Skip to content

Cork Independent

Home arrow News arrow Opinion arrow Neil Prenderville - The best we can do
Neil Prenderville - The best we can do E-mail
Written by Neil Prendeville   
Thursday, 21 August 2008
Article Index
Neil Prenderville - The best we can do
Page 2
Page 1 of 2
I have been spending quite an amount of time watching the Olympic games from Beijing. Well, what else are ya gonna do if your on holidays in Ireland and the rain keeps bucketing down?

There’s only so many windy walk’s, games of golf, long lunches and dinners that a man can take. Anyway, back to the games and that bloody term “Team GB”.

I have taken to watching the BBC coverage because the Irish performance is just sooo depressing and I feel sorry for the RTÉ presenters trying to put a brave face on our athletics, sailing, equestrian and swimming efforts.

The trade off is having to endure the smarmy Beeb commentators prattling on about the medal tally of the great and invincible “Team GB”.

They, along with the USA and the Chinese have hoovered up the medals. All of a sudden even the Jamaicans are leaving the rest of the world in their wake on the track, coming first, second and third in many events.  

Even African and Eastern European countries to which Ireland sends millions in aid are ratcheting up the gold, silver and bronze while we, the former envy of the civilised world, rely on two lonely boxers, who haven’t warranted a single press column inch until now, nor a buck in sponsorship, to bring home a medal or two.  

What is it with Ireland’s complete inability to perform at international levels?  

Is it too much to ask that we could bring home a dozen or so medals, a mixed bag perhaps? But no, we have an Olympic council and a Sports council that are poisoned with a cancer that keeps the two of them at loggerheads, entrenched in their own backward ancient ways.

Its not as if Ireland didn’t have the money to invest in our athletics, we had pots of it, we just choose not to invest it in our sporting young.

Meanwhile, you may say that a proportion of the winning athletes in Beijing are dirty with dope and I would be inclined to agree.

The Jamaican and Chinese results are certainly suspect, especially the Jamaicans who don’t even have a dope testing programme in their own country and cleary do not frown upon the use out steroids outside of competition.


This even makes you wonder about the likes of Yussain Bolt?

For a clean Irish Olympian to have to endured pitiful training programmes and miserable financial aid and then to have to watch performance enhanced athletes win countless medals must be heart breaking. To have to endure Martin Cullen waltzing round premier class on his flight to Beijing while the Olympians wallowed in the cheap seats, must have been the last straw.

Prev - Next >>
 
User Rating: / 1
PoorBest 
Share:
Digg
Delicious
NewsVine
Reddit
Technorati
YahooMyWeb
Spurl
< Prev   Next >
[ Back ]

Custom Search