The Streets of Edinburgh were lined the other day to welcome home some sporting heroes. Its been a long time since anyone said that. Cyclist and triple gold medal winner Chris Hoy led a small band of Scottish Olympians who, as part of the British Olympic team have recorded one of the best medal performances in recent memory. their position of 4th in the overall medal table was a fantastic achievement and a huge improvement on the last Olympic games.
However Chris Hoy, who now can claim the title ‘Scotland’s Greatest Ever Olympian’ has hit out at politicians who he feels are using his success for their own political ends. Poor Chris, that third medal had hardly settled round his neck before the cries of ‘we should have our own Olympic team’ came pouring out of Holyrood. He was absolutely right to put those same politicians right on a few points.
1. He would never have won three medals at Bejing as one was a team medal and they WERE NOT all Scots
2. If Scotland is so committed to his sport, why are the closing down cycling facilities?
The fact is that the politicians in Holyrood are all too ready to use Hoy for whatever their agenda happens to be but the simple truth is that without the facilities open to his use south of the border he would not have had the same success. Funding for sport in Scotland is totally inadequate and before anyone even thinks about a Scottish Olympic team they need to inject a serious amount of effort into sport north of the border at school level.
Team GB can show an example to our more followed national sports; football and Rugby. the funding and commitment and drive to improve over the last 4 years has taken them to where they are now. Are our national sports getting the same treatment? no. OK we are now only one place behind England in the Fifa rankings after the nightmare days of Berti & Co but we are still in the position of crossing fingers and touching wood for the next round of qualifiers. Our national rugby team has seen some good world cup and 6 nation performances over the last few years but also some real lows too. The same mind set needs to be applied.
Dont get me wrong, I’m as proud to be Scottish as anyone I know and would love to see a Scotland team, just in the same way that its great to see the British Lions hump the All Blacks but id go BANANNAS if Scotland did it. but until Big Eck and his cronies start doing more than bumping their gums doon the Royal Mile then its a pipe dream at best.
Well done to Team GB (and especially the Scots contingent) lets see more of the same!