Then team GB turned out to be really quite good. We won medals. I believe we are 3rd in the Medals Table, despite being a country with 1,281,498,000 less people than China and 248,950,197 people than the USA to draw our winning athletes from. And they are beginning to inspire a generation, although I think the re-appearance of the sun is also helping.
Yesterday, we went to Hyde Park to watch the women's Marathon Swim. Four laps of the freezing cold Serpentine, that's about 6 miles or about 400 lengths or my local swimming pool. They finished it in just under 2 hours. Based on my usual swimming rate (not that I've ever swum more than 70 lengths in one go) that would have taken me nearly 7 hours. I thought it was really exciting, although I was disappointed not to see anyone swimming breaststroke with their sticking above the surface so that their contact lenses don't wash out. There was some confusion about who was winning as the Hungary flag and Italian flag look very similar if you are not sure which way is up.
The top 5 swimmers, were miles ahead of everyone else and they included a British Woman, Kerrie-Anne Payne who delighted everyone on the banks of the Serpentine by coming 4th. I'm sure she'd have loved to get a medal but we were happy with such a strong placing.
Hyde Park was then filled with a generation or three who were inspired. As we walked around the park we saw children practising long jumps in the sand bridleway, blissfully unaware that there was horse poo in there somewhere. There were toddlers swimming in the the ponds and fountains. We saw little boys wrestling, being refereed and coached by their dad. People all over the park were discussing whether they would or even could swim the course they had just seen, even my son who is convinced that if we keep practising we could get to 400 lengths in one go quite soon.
We were home in time to see Bolt stroll to victory and two GB women get gold medals in sports I find very difficult to watch. I have a personal aversion to watching people get hurt. I can't quite see the sport in trying to kick someone in the head. I said to my daughter, "GB have another 2 gold medals, there's some scary women out there." Having brought her up as a proper feminist she immediately said, "Why is it scary because they're women?" Confusion hit me for a while and then I realised how it might have sounded. "No, they're scary because they're good - they win gold medals and the British men haven't managed to do that yet."
First it was Nicola Adams, who was then interviewed by Gary Lineker, in patronising tones. He spoke to her like he was trying to encourage a schoolgirl who told him she liked to eat newts. He told her that she had a "beautiful smile" and virtually patted her on the head. There was an unspoken, "strange choice of sport for a girl, you'll never find a husband if you don't give up this silly idea that you can hit people. You'll frighten them all away but never mind you have a nice smile." The Long Suffering Husband thought he was patronising, I thought he is patronising to everyone and my daughter thought anyone would patronise her because she spoke like a little girl. But, whilst Gary Lineker does patronise everyone he wouldn't say that to a man, no matter how young he seemed.
Then it was Jade Jones, the Welsh Taekwondo gold medal winner. She was really bouncy and very good at kicking people in the head, a skill she couldn't learn in Wales and so had to be driven to Manchester by her Grandad. An article in the Independent about yesterday's Women's Marathon mentioned how Kerrie-Anne Payne had been driven to early morning training by Steve Parry. Would an article about a male athlete describe how they got to training? It is assumed that they are men and men can drive themselves but these poor little girls...well, they need someone to take them. What about all the mothers who take their sons and daughters to training, do they get mentioned in articles?
Then after Jade won the medal, she called her coach over, saying that he was a true inspiration and she couldn't have done it without him. I wish she had been able to. What a sexist pig. He was praising her strength and determination in training and he said something like, "She's brilliant, she trains so hard, she's just like a male athlete" Whoosh. It was like tumbleweed blew through our living room, we stood, slack-jawed incredulous and then the coach added, "There's still more she can do," and the Long Suffering Husband sarcastically said, "Yeah, like grow a penis!" I know that the men who live in this house have to be feminists to survive but it was brilliant to hear.
This morning there was a picture being shared on Facebook. It showed two men holding the Irish flag with these words written on them, "Katie Taylor, Olympic Champion, The only woman Irish men fear more than their Mammy" This is funny but is it also just a little bit sexist? Would the same be said of a male boxer?
This year's Olympics has featured women's boxing for the first time, had a woman competitor from Iran and seen the GB women's football team playing matches of staggeringly better quality than the men. This should be something to celebrate. If it important to discuss Jessica Ennis' stomach then the newspapers should be running pages about the nicely toned asses of the male gymnasts (I'd buy it!) If If we inspire a generation to do anything it should be to celebrate everyone's success equally.
First it was Nicola Adams, who was then interviewed by Gary Lineker, in patronising tones. He spoke to her like he was trying to encourage a schoolgirl who told him she liked to eat newts. He told her that she had a "beautiful smile" and virtually patted her on the head. There was an unspoken, "strange choice of sport for a girl, you'll never find a husband if you don't give up this silly idea that you can hit people. You'll frighten them all away but never mind you have a nice smile." The Long Suffering Husband thought he was patronising, I thought he is patronising to everyone and my daughter thought anyone would patronise her because she spoke like a little girl. But, whilst Gary Lineker does patronise everyone he wouldn't say that to a man, no matter how young he seemed.
Then after Jade won the medal, she called her coach over, saying that he was a true inspiration and she couldn't have done it without him. I wish she had been able to. What a sexist pig. He was praising her strength and determination in training and he said something like, "She's brilliant, she trains so hard, she's just like a male athlete" Whoosh. It was like tumbleweed blew through our living room, we stood, slack-jawed incredulous and then the coach added, "There's still more she can do," and the Long Suffering Husband sarcastically said, "Yeah, like grow a penis!" I know that the men who live in this house have to be feminists to survive but it was brilliant to hear.
This morning there was a picture being shared on Facebook. It showed two men holding the Irish flag with these words written on them, "Katie Taylor, Olympic Champion, The only woman Irish men fear more than their Mammy" This is funny but is it also just a little bit sexist? Would the same be said of a male boxer?
This year's Olympics has featured women's boxing for the first time, had a woman competitor from Iran and seen the GB women's football team playing matches of staggeringly better quality than the men. This should be something to celebrate. If it important to discuss Jessica Ennis' stomach then the newspapers should be running pages about the nicely toned asses of the male gymnasts (I'd buy it!) If If we inspire a generation to do anything it should be to celebrate everyone's success equally.
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