David Craig, on August 22nd, 2016Am I the only person in Britain feeling more than slightly queasy over the hyperbolic headlines in the British mainstream media gushing incontinently about the achievements of�“Britain’s Olympic heroes”? I apologise but I don’t understand the ecstatic media over-the-top reaction to the British team’s results in Rio and the demands for victory parades and honours for these supposed sporting “heroes”.
So, I looked up the word ‘hero’ in the dictionary: ‘A person who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements or noble qualities: example a war hero‘
Anyone who fought in either WW1 or WW2 to prevent Germany taking over Europe was probably a hero. Maybe even those who fought in Blair’s illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were also heroes? Perhaps they were even more heroic in that, as soon as they saw what violent, intolerant, pig-ignorant Third-World �scum most Iraqis and Afghanis were and the utter pointlessness of their mission, they still did their duty even though Blair and Brown refused to provide the money for helicopters, armoured vehicles and decent rifles.
But what about the British Olympians? There’s the Ethiopian or Somali or whatever Mohammed Farah. Yes, he can run fast and he has received millions of taxpayers’ money to support himself and his family while running. But is he really a ‘hero‘? And there’s the charisma-free area that is Andy Murray. Fabulous athlete, incredibly hard-worker and tenacious player – but is he a ‘hero‘?
And there’s a guy who sails dinghies. Ok, I admit that he might occasionally get wet and even risk catching a cold. But he’s hardly putting his life on the line. There’s the ‘glorious’�gold-medal-winning British women’s hockey team. Ok, they might occasionally get hit on the ankles by an opponent’s hockey stick and that probably hurts for a couple of days:
But ‘heroes‘? Not in my book.
And there’s some (IMHO) big-arsed posh woman who sits still while her horse does some stupid, unnatural dance. Is she a ‘hero‘ (or ‘heroine‘)?
And there’s syncronised sunbathing or swimming or something like that. Yes, the girls’ make-up and fake tans might start coming off in the water. But that’s about the most danger they’re in. And there’s some kind of clay pigeon shooting. Now, if the clay pigeons were shooting back, then the shooters could be called ‘heroes‘.
So, I’m sorry but I don’t buy the “they’re all heroes” narrative. Yes, some of them are excellent role models of dedication and hard work. While others do something that can hardly even be called ‘sport‘. But they’re not ‘heroes‘.
However, in today’s Age of Inanity where every achievement, however slight, is apparently ‘heroic‘; where every tweet by supposed celebs is ‘brilliant‘ and/or ‘hilarious‘. And where any comment that in any way can be interpreted as being politically incorrect sets off a Twitterstorm or Facebook fury among the intellectually and socially inadequate, language has become debased and words like ‘hero’ over-used and meaningless.
So, ignore the mainstream media orgasms. Ignore the hyperbole. Ignore the flatulent, self-serving propaganda from those riding on the Olympics bandwagon.
Some quite good British and supposedly British sports people went to Rio. And many of them will successfully become tax-dodging multi-millionaires after we’ve paid for their training and coaching and luxury lifestyles.
But for me, none of them are ‘heroes’ !
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Nail on the head again Mr Craig, I’ve been saying for the last half dozen Olympics or so that we give too much tax payers money to these folk, and for what? Being able to run a little faster than most is notable but not worth ��� millions. Like footballers, the monies/sponsorship paid to these folk is out of control.
sorry victoria ,as I have already e-mailed David re this article and think it mean spirited and spiteful .As an enthusiastic reader of this site this article only appeals to the real “chip on the shoulder”brigade.As the site has an obvious agenda it would have been better with…”more succesful after Brexit”
Thankfully I don’t own a television so I was more fortunate than some in being able to avoid the olympics. Given all the hype surrounding individuals ‘commitment’, the unspeakable truth remains that our medal tally has increased in the main due to the dramatic increase in the funding given by central government. Let us also not forget the contributions made by many sporting groups and organisations up and down the country who have seen their lottery funding dropped as their contribution to sport was deemed to fall short of any possibility of a medal. I have lost count of the number of swimming pools that have been lost due to funding and find it short of a miracle that we were able to bring home any medals (1 Gold 5 Silver) at all given the shortage of water to practice in. One question that I would like to raise and that is what obligation do athletes who have received public funding for their training, have for paying it back to the exchequer? Academic students are obliged to make a contribution to the repayment of their loans when they begin employment so why not athletes whose earnings are likely to fall into the millions. Once again I think it is another good example of public cost subsidising private profit.
Eh, it’s the same nonsense here in America. Call it the curse of Capitalism… People appreciate Image over Substance and this all falls under the Bread & Circuses category, the divert people from harsh reality and give them avatars to live their lives through…
All sports are like this now, and a good portion revolves around big bucks and selling fluff to people foolish enough to buy it…
I caught a speck of it on a big screen in a restaurant the other day: several pretty girls spinning around twirling bits of ribbon… Boggled my mind that That could even be called a sport…
Agreed that to call them heroes is to completely miss the point of heroism. These are professionals paid to do a job which they do to a greater or lesser extent.
Some get paid vast sums of money for doing their job. However according to the Independent (aka the Muslim Daily) some sportsmen are in penury – “Cyclist Jason Kenny, now a six-times Olympic Champion, collects a mere �28,000 tax free in UK Sport means-tested funding because he has so few sponsors.”
In today’s inflated use of the word hero – it is probably heroic of him to exist on a mere �538 per week tax free so can can cycle 7 days a week. Oh the humanity.
I agree with David Barron. Much as I enjoy reading this blog, and I can’t normally stand big sporting events or anything on the BBC I have to disagree with DC.
Following the Brexit vote, anything that confirms our world standing is fine in my book and I don’t care what it costs.
However I agree calling our Olympic medal winners heroes is over the top.
Damn, I’m confused
The entire cost of the entire four-year GB Olympic campaign exactly matches that of one week’s contribution to our beloved EU. For all those who complain about the closure of swimming pools etc, look elsewhere to blame for the lack of available funds. And don’t forget foreign “aid”, ever increasing benefit payments, the �50bn per year interest payments to service our debt, countless billions squandered by the Civil “Service” etc.
That’s the REAL story, not this rather petty article.