Beijing to London
Were the Olympic medals a true measure of success or was the UK’s money deliberately targeted at events that were elitist & therefore almost guaranteed as medal winning sport.
After all the sports of rowing & sailing are hardly inclusive within the UK or anywhere else, with participants generally very ‘well off’ and first experiencing these sports at private school. It would be interesting to know how many government (high majority) run schools has rowing & sailing as part of their curriculum, I suspect this figure will be representative throughout the UK’s towns & cities. Yet these two sports were given nearly £50 million from Lottery funding.
To give some idea on the reality of these sports the men’s coxless (sounds painful) four (gold), there were only 13 teams competing, women double sculls (bronze) 10 teams, mens double sculls (bronze) 15 teams, the limited number of competitors give an indication of the elitism in the sport & therefore pro rata the likelihood of success.
The National Lottery was supposed to be for community projects yet the elitist sport of rowing which really can afford to sponsor themselves have received some £22 million and are likely to receive a similar amount for the London ‘bash’. The sailing is of course highly affordable/accessible to all who find private education just as affordable & yet even this sport was awarded millions of Lottery grants.
Surely the low numbers of competitors for the medals in these elitist sports are an indication the National Lottery is being abused, the idea of the Lottery was for the whole of UK to benefit at grass root level, plainly grass has had very little to do with any of these sports & the levels of grants has no relationship to the limited numbers who participate, indeed so exclusive are these sports that at club level many would refuse entry to the majority who purchase lottery tickets, the word equitable does not spring to mind.
If we add this to the vast amount of money being literally given to the London Olympics by the rest of the UK one has to ask where’s the handcart and to hell with it, as once again the very few gain almost all with the rest of the UK left to live of the scraps.
How odd the BBC and its acolytes (spelt Toynbee) who are usually the first to spout fairness and equality particularly ethnic once again fail to mention the injustice of this situation, it is of course London based with more than a fair sprinkling of Oxbridge & the privately educated within its midst whilst constantly offering these sports to its not so privately educated and somewhat less elitist license payers. |
