Paralympics Rio 2016 Olympics Memory

I’d like to claim all the credit for Team GB’s performance in Rio 2016, but that wouldn’t be greenYgrey of me (a little self-parody humour there). While I wrote the Olympics was humanity at its best at the time, it is only humanity at its physical best of course. It is at its moral best when doing good, such as charity work.

Paralympians and other handicapped athletes are overall more impressive mentally than fully physically fit athletes, as they have overcome adversity to achieve their sporting goals. I write overall, because it’s not necessarily always the case.

My Olympics Legacy

The best Olympics of my childhood and youth; the one I remember with particular nostalgia; is the Montreal Olympics of 1976. I don’t think it is remembered as a special Olympics in history, it was just when I was old enough to really understand it, and create memories that stuck in the mind.

In fact, it wasn’t particularly the Olympics events themselves, more that it inspired copying, in what just happened to be the best summer in Blighty of my childhood, and one of the best ever.

While Jane Tomlinson and Paula Radcliffe were my running inspirations to return to endurance running, I also had an Olympics inspiration that helped me create my five marathons; one every three years until I’m 50; ambition.

That was Steve Redgrave, who won five rowing golds over five Olympics between 1984 to 2000. Redgrave was an expert at Rio 2016, after a cameo appearance in Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Maps.

I started running long distances again in 2003, and achieved my marathons ambition from 2004 to 2016. I know my ambition doesn’t compare to Redgrave’s achievements, but I completed it, and that’s all I could do.

Team GB has gone from strength to strength during my ambition, after Redgrave was almost single-handedly winning golds during his rowing career. I doubt if I played much part in it, but would like to think I played a little, as all the sportspeople over the last twenty years have done.

Rio 2016 Great for Team GB

Team GB won more medals for the fifth Olympics running, and were the first to win more medals in the Olympics after they hosted it. I didn’t expect it to be so good, and neither did most of the experts, as they admitted.

I don’t want to pick out anybody in particular, and think they have all been great. Commiserations to those who just missed out on gold or a medal too.

Instead, with a little parody humour, I’d like to pick out the running shoes worn by Mo Farah in his double-double winning 10,000 metres and 5,000 metres, as they seemed to encapture exquisitively the gYg POP colours. Here’s a photo of similar shoes:

Post National Lottery Advert Addition

I’d written the above before seeing the National Lottery Rio 2016 advert with what looks like a south-coast mosque dominating the skyline. Are the people welcoming Team GB back, or is it a prophecy of Britain in 20 or 50 years, with everybody trying to escape, as they are from the Middle-East and North Africa now?

I’ve supported all of Team GB, whatever their colour or faith. Mo Farah’s only mistake for me was naming one of his daughters after Mohammed’s child bride; a tradition now being copied by the likes of I.S. and Boko Harum.

If he meant it as a tribute to a girl’s strength and resilience to survive such an ordeal then I support it, but as he’s still a practising Muslim I doubt if it is critical of Mohammed, and supportive of a child victim. I’m sure it is an innocent ‘mistake’ anyway, chosen as it is still culturally acceptable.

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Rio 2016 Analysis: Daphne Schippers Sheepers

When I saw Daphne Schippers dive over the line in the Rio 2016 women’s 200 metres I thought she had been inspired by Shaunae Miller (below). The second runner I’ve seen diving over the line since the 400 metres final. The photo below is of Miller winning the 400 metres, so is a positive one.

I thought that because unlike Miller, who won the 400 metres with her dive, there was nobody really close to Schippers in the 200 metres (below), won by Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson, who also won the 100 metres.

The only other reason I can think of for Schippers’s dive, other than emulating Miller, was that she thought somebody might be catching her from behind, and out of view.

Schippers White and the Seven Doubts
(wordplay with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves; later thinking I should make clear that it was wordplay created before realising there were seven other runners in the final. I’m not being derogatory to dwarves, or runners, just trying to show how sensitive writing has to be to be politically correct, as Ricky Gervais has done before, with this passage complementing the points below, which were written before this!).

Secondly, I thought I’d be okay blogging this, because of Schippers’s ethnicity.

Thirdly, I thought she’s a woman, so it might not be okay with women who don’t accept my feminism with a small f.

Fourthly, I thought she’s Dutch, so I might anger Dutch people, most of whom are probably already pretty upset today, after their heroine lost the race.

Fifthly, I thought people who only filter everything through sex and race, would think that if I’m not doing it for white over black race, with Schippers having lost the race making it unlikely, I must be doing it for something to do with sexuality.

Sixthly, I thought those obsessed with sexual interpretations for everything could either think I’m writing it because I’m attracted to her; or because she hasn’t asked me out.

Seventhly, I thought I might upset other white people, who might think I’ve succumbed to Multicultural Fascism in the U.K., and only feel comfortable criticising white British/European origins people: becoming sheepish myself.

Saved by Wordplay

The fact that I picked out Schippers’s dive and not the previous one would seem to support the last point, but I would argue that Schippers’s dive was a more obvious example of copying, as there was nobody close to her at the finishing line.

Moreover, Schippers’s name sounds like sheep(ers), which fits into what I am writing about.

I don’t think Schippers is any more sheepish than normal, and I have often copied other sports people when taking part in sports. I think it is normal for humans and other animals to copy each other – and is one of the signs of intelligence for animals – teaching is basically getting others to copy the teacher.

Sport not Sexuality

I don’t find Schippers that attractive at the moment either, as she’s too muscular. Some toning is quite nice, but I don’t like big muscles on women – just my tastes and choice, not telling anybody how to look. Schippers looks like she could be very attractive without the muscles, which she obviously needs for her running.

For some women, such as vegan Serena Williams, muscles are important to their performance, and they put their sport before their looks; although they might prefer their looks the way they are?

I don’t find sporting looks attractive overall, as those who are obsessed by sexual explanations for everything (Freudians?) might guess. I think Paula Radcliffe looks much nicer now in the studio, wearing casual evening clothes, than she did when running.

Paula Radcliffe and Jane Tomlinson being my biggest inspirations for my endurance running was all down to them being the most inspirational long distance runners at the time, and had nothing to do with their looks or sexuality.

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