Archive for March, 2010
Ignore the money watchdog at your peril
This blog carries a warning. I’m going to use a few words which usually have most people racing away from this page and clicking on something more appetising. But can you just stick with me for a few paragraphs, please?
The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (I did warn you!) has today published a report which points out that the £9.3 billion budget for the 2012 Olympics is “worryingly tight”.
Now it’s the job of the PAC to play the role of a paranoid accountant, weighed down with gloom and doom. But all successful companies have one of those sitting on the board and I understand one of the reasons the London Development Agency (LDA) got into trouble over its financing of the Olympic Park site was that it didn’t have somebody warning about the worst case scenario.
The PAC says the Olympic Delivery Authority, which is building the facilities, has only £194 million left in its contingency for unforeseen problems. Given that most of the facilities should be ready in the next year, the ODA might just get away with this to build the Olympic Park.
But, since security costs are almost certain to be higher than expected (they have been at most Olympics I have covered), some experts think the Government is probably going to need to secure more cash from other Departments (ie the Home Office budget) to pay for the Games.
Ministers will defend this, I’m sure, by saying the cash is coming from funds already earmarked for anti-terrorism and you could argue the Olympics is part of that. But there is warning there for whichever Government is in charge after the election — take another look at the budget and make sure you can handle any surprises.
But what’s also interesting in the PAC report, is a warning about the the budget for the organising committee (LOCOG). Its £2 billion budget, which pays for the actual staging of the Games, is made up of private cash — from ticket sales, sponsors and cash from TV rights and international sponsorship deals sealed by the International Olympic Committee.
PAC says it’s important that LOCOG puts a contingency in place because, if it fails to break even, the Government -and indeed the taxpayer – is exposed. I recently heard one expert saying that LOCOG’s costs could rise because of all the technological aspects of staging the Games (for example, tickets and transport) and because of 2012′s promise to provide “affordable tickets”.
London 2012 chiefs always talk confidently about their marketing programme, sponsors and budget but they still have challenges there.
The PAC also says the targets for employing local residents and providing training and apprenticeships have not been challenging enough. I’ve already blogged about this before and it’s true that unions don’t think the ODA have used the Games to train enough people.
So don’t switch off the next time you hear about the PAC in action. They are doing a job which might just keep these Games on time and on budget.
Are British medal hopes in American hands?
If Gemma Spofforth wins a gold medal for Great Britain at the London 2012 Olympic Games, you could argue the United States will deserve a thank-you note.
The 100m backstroke world champion and world record holder set the fourth-fastest time in the world this year to reach the event’s semi-finals at the British Championships, in Sheffield, on Tuesday.
That despite admitting she is working “off fumes” following a competition she values more than anything else this year: the NCAA Championships in America.
Forget British trials, the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games. Leading the University of Florida Gators to a wafer-thin victory in the fiercely-contested US collegiate championships has made Spofforth’s year, before 2010 has even begun for many British swimmers.
For the past four years, the 22-year-old has lived, studied and trained in Florida, feeding off the unique intensity of American university swimming. It is an experiment British swimmers have tried before, to varying degrees of success, but it is coming good with Spofforth.
Is America the way forward? Should British swimmers be on the next flights and parking themselves in the US for the next two years? Should swimming in Britain learn from its US equivalent? Or does Britain not need any help to rule its own pool in 2012?
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BBC Sport’s Nick Hope meets Gemma Spofforth in the United States
“I’ve already accomplished what I wanted to do this year,” Spofforth, who grew up around Portsmouth, admitted to me as the British Championships got under way.
For most British swimmers, these six days of trials will shape their year. Places in the British squad for August’s European Championships, and the various home nations’ teams for October’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi, could hinge on performances here.
Spofforth wants to do well but, for her, 2010 is already a success. She explained why: “Over in America we have the NCAA Championships, which are one of the biggest things an athlete can accomplish in the US.
“As a team, the University of Florida just won the national championships, which is something we haven’t done in 28 years, and it’s only the second time Florida has ever won it. I enjoyed that as much as, if not more than, my world record last year.”
University tournament wins in Britain do not eclipse world records, but the NCAA is a world away from the British model. NCAA stands for the National Collegiate Athletic Association, an organisation which pulls together 40,000 student athletes across the US, competing in 23 sports, the vast majority of them Olympic.
“Whenever I try and explain it to anybody here in Britain, it’s hard for anyone to understand the emotions we went through,” continued Spofforth.
“It came down to the last relay. There was an amazing atmosphere. If anyone on the team had done something slightly different – been slightly worse in one event – we would have been second. It’s one of the most amazing feelings I’ve ever had.”
Spofforth and prosper: the 22-year-old became a world champion in Rome last year. Photo: Getty Images
All this happened just days before the British trials, so Spofforth – who spoke with laughter in her voice throughout – understandably has her mind elsewhere, admitting she is struggling to think about events in Sheffield.
“It’s going to be very, very tough,” she said. “It’s something I am capable of, it’s just going to be a case of working off of fumes and doing as much as I can to make the Commonwealths, then going back to the US to prepare for them.”
And that’s the thing – this is a flying visit for Spofforth. Back in the States, she captained the Florida women’s team in regular duel-style meets against top rivals, while fellow Gators have included the likes of US star Ryan Lochte. America has taken over her life and work. “I’ve grown to be part of the family,” she said.
This is the end of a gruelling four years for Spofforth, more than the beginning of a new season. Her coach in Florida, Gregg Troy, believes moving there turned her career around.
“Gemma came here at a little ‘down spot’ in her career, did a great job of getting things together and now she’s an inspiration to everyone,” Troy told the BBC.
“The entire environment [of the NCAA and American collegiate sport] is exciting. There’s a tremendous following on campus for everything. It’s a dynamic where you can go on with other aspects of your life and still be a great competitive athlete.
“It’s a heritage of high expectations and international aspirations, and the British swimmers here had a unique scenario for us. They’re very high-quality athletes, highly motivated, and they add a tremendous dynamic to the team. The team feeds off them and they feed off the team.”
Spofforth’s success in the US – and the American team’s glory as a whole, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (where the US won 34 of 104 medals on offer) and last year’s Worlds (where they won six more gold medals than any other country) – has not gone unnoticed in Britain.
British butterfly record holder Jemma Lowe is now based in Florida alongside Spofforth, telling the BBC: “At the Olympics, every time Americans win and do so well, you think: ‘What are they doing over there?’ So I spoke to Gemma and it’s gone on from there.”
It isn’t just the culture of American swimming that proves tempting – there is a wider history beyond that, involving a piece of legislature called Title IX, which governs gender equality in many aspects of US life, including collegiate sport.
Title IX – which remains controversial to some – demands that NCAA universities devote equal attention, and offer the same opportunity, to both genders when it comes to sport. That doesn’t necessarily mean financial parity (although in many cases, it does), but it does mean every women’s sporting programme at a US university has to offer all the facilities, chances and support the men are getting – and vice versa.
That has resulted in a funding level that women’s sport would doubtless not have enjoyed otherwise, and supplies NCAA women’s swimming with the resources to match its other benefits.
Florida Gators fans in trademark orange-and-blue outfits. Photo: Getty Images
Not that Britain’s women are bereft of support themselves, especially having drawn plenty of attention – and government funding – on the back of Rebecca Adlington’s success in the pool at Beijing 2008.
And Adlington is one of several examples which show you don’t have to go to America to win medals. It is still perfectly possible to train in Britain and become the world’s best.
So, given she made the conscious decision to cross the pond, does Spofforth feel British Swimming should be learning any lessons from the States? She has an interesting answer which places the focus not on facilities, but fans.
“My coaches at home have been able to do really good things with me, although the facilities out here help the coaches a little bit more,” she explained.
“I don’t really know if it’s a case of what the UK can do, rather than what the crowd [back home] can do to change.
“In the US, the crowd stand there and shout the whole way through. I was like, ‘Wow’. Every person in the crowd is invested in one team or another. But it’s not a rivalry where you’re going to beat people up, it’s a rivalry where you’re having fun with it.”
Coach Troy told the BBC he has already shared tips with British officials in the run-up to 2012.
“We’ve had some people from Loughborough here, so we get to exchange some ideas with them which is a real plus,” he said.
“Britain have some scientific aspects to approaching things that are really good, and the athletes bring those things back.”
Swimming in the US has plenty to offer, but the decision of Spofforth and others to train there does not mean Britain produces inferior swimmers. The two countries offer different systems, and that represents a healthy choice of contrasting lifestyles and environments for budding Olympic swimmers. Pick the one you like the most.
For Spofforth, though, the hard work starts now. The NCAA wraps its athletes up in a competitive fervour, which is a huge boost while you’re there, but brings those leaving the family down to earth with a bump.
“Out in the States I couldn’t have been a professional until I finished my collegiate career, which I just have in the best possible way,” she explained.
“Now I have to work out where I go for the next two years. I’m a Florida Gator for life, and will be supporting my college team, but I can’t race or train with them.”
She concludes, to the sound of mock weeping: “I’ve got to figure out how to be a professional swimmer and not a Gator any more.”
Figuring that out correctly is what now stands between Spofforth and gold in 2012.
The Other Boat Race
The University Boat Race between the men’s crews of Oxford and Cambridge takes place on the River Thames in London on Saturday, amid much pomp, circumstance, celebrity commentators and a breathtaking amount of column inches compared to those for other rowing events.
But the ‘other’ Boat Races, for women and lightweights, take place a week earlier in Henley (Oxford won the women’s Boat Race, and those for women’s reserves and lightweights last Sunday).
Being a proud veteran of these ‘other’ races, competing for Cambridge in 2003, I’ve been asked to give my opinion on the differences and similarities between the races, and the position of the Boat Races in the national rowing calendar.
Having since been to one Olympic Games and four World Championships, the days training at Ely with the Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club seem a long time ago.
The Henley races are a wonderful event: the banks of the river are lined three to four deep right down the course with our friends, family and supporters; there are busloads of students from each university, and the day is a true festival of rowing.
The men’s Boat Race has been going on for longer, having first been contested in 1829, but the women’s race has a strong tradition of its own, with a battle that has been raging since 1927.
Cambridge are exhausted while Oxford celebrate victory in the 2010 women’s Boat Race last Sunday – Photos: Peter Spurrier
The race I took part in came just at the beginning of an Oxford resurgence following a period of Light Blue dominance throughout the 1990s.
We lost. In fact we didn’t just lose, we were absolutely thumped, walloped, thrashed, call it what you will.
The thing about the Boat Race, and in fact all Varsity matches, is that it really gets under your skin. Once you embark on the six month journey to the Boat Race, it begins to eat away at you and by the time you sit on that start line, the desire to win the race has overtaken all the rest of your person, your identity, and your senses. So to lose really kicks you in the gut.
Of course, it’s nothing compared to winning or losing at the World Championships or the Olympic Games; but the Boat Race is very different. At that stage in my career, I was unused to the rollercoaster of sport, and also it was a very personal thing.
These ancient rivalries, much like the Ashes in cricket, take on a whole new level of emotion. There’s no consolation silver medal so if you lose, it feels like you’ve completely and utterly failed.
My experiences in the Boat Race were absolutely pivotal to my development as a rower. It taught me so much about myself, about the nature of sport, about winning and losing, and most importantly I made some of my best friends during my year at CUWBC.
The standard of rowing and racing in the men’s race is far higher. Crews are filled with internationals, they have full-time coaches of the highest calibre, and a huge budget to spend on training costs each year.
When I competed, we shared our coach and one of our boats with one of the colleges, we paid for all our costs from our own pocket, and all of us had been rowing for less than five years.
The men had an enormous, purpose-built boathouse, branded minibuses and launches, and three full-time coaches; we had a lean-to shed for our boats and relied on the generosity of a gym in Cambridge for our land training.
Annabel Vernon and Anna Watkins went from the women’s Boat Race to the Olympics and won a silver medal together at the 2009 World Championships – Photo: Getty
We were training for a university event. The men’s race is not a university event. Yes, there are ‘genuine’ students and the Boat Race is a great development path for aspiring British rowers; but I don’t think it’s controversial to say that overall it has become a race for internationals who wish to take a year away from their national rowing programmes, have a good time and new experiences.
We are not talking about a men’s and a women’s version of the same event, we are talking about two completely different events which can’t really be compared.
The women’s event is representative of student rowing up and down the country, and is an absolutely incredible day for those lucky enough to be involved.
Finally, the question of moving the women’s race to join the men’s races on the same day on the Thames is often brought up. My opinion is, why would you change a successful format?
Moving from Henley would lose that unique and special quality and instead the women’s Boat Race would become a poorer version of the men’s.
We shouldn’t snipe at the differences between men’s and women’s race, but celebrate the positives and applaud those who are willing to put pride on the line and gamble it all on one race just for the chance of saying, I am a winning Blue.
Watch the men’s Boat Race this Saturday on BBC One and the BBC Sport website or listen on BBC 5 live sports extra. Rowing coverage on the BBC.
Boris Johnson's vision for 2012 is short-sighted
Boris Johnson is trying to make a lot of noise today about his plans for the “look and feel” of London during the 2012 Olympics.
Johnson says he wants London to be “epicentre of fun in the universe” during the Games.
“People will hugely enjoy it and for those who don’t enjoy it, it’ll all be over in a flash,” predicts Johnson.
“We believe that London in 2012 is going to be the place that people want to come and have fun and see the Olympic Games so we’ve got to get ready on that basis.”
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The London Mayor will tell a meeting of the Olympic board how he plans to set up four “live sites” with big TV screens to show the action in the capital and put on pop concerts.
These are free sites for people who don’t have tickets for the Games.
They are an attempt by the Mayor to copy the party atmosphere of last month’s Winter Games in Vancouver which I have already blogged about.
Interestingly, the Mayor targeted the national media for his announcement, even though most people outside of London wouldn’t have a clue where most of the sites are.
Okay, if I live in Bolton, I probably know where Hyde Park is but Victoria Park, Potters Field and Jubilee Gardens?
Maybe he did that because Londoners won’t necessarily be that impressed by these plans. They understand their weaknesses better.
Johnson’s aides claim the sites will be much bigger than Vancouver’s. But let’s have a look at the details.
Vancouver has a population of nearly 600,000 compared to London’s 7 million.
The city set up two live sites in the city centre for the Winter Games (I went to both of them) and they were visited by around 34,000 people per day.
London’s four sites will cater for 102,500 in total. That’s three times as many people as Vancouver. But London has 11 times more people than than the Canadian city and the summer Games are a much bigger event than the Winter Games.
So, are Londoners really getting a better deal, especially when you consider that there will be 56 other sites around the UK?
Hyde Park is the biggest of these sites with a 50,000 capacity but it won’t be a new development in 2012.
The Park has a huge concert area which is used every summer for the Proms in the Park concert series.
The Mayor is just piggy-backing something that will be there anyway.
The other parks are Victoria Park (in east London) – a site for 40,000 people – and two on the South Bank – Jubilee Gardens (next to the London Eye) and Potters Field (close to Tower Bridge) – for 8,000 and 4,500 people respectively.
One of the important elements of the Winter Games was a site in Richmond, a town just outside of Vancouver which hosted the speed skating events. It set up a live site which was visited by 300,000 people during the Games.
This is exactly what is missing from the Mayor’s plans – sites away from the action where people on the outskirts of London can feel they are part of the Olympics.
Boris talks about not being a “Zone One” Mayor (that means he says he cares about people who live on the end of underground lines as well as those who live in the middle of them) but his Olympic plans are not really targeting people outside of the city centre.
You might argue that London has the Games anyway and doesn’t need to have these live sites. But Vancouver, through their Richmond site (called the O Zone), showed that sites away from the action are even more important that those at the heart of it.
Johnson didn’t get to see this. Unlike the Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell and her Conservative counterpart Hugh Robertson, he decided not to go to Vancouver to learn from the Canadian city.
I get accused of criticising the Olympics too much. But I’m very impressed by the way the facilities are being built in east London. Take a look above at my latest report on the Olympic Stadium.
But I’m not sure we are going to match Vancouver’s party atmosphere without an expansion of the Mayor’s plans.
Party like it's 2012
Spectators at an Olympic Games tend to judge their success in three ways – how high was the standard of competition, were the various venues easy to get to, from and around, and how good was the party afterwards?
The latter may seem an entirely hedonistic consideration, but it matters. When the hosts create the right atmosphere, and get stuck in themselves, it’s infectious.
I’m fortunate to have had a taste of it at the last four summer Games, and the fondness with which I remember each follows the same pattern.
London is one heck of a stage-set – photo: AP
The best, by some margin, was Sydney. The worst was Atlanta, with Athens and Beijing hovering in between.
I’m trying to convince myself that’s a judgement made from an entirely professional perspective, but who am I trying to kid?
The Sydney-siders threw one hell of a party, and the city truly embraced the 2000 Games. Sydney looked magnificent at night and after the action ebbed away at Homebush Bay, it picked up downtown, around the Rocks, the quayside, everywhere.
Huge firework displays burst overhead every night, and track-suited, celebrating athletes, including medal winners, hit the clubs and danced till dawn. You were left in no doubt that the locals loved their sport and revelled in being the centre of attention.
The challenge for London is to do the same, but somehow, more and it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility.
It can be easy when you live or work in the city to overlook its magnificence, but next time you’re in town, look up and around you, take in those splendid buildings, those inviting squares, imbibe the sense of history which Beijing lacked, and Athens rather overlooked.
London’s one heck of a stage-set, and Mayor Boris Johnson and his team have got to dress it right.
Will London be able to create a carnival atmosphere – photo: AFP
Their plans for the ‘look and feel’ of the city will play a huge part in the way visitors look back and judge how well London did. They must make sure the locals want to be a part of it, whether they’re avid sports fans or just hoping for a good night out.
The Athenian exodus that deprived the city of some of its local flavour diminished the ‘apres-sport’ experience.
The disaffected middle classes took to the hills and their holiday homes, fed up with the inconvenience and unconvinced there was anything in it for them, except the certainty they’d be paying for it through their taxes for years to come.
Sydney-siders knew that too, but there was no way they were going to miss out on a good time if they were picking up the tab. We need a bit of that spirit in London too. The mayor’s not kidding that it’ll be “business as unusual” and that the normal way of doing things is going to be disrupted.
Beneath the hyperbole – that London will be the “epicentre of fun in the universe” for a few weeks – the hosts absolutely have a responsibility to put on a great show.
No pressure then, but remember where the games are going next? Rio de Janeiro. I hear their track record of throwing together the odd ‘soiree’ is rather good.
Who to watch at British trials
In the spring, a young swimmer’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of gold.
But if you want to be leaping onto the podium at the European Championships in Hungary this August, or holding your arms aloft in victory at October’s Commonwealth Games in India, you first have to get into the team.
This is where that process begins. Over the next six days, the British Championships at Ponds Forge in Sheffield will kick off the qualification process for the various Commonwealth teams and the British squad for Europeans.
With no international rivals, it could be tempting to write this event off as a minor matter. But complacency here means missing out on the chance for major medals later in the year. No British swimmer can afford to take trials lightly.
Who, then, will make the grade in 2010? There are exciting new stars breaking through the established ranks, and not even household names like Rebecca Adlington can rest on their Olympic laurels.
I’ve been speaking to top British swimmers and BBC experts Steve Parry and Karen Pickering to help pin down the ones to watch.
Your freestyle contenders: (left-right) Carlin, McClatchey, Adlington and Jackson. Photo: Getty Images
JAZMIN CARLIN
Age: 19 Commonwealth team: Wales Events: 200/400/800m freestyle
Up against: Rebecca Adlington and Jo Jackson
Jazmin Carlin is the hot name in British swimming in 2010. In February, she had the beating of the far better-known freestyle pairing of Adlington and Jo Jackson at the Britain v Germany meet in Swansea.
“The biggest story of the week is whether Jackson and Adlington can fend off young Carlin in the 400m free,” says 2004 Olympic bronze medallist Parry.
“You’ve got an Olympic champion and a world silver medallist there, and then you’ve got this 19-year-old girl who beat them both, and that’s very exciting.
“I think it’s going to be a fascinating race and Carlin should feature in the 200m free and 800m free as well.
“Things in those events are looking incredibly strong for the Olympic Games in 2012, and at the Commonwealth Games before that, with Carlin representing Wales, the other two swimming for England and Caitlin McClatchey representing Scotland.”
Pickering adds that while splitting into various home nations for the Commonwealth Games makes qualifying there less stressful, there are only two places up for grabs in the British team for the European Championships.
“The women’s freestyle events are going to be the most exciting,” she says. “In terms of the European Championships it’s going to be really tight – Carlin has done so well and Jackson has had a difficult winter with illness and injury (see below), while Adlington looks like she’s getting back to really good form.
“Meanwhile, the change of suits (2009′s ultra-fast non-textile swimsuits have been banned since 1 January) will benefit someone like McClatchey, who’s very small and who wouldn’t have got as much out of the suits as some of the bigger girls.”
Another victory or two for Carlin here would push her firmly into “next Adlington” territory in the media, but Pickering says the Swindon-born swimmer has been turning in the performances for some time – albeit under the radar.
“I was really excited by how she swam in Swansea but that was just a meet in Swansea, people weren’t tapered,” she says – tapering being the process swimmers go through of easing up on their training schedules before major meets.
“It’s difficult to use that as a gauge other than the fact she looked very smooth, comfortable and tidy. There were a lot of positives but I was more impressed with how she swam at last summer’s World Championships.
“Under pressure as the fourth swimmer in the relay, she was the one who needed to perform and not be perceived as the weak link. Twelve months on I’m really excited because of what I saw last summer.”
Wise words from a woman who herself has a world relay gold medal to her name, but there is also a note of caution for Carlin.
“She has beaten both Jackson and Adlington but everyone knows you screw that up, throw it away and start afresh. Adlington is a ‘big gamer’, she rises to the top on the big occasions and she won’t be a pushover.
“That said, I’ve done predictions for every race and I’ve gone for Carlin in the 200m and 400m.”
Spofforth occupies the vastly different world of American swimming. Photo: Getty Images
GEMMA SPOFFORTH
Age: 22 Commonwealth team: England Events: 50/100/200m backstroke
Up against: Lizzie Simmonds
Swimming is a big deal in the United States, and so is Spofforth – of which more slightly later in the week.
For now, it’s best not to get too excited about seeing Spofforth in action at Ponds Forge, as she’s coming off the back of a nail-biting climax to the US national championships, where competitive swimming generates the kind of atmosphere you find at football matches in the UK.
The 22-year-old led the University of Florida to victory and faced a major media conference afterwards, of the kind most British swimmers can only expect if they win an Olympic medal.
With that in mind, it may be understandable that British trials don’t hold quite the same allure for Spofforth, whose Americanised accent still occasionally strays back to British for the odd word.
“It’s going to be a case of working off of fumes and doing as much as I can just to make the Commonwealths, then going back to the US to focus on preparing for them,” she told me on the phone from Hartlepool – always a step up from Florida.
Spofforth is the 100m backstroke world champion and world record-holder but she now finds herself under pressure from 19-year-old Lizzie Simmonds.
“Lizzie is one of my best friends,” says Spofforth. “She has an amazing personality and she’s an amazing swimmer.
“Having that competition is one of biggest things you need in swimming to push each other. I really believe both of us, together, can push each other – maybe not quite so much this week but certainly to further our careers over the next two years. It’s great to have someone that close to me.”
Tancock pounds the water in delight having set a 50m world record last year. Photo: Getty Images
LIAM TANCOCK
Age: 24 Commonwealth team: England Events: 50/100/200m backstroke
Up against: Matt Clay but in reality, not a lot
The affable Tancock is one of the easiest men in sport to interview, knowing, as he does, no way of giving a short answer to a question.
I called him before trials to discover he had just blown the fuses in his kitchen while trying to make toast and boil the kettle at the same time, a domestic disaster he shrugged off in the same way he dismisses the year of crazy times and swimsuit questions that all swimmers have had to endure.
“It’s a bit of a strange season with nobody really knowing what’s going to be a good time,” he said, two months after 2009′s ultra-fast suits were thrown out of the window – and probably ritually burned by swimmers desperate never to hear of them again.
“Once 2010 is out of the way and we’ve got an understanding of times, and who’s going to be there or thereabouts, we’ll know a little bit more.
“But in the men’s backstroke not a lot has changed to be honest – the main people making finals and winning medals have been the same since I’ve been part of that group. I expect a few new faces leading up to London, but the main group of guys are still going to be pushing for those spots as well.”
Certainly, from a British point of view, Tancock faces few real challengers in his backstroke events. Barring complacency at trials, or an Exeter City defeat on Friday, he should sail through.
“Whenever I’m at the pool the focus is on the swimming – but obviously I’ll keep an eye on the score,” he admits when I mention relegation-threatened City’s game against Colchester, which takes place a few hours before his 100m backstroke final.
“I’ll have the phone handy and get some updates on Twitter. It’s close but recently we’ve had a lot of draws, we just need to sneak a win. Maybe I’ll take my Exeter City shirt with me.”
Speaking of Twitter, Tancock has been a revelation on the sort-of-micro-blogging service, with updates ranging from the sheer number of frogs on the roads to photos of cows – alongside some swimming talk, of course.
“I never really thought people were interested in swimming, apart from the people involved in it. But now I’ve discovered people do care and do want a bit of input,” he says.
“I got a Blackberry so I could tweet a bit easier. It helps people get to know me as a person, not just as a swimmer. We only really get interviewed on TV just after a race, for 30 seconds when we’re tired, and it’s not the people we are.
“People ask for advice, or they want to ask what things are like for me, or they just say hello. I’d say I’m a nice guy, pretty approachable, and that’s the impression I want to give. I’m just me and I think it’s great that I can speak to people as me.”
Who would Tancock recommend for others to follow on Twitter? Triathlete Will Clarke. “I used to live with him and he’s done great things in the sport and loves what he does.”
A FEW OTHERS TO KEEP AN EYE ON
Michael Rock (200m fly) – beat US legend Michael Phelps, admittedly using an ultra-fast suit unlike Phelps, at the GB v US Duel in the Pool in December. “I don’t like to talk about Michael Rock – he was born in Liverpool and broke my record,” jokes Parry. “But I think he’s shown some great performances. He won’t come up against too much competition in the 200m fly but it’ll be a good benchmark for the rest of the year.”
Fran Halsall (100m free) – one of the few GB swimmers to win events at Duel in the Pool. Parry again: “Will Fran Halsall continue to show improvement? If you’re looking at the characters who could win medals in 2012, look at Halsall in the 100m free – her blue riband event. I’d like to see if she’s moving forward.”
Jo Jackson (200/400/800m free) – would normally be a real contender but pole-axed by severe asthma over the winter. Has already said she won’t be up to much at trials or anywhere in the first half of the year. The verdict of Pickering, who herself swam with asthma: “I’m sure she must have some knowledgeable people and a lot of support, and I really hope they sort her asthma out because it would be devastating if it has an effect on her career, just when she was getting so good.”
YOUR TURN
This list is by no means exhaustive, there being rather a large number of British swimmers out there. Who will you be looking out for during British trials, and who could yet burst onto the scene in time to make a splash at London 2012? Let me know your thoughts. Don’t forget you can listen to the finals on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra, with highlights and interviews on the BBC Sport website.
Thoughts on audiences for Olympic sports
In the week that our colleagues in BBC Sport are providing extensive live coverage of the World Track Cycling Championships in Denmark, I’ve been thinking about one of the big tasks for London 2012: whether we can significantly improve the level of interest in the UK in Olympic sports.
This isn’t so much about participation, important though that is and the topic that prompted interesting comments from some of you in response to a recent blog. It’s more about whether the sports become bigger in media terms with audiences developing a continuing interest in them – or whether they have their moment in the sun in 2012 and then drift back into the shadows under that rather clichéd title of “minority sports”.
What’s beyond dispute is that the Olympic Games themselves bring unprecedented audiences to sports. We know that during Beijing a staggering total of 47m people watched some of the BBC coverage; but it’s difficult to use the individual event data as a predictor for London because of the time zones. Swimming from China, for instance, meant finals in the early hours UK time. So I had a look at Athens as the most recent Summer Games in Europe, and the table of peak viewing makes interesting reading:
Audience data from the Athens Olympics in 2004
I should say that audience data is open to argument. It’s not a level playing field because some sports took place entirely in the daytime; and some clashed with each other, splitting the ratings figures. Boxing was relatively high in 2004 because of the emergence of Amir Khan, whereas I’d expect tennis to zoom up the chart in London if Andy Murray’s involved and because of the Wimbledon factor. (There’s also, I detect, a keen interest in beach volleyball coming to town – even if not all the motivation is 100% sporting!)
But it’s safe to draw some conclusions from this and other research. First, athletics is almost always the biggest draw and the most-anticipated event. Second, though, almost every Olympic sport can draw an audience into the millions – and I’m confident in 2012 they’ll do that even more than usual. But third: levels of interest can disappear as quickly as they rise. Some really attractive national or international moments in Olympic sports have drawn disappointing figures either side of the Games themselves.
So the question is whether those audiences will be there before or after the 17 days of the London Olympics. The BBC recently appointed an Olympic Sports Editor to try to ensure that we give the best possible range of coverage between now and 2012 across tv, radio and online; and I know BBC Sport will apply themselves with their customary vim to World Championships and major events where we have the rights. But it’s a question where I’d like to hear your views.
What sports do you think are ripe for development? What could you imagine still being strong on our range of services in 2013 and beyond? And which ones most need explanation and clarification to ensure that audiences get the best out of them in 2012?
Life goes on after Winter Olympics
It’s easy to imagine that Winter Olympians depart en masse for a nice, warm beach the moment their Olympic Games end.
Almost all of them are barely ever in the spotlight for more than a month every four years, and many are never heard from again – at least, until the next time.
Even skeleton, a sport which has now produced Britain’s only medals at the last two Winter Olympics, is unlikely to get much more love than some reports when Amy Williams returns to competition, and the odd line buried on page 57 if she reaches a World Cup podium.
There are a good many reasons why that is the case, but the dazzle of the Olympic torch is sometimes guilty of obscuring the broader view.
Is it just the media and spectators whose enthusiasm dims with the flame, though? Or do the athletes themselves struggle to avoid a post-Olympic low?
The Figure Skating World Championships, beginning in Italy on Tuesday, are the perfect place to find out.
Hello again – GB’s Stacey Kemp and David King will be back on the world stage
Figure skating has a huge profile at the Winter Olympics. It is instantly recognisable, watched by hundreds of millions around the globe, makes household names of its Olympic winners and is, if anything, becoming more popular with the advent of primetime television dedicated to ice dancing on both sides of the pond.
So a World Championships less than one month after the Olympic Games should be the perfect way to prolong the buzz, yes? Take all the Olympic stars and give them another outing at the highest level – second chances for the wronged, a challenge for the victorious to do it again, and an extra bite at the cherry for millions of fans lapping up every Lutz.
Except it doesn’t work that way. Some of the finest figure skaters from Vancouver 2010 are nowhere to be found in Italy – yes, their lives go on after the Olympics, but not in a sporting sense. They have other commitments. In almost any Olympic sport (I’m thinking of tennis and football as exceptions), you don’t miss the Games. World Championships a month later, though? Expendable.
Evan Lysacek is a prime example. The men’s Olympic champion announced his withdrawal from the World Championships before the Games had even finished, and turned up on television in his home country, the United States, alongside astronaut Buzz Aldrin of all people at the start of a new series of Dancing With The Stars. (Something only Aldrin, of the contestants, has achieved in any meaningful sense.)
In Lysacek’s absence you might expect the Olympic silver medallist to have their eye on world gold, but no. That man is Evgeni Plushenko, the outspoken Russian who criticised judges for failing to reward his quad – a tricky and controversial jump included in his routine, but not in Lysacek’s – and he is another stay-away. The line from Russia is that Plushenko experienced pain while landing a quad in training, but that sounds to me like the sort of thing he’d have fought through if there had been another Olympic medal at stake.
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“It does feel like an anti-climax in some ways,” British pairs skater David King told me from Turin, the city hosting the tournament. “But it’s also exciting because you get to see who the future champions are.
“It’s going to be more in the mix, the judges don’t really know who to put where, and it’ll be more performance-based than political I think – hopefully.”
The only thing keeping King and partner Stacey Kemp from the ice is a kidney infection picked up by the latter, and King cut a worried figure on Monday waiting for news of her recovery. If they do get to compete, though, they will find several top pairs absent.
“We’re pumped, we want to go for the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014 and really want to improve now,” added King.
“We found it really easy to get back on the ice and get working. But for some of the teams it’s their last season and after the Olympics is a low point for them.
“So there are a few top teams who aren’t here. That’s the way it works, you hang in there long enough, the teams ahead of you drop out and you end up getting medals one day.”
And that is the appeal of these World Championships – not in seeing the Olympic masters strut their stuff in a low-key encore, but in getting the first clues as to the gold medallists four years hence.
Top Chinese pairs skaters Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo have retired (for the second and final time, we are told) in the wake of their Olympic gold. They are already yesterday’s news. The duo to inherit their crown may well be all but unheard-of right now. These things can change in far less than four years.
You need only look as far as Kemp and King’s British stablemates in short track speed skating, a sport governed by the same body in the UK, the National Ice Skating Association.
Elise Christie, at 19 years of age, got through the preliminary heats only once in three events in Vancouver, and even then found herself dumped out of the competition at the quarter-final stage.
By contrast, Christie – marked out for some time as one for the future by her national performance director – battled into the women’s 1,000m final at her sport’s World Championships in Bulgaria last weekend, narrowly missing out on a medal.
For young Britons, post-Olympic World Championships with a few top names missing are the ideal environments in which to kickstart their next bids for glory at the Games.
“We’re determined to get to Sochi and do our best,” concluded figure skater King.
“We thought it would be ages to Vancouver and now we’re sitting here in Italy thinking ‘Wow, that was fast’. So I think it’ll come round quite quick. We’ve got a lot to work on anyway, that’ll take our time up.”
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Life has already taken a new turn for King at any rate – his partner on the ice is now one step closer to becoming his partner in another sense, after the 25-year-old proposed to her in improbably romantic circumstances on the night of the closing ceremony.
“We were having a team party and everyone had just come back from the ceremony,” he recalled.
“On our balcony we had a beautiful view of the whole city and it was lit up at night, so I went down on one knee and asked her.
“It was a good end to the Olympics. I’d been planning it since November last year – we’ve been dating for five years now and it seemed a good moment to do it.”
Counterintuitive though it may feel, the end of an Olympics is a good moment to start a lot of things. Watch the highlights from the Figure Skating World Championships on BBC TV in between Football Focus and the Boat Race on Saturday, 3 April, and see if you can spot the new beginnings that will lead to gold in 2014.
Further reading if you’re keen:
BBC Scotland speaks to GB ice dancers Christina Chitwood and Mark Hanretty
Canadians Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison (two of the nicest people you’ll ever meet) tell the Canadian Press why they’re desperate to make good at the Worlds
A full preview of the leading Worlds contenders from excellent Associated Press writers Nancy Armour and Colleen Barry (via USA Today)
London must avoid empty seats
There is nothing more infuriating for sports fans who are unable to get a ticket for something, then watch the event on TV, than to see great swathes of seats left empty by the sponsors and corporate hospitality clients who either couldn’t be bothered to turn up, or weren’t interested enough to leave the bar at half time.
It was a problem that plagued the Beijing Olympics, which were a sell-out according to the organisers, who then eventually bussed in “official supporters” to fill up the venues.
There were all sorts of excuses offered, but the bottom line is that every no-show represents a wasted opportunity.
LOCOG’s announcement that 75 percent of tickets for the 2012 Games will go on general sale should be welcomed. It’s a substantial number but there are some unanswered questions, including the big one “how much?” to which we are promised a reply in the autumn.
Christine Bleakley and 400m gold medallist Christine Ohuruogo help launch the tickets website – photo Getty
By comparison with other major events, putting three quarters of the tickets on public sale stacks up favourably.
At the 2006 World Cup, Fifa ran a similar international open ballot, which they used to sell 36.22% of the available tickets. Meanwhile, 33% were shared out among sponsors (16%), the corporate hospitality market (11.3%) and the “football family” (6.2%).
Of the 90,000 seats at last year’s FA Cup final, 17,000 went to Club Wembley members, 22,000 to the “football family” (that lot again) and 50,000 to the fans of each club, divided equally.
What LOCOG won’t reveal at this point is how many tickets for the “blue riband” events, like the athletics finals, will be on general sale. I’m prepared to stand corrected, but I’ll bet it ducks well below that 75% mark.
Let’s not kid ourselves, however. Without the sponsors and TV money, there would be no Olympics or World Cup as we know it, and fans have just got to accept that.
What they shouldn’t have to swallow however is ‘corporates’ taking the mickey. What is absolutely essential – and LOCOG say they will do this – is for some kind of re-entry system to be put in place along the lines of the one successfully operated for years at Wimbledon.
Sponsors who, for whatever reason, are unable to fill their seats ought to have a way on the day of giving tickets back for sale at the door, and those who have got tickets but only want to watch the main events, can give someone else the opportunity.
Go to any major competition, anywhere in the world and you’ll see a Union flag. Brits turn up, which is why the organisers can have confidence that they’ll shift all 10m Olympic and Paralympic tickets.
About 10,000 people an hour registered their interest when the LOCOG site went live, and that’s on the back of a marketing campaign that is only being run in the UK.
Those who register will have a chance to enter the ticket ballot, but what can’t be guaranteed is who will get lucky, or how many of them will be British.
EU laws say residents in all member states have to have an equal opportunity to buy tickets for major events like the Olympics, so whatever natural justice might say, Norman of Newham has no rights above Hans of Hamburg to see Usain Bolt burn them all up in the 100 metres final.
Let’s hope those in the sponsors seats aren’t too busy tucking into their prawn sandwiches to witness history in the making either.
Made in Yorkshire, on top of the world
On his bike, Alistair Brownlee doesn’t look quite like you imagine a world champion might. Maybe it’s the implausibly youthful face, or the tattered square of dirty, reflective cloth taped to his mudguard, or the white towelling sport socks he’s pulled over his cleats in place of overshoes.
Appearances have seldom been more deceptive. Brownlee didn’t snatch his triathlon world title last year with a dip on the line, or sneak through as all others struggled. He owned it from start to finish. Four wins in a row in the championship series, topped off with a showboating demolition of his rivals in the grand final in Australia – an unprecedented dominance from anyone, let alone a 21-year-old in his first full year on the senior circuit.
“I didn’t have a clue it would happen,” he says. “At the start of the year, I thought my form was pretty poor. I didn’t feel that great at all. But by the time I won in Madrid, I felt unbeatable. That one almost felt easy.”
This does not. We are barrelling along through the Yorkshire Dales, a third of the way into a three-hour training ride. From a selfish point of view, it’s probably a good job he’s still recovering from the stress fracture that will delay the defence of his title; a gentle leg-spin for a world champ is a tongue-out thrash for a rusty amateur triathlete.
Brownlee, born in Dewsbury, schooled in Bradford, resident of Bramhope, is Yorkshire through and through. Not for him the sunshine and open-air pools of South Africa or Australia. Warm-weather training is when enough snow melts for the road to Thornthwaite to re-open again.
“I love it here,” he says, surveying the windswept, dun-coloured fells and snowy moors on the horizon. “It’s got everything I need – great roads for cycling, perfect running, coaching and medical back-up in Leeds. Australia’s too hot, and the roads round Stellenbosch are too busy. You can’t top Yorkshire.”
With us is Brownlee’s 19-year-old brother Jonny, European junior champion, and a whippet-skinny cyclist mate of theirs called Josh. There is plenty of competitive banter and no shortage of pace, albeit an endearing lack of the usual back-up. I’d left my tyre-levers, pump and spare tubes at home, assuming world champs would carry some sort of uber-sets provided by sponsors – but when Jonny gets a puncture, there’s neither of the first two and only a late lucky find in a back pocket of an inner.
No-one gets too worked up. You get the clear sense that the ideal afternoon for both Brownlees would be running and riding out here, regardless of professional training requirements. “The thing I hated most about being injured was not being able to exercise,” says the senior sibling. “Suddenly I had nothing to do all day. It was so boring.
“I couldn’t get to sleep at night either. I’m so used to feeling tired from training, so I was just lying there unable to drop off. I went out a few times and got drunk, but that got boring pretty quickly. It’s brilliant to be out here again.”
The scenery is indeed splendid. So are the bikes. If there’s one particular perk of being the world’s best that your average amateur would most enjoy, it’s having 10 top-of-the-range carbon beauties hanging from hooks in your garage.
Not everything is so high-tech. Brownlee’s breakfast? “Three Weetabix. And then a load of Aldi crunchy oat cereal poured on top.” His favourite post-ride snack? “Fray Bentos pies. I love them.”
When you’re burning 5,000 calories a day, you can afford to get stuck in. Before we head out on the bikes, Brownlee has knocked off a 4,500 metres swim. After we get back, he will head to the pool at Leeds Met high-performance centre and bang out an aqua-jogging session. When the stress fracture is healed, that will be switched for reps round the track.
It’s a routine based around open air and excitement. Some triathletes like to train on treadmills and turbo-trainers. It’s measurable, controllable and precise. It can also be tedious in the extreme. “I’d much rather be out on the mountain-bike or running on the fells,” he says. “You work harder, and you don’t even notice it.”
It’s also proven. Brownlee is a seven-time Yorkshire fell-running champion, was crowned world junior triathlon champion in 2006 and under-23 world champion two years later. At the Beijing Olympics he led midway through the run, only fading to 12th in the final stages. Two years out, he’s already earmarked as of the best home medal hopes for 2012.
“I could see how the attitude of the other guys (on the circuit) changed over the course of the year. I don’t think they saw me as a threat at the start, but when I beat Javier Gomez in Madrid, they started treating me differently. I heard a few things, not to my face but from other people – this has been said about you… but on the whole, triathletes are a good bunch. Because it’s an endurance sport everyone’s in it together, and there were a lot more who said, oh it s brilliant to see how you were doing.”
Brownlee is unlikely to let it go to his head. Jonny – and Josh – would take the mickey, for starters. He’s also tasted life outside the sport, doing a term of a medicine degree at Girton College in Cambridge before the lectures and supervisions got in the way of training, and triathlon edged out Tripos.
Garage apart, his new house looks just as you’d imagine an average 21-year-old’s would. There’s a relaxed approach to tidying, outrage at the cost of fitting the bedrooms with curtains (“50 quid! For curtains!”). The clues to the identity of the owner are subtle ones – a Team GB wash-bag in the bathroom, an Ordnance Survey map of the Dales lying half-unfolded by the toilet.
“I think that term made me a more balanced person,” he says. “I lived a bit more of an ordinary life there, same as all the other students.
“It was strange – when you’re in Australia it’s big over there, the crowds recognise you and you can’t walk far without being stopped and asking how you’re doing. But then I flew back to Leeds three days later, and I was walking round Headingley and no-one had the faintest idea who I was. That was really nice – three days of that was probably enough for me.”
We have looped through Burnsall, along the Wharfe valley and back through Ilkley and Otley. It’s a long way from the Gold Coast, and a long time since I ate breakfast. On the last hill back up to Bramhope, the amateur legs turn to lead and the professionals pull away. If it’s only been 50 miles, I’ll claim it’s a hilly one – 1300m of climbing. I’m only fooling myself.
“Fancy joining us for the aqua-jog?” asks Al. “You’re alright,” I say, as casually as I can while using the kitchen wall for support. “Train to catch.” And buffet-car to raid. And carriage corridors to lie down in. Sometimes it’s easy to see what separates world champions from the rest.