Winter apathy

After watching Russell Howard slew the Winter Olympics on this week's Mock The Week I couldn't help wondering why the British seem so adverse to this event. It is nail bitingly exciting (if you exclude the curling) combining extreme danger, incredible skill and tight lycra which doesn't always hold out as seen in the unfortunate case of Gillian Cooke. In no other competition would you have a no rules policy as in the snowboard cross or be able to watch people reaching 144 kilometres per hour as they slide through ice tunnels on what look like sophisticated baking trays.

The fact that I couldn't even find a video on YouTube of Paerson's fall in the women's downhill during which she traveled 60 metres in the air before crashing onto the slope is testament to the lack of interest in these games. It can be seen here at around one hour and thirty five minutes.


I cannot help but wonder if the real problem here is the word winter. The Brits love the Summer Olympics, if we're not glued to our televisions we're outside for once trying to become the next Colin Jackson or Kelly Holmes. Wimbledon has a similar affect on the Great British public, for a few weeks tennis courts around the country are inhabited by wooden rackets and old Dunlops. Along comes an equally if not more electrifying seventeen days of sport and we shy away as if we'll catch a cold just watching it.

Perhaps it's the conditions in which we live in, the lack of snow covered mountains being slightly detrimental to our ability to ski on home turf. Nevertheless, this doesn't stop us watching and supporting our team. It appears the Brits would rather bathe in the tragic gloom of winter than entertain any thought of it producing something fantastic. Yesterday Amy Williams won Britain's first gold medal in the bob skeleton, risking life and limb for sporting glory yet I am sure that very few people know this.


One of the best things about the Winter Olympics for me is the sense of comradeship and support shown by all the athletes for their fellow competitors. They are often described by commentators as 'like family' and despite the cliche it very much shows, reminding you that the famous Olympic spirit is undamaged by historical or current events. When Amy stood on the podium the two Germans in second and third place hoisted her onto their shoulders in celebration. It is a games in which the admiration for the althletes comes not just from the crowd but from their competitors.



Of the critical press the Winter Olympics are receiving here, Mark Adams, the International Olympic Committee's director of communications says, 'What I read in the British press bears absolutely no relation to what I've been seeing in the competition.' I support him wholeheartedly and I'm not even there. Eddie the Eagle will always be an icon of British winter sports but when he retired so did the viewings. It appears that British culture favours entertainment through stupidity rather than talent, the success of semiskilled and incompetent people (usually a product of 'reality' talent shows) is incredibly common these days and we love it.


Enough said.