Wednesday 23 March 2011

The clock's stopped


It seems to be getting to the stage whereby the Olympics are finally on the horizon, or they were, until the clock stopped in Trafalgar square. Anyhow, luckily it wasn’t Bernard’s watch and the countdown continues to what promises to be an eventful summer of 2012.

I wonder if Bernard was still around on children’s TV what exactly he would wish for. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the fictional British television programme, Bernard, the star character, used to have a magical pocket watch that stopped time whenever he liked. Good old Bernard went round committing good deeds and helping out the community, taking on adventurous missions like saving builder’s from falling ladders. Watching the show as a kid I always thought if I was Bernard, I might have felt tempted every now and again to use my magical watch to win a running race at school, or maybe score the winning goal of a football match.

Some athletes however, such as Zoe Smith, are good enough at sport not to rely on a magical watch to excel in sport. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the sporting phenomenon that is Weightlifting, Zoe is the child prodigy that swept her way to a Commonwealth bronze in Delhi last year, no mean feat alone, but considering she is only sixteen this achievement is remarkable.

In December Smith had her personal Olympic funding suspended (apparently Commonwealth medals aren’t that much of an achievement for 16 year olds) by weightlifting's governing body after being deemed overweight. She was also accused of showing a poor attitude towards training. However, she was subsequently reinstated on full funding in February, following what British Weight Lifting described as a "powerful performance" at the Tri-Nations competition in Norway.

The damaging message that these governing bodies send out is that they seem to think they can dictate the lives of enthusiastic young athletes based on judging someone’s body type and their supposed attitude. It was revealed this week that Zoe has quit college to focus full time on training to fulfil her Olympic dream despite saying "It was a hard decision as I have always aspired to go to university".

How far do we want to push these young athletes before we say enough is enough, I mean it would be fantastic to Zoe win gold next year but then what?! I imagine in 2013 she’ll say oh hang on I can’t do anything else because the guys funding me thought it was a good idea that I quit education and sacrificed my social life to train. I’m not suggesting that we compromise on being one of the greatest sporting nations in the world, but there needs to be some balance as to respecting the lives of young athletes. They are human beings and they need to stop being treated like disposable items made on a production line.

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