BACK TO BASICS ?..

Yesterday there were yet more fanfares as it marked 100 days until the Olympic Games begin in London.   And for the occasion, we had the announcement of the `Olympic Slogan` - "Inspire a Generation" - very inspiring!   We also had the unveiling of the floral Olympic Rings at Kew Gardens, which I`m sure look very nice but can only really be seen from a plane on an approach path to Heathrow.

Now I don`t know about you, but I`m getting a bit fed up with the Olympics already even at the distance of 99 days now from when it all kicks off.   I`m not so much fed up with the Olympic Games - a wonderful tradition going back to ancient Greece - but more with all the stuff that goes on around it.   The elusive `legacy,` the pretentious `art` events, the daft logo, the razzmatazz, the hullabaloo, the privileges of the usual suspects, the nonsensical notion that as the Games will be held in London then the rest of the UK will benefit, the tacky `merchandise`....and so on.

As to the success of our competitors at the myriad events, well of course I wish them well, although I suspect that, like being a Saints fan, it`s always the hope that kills you.   But even if you strip away all the frills, fancies and irrelevancies that surround the competition itself, the original concept of the Olympic Games went out of the window years ago.   What started off as a contest for running, jumping, throwing things and the odd bit of pugilism has now become a grotesque parade of just about every `sport` you can imagine, the vast majority of which would never have crossed the minds of the ancient Greeks.

We`ll have the make believe football competition, the pseudo-tennis competition, beach volleyball, taekwondo, BMX bike riding, handball and some even more obscure pastimes.  I suppose, like the Premier League, it`s all about exposure, television audiences, marketing opportunities, advertising - in short, it`s all about the money, especially as it`s costing us UK taxpayers some £11billion.   And as it now seems the fashion for each Olympics to outdo the one that`s just been held, I can see no end to this mad commercial pursuit, masquerading as the Olympic ideal.

The truth, of course, is that the only way to reverse this crazy spiral is for the original Olympic ideal to be resurrected, to go back to a competition which is restricted to running, jumping, throwing things and the odd bit of pugilism and where better to have it than Olympia where it all began all those centuries ago?   After all, whilst  the Greeks are impossibly in debt, the rest of the world should remember it`s indebtedness to them and get back to the basics of what Olympic competition should really be about.