Nicole Cook, from the world of cycling and Andy Priaulx, a champion in motor sport, are the first to spring to mind.
Both compete in disciplines that are only sporadically covered by the mainstream media, and the specialist press is not a lot better. Motor sport, well, Formula One gets plenty of column inches, with headlines and front covers regularly devoted to Jenson Button - who as I write has won but a single race. Road cycling has writers slavering over the Tour de France or a drugs scandal. Outside this, there is little coverage for sports in which competitors from the UK have a long and illustrious history of success.
During the ludicrous contest that was the BBC: "Sports Personality of the Year" , Andy Priaulx did not even make it to the short-list despite being a double World Champion. Nicole Cook was made to look insipid during the interviews because the BBC didn't bother to provide an interviewer who knew or cared anything about her sport.
Bradley Wiggins is an international success as a track and road cyclist, the first Englishman since Chris Boardman to finish a Tour de France and yet is virtually unknown here in the UK. Mark Cavendish, a World and European Champion in Track Cycling in 2005 when a mere 20 year old, has been signed by one of the most successful teams on the Pro-Tour. When did you last hear of him?
It is, in some ways, a complete farce because of all the sports this country ploughs lottery money into, the one that is outstandingly successful is cycling. Recently we won World Medals across the board and yet there was virtually no press coverage. Pages and pages are devoted every week to football: the Premiership, Champions League, UEFA Cup and yet we are far more likely to succeed in world terms in cycling than we are even to qualify for Euro 2008.
I realise that we are dealing with a chicken and egg situation: the public thirsts for stories of footballers and other high-profile sports people, on and off the pitch, court or park. The press has to take note of the demand and feed the fever. It is not the responsibility of the journalists to encourage support for lesser-publicised sports, but, if these sports get no coverage, how can the public begin to appreciate and enjoy the success this country has and will go on, producing?
I've only looked at two disciplines here: cycling and a small part of the world of motor-sport but I've been able to find World Champions aplenty. I could cast my net further and find champions in at least 5 other sports.
Do we, here at home, only take note of winners when they get column inches? Surely medals and wins are what should count?
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62 comments:
Allright, who wants to be the first to suggest that Steve McClaren should get on his bike?
Oh, sorry.
Although I tend to follow the TdF, and track racing during the Olympics, I admit I don't really pay cycling any attention otherwise.
Are the media merely reflecting the general lack of interest by not providing more coverage, or is the general lack of interest due to the lack of media coverage? I can't really argue conclusively for either, although I suspect that even were all the national papers to devote an entire two-page spread to cycling every day, we wouldn't see a massive increase in the sport's popularity.
One thing that always intrigued me was how tennis came to be the sole sport where the womens game can really match the popularity of the mens. It would be interesting to see the relative popularity and media coverage of the mens vs. womens games over the years to see if it can shed any light on the argument.
There are a hell of a lot of unsung gurning world champs out there.
Gurngrass
mimi, I sympathise with your position, and of course they deserve more coverage, but I don't think it's true that increased coverage would mean increased general interest. I don't know how to say it other than: people like what they like.
Champions in minority sports get their moment of fame and recognition at the Olympics, when national pride is considered to be at stake. You just can't, however, dedicate even half a page of the sports section in a national newspaper to cycling, because people won't read it. Keep prinitng it and they'll keep ignoring it.
i'd agree there are probably some great stories out there, but that can apply to most fields - business, music, film. art house v Hollywood.
as for chicken and egg: we had John Currie, Robin Cousins and Torville & Deane, yet who the farg is bothered about ice skating now? win the TdF, then more people might take notice. then win it for the next 5 years.
Sorry mimi. I don't are how many medals or championships someone has won for curling or netball, I don't like them and won't watch them even if they do wear tight shorts. I love the Tour as a spectacle but don't really care who wins. Football, basketball, handball, athletics, rugby and cricket will do for me. Sorry...
tony, don't apologise man. No doubt mimi is cooking up a particularly vicious haiku to put you in your place (see tonight's SA/Sri Lanka OBO).
andrew Haikus? I'll take that as a challenge. Then again, an OBO doesn't really ring my bell either. Shouldn't you be watching England or Scotland? I'm supporting Spain, though the pitch is pretty much unplayable...
tony, I never watch internationals, it's almost always dire. Sounds like I made the right choice in both cases tonight.
If you didn't read the OBO I'll tell you that mimi, Mouth and even GG were haikuing like nobody's business. Very entertaining.
Haiku:
Irate England fans/chant "McClaren's a banker"/When will he pay off?
GG
Haiku: a poem of seventeen syllables.
Or is it it eighteen?
Tony -
strictly speaking, 17 (5-7-5); some schools of haiku are more free.
GG
kind, or maybe not, of you to mention the haikus. My Kallis one got on OBO - with some faintly damning praise from Andy Bull (who I don't think likes me much) but they wouldn't put my Gerrard one up, so here it is for you lot:
Stephen Gerrard
Man of men
King of the Kop
Always for us
A god
Never done haikus before. Here goes, following mimi.
Lampard Junior
Wide of girth
Yesterday's man
Broken wrist
And heart
i don't think it's a real haiku but:
bloody nora
what's going on?
do this on the podcast thread
if you're 'men' enough
thank you dear greengrass,
you're never too old to learn:
except McClaren
Interesting article Mimi, and great haikus.
Here's one:
Ladies' curling team
Serious stuff in the North
Bit odd from down here
Here's Brian Lara.
Can he astound us again
Though he's quite old? Yes.
was it a rift?
was it his wrist?
I wonder why he left the team.
Toward the white post,see
Gerrard shooting as, he
Was inpired by a dream
On the pitch he followed all the balls
Scored for England, winner takes all.
Tony -
nice one! I didn't see your question was a haiku.
Greengrass.
Marcela, do you
imply that writing haikus
is effeminate?
Where is that Offside
cove when you need him on P
C to trade haikus?
Having rum, of course,
dreamily blowing smoke rings
at the blogosphere
England did so well,
coolly putting three goals past
a bunch of plumbers.
Where is everyone?
Are they stuck for words, or just
breakfasting in bed?
Once you get started
Expressing yourself this way
It is hard to stop
But I do feel that
My haikus should be much more
Poetic than this.
Just up. Nice haikus.
A lovely start to the day.
Shit, is that the time?
Work disrupts so much
The pleasures of sport and life
For me, not Offside
Back on topic, I'm always struck by the range of sports covered in Sweden's media and the interest apparent amongst the populace at large.
Wind the clock back 10 years and I'd have said that the explosion of sports coverage on TV through Sky, Eurosport and the access to so much info on the web would have produced a more catholic taste in the British sporting public. I would have been wrong.
Mouth -
come on, you're not suggesting that the Swedes are less myopic than the Brits, are you?
Swedish newspapers are extremely myopic - one devoted 14 pages to King Henrik's move to the Red Devils!
They write reams about that cissie ice-hockey "sport", but never a word about gurning...
GG
GG - You've written before of the joys of bandy! Horses, golf, hockey, athletics (idrott, if I remember correctly) home and overseas all seem to get acrse of space in Aftonbladet or whatever.
I find myself trying to separate the words into English, French and German to help understand a Swedish match report in Varmlands Tidning or something only to find out it's an Under 12 Football Tournament reported like the World Cup!
I meant acres in the last post - just my bum typing.
Mouth -
yes, but let's face it: nothing ever happens in Varmland (unless native son Sven Goran has a new fancy woman), so they print the lot.
gg
True GG True.
Back on topic, some minority sports still attract dedicated participants. From the today's GU headline below it's clear that wind tunnel testing for the boat race is very advanced and that the Cambridge crew are committed:
"Cambridge change cox for big race"
mouth
if your bum types so badly, why don't you try with your fingers?
Mouth: the Cambridge crew WILL be committed if they lose again this year!
Tony - That eminds me of the old line about the secretary who didn't have shorthand who said, "Do you mind if I use your dictaphone?" Reply - "No, use your finger like everyone else".
Mimi - Cambridge should be pleased that they have reached the Final.
mouth - oh yes, I used to love that one before it became obsolete. Was briefly tempted to sespond with another but it's too dangerous. I really have to do some work today...
Mouth -
the paper that printed 14 pages about King Henrik was Aftonbladet. Or maybe Expressen - I believe the other one only printed 11 pages.
Further myopia: Swedish interest in English sides closely follows transfer dealings. Ljungberg - as long as anybody thought he was any use, except as a dummy for knickers - gave Arsenal loads of fans. Henrik gave Celtic loads of fans, who all seemed to become first Barcelona fans, then Manchester United fans - I've never seen so many fans of the Red Devils in Swedish pubs as I have in the last few months! I wonder what they will find to do at weekends now?
Zlatan Ibrahimovic rekindled interest in
Eyetie footy: first Juventus gained loads of fans, now most have bought Inter jerseys. People I know who have never cared tuppence about footy are crying "Zlatan, Zlatan" - though they wouldn't be able to tell you the names of 2 or 3 of his team-mates.
The bottom line: they don't worship the game or the club, they worship the Swede wot done good.
I've seen some myopia in England, but nothing as extreme as that.
gg
GG - I saw that too and I remember being in Norway when Solksjaer signed and the same thing happening.
But I do think that there's a wide variety of sport covered in the Media (eg Women's football) and played by the populace.
Mouth -
sure, women's football has received a fair amount of coverage in recent years; the national side is one of the best in the world, which surely helps.
I'm looking forward to KIng Henrik's record of 14 pages being broken in the
not-too-distant-future. All it needs is for Elmander to go to the right English club - not a small club, but a club with history.
(Nudge, nudge).
gg
But Chelsea are ok for strikers now.
BD -
you're a courageous man!
gg
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