Saul on Sunday.
The fall out over the failure of the Russian Olympic team rumbles on. Vladimir Putin is calling for an investigation into the allocation of funds. http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100305/158106139.html
The head of the Olympic committee has already resigned and the sports minister is expected to follow him as well.
The Vancouver Games were Russia’s worst, with the team winning just three gold medals, five silver and seven bronze, and finishing 11th in the medal table.
Compare this to our reaction to abject failure. Amy Williams is given an open top bus tour, and rightly so. But what about all the rest? It costs a lot of money to send competitors, their coaches and numerous blazer clad hangers on to Vancouver. They have now returned and nothing has been said. It has become accepted that we will fail in the Winter Olympics; if that is the case then perhaps it is time to call a halt to this waste of money. Not to mention how much the BBC spent on televising this in the small hours of the morning to a very small television audience.
The BBC are under pressure to reduce spending at the moment, well here is a prime candidate to be cut.
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1
March 7, 2010 at 17:47 -
I love sport. But it’s not that important, right? Not important enough to throw money at so that in a size-comparison competition we might be a few inches longer.
I’m sure Putin and his ilk have better things to do. Actually, no, maybe he should stick to messing around with Olympic medal tables.
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2
March 7, 2010 at 17:48 -
What rubbish. They have a small audience because they are televised so late. Show them at the same time as a summer olympics and they’d score much better. Ice hockey is great to watch, the ski cross was fantastic, bobsleigh etc are terrific, all death defying, heart in the mouth stuff. The only let down is curling.
Compare this to the summer olympics where the “highlight” is several blokes running as fast as they can for 10 seconds. Or even worse the paralympics which receives full prime time coverage and no audience.
I know which should be cut. -
3
March 7, 2010 at 18:02 -
If we can’t even get road gritting done right why on earth should Britain be expected to win loads of medals at the Winter Olympics?
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4
March 7, 2010 at 19:57 -
Yes and fill the WINTER POT holes
Please, my sledge got stuck. -
5
March 7, 2010 at 19:58 -
So just hw much did it cost us Taxpayers, that solitary Gold Medal?
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6
March 7, 2010 at 20:28 -
Brian,
If you have to skeleton bob to the shops and cross country ski to get back it would surely help our chances.
I wonder how much benefits money gets spent on the national lottery.
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7
March 8, 2010 at 02:15 -
Alan,
Why bother when Waitrose deliver groceries.
Probably as much as quite a lot, if not more.
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