Is John Major really the ultimate architect of our Olympic success?

[the right footed denilson]

Who was the last England cricket captain to go to a state senior school?

Freddie Flintoff probably?
9 out of the 12 players used in our Ashes winning squad of 2005 were state-educated. Now i'm guessing it'd just be Root, Stokes, Anderson and Ali. What that means though...?(Perhaps that you have better chance of making it as a cricketer from a poorer background if you are from the Midlands and the North, where city/town cricket is much more visible)
Feels like a huge number of the Olympic team were privately educated.

 

[coagulantwolf]

Someone made a good point on tv this morning.

Lottery funding has facilitated great olympians that our country is rightly proud of.

But all of the SKY money (vastly more than the lottery) has not improved the British football teams.

It's where the money is invested that is key. Football has not invested Sky's money at all well.

 

[drew]

I totally agree with everything you say but I keep seeing this and am baffled. My kids are at school - one primary and one secondary - and there's plenty of competitive sport. It seems that every second week, they're involved in some match or another. And I know from FB posts, that friends in other parts of the country have kids involved in competitive games. Where are these schools were competitive sports are banned?

It's certainly true that there are no leagues in club sports until kids are older. You don't play in cricket leagues until you're in Year 6 and don't play in rugby leagues until Year 7 but that's because the sports want to develop skills rather than have a 'must win' mentality. But I've not heard of uncompetitive schools

Agree. The often repeated cliche about no competitive sport is rubbish, well at least here in Sussex. At Junior school my daughter was competing against other schools at netball, cricket, athletics, football etc. As for selling off sports grounds, I be interested to see where the last school sports ground was sold!

 

[The Albion Roar]

John Major was the Prime Minister at the time of the founding of the National Lottery and the Atlanta games, but the minister in charge of what was the fore-runner of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (the Secretary of State for National Heritage) was Stephen Dorrell, followed by Virginia Bottomley.

The Lottery Funding was of course vital to the improvement of Team GB's performances. Our record at Atlanta evidently sent alarm bells running through UK sport, and with the new fangled lottery which had started 18 months earlier, there was an opportunity to fund major improvements.

However, these things don't happen overnight. We got 11 golds in Sydney, followed by what was considered a relative failure of just nine in Athens. It's great for sports to receive funding, but it has to be channeled correctly, getting the right people in place, putting together the right programmes. Swimming and rowing are clearly beneficiaries of that.

So is John Major the architect? Hmm, no. Sport is seen as a folly to some politicians, so it's good he presented the idea while Prime Minister, but it's not as though he put everything together in the way an architect would.

If I was forced to more credit (certainly not all the credit) any given government politician for the increase of awareness and improvement in GB's success, I would probably look more to Tessa Jowell. She continued to press the National Lottery and the Treasury for greater funding into sports - albeit not always successfully. She proposed London's bid to Cabinet when there was little support for it, and led the bidding process, and became a champion of the build up, retaining the Olympics portfolio even after she moved out of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

 

[Norman Potting]

Agree. The often repeated cliche about no competitive sport is rubbish, well at least here in Sussex. At Junior school my daughter was competing against other schools at netball, cricket, athletics, football etc. As for selling off sports grounds, I be interested to see where the last school sports ground was sold!

Same here, usually said by the sort of folk who regularly spout things like "...kids today have it really easy...."

 

[Lankyseagull]

... War in the middle East
Trouble with Europe
Financial meltdown
Political sleaze
Tory party infighting.

Are you Billy Joel in disguise?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTLKWw542g

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

I bet Edwina had a Major input too.

View attachment 77320

peas are lovely Norma
regards
DR

 

[Wozza]

But all of the SKY money (vastly more than the lottery) has not improved the British football teams.

It hasn't done much for Scottish football, that's for sure...

 

[Murray 17]

Ah John Major, those were the days...


... War in the middle East
Trouble with Europe
Financial meltdown
Political sleaze
Tory party infighting.


It seems like only yesterday.

...and the 'star' of Spitting Image!

 

[Murray 17]

Why settle for second place in the table. I am proud of all our sportsmen/women well done.

I was saying this morning that, bearing in mind the USA has 5 times our population, and China 20 times, if you were to work out a medal:head of population ratio, GB would be streets ahead of everyone else.

 

[mona]

Who was the last England cricket captain to go to a state senior school?

Michael Vaughan.

 

[dazzer6666]

It's where the money is invested that is key. Football has not invested Sky's money at all well.

...and how. The lottery cash is allocated sport-by-sport very rigorously, based on submitted plans and against hugely demanding performance targets. Funding is reduced/cut altogether if the targets aren't met.

Football lobs tens of millions at teams that get relegated.

 

[jonny.rainbow]

I was saying this morning that, bearing in mind the USA has 5 times our population, and China 20 times, if you were to work out a medal:head of population ratio, GB would be streets ahead of everyone else.

Interestingly, if you are judging by medals per capita, team GB are only 19th in the world behind such powerhouses as Grenada, the Bahamas and Fiji.

http://www.medalspercapita.com/

 

[Dr Q]

Hasn't done much for cricket, has it? Cricket at state schools is very much the exception rather than the rule. Cricket has virtually disappeared from mainstream TV, apart from highlights on Channel 5. And crucially, ask yourselves this: when did you last see a group of kids (or a group of lads) playing an informal game of cricket, just one set of stumps, or even a pile of clothes, no umpires or anything like that, in a public space or park?
Thinking back, I honestly can't remember when I last saw that. Cricket is in a parlous state.

I drive through Roundhay Park in Leeds every evening, and this time of year, if its not raining, there are 3 or informal games going on. Interestingly though, they are all Asian lads playing it.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

The reason we came second is that most sensible countries have greater priorities than to see how far up a table their athletes can get once every four years. Like the money that goes to Sky - it ends up being frittered away on a relatively few sportsmen and women. Whilst it's all very nice to have the best athletes in the world and the best premier league in the world (if you believe all the hype), there is so much wrong in our country that could be improved by a redirection of some of this money.

 

[Murray 17]

Interestingly, if you are judging by medals per capita, team GB are only 19th in the world behind such powerhouses as Grenada, the Bahamas and Fiji.

http://www.medalspercapita.com/

Wow, didn't know that!

Perhaps we should send a delegation to Grenada to find out their secret! Don't suppose they'll be a shortage of volunteers!

 

[Mo Gosfield]

You can throw all the money in the world at certain sports but until success comes along, you won't get it off the ground. Kids are excited and motivated by seeing their own countrymen/women achieve success. They immediately want to participate in those sports or join the relevant clubs.The lottery funding took a little time to start showing any results because British sport didn't immediately start appointing world class coaches. It needed a breakthrough and British rowing provided it by appointing the finest coach in the world, Jurgen Groebbler. British rowing was transformed from the Pinsent/Redgrave show into multiple medal winners at the highest level. Cycling followed suit with Dave Brailsford and the science of marginal gains and now we lead the world in cycling, with a future pipeline full of youngsters, ready to fill the current champions shoes.
The funds came from the lottery but the real inspiration and kickstart was Jurgen Groebbler and British rowing.

 

[chaileyjem]

Someone made a good point on tv this morning.

Lottery funding has facilitated great olympians that our country is rightly proud of.

But all of the SKY money (vastly more than the lottery) has not improved the British football teams.

Yes. But how much of the Sky/BT money is spent on British footballers let alone grassroots facilities and coaching.

 

[clippedgull]

Yes. But how much of the Sky/BT money is spent on British footballers let alone grassroots facilities and coaching.

That is exactly the point. Clubs are paying their players far too much and not investing enough in home grown talent. Can't see it changing anytime soon.

 

[skipper734]

Cycling started to wake up after the 2002 Commonwealth games in Manchester. There was at last a facility with which to practice excellence.