Armstrong you don't deserve to compete

Apologies for the lateness of this post, I had exams I was pretending to revise for. I know it's a week late but it is big news I need to rant about.

A few weeks ago we saw Lance Armstrong trying to save what little dignity he has left on international television on a sofa next to Oprah Winfrey, the aim of this wasn't to give the public info on how he cheated; instead it was a pathetic excuse for an apology so he can compete in Triathlon.

I find it disgusting that throughout the interview Armstrong showed no remorse for those cyclists trying to win clean, and gave little thought as to the cloud he has left hovering over the sport of cycling.

The 7 time cheat remained insistent throughout the interview that everyone else was taking the disgusting decision to dope, however he still won't name any names and refuses to give any evidence on the matter: That doesn't scream liar at all does it?

The truth is Armstrong has no right to walk the streets freely, let alone compete, throughout his career he made money through sponsorship that he had no right to, he won several lawsuits against media outlets that purported to the fact he never won honestly by any definition that is fraud and it is a wonder he hasn't been arrested yet.

I do feel that this is partly due to western legal systems that cannot prosecute anyone who is moderately famous even if there is no evidence to suggest their innocence: take Harry Redknapp for example who obviously is guilty of tax avoidance but still got through with no punishment whatsoever.

But I digress: Armstrong is a disgusting cheat who should be in an orange jumpsuit behind bars, not trying to compete against the world's best triathletes such as the Brownlee Brothers and Javier Gomez.

Don't take away the Modern Pentathlon

In September the IOC will decide on a new sport to enter the Olympic program for 2020, and in doing so, will decide upon a sport to exit the schedule of the greatest sporting event on earth.

And sadly, current speculation suggests that the unlucky sport will be none other than the Modern Pentathlon, the brainchild of Pierre de Coubertin, the man accredited with reviving the Olympics from their ancient roots.

I personally feel that to lose the modern pentathlon from the games would be to remove the soul from the Olympic games. The victor of the Modern Pentathlon isn't just the best athlete in many disciplines of the same sport like the Heptathlon on Omnium, they are the best all round athlete in the world in all sports, it follows the ideal of a soldier with the skills to carry a message using the skills of Shooting, Fencing, Swimming, Horse Riding and Running.

The argument for removing Modern Pentathlon from the Olympics is that it lacks a following outside of Eastern Europe. I would not deny this fact however I would point out that the 23,000 seat stadium at Greenwich park was full to the rafters during the London Olympics. I think if more attention was given to the sport, people would flock in their thousands to see stars like Samantha Murray and Laura Asadauskaite.

The sport's governing body, the UIPM has offered a way of squeezing all 5 disciplines into one stadium; the idea has pros and cons: it includes a difficult to see fencing piste and a wasteful pool that would only be used for a few races, however it does offer an improved, less distracting format for the fencing and a more exciting running portion held on a 400m track.

In conclusion the IOC has a responsibility to keep the Modern Pentathlon in the Olympics, if only to prevent Baron de Coubertin from rolling in his grave although the UIPM needs to carry its weight and raise the sport's profile before it's too late.

Why the Paralympic grassroots stats are wrong

On Friday, the Sport and Recreation Alliance revealed results of a study which suggest that participation in Paralympic grassroots sport has barely risen since the London Paralympic games. But if this study is accurate, why haven’t we seen an increase in disability sport?

This study has been dismissed by the chief executive of the British Paralympic Association, Tim Hollingsworth who said "There is still a long way to go, but just four months on from the Games it's wrong to suggest nothing has changed."

I think it is worth pointing out that immediately following the close of the Paralympics the weather took a turn for the worse and we had enough rain to make 2012 the second wettest year on record in the UK, only surpassed by 2000.

To me it seems incredibly unlikely that people would start taking up sport in such disgusting, and I struggle to imagine that many disabled people, who are often made vulnerable by their impairments, would want to take up a new sport.

I would also note that many of clubs surveyed may not advertise the fact that they facilitate to disabled participants and in fact the study reported that only 24% of the sports clubs that were used to compile the data had all of the required facilities to cater to participants of Para-sport, a figure which completely disproves the findings of the report

Overall I struggle to believe the findings of this study, it was created much too hastily and didn't even survey clubs that will accept disabled athletes, in July I think we will start to see the real legacy of the Paralympics when it comes to grassroots sport, but for now the only legacy we can measure is how life for disabled people has improved since the world was stunned at the achievements of Paraltmpians in the Summer of 2012.

Why Splash was a massive flop

Rather than my usual ranting about the world of sport, in this post I will be taking the role of TV critic and evaluating everything that is wrong with Tom Daley’s new TV show Splash.

I had very low expectations for this show and it still managed to fall well below them.

My first problem with the show is the title and the tagline, “Who can make the most Splash?” both of which go against the main aim of diving; to create as little splash as possible.

The show itself will not benefit Tom Daley in any way shape or form; He is wasting his time teaching D-List celebrities to do the most basic dives meanwhile his fellow Olympic medallists David Boudia and Qiu Bo are training every day, both of whom will undoubtedly beat him in Rio, just as they did in London. When Tom Daley doesn’t reach the Olympic podium in 2016, Splash will be Exhibit A as to why.

I’m not the type of person who would normally criticise an Olympian for making media appearances, I love to see the world’s finest athletes appear A Question of Sport or A League of Their Own but Tom Daley has let the fame get to his head by letting a show to be centred on the athlete.

I am fine with recently retired athletes like Victoria Pendleton and Beth Tweddle taking part in shows like Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing on Ice as they no longer need to worry about training and considering Louis Smith’s prospects of competing in Rio are slim I was happy to see him lift the strictly glitter ball.

Ignoring all of the above, the show fails as basic entertainment: figure skating and ballroom dancing have been developed as performance arts whereas diving is just a sport, which is not improved by ridiculous strip teases and five minutes of build up.

The hosts, Gabby Logan and Vernon Kay, knew very little about what they were presenting. Not to mention having a comedienne to judge a diving contest, there was little consensus in the scores given and Leon Taylor kept looking into the camera when giving his comments.

In 10 years time when we reflect on awful TV from the 21^st century this will be high up on the list of “That show was ridiculous!”

In conclusion, this show is cringe-worthy, inaccurate way for ITV to extort money from weak-minded viewers through the medium of televoting.