The Olympics used to be for the best amateur sports people in the world. Now it has lost its way and has become the preserve of rich, Western nations, says our political columnist Paul Routledge
Paris, the City of Love, hosts the biggest gold rush in history today. Fourteen thousand competitors are chasing hundreds of medals.
It’s medal mania, the love of gilded victory. The citizens of France’s capital city don’t find the athletes’ race for fame and fortune quite so romantic, amid virtual lockdown and terror threats. Parisians complain about being barred from their favourite streets, and restaurateurs report bookings are hugely down because tourists are staying away. Still, the half a million or so Brits travelling to support Team GB will bring a useful cash injection to the bars and bistros. It ain’t cheap over there. Nor is it to send our athletes.
Team GB, financed by £352million of public money, hopes for 50 gongs at least, which works out at around £7million a pop. Naturally, the “sitting down sports”, at which GB excels, get the lion’s share of the lolly: cycling nabs £27million, canoeing £12million, rowing £22million, equestrian £11million and sailing £22million.
These pastimes are the privilege of rich Western nations. I doubt if there are any velodromes in poorer African countries. They’re lucky if they can afford a pair of trainers. But my, how they run.
In my lifetime, the Olympics have gone from gifted amateur (and sometimes shamateur) status to professionalised big business. And, like everything taken over by big money, they’ve lost their original meaning. TV moguls pay billions to buy screen rights and rake in the advertising. Governments finance their teams in a global battle of one-upmanship. To rephrase a French saying: it may be war, but it isn’t sport.
Are we in the running for a First Fella?
Americans don’t have a Royal Family so they regalise the US presidency. He (it’s always been a he, so far) has a First Lady. So, what will they call her husband if Kamala Harris becomes the first woman in the White House as I fervently hope? First Fella? First Bloke? First Guy? First Dude? First Joe?
They’re already talking about him as First Gentleman, which is the correct equivalent of lady, but a bit of a mouthful. I can see it being shortened in everyday speech to First Gent, which smacks of lavatorial humour. By the way, Kamala says her name – Sanskrit for lotus flower – is pronounced “comma-la”.
Politicians should ‘just stop’ interfering
The great and the good protest at the five-year jail sentence on Just Stop Oil activist Roger Hallam for conspiring to block the M25. They demand a meeting with the Attorney General, Lord Hermer, presumably to unpick the court’s decision. He should resist the pressure. Politicians cannot interfere with the independence of the judiciary.
The Court of Appeal is the right place to hear objections to the verdict and sentence. Meanwhile, those of us whose lives were saved by paramedics in an ambulance speeding to intensive care might be forgiven for regarding this self-appointed saviour of the planet as a bloody nuisance, not a martyr.
Does Dulux come in white squirrel?
A rare white squirrel has been spotted bounding on the pavement in Ystrad Mynach, Caerphilly, Gwent. Blurry film of the tiny albino nutkin on BBC iPlayer lasts for only 17 seconds. It looks real, but I think the RSPCA should check local paint shops. People will do anything these days for a few moments of fame on Facebook.