Don't Let The Kids Out Of The House!

Amid all the hysteria (not all of it correctly judged in my opinion) of the recent spate of stabbings up and down the country, the events in China during the Olympics have shown that perhaps we should be changing our attitudes towards the problems of youth crime and ever growing obesity among our young persons.

Look at the events we have excelled at during the first week: horse eventing, cycling, rowing, sailing, archery and swimming. What do the first four on that list have in common? They are all 'sports' that are competed at from a sitting position, who needs to get out and exercise when you can sit yourself down on a exercise bike, rowing machine, Wi-exerciser and become Olympic champion without leaving the house? It keeps the feral youth of the streets, instills some healthy competition and produces more Olympic champions for 2012 - voila.

On a slightly less frivolous note it has been a great week during, what one of my colleagues referred to as, 'white' Olympics. Get to the end of the first week and the start of the athletics and the competition gets noticeably less white and more track and field based.

I've watched the sailing, cycling and rowing events and it was during our fours victory on Saturday morning that I find myself in a slightly surreal position. I was down the gym, where one of the T.V's was tuned to BBC 1 and stopped my exercise to watch the last five hundred metres or so. The woman behind me was on a cross trainer and the combination of her exertions coupled with the television pictures of our crew battling with the Aussies resulted in twenty seconds or so of slightly breathless cries of "Yes, Yes, oh go on, yes that's it, come on push," from the woman in question - it was like being at the gym with Meg Ryan.

The Men's 100 metres final was one of the great races in Olympic history, for anybody to run that fast, look so relaxed and have something left in the tank was quite extraordinary. The Women's 100 Metres final was just as exciting with Jamaica claiming a clean sweep of medals, one gold and two silver - all down apparently to the intake of banana dumplings.

The only dark cloud on the horizon has been Paula Radcliffe who once again has failed to win the Olympic gold medal she has so badly craved. Injuries are one of those things that all athletes dread and having suffered a serious injury in May it was a bit much to ask for her to be t her competitive best.

I haven't gone out of my way to watch any of the events over the past week, if I've been in front of the television when they've taken place then I've stayed put and watched them. I guess that's another sign of growing old, the need or desire to be part of the Olympic 'event' hasn't had quite the same pull, in fact apart from wanting to see Michael Johnson do the double at Atlanta the last time I paid any attention to the Olympic Event timetable was back in 1992.