Arguably, it is the worst sports-related show ever seen on British television. Splash! in which Tom Daley, the increasingly ubiquitous pin-up boy of the pool, mentors pseudo-celebs in a diving contest, belly-flopped big-time when it made its debut on ITV last Saturday night.

They call these things reality TV. The reality about this one – due to run until early next month unless someone hopefully pulls the bath plug – is that it really is rubbish.

Even some sports folk, usually quite supportive of such shows, have drenched it in even more cold water. "This could be the worst/most embarrassing thing I've ever seen on my television," tweeted the West Bromwich and former England goalkeeper Ben Foster.


So where does this leave Tom Daley? Somewhat bewildered, I imagine, and wondering why on earth he ever got involved. Apart from the money, of course.

Especially as British Swimming's chief executive David Sparkes, never shy of an opinion, has warned him that such commercial commitments could affect his day job – which is to work assiduously towards improving on the bronze medal he won in London for Rio 2016.

"Tom is an incredibly talented young man but he's yet to achieve his full potential and it is only going to get harder as he gets older," he said. "You can rest assured the next Chinese superstar will not have such distractions from training. He should look at the example of Torvill and Dean who waited until the end of their respective careers before doing such programmes. I'm concerned Tom is putting the cart before the horse."

This echoes the view of British diving performance director Alexei Evangulov who suggested last February that 18-year-old Daley faced missing out on Olympic glory unless he restricted his media and sponsorship work.

There is little doubt that one day the personable Daley will have a great tele-career as a presenter or pundit but his involvement with a poolside panto has to be questionable at best.

This diving debacle threatens to ridicule the image of the sport, not enhance it.


One critic described the attempted swallow dives of those walking the plank before toppling into the Luton pool "so gobsmackingly awful, so cringe-making, that you can only watch it through your fingers."

So far we have endured a couple of overweight comedians (three of if you include Jo Brand, usually a quality act who unfortunately is fatuously employed as one of the judges); an actor who plays a waiter in the TV show Benidorm, a comely sports presenter and a faded pop singer.

Among those next up on Saturday: Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards. Can't wait.

The same critic suggested that if Daley "has got any sense and a half decent manager he'll put this down to (bad) experience and start training for Rio pretty sharpish."

To which Daley's agent Jamie Cunningham responds: "Whatever people think about the show Tom has come across incredibly well. We would, only agree to such an undertaking at a quiet time of the year.

"Tom is fully committed to perform at his best in the world championships in the summer having delivered at the Olympic Games."

True, he delivered a bronze though surely the target was a little higher.

However, we wish him well, as we do all those who entertained us so splendidly last year.

But we hope they don't overkill the golden goose.

Switch on the box and sports stars – especially Olympians – are everywhere: in the Big Brother House, in the jungle, foxtrotting across the ice and shimmying on the ballroom floor.

That's fine. No objection to them coining it in when they can, just as long as they don't neglect the sport that has enabled them to capitalise on their talent.


Some are very good at it. Olympic gymnast Louis Smith has just won Strictly Come Dancing, as did cricketers Mark Ramprakash and Darren Gough; rugby's Kyran Bracken once glided home in Torvill and Dean's Dancing on Ice in which gymnast Beth Tweddle and gold medal boxer Luke Campbell are currently lacing up their skates together with former British Lion Gareth Thomas.

Former world heavyweight champion David Haye fought his way to third place in the latest  series of I'm a Celebrity, won a few years back by ex-cricketer Phil Tufnell.

Sport is the buzzword at the moment, largely because of the Olympics, and many of its practitioners are well equipped to play the showbiz card.

I just wish some would be more selective.

Take Gabby Logan, herself a former Olympic gymnast. She is a terrific sports presenter, up there with Clare Balding and Sky's Jeff Stelling as the best on the box.


But what the hell is she doing co-hosting something as excruciatingly bad as Splash!?

Even worse, appearing as a panellist on Channel 4's Big Fat Quiz of the Year?

The schoolboy lewdness spewed out around her by wine-glugging comedians Jack Whitehall and James Corden, the predictably crude Jonathan Ross and the perpetually unfunny Russell Howard, surely left her inwardly squirming with embarrassment.

What was a nice girl like her doing in a show like this?

And as for Splash! – we see enough dodgy diving in Match of the Day on Saturday nights, thanks.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.

It is just over 120 days since the flame went out over the Olympic Park. Four months, give or take a day – but doesn't it feel like years?

The sports news agenda returns to the status quo so quickly and, apart from those wonderful end-of-year Sky News reviews or BBC's Sports Personality of the Year, it all feels like a magical dream from that wonderful summer of...when was it again..?

Twitter on New Year's Eve was full of people sharing Olympic memories. Masses of folk simply not wanting 2012 to end...so why are we letting that inspirational and motivational feeling fall away?

Too many people are quick to blame the Government, sports administrators, or even Lord Coe, for failing to deliver a meaningful legacy of increased sports participation from London 2012.


The truth, however, is that how to increase participation in sport is one of the most difficult questions to answer in Britain right now.

We are, largely, a sedentary nation.

We need a fundamental, cultural shift in how we view taking part in sport.

This change will not come from Sport England, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) or many of the leading brands. It will start in the home.

Parents – and I'm one who needs to do more – get active. Inspire your kids. Show them the joy that you felt in sport when you were their age.


You love sport, right? Of course you do. You wouldn't be on insidethegames if you didn't.

So how about you use that passion to inspire others and see the creation of the legacy as your responsibility.

The "2012 legacy" will not be delivered by any one sporting or Governmental organisation.

It will be delivered by you and me.

Steve Chisholm is a sports communications expert. He is a former partner at Fast Track and a producer with BBC Radio 5 Live

With London 2012 already feeling like a distant memory, 2013 has dawned.

And in the Olympic Movement, these next 12 months is likely to prove the most important and dramatic year for some time.

It is a year that will see a host city selected for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, a new sport join the 2020 Olympic programme as one is almost certainly removed) and the small matter of a new International Olympic Committee (IOC) President elected.

Rather significantly, all three of these major decisions will be made within a matter of days, and all of them during the 125th IOC Session in the Argentinian capital city Buenos Aires this September.

The Session itself will take place at the five-star Buenos Aires Hilton between September 7 and 10, and the luxurious establishment should prove up to IOC standards given that recent guests include former US President Bill Clinton.

In the Olympic world, much of 2013 will consist of speculation as to what will happen in one of South America's most beautiful and cosmopolitan cities when the good and great come together under the IOC flag.

It is still difficult to call, as nine months is a long time in Olympic Movement, but one could make informed guesses.

In the race for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo are jostling to follow Rio de Janeiro as the next host city.

Spain's major economic problems have so far left Madrid's bid trailing behind the other two. But I am warned by many senior figures never to count Madrid out, especially with Juan Antonio Samaranch Junior in their ranks.

The younger Samaranch does not wield nearly the same influence as his legendary father, Juan Antonio Samaranch Senior, who served as IOC President from 1980 to 2001 and completely transformed the organisation.

But the Samaranch name does still have the support of many loyal followers in the IOC, and Junior's recent election to the IOC Executive Board could prove significant.

But even with Samaranch Junior, Madrid simply does not appear to have the stable economic foundations Istanbul and Tokyo do right now and that is a major factor with the IOC.

Covering the Olympics as part of the media, one operates in, effectively, a bubble. And the Games themselves are in a kind of bubble. But the bubble, inevitably, is compromised, impinged upon, by outside forces.

The Mexico 1968 Olympics were distorted by the shooting 10 days before the Games got underway of protestors against the Government who had gathered in the Tlatelolco area of the capital.

The year 2012 was all about London, but now the Olympic Movement's focus is about to shift - to Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo.

In less than a week's time, next Monday (January 7), this trio of combatants in the battle for the right to host the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics must submit Candidature Files giving an in-depth description of their respective projects to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Two months' later, in March, the IOC's Evaluation Commission, headed by Britain's Sir Craig Reedie, a former chairman of the British Olympic Association (BOA), will visit the three cities to inspect their plans.

Finally, on September 7, in the elegant Argentinian capital of Buenos Aires, location for the 125th IOC Session, the winner will be selected by IOC members.

What may sensibly be said about the race at eight months' distance from this all-important denouement?

Well, following the withdrawal of Rome and the IOC's decision not to admit Baku and Doha into the final phase of the contest, we have been left with the shortest Summer Games shortlist I have known since I began writing about the Movement more than a decade ago.

This has left the sense of excitement surrounding the race lagging well below the levels associated with the high-octane 2012 and 2016 contests.

In this respect, the present tussle has more in common with the 2008 race, decided in Moscow in 2001, when just about everyone was convinced - rightly - that Beijing would win.


The paucity of survivors does not mean that the 2020 contest is a foregone conclusion, however.

When I consulted the odds in preparing this article, it was noticeable that every company I could see had Tokyo as warm, though not red-hot, favourite.

Odds on the Japanese capital ranged from 5-11 to 8-11, compared with a range of 7-4 to 3-1 for Istanbul, and of 3-1 to 19-2 for Madrid.

While I would not quibble, at this point, with Tokyo's status as favourite, however, I do think the present range of odds probably underestimates Istanbul's chance - particularly now that UEFA boss Michel Platini appears to have ended Turkey's hopes of staging more than the odd match of the Euro 2020 football tournament.

What do the three contenders need to do to maximise their prospects of crying tears of joy, rather than grief, in Argentina?

For Madrid, the priority must be to convince IOC members that the deep economic and fiscal problems dogging Spain would not interfere with the terrifically demanding business of preparing for the Games.

While some might be surprised that Madrid is the outsider, particularly given its experience of running in the last two races - finishing a close-up third behind London and a distant second to Rio de Janeiro - it is hard at the moment not to conclude that the 2020 contest has simply come at the wrong time for the Spanish capital.

This is a pity since Spain's sporting stock – as epitomised by Rafa Nadal, Fernando Alonso and its football teams - has never been higher.

The city, moreover, seems admirably equipped in many ways to host a successful Summer Games.

But if Spain's deep-seated economic problems are beyond the power of the current bid team to influence in any significant way, and if they have lost the formidable services of Juan Antonio Samaranch, the late former IOC President, there is nonetheless one critical thing decision-makers could do to improve the prospects of this, or more likely another future Madrid bid.

This is to provide a truly compelling articulation of why the IOC ought to take its flagship product back to Spain a mere 28 years after Madrid's arch-rival Barcelona hosted the Games - and put itself firmly on the international map in the process.

Constructing a compelling narrative should, by contrast, be the least of Istanbul's problems.


A uniquely picturesque city in a stunning geographical location at the crossroads of two continents, it effortlessly ticks most of the boxes for a winning Olympic story-line.

Furthermore, there is less and less reason to doubt that Turkey's fast-developing economy could cope with the demands of hosting the Games, although a successful staging of a tournament of the scale and stature of the European football championship would have underlined its readiness.

Istanbul would be an adventurous choice, but the IOC has repeatedly shown itself willing to plump for the adventurous choice in recent times - and has yet to have its fingers burnt as a consequence.

Where I think the Turkish city will have to work hardest if it is to cruise up onto Tokyo's shoulder over the next eight months is in persuading the IOC of its capacity to execute some of the more mundane tasks that are indispensable to a successful Games.

Traffic management would be one area where I would require robust assurances; security would be another.

Tokyo, I think, has successfully established itself as the safe choice for the IOC in a volatile world.

If Istanbul fails to perform to its potential, that might yet be enough.

More likely, though, the Japanese bid will need to move up a couple of gears to avoid being overtaken.

That means persuading a majority of IOC members - who gave their last big prize, the 2018 Winter Games, to another Asian city, Pyeongchang - that Tokyo is not merely a safe choice, but an enticing one as well.

After a slow start, I have a hunch that this 2020 contest is destined soon to burst into life.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup and London 2012. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here 

As predicted, it's trebles all round as Sir Brad, Sir Ben, Dame Sarah and virtually the entire cast of 2012 celebrate their New Year Honours.

Then plethora of gongs dished out to Olympic and Paralympic winners  suggests that Lord Coe and his Sports Honours Committee employed a scattergun rather than the hatpin which seems to have been the selection procedure in other areas where the usual procession of civil service time-servers and political cap-doffers await the invitation to Buckingham Palace.

But not every is joining in with effusive messages of congratulations. Many seem to think than handing out awards by the bucketload to those who won gold is both unwarranted and unmerited.

KCB, CBE, OBE, MBE... is it all OTT? .

A radio phone-in on Saturday evening posed the question: Do Britain's Olympic and Paralympic champions deserve to be honoured in this way?

You may be surprised to know by ratio of 10-1 the answer was a resounding "No".

Now I am personally ambivalent about the Honours List - probably because I have never been on it - but there may well be some sympathy with the argument that Olympians - indeed all sportsmen and women - are only doing what they love and that the only medal they should care about is the one hanging around their neck; one that these days can be quickly converted into wads of hard cash from personal appearances, sponsorship and endorsements.

But some of the recipients themselves also seem less than delighted  with the system, not least a fistful of Paralympians, among them the dressage rider Lee Pearson (OBE) who told the Independent on Sunday that he was "pissed off" at the apparent discrepancy between disabled and able-bodied medal winners and that he was personally disappointed not to get a knighthood after winning his tenth gold in London .

He has a point. His gold medal tally is greater than the newly enobled Sir Wiggo's and Sir Ben Ainslie's put together.


Six-times gold-medal wheelchair racing winner David Weir (CBE), one rung below a knighthood,  is also highly critical, suggesting Paralympians need to win more than their Olympic counterparts to get the similarly honoured.

That peerless Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, who sits on the Sports Honours Committee chaired by newly anointed Companion  of Honour Lord Coe, says she does not think you can compare the Olympics and Paralympics.

"Every gold medal Paralympian has bene honoured, which wasn't the same in previous years."

True. But if  if you want want to blame anyone for there not being a Sir David Weir or Sir Lee Pearson (or even a Dame Jessica Ennis) then perhaps it should be David Cameron - why as not the PM seems to get the blame for everything else?.

Apparently it was 10 Downing Street which imposed a quota,with an edict that there should be a cap on the number of sporting knighthoods and damehoods because it was felt the number of such awards being mooted was getting out of hand.

At every level of honour, more Olympians than Paralympians have been publicly rewarded in what supposedly as a year of sporting equality.

But the Honours List has never been a level playing field.

Especially, it is claimed, in Northern Ireland. There Irish eyes are definitely not smiling when they scan the record 127-strong list of those about to be gonged-up for their 2012 contributions.

There are Olympians from England, Scotland, and Wales...but not a single one from Northern Ireland.

This Irish angst is expressed forcibly by the Belfast Telegraph which points out  is not only gold which has earned gongs - silver medallist gymnast Louis Smith received an MBE. So they ask: "Why not our Coleraine oarsmen Richard and Peter Chambers who won silver in one of the most gruelling contests of the entire Olympics?


"It would have made sense, if nothing else, to keep some parity with the awards to England, Scotland and Wales, in this sad saga of missed opportunities.

"The current New Year honours are particularly controversial in Northern Ireland because they do not award a single athlete here despite the outstanding achievements of several individuals in the London Olympics and Paralympics.

"The arguments for not doing so are unconvincing. Perhaps our Northern Ireland competitors were overlooked because we are the United Kingdom's second-class citizens and that people of influence in London and elsewhere could not care less about us.

"Even our Stormont Executive failed to arrange a proper home-coming celebration for all our Olympic and Paralympic athletes in the form of a street parade or reception where the public could show its support.

"Not so the Dublin Government, which was quick to honour its athletes - including some from Northern Ireland - in this way.

"Nevertheless, even if our local athletes deserve to have greater recognition from London and Stormont, their achievements will continue to be honoured by the ordinary people, where they matter most of all."

Fair point? As I say, fairness is clearly not the criteria.

If Kelly Holmes should get the ultimate accolade for her double gold triumph in Athens, why not Mo Farah? It's illogical.

And surely Gemma Gibbons, who emotionally won a nation's hearts as well as judo silver, would have been as worthy a recipient of an MBE as Louis Smith. But then she didn't win Strictly Come Dancing.


There are other curious anomalies. Jackie Brock-Doyle, Lord Coe's media minder, gets an OBE for the admirably professional job she did as the London 2012 Director of Communications. Yet this is is one step down from the CBE awarded to her combative predecessor, Mike Lee, who fulfilled the same role in the run-up to London winning the bid.

And much as I applaud the MBE  given to Rob McCracken, Team GB's head boxing coach, is not Tony Minichiello, who has nurtured and mentored Ennis to her phenomenal heptathlon gold, equally worthy, along with a number of other unsung coaches?

There are MBE's for boxing's three gold medallists but I  am puzzled why, for example,  Anthony Joshua's victory in the super-heavyweight divison, on, let's face it, a slightly fortuitous home-town decision, is deemed worthier than the much lesser BEM belatedly handed out last year to boxing's oldest surviving world champion, 77-year-old Terry Downes, who has worked so tirelessly for charity.

The BEM (British Empire Medal) is the sort of bauble they usually dish out to long-serving town clerks. Maybe someone on the Honours Committee had a dyslexic moment when they noted it down.

There also has been some bleating - mainly from Scotland (though not from him) - that Andy Murray got a mere OBE and not a knighthood after winning Olympic gold and the US Open. Doubtless he will be upgraded to a K if and when he wins Wimbledon.


But let's remember that the last Briton to do so, Fred Perry, three quarters of a century ago, has never been honoured in any way.

Now honours are flung about like confetti, but if they are judged the criteria of our acclaim then 2012 's fabulous sporting stars deserve to be at the head of the queue at  the Palace, lapels freshly pressed.

Even if it does seem all a bit gong-ho.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire

As 2012 is coming to an end and a new year is about to unfold, I would like to take this opportunity to put in a nutshell all the major activities and achievements of this extraordinary year.

It goes without saying that all members of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) Family played a key role in the success of AIBA's undertakings and therefore, I also would like to thank all members for their precious and continued contribution.

From January 18 to 22 in Bangkok, the AIBA Commission meetings were carried out. This was indeed a very productive gathering that had a significant impact on the development of our sport, especially in view of the Olympic Games and the launch of AIBA Professional Boxing (APB).

In February, I had the chance to attend the 5th International Olympic Committee (IOC) World Conference on Women and Sport; an important event where over 800 delegates from 135 countries approved "The Los Angeles Declaration", a series of recommendations aimed at promoting gender equality and equity in sport.

This event was followed in March by the signing of the "Brighton Declaration", a similar statement of principles about women and sport. With these steps, AIBA certainly puts itself on the front-line in defence of women's rights.

While these events were taking place, a new chapter of one of AIBA's most iconic programmes, 'Road to Dream', was coming to life in the city of Cardiff Wales with the "Road to London (I) Training Camp". 62 men and women boxers from 40 countries attended this training camp in preparation for the qualifying events of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The "Road to London (II) Training Camp", attended by 44 athletes from 27 countries, took place in the same city just one month before the Olympic Games. The success of these two camps was such that in London, these athletes shone throughout the whole event, drawing extensive applause from both the public and the media.

Between April and May, as a prelude to the London 2012 Olympic Games, AIBA conducted five excellent continental qualifying events for men boxers. The competitions seen in Canberra, Astana, Trabzon, Casablanca and Rio de Janeiro gave us a first taste of how high the level of our boxers had become. The participation and heterogeneity of the National Federations and their respective athletes were absolutely unprecedented. Such remarkable achievement definitely sealed the success of these winning events.

In the beginning of May and June, two major events rocked the boxing ring of the ExCeL in the warm-up for the London 2012 Olympic Games: the World Series of Boxing (WSB) team final and individual championships, a thrilling epilogue of the second season of this boxing format that has now become the battlefield for franchises representing their countries. In this regard, I am very happy to welcome to the current season new teams in Algeria, Argentina, Great Britain, Poland and Ukraine.

Last May, 305 women boxers from 70 countries had the chance to showcase their skills and qualify for the London 2012 Olympic Games in what will be remembered as one of the most competitive AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships. In its seventh edition, this event has now become the only qualifying event to the Olympic Games available to women boxers.

Between May 26 and June 1, AIBA organised the Olympic referees and judges workshop in Assisi, in Italy, which was a very important event in preparation to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

In July, just before the Olympic Games, the AIBA Executive Committee gathered for its annual meeting during which important decisions were taken for the future of our sport. It was on this occasion that the AIBA EC awarded the 2013 AIBA Junior World Boxing Championships to Kyiv Ukraine, the 2014 AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships to Sofia and the 2014 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships to Canada.

The roaring success of the long-awaited London 2012 Olympic Games finally paid off all our efforts in preparation to this important event. Many goals were achieved, some even beyond expectations. Above all, a special mention goes to the triumph of women's boxing. These women, who for the first time participated in an Olympiad, performed with such spirit that words fail to describe the atmosphere they created.

At the turn of October and November, AIBA organised in Incheon, the WSB/APB referees and judges and supervisor workshop with the aim of forming a new group of referees, judges and supervisors with a specific preparation in view of APB.

Not too long after the dimming of the lights of London, WSB marked in November the return of great boxing with a new season full of excitements.

Last but not least, the success of the 2012 AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships held this November-December in Yerevan. This event, which concluded our boxing calendar for this year, was a magnificent occasion to admire many rising stars and gives us hope for an even brighter tomorrow of our beloved sport.

Now, as this year is winding down, we can look at the future with the confidence that there is no such thing like an impossible objective. Our achievements speak for themselves.

For this reason, I would like to encourage all members of the AIBA Family to continue on this path in view of next year's challenges, among which the most important are: the AIBA Junior World Boxing Championships in Kyiv in August, the AIBA World Boxing Championships in Almaty in October, the AIBA Women's Junior/Youth World Boxing Championships, the opening of the Boxing Academy in Kazakhstan and finally the launch of the APB.

C K Wu is the AIBA President and an International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board member

Pretty much all 26 sports involved at the London 2012 Olympics came out in better shape than they went in, and not only in PR terms.

The Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) director Andrew Ryan, the man primarily responsible for distributing the profits to the 26 sports federations involved in London 2012, recently informed me that they will soon all be sharing a pot of over $450 million (£280 million/€345 million).

In fact, when the money if fully counted next year, the figure could even approach as much as $475 million (£296 million/€365 million), which marks a dramatic increase on the $296 million (£184 million/€227 million) they received from Beijing 2008.

But taking everything into account, there were few bigger winners at London 2012 than boxing.

From July 28 to August 12, the sport drew sold out crowds to ExCeL for virtually every session. As is required for all great tournaments, the hosts, Great Britain, topped the medal standings with five medals, three of which were gold.

But it was the successful Olympic debut of women's boxing that really helped the sport steal the show.

It was that girl from Leeds with the radiant smile - Nicola Adams - who fittingly won the first ever Olympic gold medal in women's boxing as she defeated old nemesis, China's Ren Cancan, in a high class bout.

A binliner of ripped wrapping teeters outside our front door. The lit tree which looked so radiant of promise now has a mournful edge to it. The fridge is full of brandy cream and going-over vegetables. All the signs that Christmas has been and gone. As has a Christmas read - Seb Coe's autobiography, Running My Life (Hodder and Stoughton, £20 – but only £9 from the insidethegames shop).

It would be facile to observe that, had the youthful Coe not turned around the most shattering defeat of his life, when arch-rival Steve Ovett beat him to the Olympic 800 metres gold at the 1980 Moscow Games, his book might have been titled Ruining My Life. Ah well. Observation made.

But of course he did turn it round, iconically, with victory in the 1,500m – the event Ovett was expected to win – and he has made a habit of producing triumphs ever since.

Even when, as Conservative MP for Falmouth and Cambourne, he dropped out of Government during the rout that was the 1997 General Election, Coe points out with grim pride that the swing against him was only five per cent, against an average across the country of 11 per cent - the smallest that night against any incumbent Conservative MP.

I know the subject of this book not well, but a bit better than many who will read it in the wake of the outstandingly successful London 2012 Games, to which Baron Coe of - appropriately enough - Ranmore was essential both in terms of bidding and execution. To me, having written about Coe as an athlete briefly and a sports politician at greater length, some of the story, and indeed some of the phrasing, is familiar.

And it's a curious thing, but having read the book I feel I know more things about Coe, but don't get a feeling of really knowing him.

Even despite its open moments – the description of how he told the organiser of the Stockholm meeting to "fuck off" after suspiciously bungled pacing had possibly deprived him of another world record, the family details revealing his grandmother Violet as a "true cockney" and his great-grandfather Harry Newbold as a professional gambler, his inexplicable failure to pass his 11-Plus exam, the confession of an extra-marital affair which got all over the papers and, painfully, temporarily damaged his relationship with his then 12-year-old daughter - even despite all this, there is a curiously closed feeling to the book.


The text is as carefully modulated as the speeches we have come to expect of Coe in recent years as he has tip-toed around the often grotesque sensibilities of those who govern the world of sports politics - a world in which he himself is becoming an increasingly influential figure.

Decca Aitkenhead of The Guardian also observed this tendency in the book, forming the conclusion, following a subsequent interview, that Coe was "a crashing bore." Not fair. Not true. But for sure, Coe is guarded. He is a politician to his bones.

You question whether Aitkenhead, and other detractors, understand where Coe is coming from - or, more to the point, where he is heading to. He may have delivered on London 2012, but, to borrow from Robert Frost, he has promises to keep, and miles to go before he sleeps. His life is still a political work in progress.

Watching Coe walk through the ranks of his peers to accept the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year's BBC Sports Personality of the Year award was rather disturbing, if only because this master of self-control looked seriously in danger of choking up.

The Duchess of Cambridge presents Sebastian Coe with the Lifetime Achievement Award during the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards 2012

The reference to his absent parents - his mother died in 2005, his father three years after that - was brief but heartrending. A glimpse into the interior, brief as the one afforded in the aftermath of that Moscow 1500m victory, where his face and body were transfixed with blazing emotion.

Thinking about it, I feel the most revealing passage of Coe's latest – but surely not his last – autobiography is the one where he describes his feelings about his early runs as a member of Hallamshire Harriers over the fells of Yorkshire and neighbouring Derbyshire:

"I loved everything about it - the physical sensation, the act of putting one foot in front of the other and covering the ground effortlessly and reasonably quickly, and also, if I'm honest, winning the approval of the older and more seasoned athletes...

"Cross-country running was literally the making of me...you are using every part of your body. It's hard and it's tough. You've got to maintain balance, you've got to be able to navigate and think ahead, you've got to watch your feet. You may be running on a track that's the width of a table, or across terrain that is little more than peat bog, making split-second decisions every step of the way. Your brain never switches off."

It stands as the perfect metaphor for Coe's progress through life. And the man is still picking his route ahead with the utmost care...

To order a copy of Running My Life by Sebastian Coe from the insidethegames shop click here. 

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian.

Hope you all had a Happy Christmas. I know several sports folk who didn't. Thanks to the Scrooges at UK Sport.

Christmas spirit seemed to be in somewhat short supply in London's Bloomsbury, where the Government-backed distributer of Lottery and Exchequer funding is based.

A few days before the festive season began loadsa-money was lobbed from Russell Square in the direction of Olympic and Paralympic sport, some £347 million ($563 million/€427 million) of it, though most escaped the desperate clutches of the poor and needy in an act some might describe as Dickensian, others positively Thatcherite.

Among those pursuits denied a slice of the expansive handout towards Rio 2016 were handball, indoor and sitting volleyball, basketball and table tennis.

British Volleyball chairman Richard Callicott admits he spent Christmas  holding the wrong end of the turkey wishbone. "The phenomenally hard work and commitment of our athletes and coaches has been rewarded with the utter obliteration of our sport at elite level," he declares angrily.


He goes on: "We could not be more disappointed. We have stars, and world-class athletes like Dami Bakare now playing in one of the most competitive leagues in the world in Korea, but the opportunity for him and his outstanding teammates no longer exists for them to play for their country.

"There are over thirty players playing professionally for clubs throughout Europe and North America as well as Dami. We have produced British athletes from our own programmes across all six of our disciplines.

"It seems frankly unfair after our brilliant endeavours at London 2012 when we were required to produce credible performances, where the GB indoor women's team rose 49 places in the world rankings, winning a match against a much higher ranked team, and sitting volleyball created so many new enthusiasts at the Paralympics, that both sports should be rewarded with precisely nothing for their efforts over those past five years.

" I am simply shocked that our sporting leaders could be so dismissive of such a mighty effort."

Here here...


Now here's the irony. Callicott, as a former UK Sport chief executive himself, was originally responsible for distributing Lottery funding to sport when it was initiated by then Prime Minister John Major. His was a more sympathetic approach than the invidious "no compromise" philosophy augmented by the present incumbent, Liz Nicholl,  which leaves her predecessor's sport,  virtually without hope of getting to Rio despite their valued presence at London 2012 to boost ticket sales.

Callicott tells insidethegames: "It's heartless. Liz Nicholl says sports with limited or no funding can go back annually for the situation to be reviewed if they have made progress. That's like telling a Formula One team on the starting grid that they no longer have access to fuel but if they can catch up with the rest they can re-join the race. What do they do? Push the bloody car?"

Another irony is that three days after being honoured by the BBC with the prestigious Helen Rollason award for outstanding achievement in the face of adversity Martine Wright, who lost both legs in then 7/7 terrorist bombings, learned that sitting volleyball, which helped rebuild her shattered life, has, like the able-bodied indoor game, lost all funding.


She says she feels particularly gutted because it will undermine the sport's role in rehabilitating injured servicemen and women.

"As a new team in just two and a half years we performed to our expectations in London and were looking forward to continuing to make progess. It's disappointing but we are determined for the programme to carry on."


"It is a philosophy which simply mean that unless you medal you don't get the money," argues Callicott.

Now I happen to like Liz Nicholl. For one thing she  has sprung from the grassroots of sport as a former netball player who became that sport's inspirational chief executive.

She is pleasant and extremely able example of British sport's growing Girl Power as is her formidable chair, Baronesss Sue Campbell.

But I strongly contend that between them they have got this one grossly wrong, as has the supportive Sports Minister, Hugh Robertson, with whom I do not often disagree.

He insists that if you give money to those sports that won't win a medal, you will have to take it away from athletes that might.

"Denying athletes in a sport like cycling the chance of winning a gold medal is not fair or right," he says.

The phrase Catch 22 comes to mind, while Baron Pierre de Coubertin would be turning in his proverbial grave.

Cycling isn't short of cash, nor are many of its stars (Sir Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, Victoria Pendleton and Lizzie Armistead to name but a few).

They are big earners who, I doubt no longer have the need for Lottery funding, like others who have become both rich and even more famous on the back  of the 2012 Olympics through endorsements and other and luctrative commercial deals.

Jess Ennis, Mo Farah and Ellie Simmonds are also prime examples as are those GB boxers who now are virtually full-time pros earning up to six figures for taking part in the World Series Boxing tournament.

Good luck tio them all.

Assuming they no longer receive for Lottery funding (it would be a scandal if they did) could not the money they otherwise would have been given be diverted to sport's lesser mortals who might then have the resources they need to progress towards the Rio rostrum?


Here's a thought: Nothing to do with UK Sport of course, but an  astonishing £200,000 ($322,000/€243,00)) bonus, on  top of his £440,0000 ($708,000/€535,000) salary has been paid to the Lawn Tennis Association's Roger "The Dodger" Draper who heads a body deemed "useless" by Baroness Billingham, chair of the All Parliamentary Tennis Group.

That would more than cover the British Volleyball hiring a top class coach and an assistant after having to let go the one they had because they could no longer afford to pay him.

It is true that Sport England can provide some funding for sports at grassroots level, but cash-strapped youngsters who want to fulfil their potential need world-class coaching and sports science back-up which only UK Sports elite funding programme can provide.

There are some good people at UK Sport but I am not alone in questioning the fairness or morality of their distribution of Lottery and taxpayers' money.

"Lust for gold has blinded UK Sport to the needs of the poor," reads the headline in The Times above over a piece by former British Olympic table tennis player Matthew Syed.


He says UK Sport "has lost the plot", that socially inclusive inner-city sports like volleyball,  handball, basketball and table tennis have been cynically "shafted'' by an organisation that has lavished public money on posh public school-practiced sports such as equestrianism, rowing and sailing.

"The implications are, in their way, deeply regressive. Money from taxpayers and lottery players is being siphoned into training opportunities for athletes from often wealthy backgrounds. Meanwhile, high-potential children from poorer families, who could never afford elite coaching without public support, are left on the scrapheap. This is social engineering in reverse. It is the very opposite of meritocracy. And it should be confronted."

Strong words from a one-time Labour parliamentary candidate.

It is certainly true that these elite sport have done better than most because of their success yet they are ones in which it is far easier to win medals because  fewer nations participate.

Question: Why should UK Sport be the sole arbiter of who gets what and why?

Would it not be fairer to have an independent panel making the final assessment on UK Sport's recommendations?

British Volleyball, for one, say they will be  appealing - and that surely should be heard by an independent panel.

Meantime I doubt their Christmas card, depicting Tiny Tim beseeching Scrooge "But sir, zero won't be enough to fund a competitive volleyball  programme" rests prominently on Liz Nicholl's mantelpiece.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire

So the British Olympic Association (BOA) has picked a location in Belo Horizonte to serve as preparation camp for its athletes prior to and during the next Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in four years' time.

I don't doubt that the Minas Tenis Clube, complete with its indoor sports halls and "Lagoa dos Ingleses" (Englishmen's Lake) will provide a splendid base for the British team as they recuperate from their eleven-hour flight and acclimatise to the four-hour time difference.

However, this 5.5 million-strong city has an unwelcome place in British, or at least English, sporting history, as the setting for one of its most ignominious defeats.

Go back 62 years to 1950, two years after the second London Olympics, the so-called "Austerity Games".

An England football team including giants of the game such as Alf Ramsey, Tom Finney and Stan Mortensen is in Brazil for the World Cup.

So strong is the team that it is widely seen as joint favourite to lift the famous gold Jules Rimet trophy, along with hosts Brazil.

The first game against Chile is won, comfortably enough, 2-0 in the Maracana Stadium.

England lost to the United States 1-0 in the first round of the1950 World Cup

Next up: a trip to Belo Horizonte for a match against a little-regarded United States of America team.

Victory should be a formality before the group decider, back in Rio, versus Spain.

That at least was the theory; in fact the US won 1-0 thanks to a first-half goal from Joe Gaetjens, their Haitian-born forward.

"Probably never before has an England team played so badly," lamented The Times, adding: "The small ground and the close marking of the United States defenders seemed to upset the English players in their close passing game".

I recently came across an interesting account of the disastrous World Cup campaign in an autobiography written by Charles Buchan, a former England international turned journalist.

The book was first published in 1955, but a new edition has recently appeared.*

According to this account, prior to the fateful match, the England team stayed at a "little mountain village" called Morro Velho, where they were guests of a "British gold-mining company".

The captains of England and the US, Billy Wright and Ed McIlvenny (right) exchange souvenirs at the start of their match

"It was a British colony, a home from home, with British food and a whiff of home atmosphere," Buchan recounts.

He describes Belo Horizonte as a "flourishing new city...reached from Morro Velho along a road twisting breathtakingly around the side of a mountain with a sheer drop on one side.

"It was clouded with a red dust that, even with the windows clamped shut, filled the cars."

The pressmen present subsequently had to file their reports of the debacle via one of two telephone-lines.

Writes Buchan: "By the time the last message was through, the pitch was in darkness.

"When no one could find an electric torch there was the strange spectacle of half a dozen reporters grouped around the phone on an otherwise deserted ground, frantically making bonfires of newspapers so that the copy could be read to the cable office in Rio and thence transmitted to faraway Fleet Street."

The ex-pro rated the Americans "on a par with one of our Third Division teams, like Rochdale.

"Yet by sheer guts and enthusiasm they humbled mighty England."

Team GB athletes will use Belo Horizonte in the South East of Brazil as a preparation camp prior to and during Rio 2016

No doubt British athletes - and journalists - will find conditions utterly transformed when they visit Belo Horizonte in 2016, assuming indeed, in the journalists' case, that they haven't already passed through during the second Brazilian World Cup in 2014.

But that first-ever English World Cup defeat remains hard to stomach.

Let's hope Britain's 2016 Olympians can give the country's sports fans some happier sporting memories to associate the fine city of Belo Horizonte with.

* A Lifetime in Football by Charles Buchan, published by Mainstream Publishing, 7 Albany Street, Edinburgh. Price £9.99.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup and London 2012. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here. 

Unforgettable. Incomparable. Unbeatable? The year 2012 will forever be remembered as one of the greatest in British sporting history.

During the magical summer of 2012 we witnessed the unique power of sport to unite and inspire our nation. Team GB felt a wave of support from every corner of the United Kingdom. People of all ages, beliefs and backgrounds rallied behind our athletes and lifted them to unprecedented heights of success.

Within each of us, we rediscovered the spirit of camaraderie, friendship and understanding that is at the heart of the Olympic Games. It was a year in which Britain was truly "Great", and London was the centre of attention once again.

On the field of play, Our Greatest Team – Team GB and ParalympicsGB – delivered an incredible 185 medals to light up the London 2012 Games and inspire generations to come.

One of the hot topics in the Olympic Movement right now is what Olympic and Paralympic Games the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) will bid for.

A bid is now imminent; the only question is whether America will bid for the 2024 Summer Games or 2026 Winter Games. The smart money would be on 2024 for the obvious reason that the Summer Olympics and Paralympics are far more prominent and lucrative than their Winter counterpart.

But even so, the USOC will give nothing away, and nor do they have to until the bidding begins in 2015.

Yesterday the USOC Board of Directors met at the Electronic Arts headquarters in Redwood City, California. As has now become customary such Board meeting, USOC chairman Larry Probst and chief executive Scott Blackmun held a teleconference for the media afterwards.

Like all the previous USOC teleconferences I have dialled in for this year, Probst and Blackmun were most cordial but quickly made it clear that both 2024 and 2026 were both still very much on the table.

Other than the unanimous re-election of Probst, which should help speed up his International Olympic Committee (IOC) membership, the headline news was that the USOC will start meeting with cities across America next year that are interested in hosting either Games.

"Our message is that we want to talk to anybody that wants to talk to us about a bid and we will provide more details on that process early next year," explained Blackmun, in a move that is certain to spark a flurry of activity across the United States.

"Even with a 2024 bid, we still have until 2015 until we need to make a firm decide so we definitely have time on our side. I don't think we will have made any final decision on a bid, even by next year, but we want to be more informed and smarter by the end of 2013 than we are at the beginning."

The fact of the matter is that so many cities America are capable of hosting a great Games. New York City, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Philadelphia are just some of the cities likely to put their name forward for 2024 with Denver, Reno-Tahoe and Salt Lake City set to do the same for 2026.

Once a city is chosen, regardless of who stands in their way internationally, the United States look very difficult to beat. This is largely due to the fact that the USOC, mainly thanks to the impressive efforts of Blackmun, managed to settle their high profile revenue-sharing dispute with the IOC following years of negotiations.

That announcement was made at the 2012 Sport Accord Convention in Québec City in May. I remember well a smiling Probst at that press conference in Canada saying that the deal had "removed a roadblock from a successful bid from the United States."

IOC President Jacques Rogge, who sat next to Probst in that press conference, looked equally pleased.

"This is a very happy moment for the IOC and the USOC," said Rogge. "The USOC is an absolutely crucial pillar in the Olympic Movement. This agreement lays a cornerstone which will provide the foundations for the continued growth of the Movement and our shared values, not just in the United States but around the world."

To illustrate how problematic the dispute was; it saw New York City's bid for 2012 Games eliminated in the second round of IOC voting and then Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics humiliated in the first round.

I remember well the visit I made to Chicago during their 2016 bid and being very impressed by plans. In terms of technical quality, it was absolutely superb and only politics saw it meet such a sad end.

Chicago will surely not suffer the same fate if returns to bid for 2024.

Another factor that makes it so strong is that the vast majority of money for the Olympics comes from the United States. American television network giant NBC are the big financial backer of the Games with McDonalds, Coca-Cola and indeed the majority of IOC Top Partners hailing from US shores.

People will say that the Games must to go to new parts. Indeed it must, and it will. But at the same time, the IOC will be careful to recognise the "crucial pillar" of the Olympic Movement that is the USOC. They can't afford to do otherwise.

So come 2024 or 2026, you would do well not to look much further than America and now -in a break with recent years - good times now lie ahead for the USOC.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames

So what has Qatar in common with South Africa? On the face of it you would think this is an absurd, Christmas quiz, question. But it is not.

In footballing terms they have a lot in common. The common factor is both countries are pioneers for the world's most popular game, staging the FIFA World Cup in their part of the world for the first time. And both countries have had the need to convince the world they are worthy of having this honour.

However, there is one crucial difference. When South Africa started on its quest to bring the World Cup to Africa for the first time the whole world, apart from rivals such as Germany, England, Morocco, Libya, wanted them to stage the competition. And there were many in Germany and England, not connected with the bids, who felt South Africa should have got the 2006 World Cup. That you may recall went to Germany, almost by default.

South Africa had what may be called the huge plus-Mandela factor in its support. The world feeling guilty for the way it had tolerated, even acquiesced, in apartheid for decades was keen to make up to Mandela's rainbow nation. Qatar, in contrast, were not only surprise winners but have struggled with what may be called a huge minus factor of both being an Arab country and an oil-rich one. Questions about how Qatar won the World Cup, despite all the protestations by the Qataris that they won it fair and square, continue to be raised. This makes its task of being a host that the world will welcome all the harder.


All this was vividly brought home to me when I visited Qatar last week for the Doha Goals programme. Nothing could have better illustrated how keen this desert country is to impress the world that it takes not just football but sport seriously. So we had almost everyone that matters in world sport starting with Sepp Blatter through to Seb Coe and any number of Olympic and other great sporting winners such as Francois Pienaar and Carl Lewis.

A desert may not be the place to see swimmers but there was Ian Thorpe, the Australian hero of the Sydney Games seeing this as a stepping stone for his personal quest to carry on until the Rio Olympics. And one of the images in the main conference hall was that iconic one of Mandela handing the 1995 Rugby World Cup to Pienaar, an image that truly tells a thousand stories of nation building through sport.


It was quite an experience sitting in the Aspire Dome watching the start of the Doha Goals forum. The Dome itself must be one of the most unique buildings of its type. This is no ordinary conference venue. This is an indoor sports complex complete with a full size football pitch, Olympic-sized swimming pool, diving pool and an indoor athletics track. At one stage during the conference trying to find the auditorium where a press conference was being held I saw a sign for the track. Just in front of me was Jonathan Edwards and for a moment I thought he was about to perform when I realised he was one of the many glittering stars from sport who formed part of the Doha Goals programme.

And the main hall where the opening ceremony, and many other events took place, was like no other conference hall I have ever been to. For a start the seating showed a fascinating class distinction. Facing the podium were comfortable sofa style seats, followed by the more common seats you find in conference halls and then at the back the sort of tiered seats in an indoor sports area. Not knowing where to sit I headed for them only to be told this was for the more than 250 students from all over the globe who had been invited to the conference. As a media person I had a more comfortable seat but not the sofa style seats earmarked for the great and good.

Here was seated the Emir of Qatar and his entourage, President Ali Bongo of Gabon, former President Nicholas Sarkozy of France, Coe, Hugh Robertson, the British Sports Minister and various other sports dignitaries. To complete this picture of Qatar gathering together the good and great we also had Peter Mandelson there. But while Mandelson did not speak, he just sat and smiled, the rest of the good and great told us their views of sport. So the Emir of Qatar talked about the importance of sport; the President Bongo explained why some sportsmen are even more important than politicians in his country; Sarkozy revealed why he wanted 2022 to be held in Qatar and Blatter that sport is all about hope.


Qatar's hope is that such conferences, this was the second such conference I have attended in Doha this year, will show that Qatar is not only making history by being the first Muslim country to host the world's most popular sporting event but that it understands modern sport. Qatar knows that modern sport is a western, largely British and French, creation. And Qatar wants the world to understand that it can not only cope with this western invention but that it can set the sporting agenda in the decade ahead.

However, the problem for Qatar is the strong impression being formed that the Qataris are not happy to get the World Cup they also want to change the international sports calendar. So Michel Platini has spoken of a winter World Cup in 2022 and at the conference Sarkozy repeated word for word what Platini has been saying. Platini may deny that he was told by Sarkozy to vote for Qatar but listening to Sarkozy I got the impression that Platini has been reading from a script that the former French President drafted. Sarkozy for good measure also wants to change the summer dates for the Olympics.

To be fair to the Qataris have said nothing about a date change. However the longer this controversy carries on the stronger the impression will be created that not happy with staging the World Cup they want to take it over. That impression will not help Qatar gain credibility in the west, certainly not in the western media.

And this is where its lack of the plus-Mandela factor makes a difference. It now a cliché to say South Africa staged a fine World Cup. Yes, the World Cup mocked those who thought there would be chaos and confusion. However because of the plus-Mandela factor many of the problems of the World Cup were ignored or glossed over.

I am not talking of the pedestrian football, arguably the worst since Italia 90. That was hardly the South African organisers fault. But there were, as I recorded at that time, organisational problems. For instance the accreditation process was more elaborate than previous such events and nothing like as smooth as in London 2012. In South Africa you often had to go through irritating bureaucratic trap doors that were time consuming. And as I was getting my all important World Cup badge I was told that when a certain Pele arrived for his he was asked which country he came from. When the greatest footballer cannot be immediately identified as a Brazilian you realise jobs had been given to many people who were indeed very new to the game. All very good you may say in bringing World Cup benefits to people who had been so cruelly denied for so long but still very odd.

My most mystifying experience was the many laptop checks when I went to meet officials at public buildings and venues. I had to take out my laptop much as you are required to do airports. But even more than at airports I had to stand and wait while an official noted down the serial number of the laptop in a book. When I left the process was repeated with the official checking the laptop serial number against the entry made in the book. Initially, I thought this was to do with security concerns but it turned out to be a crime prevention measure stopping people walking away with laptops. In media centres this led to laptops being screwed to the tables, like old days in Fleet Street when typewriters were similarly secured.

Now in the overall scheme of things such glitches do not matter. But recall that Atlanta in 1996 got its bad reputation in the media from just such problems and it never recovered. However, so keen were we all to celebrate this much longed for dream of Mandela's rainbow nation, that few of us dwelled on them.

Qatar will not have any such media bonus. That is why it needs to make sure its World Cup message is clear. And this message will get lost if the controversy about a winter world cup in 2022 goes on. The Qataris may not have started it. But their friends and backers have. They need to tell us whether their friends are a proxy for them. If they are not then they should ask their friends to keep quiet so they can refine and focus on their 2022 message. Otherwise they will find for all the money they spend, and the conferences they hold, their message will be lost. They will not experience the glow South Africa did. And that would be a pity.

Mihir Bose is one of the world's most astute observers on politics in sport, particularly football. He wrote formerly for The Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph and was the BBC's head sports editor. Most recently, he published The Game Changer: How the English Premier League came to dominate the world. Marshall Cavendish £14.99

Follow Mihir on Twitter.

www.mihirbose.com