By Lindsay Ash
I’VE never really understood people who don’t like sport. It has always been my main love, but I know there are those that don’t. My ex in-laws were very much in that camp and I remember being at their house when the Olympic final between Coe and Ovett was taking place and I inquired whether it would be possible to turn the box on and watch it. This was greeted with a loud tut and a “If you have to, how long is it on for?” My reply of “around three and half minutes” was, of course, lost on them.
I’m sorry to say, though, just as the sports haters thought it was safe to come out from under the bed following discussions on which way Jimmy grips his balls to get them to swing, Carlos serves better when he has new ones, Rice likes square ones and Rory just wants them in the hole from three feet…
We move on to that great festival of sport that has far less involvement with balls but will have the TV experts (sports commentators, by the way, not male experts in the wearing of women’s clothing) out discussing the merits of hitting people on the head with sticks, whether or not Jack the electrician from Penrith was robbed of a double sushi and teriyaki in the Judo by the Italian judge, and whether a greater degree of difficulty than a double pike should have been attempted.
Where times have really changed in the BBC’s presentation is that we actually win something.
In Augusta in 1996, we won just one gold medal. In those days we all got very excited at winning a bronze and commentators would fill you with hope. “Great news from the gymnastics,” you’d be told and you’d sit up in your chair, only to slump down as you’d hear: “Karen Splits has come 25th in the beam, the highest placing for a British gymnast in 50 years.” Nowadays, we spin (hopefully) from one glorious British triumph to another.
Having got a bit of a response to my British football team, I thought in readiness for the Olympics I’d select my five greatest Olympians for you to debate. This is even tougher than the football, as you have so many sports… Anyway, here goes:
1. Jesse Owens: For me, this was easy because not only did Owens win four gold medals ( the 100m, 200m, long jump and relay) he did it in Berlin in front of Adolf Hitler in 1936. Hitler was using the Olympics as very much a propaganda tool to showpiece the might of his Aryan Germany.
With his mighty performances, Owen shot the theory to ribbons. Hitler didn’t present Owens with his medal, but later Owens said that Hitler didn’t snub him, but the US President had by not even sending a telegram of congratulations. Although a later US President, Jimmy Carter, did issue a tribute to Owens upon his death: “Perhaps no athlete better symbolised the human struggle against tyranny, poverty and racial bigotry.”
2. Carl Lewis: Lewis was a phenomenon, winning nine gold medals across four Olympics. He also equalled Owens’s record of winning the 100m, 200m, long jump and relay.
3. Olga Korbut: Although she won three gold medals at the infamous Munich games of 1972, she was not the best all-round gymnast. Her countrywoman Tourischeva was, and in 1976 Comeneci and Nellie Kim were, but like Sterling Moss, she became the name and image of her sport (“Who do you think you are? Olga Korbut?” if someone took a tumble).
At a time when the Soviet bloc was perceived as soulless automatons, she was anything but, with charisma oozing out of every bit of her petite 5ft frame. She inspired a generation to take up the sport.
4. Emil Zatopek: Perhaps now the least known of the five and why I have devoted the most words to him and his amazing achievement.
He was not an immediate enthusiast of running but while working in a shoe factory, the Czech was told by the factory sports coach that he was to run in a race. He didn’t wish to but on commencing the race he felt that he wanted to win. He didn’t come first, but out of a field of 100 he came second. This fuelled his interest, and having joined a local athletics club and trained seriously, within four years he had broken several Czech records.
By 1948, he was selected for the Czech Olympic team and won the 10k and finished second in the 5k. However, it was to be in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki that he had his finest hour – or to be more accurate, hours.
He first won the 5k and then the 10k. Then he decided at the last minute to run in the marathon. This was a distance and race he had never previously attempted, but he won and set an Olympic record in the process. In 1966, he hosted the great Australian Ron Clarke when he raced in Prague. Zatopek was Clarke’s idol and he emulated him in many records, but despite holding those many world records Clarke never won Olympic gold. At the end of the visit in a wonderful act of generosity, Zatopek gave Clarke one of his 1952 Olympic medals.
5. Sir Steve Redgrave: While I felt it was important to include a British athlete in any list, it’s hard to deny Redgrave his place in the list.
Not only is he the only person to have won five gold medals in an endurance sport at five different games, but he won in three different rowing events, coxed four, coxless pair and coxed pair. He was also lucky to win his fifth after winning Britain’s only gold in Atlanta, as he had given anyone carte blanche to shoot him if they saw him go near a boat again.
So I hope these names provide food for thought. As for my own favourite Olympic moment, it was when my daughter persuaded me to put in for the 2012 Olympic ballot and she, my son and I were honoured to be sitting in the Olympic Stadium on 4 August 2012, otherwise known as “Super Saturday”.
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Lindsay Ash was Deputy for St Clement between 2018 and 2022, serving as Assistant Treasury and Home Affairs Minister under Chief Minister John Le Fondré. He worked in the City of London for 15 years as a futures broker before moving to Jersey and working in the Island’s finance industry from 2000. Feedback welcome on Twitter @Getonthelash2.
