Bicycle Race
Unexpected side effect of BBC iPlayer - I have been entranced by the cycling World Championships, and have caught up on all the highlights of Team GB hoovering up the golds. I yield to few people in my capacity for watching sport (apparently people complained about the BBC showing three rugby matches in the same day recently - what's that all about?) but that usually means large quantities of cricket and rugby; a bit of football is good, even the American version; and perhaps a bit of boxing, rowing, tennis, or athletics; if it's late and I've had a drink, maybe even some darts or snooker. But rarely cycling.
However, some sports come into their own when there's a proper event going on (Olympics for choice) because the competitors are properly invested in it; and as I still can't be doing with rhythmic gymnastics, that often means that the best major championships to watch are the cycling and the swimming. There's something truly impressive about the sheer mechanical bloody-mindedness required to grind out the laps of the velodrome or the lengths of the pool (knowing that this is the one occasion on which you're going to be judged by the vast majority of the ignorant populace such as me) which I find very rewarding, possibly because it's clear that when someone puts in the sort of performance required to win the title, in a sport which is minority in terms of its coverage, but still demands that you train as hard as the human body will take, that they've had to work for it far more than some Premiership footballer show pony, and they deserve my applause.
This is what I want in my sporting heroes - don't just be flashy; be so far, far beyond me that I can be properly impressed.
However, some sports come into their own when there's a proper event going on (Olympics for choice) because the competitors are properly invested in it; and as I still can't be doing with rhythmic gymnastics, that often means that the best major championships to watch are the cycling and the swimming. There's something truly impressive about the sheer mechanical bloody-mindedness required to grind out the laps of the velodrome or the lengths of the pool (knowing that this is the one occasion on which you're going to be judged by the vast majority of the ignorant populace such as me) which I find very rewarding, possibly because it's clear that when someone puts in the sort of performance required to win the title, in a sport which is minority in terms of its coverage, but still demands that you train as hard as the human body will take, that they've had to work for it far more than some Premiership footballer show pony, and they deserve my applause.
This is what I want in my sporting heroes - don't just be flashy; be so far, far beyond me that I can be properly impressed.