The Curse of the Midas Touch?
Posted: Friday 22 August, 2008
Claire MacDonald
I hate to say it, but am I the only one not caught up in Gold Olympic fever?
Pete has been ranting away on our sister blog site http://punchcommunications.prblogs.org about the merit of lottery funding to our team, the BBC is seeing its best rating figures in two years after its extensive coverage, and the news is full of Jamaica's speed machine, Usain Bolt and his (frankly insane) record breaking 200m dash.
Now, I know this is all very exciting and the people involved are enjoying massive personal achievements but, I can't help but feel for the people who crash and burn during this terrifically high pressured event.
Paula Radcliffe has enjoyed Olympic success before, but after a year of injury it was painful to watch her limp across the finish line 6 minutes after the Gold winner and 17 minutes after her own record breaking time of past. She has vowed to continue her career in order to compete in London 2012 and I wish her well but it pains me to see such disappointment and anguish coming from such a hard working athlete who clearly needs to win.
Frustration and disappointment was also written across the face of Katherine Grainger, the senior member of the women's quadruple skull team after receiving her third silver medal in the event. To me, a silver medal at the Olympics is so far out of reach it seems unbelievable to be disappointed with the honour, but in the immortal words of her crew mate Annie Vernon who said post race- "I feel so empty - if we can't do it now, when will we do it?" it appears that nothing but gold will do.
Vernon's' words describe the feeling of every athlete falling short of the high expectations of the Olympics, as a country, we share their disappointment but quickly forget and move on to the next event and the excitement it brings. Perhaps we should all spend a little more time thinking about the pressures the games present and applauding the efforts taken instead of focusing entirely on our total medal count.
