the London games will remain superior to all.

C4's Paralympics coverage - The Pros and the Cons

Back in 2010, Channel 4 bought the UK broadcasting rights to the 2012 Paralympics, outbidding the BBC in the process; Channel 4's coverage hasn't been outstanding, however some aspects have been much better than others.

3rd Worst - Presenters
Jon Snow was the completely wrong man to front C4's coverage of the ceremonies, only he could dampen the spirits of one of the World's biggest parties by pointing out every single "war-torn nation". Even worse is that he would interrupt Jonathan Edwards' and Ade Adepitan's conversation about athletes and sport to depress the audiences at home.
The commentators to the opening ceremony didn't seem to get along, which led to awkward silences and recurring interuptions. It seems someone didn't do their research on Tajikistan.
Let's not forget the constant interrupting of guests and each other that occurs during the afternoon slot held by Arthur Williams and Georgie Bingham, although their explanations to different categories have recently improved my impression of them.

2nd Worst - Over The Top Introductions
I'll be honest, I'm a little rusty when it comes to my Paralympic knowledge, other than the obvious athletes, I am unsure of whether Great Britain have a chance of a medal, and so it would be helpful, to say the least, if the broadcaster would point who has a shot at a medal. Instead they build every British competitor up as a medal contender, they then run a Personal Best and end up in 8th place, needlessly getting up my hopes for an incredibly unlikely medal.

The Worst - Adverts
I know Channel 4 need to make money, and this is the biggest event they have ever shown, however sometimes it seems that they return from an ad break, Claire Balding lists the schedule, followed by Ade introducing the next advert break. In the opening ceremony, advert breaks led to the UK audience missing the arrival of South Africa, and some of the greatest Paralympians of all time, while we saw adverts of David Beckham valiantly attempting to say "Paralympics". (Side note: What the Hell does David Beckham have to do with the Paralympics, Sainsbury's?)

3rd Best - Presenters
I know I said they were bad, but there are some positives. While some presenters are god damn awful, the likes of Claire Balding, Ade Adepitan and Jonathan Edwards truly know what they are talking about. These three have experience in sporting events and clearly seem to have access to the internet unlike some of the presenters. I also appreciate the large number of disabled presenters and journalists, seeing people with disabilities on TV will hopefully help change people's perception towards disablility in the future.

2nd Best - Extra Channels
For the duration of the Paralympics, Channel 4 set up 3 temporary HD channels, dedicated to showing the Paralympics - Without adverts! This may not be the gargantuous 24 channels the BBC set up for the Olympics, and arguably if the BBC did possess the rights to the Paralympics, the number of channels would be higher, I was very surprised that Channel 4 had the ability to set up these channels.

The Best - Dedication
What Channel 4 may lack in quality, the make up for in effort, Channel 4 haven't just been showing the Paralympics, they've been showing the corresponding World Championships and plenty of Paralympic sport in general, even launching a magazine show titled "That Paralympic Show" (Which was on at an awful slot). On top of this, C4's dedication to the cause led to them launching "The Last Leg" a Paralympic comedy covering the day's action, this is definitely a stroke of genius from Channel 4 and nearly brings me to the point of hoping Channel 4 will show the Paralympics again, however we have to remember that this is Channel 4 and they don't care about the show, just the money, and therefore probably won't broadcast the 2016 games due to lack of potential profit.

Why the 50 most marketable - Aren't so marketable

In May 2012, SportsPro magazine named Neymar, as the world's most marketable athlete, however the list of 50 money -making athletes is flawed, by missing out on some of the biggest names in sport for some that are barely notable within their own nations.

Firstly the list is flawed as it chooses the athletes based on their success in the preceding year, forcing itself to be out of date the moment Wimbledon starts.

The list also appears to focus on competitors in American sports that get little attention outside the states, I counted 10 athletes who competed in NFL, NASCAR, MMA or MLB, and if I counted players in the NBA that figure would be much higher.

The site itself lists its criteria as:

Athletes from across the world have been ranked according to their marketing potential over a three-year period from this summer.

• Value for money
• Age
• Home market
• Charisma
• Willingness
• Crossover appeal

While the writers of SportsPro forgot to factor in the biggest sporting event in the world into "This Summer", and so have missed out stars like Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah from the 50, while Usain Bolt only managed a number 4 place, despite being #1 in 2011.

I was very surprised not to see Jessica Ennis on the list, she is the face of British athletics and the London Olympics; not to mention the fact that she can be spotted in nearly every advert break in the UK and yet SportsPro don't see her as marketable, but Neymar (whom I never heard of before this list), is.

The king of social media, Tom Daley, is also nowhere to be found on the list, despite his army of teenage girls following him on Twitter, as well as his book that is flying off the shelves.

Roger Federer, Wimbledon Champion and Olympic Silver medallist was also invisible to those at SportsPro, while Rafael Nadal who has won next to nothing (The French Open) this year secured the 27 spot, and Novak Djokovic who has had a disappointing season since the Australian Open reached number 7.

Maybe it is a case that competitors in team sports such as Soccer and American football can lounge around all day, sell their image for a ridiculous price while already earning hundreds of thousands a week, yet Olympic athletes should train 24/7, with no media appearances or advertising, while surviving on lottery funding that tops at £25,000 a year.

Some of the undeserving athletes at the top of the list include: Caroline Wozniacki at number 13, who coincidentally has NEVER won a Grand slam, her Boyfriend, Rory McIlroy at number 2 who has appeared on a single advert in the UK, yes, he is a national hero in Northern Ireland, but is he marketable? No.

SportsPro should probably resort to publishing this list in August, especially in Olympic years, to avoid as many mishaps as there were in 2012.

To view SportsPro's 50 Most Marketable Athletes 2012 : http://www.sportspromedia.com/notes_and_insights/the_worlds_50_most_marketable_2012/

Should Lance Armstrong lose his Tour de France titles?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you would know that Lance Armstrong has given up his battle with the US Anti Doping Agency (USADA), and has lost his seven Tour de France titles in the process.

The USADA have accepted his decision as a guilty plea, and are determined to issue him with a lifetime ban.

However is it right that he lost his Yellow Jerseys and his Olympic bronze medal while there is no formal evidence against him?

Armstrong isn’t the first athlete to be banned despite no positive samples, American Track and field star Marion Jones conceded her 5 Olympic medals after admitting to doping in 2007. Similarly, British cyclist David Millar was banned from competing in 2004 when Paris police carried out a drug raid on his apartment; however he has since been cleared to compete.

However unlike Jones and Millar, there is no conclusive evidence that Lance Armstrong did cheat, as he has neither admitted to doping nor has any banned substance been found on his person.

Throughout his career, Armstrong was rigorously tested by anti-doping agencies, as suspicions were rife that the cancer survivor could dominate World Cycling.
 
Throughout the day millions of Sports fans have taken to twitter to comment upon the news of Armstrong’s case.

Some Twitter users like @gordondamer still view him as a hero:
“Since 1997 Lance Armstrong has raised 470 million dollars for cancer research. Like I care that he may have cheated in a bicycle race.”
 
While many others have taken the liberty to mock Armstrong, saying:
“RT if you have as many Tour De France wins as Lance Armstrong.”

While world renowned bullshitter, Piers Morgan tweeted:
“Anyone who thinks Lance Armstrong would quit his doping defence if he wasn't guilty is living in cloud cuckoo land.”

Despite the fact that I am a strong advocate of Anti-Doping, I believe everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and the USADA lacks the evidence that Armstrong is guilty. In my eyes he will remain the man that overcame cancer to become king of the Tour de France.

UPDATE: Given the release of the shocking evidence released by the USADA, Armstrong is completely guilty and doesn't deserve to keep any of the titles he won in his career and I find it disgusting that he has been allowed to keep his Olympic bronze medal. Despite this, Lance Armstrong has accomplished a lot in his life; he overcame cancer, raised awareness for the disease and then went on to raise millions in the battle to fight cancer.

Photo by Anita Ritenour

My Top Ten Moments of the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony

Sadly the 2012 Olympics are over, however it is not too late to relive it in all its glory, so let's start with the spectacular Opening Ceremony.

10. Abide With Me
Emeli Sande's rendition of Henry Francis Lyte's poem continued a British sporting tradition honouring our fallen friends and family members. The dance routine to accompany the song was emotional and fitting.

9. 'Pixels' in the Audience
Although this isn't actually a moment of the ceremony, these 70,900 lights created images that illustrated many different segments of the ceremony. These images clearly mesmerised the world and lit up London for the evening.

 
8. NHS & Great Ormond Street Hospital
This lively segment truly paid thanks to the nurses and doctors that work day and night to keep the people of Britain healthy. This section also proved to be charitable with the beds donated to hospitals in Tunisia.

7. Modern technology
A great dance segment forming a love story born out of modern technology. Danny Boyle clearly used this to remind the world that the 2012 Olympics are the social media games. The fast paced party themed show culminated in Tim Berners-Lee (He invented the World Wide Web in case a certain NBC commentator didn't know) revealing the message "This is for everyone."

6. Children's Fiction
Danny Boyle celebrated British literature by bringing 'baddies' like Voldemort to life, while JK Rowling read an extract from JM Barrie's Peter Pan. This truly honoured one of Britain's finest gifts to the world.

5. James Bond and The Queen
An 86 year old jumping out of a plane with 007 - Isn't that what the Olympics are about? This segment demonstrated the affection we show towards our Royal family while it celebrated our film industry and combined the two in a humorous and an ambitious stunt.
Even Her Majesty herself saw the funny side, she was quietly laughing while she uttered the words "Good Evening Mr Bond."

4. Green and Pleasant Land
This segment showcased the beautiful large expanses of the British countryside while
presented internationally lesser known sports such as Cricket. The scene also helped demonstrate London's aim to make the 2012 Olympics a 'Green Games'.

3. Industrial Revolution
This scene formed part of the most extravagant opening segment to grace the Olympic stage since the games began. This fast paced change of scene provided a striking contrast to the large fields preceding this representation of Britain's historical transformation from the 18th century onwards. The climax of the this segment was the formation of the Olympic Rings above the stadium floor. Every moment of this dramatic scene had me captivated, even when they were simply rolling up carpets.

2. Mr Bean
Who says that an Olympic Opening Ceremony can't have a sense of humour? Playing Chariots of Fire created a brilliant link to the Olympics and a fantastic tribute to British film, while Mr Bean had 4 billion people across the world in stitches.
The humour created by Rowan Atkinson and Danny Boyle transcended language and ethnicity, and made it the perfect tool to have the world united in laughter.

1. Lighting of the Cauldron
As ever, the crowning glory of the Olympic Opening Ceremony was the lighting of cauldron that would burn for 17 days. very rarely do the cauldron lighters have as much significance as these 7 young ambassadors for the 2012 Games represented the motto of the 2012 games, 'Inspire a Generation'. All 7 have aims to compete for Britain in the future and are the type of people organisers aimed to inspire. Those hoping for veteran athletes to light the flame also got what they wanted as each individual of the group was nominated by one of Britain's most loved Olympians.

Pictures courtesy of Flickr users: Nick J Webb, shimelle

We Are Blogging!!!

Proud to announce that I have joined blogger and I shall be posting my views on Olympic related matters shortly!