#SaveOlympicWrestling fails to get my support

OK, OK. This blog is meant to be sticking up for smaller sports. I’m usually quite thIn particular, those of us who believe the modern Games should be returned permanently to their original homeland (and stripped thereby of some of the grosser excrescences of contemporary commercialisation) would want to keep wrestling firmly at their core.e traditionalist.

But I seem to be just about the only person who hasn’t reacted with sheer outrage to wrestling losing its place among the Olympic core sports in times for the XXXII Olympiad in 2020. Everyone from John McCain to this guy (quote below) has been attacking the decision:

“In particular, those of us who believe the modern Games should be returned permanently to their original homeland (and stripped thereby of some of the grosser excrescences of contemporary commercialisation) would want to keep wrestling firmly at their core.”

Really bad decision by the #IOC to drop wrestling – one of the oldest sports, around since the ancient Greeks. #Olympics

— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) February 13, 2013

I understand wrestling’s traditional roots, its links with the Olympics of ancient Greece. Unfortunately, I just find it really boring. This could be because Great Britain is just a bit rubbish at wrestling – both freestyle and Greco-Roman – but then again, I enjoyed the archery. Scratch that – I loved the archery.

Maybe I’m being selfish in not caring wrestling will have to fight it out with baseball/softball, squash, karate, climbing, wakeboarding, wushu and roller sports to be a part of the 2020 Olympics. Just because I’m not a fan, shouldn’t I fight the good fight on behalf of wrestlers?

Well, no. I admit it would probably be a travesty if baseball/softball, climbing, wakeboarding or roller sports took its place at the Games. I’ve never heard of wushu, but a quick Wikipedia search tells me its nuances are too complex for me to give a proper judgement as to its Olympic merits.

I have heard of karate, obviously, and I’m yet to be told why it isn’t in the Olympics but taekwondo and judo are. And they were fun, unlike the wrestling!

No, if I was an IOC delegate in September casting a vote as to which sport to take to the Games in seven years’ time, I’d vote – I assume it’s as straightforward as that – for squash. Good sport, a darn side more international than wushu and, I daresay, wrestling.

And if, as reports suggest, it was one of wrestling, taekwondo or modern pentathlon which would be ditched, the choice, for me, turns into a total no-brainer.

Farewell to a legend as Esther Vergeer retires

Has there ever been a better sportsperson than Esther Vergeer? The Dutch wheelchair tennis player, who is unbeaten in 470 matches dating back to January 2013, today announced her retirement from the sport at the age of 31.

I first came across Vergeer while I was covering the Paralympics in the summer. At London 2012, she won her fourth consecutive gold medal in the singles, winning all six matches in straight sets and allowing her opponents to win just seven games between them all tournament.

She has won an incredible 21 major singles titles since her first such success at the 2004 Australian Open. Wheelchair tennis only has three annual major tournaments: Wimbledon has doubles events but not singles (in any case, she won three ladies’ doubles events at SW12 between 2009 and 2011).

Her career record was 687 wins from 712 matches, a winning record of more than 96 per cent.

Vergeer has also been number one in the world for what is surely an unprecedented (in any sport) 14 consecutive years.

And she seems pretty cool as well:

“I think as an athlete it’s probably one of the best compliments you can get, if somebody gets inspired by you to go and play sports, or to get a better life or to change their lives. And so I feel proud that I’m in that position.”

UPDATE: Jahangir Khan, of Pakistan, won 555 consecutive squash games in the 1980s. Which leads nicely into a forthcoming post…

The Harbaughs: the latest great sporting siblings

The Baltimore Ravens’ upset win over the New England Patriots in Massachusetts on Sunday night not only allowed Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh to exact revenge for a painful loss there at the same stage last season.

Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh. Photo: Flickr, Keith Allison

San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh. Photo: Flickr, Football Schedule

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It also meant he would take his side to arguably the biggest game in sport – the Super Bowl. Their opponents? The San Francisco 49ers, coached by a certain Jim Harbaugh.

For the Harbaugh brothers’ parents (continuing the alliterative theme, their names are Jack and Jackie), this squabble, in what has already been dubbed the “HarBowl”, could be hard to contain.

But it is hardly the first time siblings have lined up against each other on the biggest stage of all:

Venus and Serena Williams

It must be hard to be upstaged by your younger sibling, but that is what Venus, herself a legend of the sport, has had to endure. Serena, younger by a year and three months, has won 15 grand slams to her sister’s seven, and has triumphed in six of their eight encounters in grand slam finals. But they get on well enough as perhaps the most successful doubles pairing of all time, adding a third Olympic gold to their collection at London 2012.

Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee

The sight of the Yorkshire brothers sharing the top step of the London 2012 triathlon podium warmed the hearts of Team GB fans, after a hard-fought triathlon in which Alistair, the elder brother, won gold, with Jonathan claiming bronze (after collapsing at the finish, much to his brother’s obvious dismay) behind Javier Gomez of Spain.

Jonny was then crowned world triathlon champion in New Zealand in October, although Ali was unable to take part.

Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko

When Wladimir, the younger by nearly five years, beat Britain’s David Haye in July 2011, it ensured the Ukrainian brothers held all four major belts – those of the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO – between them. Vitali is often regarded as a better fighter than Wladimir, but the theories will not be substantiated: the brothers have vowed never to fight one another.

Others

To be honest, these were pretty much the first three pairs of siblings who came into my head when thinking about sporting success. Since, I’ve thought of a few more who might deserve a paragraph or two of their own:

Steve and Mark Waugh

Michael and Ralf Schumacher

Peyton and Eli Manning

Bobby and Jack Charlton

Rory and Tony Underwood

Mauro and Mirco Bergamasco?

Gavin and Scott Hastings??

BBC Sports Personality of the Year: vote David Weir

The importance, or otherwise, of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, is up for debate, particularly in a year of almost unprecedented British sporting success.

But I might as well make my pick. I think Alastair Cook is unlucky to miss out on a place in the shortlist of 12, although his big achievement was after the shortlist was announced. Having said that, though, I would have to choose an Olympian or Paralympian, which rules out Rory McIlroy.

Mo Farah and Jess Ennis have rightly been lauded for their remarkable success in August, but I am more inclined to someone who hasn’t been in the media spotlight all year anyway. For that somewhat illogical reason, two of the favourites, Bradley Wiggins and Andy Murray, are also ruled out of getting my vote.

I would hate to belittle the incredible success of Sir Chris Hoy, Ellie Simmonds and Ben Ainslie, but they have already had so much success their golds this time almost feel like par for the course. Nicola Adams is a real personality, true, but I don’t reckon she deserves the nod above the rest of the competition.

So my top three would be:

• 3rd: Katherine Grainger – a stalwart of British rowing for years, and one who had got so close before but never quite managed Olympic gold. This year she finally changed that.
• 2nd: Sarah Storey – a five-time Paralympic swimming gold medallist, she added four more cycling golds to her two from Beijing in London. She cantered to victory in all of her races over the various distances, making all of her events look almost embarrassingly easy
• 1st: David Weir – not just because he was the only one of the 12 I saw win over the summer, for two of his four gold medals in four events, in distances ranging from 800m to the marathon. He won the marathon despite confessing to feeling exhausted early on and visibly fading during the first lap or two. And most of all, perhaps Weir was the single athlete who allowed the British public to get as engaged with the Paralympics as much as they did with the Olympics (people were talking about him on the Tube in the same way they were Farah and Ennis).

World Athletics Championships 2013 – eight months to go

It is eight months until Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium hosts its first major international athletics meeting since the 1980 Olympic Games

The 2013 IAAF World Athletics Championships begin on Saturday, August 10, and conclude eight days later.

It will be the first opportunity to see many of the 2012 Olympic stars competing against each other again since they went head-to-head in London.

Russia won seven gold medals in athletics at the 2012 Olympics (five women and two men) and they will be hoping to repeat that success in front of a boisterous home crowd.

London 2012 Olympics: Top five moments – David Rudisha

David Rudisha’s stunning 800m was picked by Seb Coe as his top moment from the London Olympics, and with good reason.

The Kenyan knocked a tenth of a second off his own world record, with seven of the eight athletes in the race – including Great Britain’s Andrew Osagie – securing personal bests.

Only Abubaker Kaki, of Sudan, didn’t record a new PB, although he did complete the race in a season’s best time.

For good measure, 18-year-old Nigel Amos’s silver medal gave him the honour of picking up Botswana’s first ever Olympic medal (and in a world junior record time).